Channel · Newsletter and email
Opens can no longer be counted. Sales can.
This is the only channel where your link is clicked from a mail client — and that is exactly where mail clients have disabled the measurement on the other side. The click remains, and what it produces. That is what matters anyway.
What mail clients let through
Four points. The first two are quoted word for word from Apple's and Google's help pages.
| What you try to measure | What the makers say |
|---|---|
| The open, on iPhone, iPad, and Mac | Mail Privacy Protection "hides your IP address" and "also prevents senders from seeing whether you have opened the email they sent you" |
| Images, in Gmail | "Before images reach you, Google scans them"; and the consequence is stated plainly: "image loading does not allow senders to gather information about your computer or location" |
| A click on a link | Neither of those pages says anything about it: the reader decides to open the URL, and the link's server responds. The click remains a fact |
| What happens after the click | Beyond a mail client's reach: the purchase, the booking, the quote happen on your side |
What we will not write: no average open or click rate, no numerical comparison between newsletters and other channels. These figures circulate everywhere and we have not measured them. We also do not describe the behavior of mail clients we have not looked into.
Checked on September 12, 2026 in Apple help, « Utiliser la protection de la confidentialité dans Mail sur l'iPhone » — the original page. Platforms change their rules: if what you see no longer matches, the source wins.
Checked on September 12, 2026 in Gmail help, « Activer ou désactiver l'affichage des images dans Gmail » — the original page. Platforms change their rules: if what you see no longer matches, the source wins.
Two measurements, only one holds
Open
- Relies on an image loaded from your sending server.
- Apple "prevents senders from seeing whether you have opened the message".
- Gmail routes images through its servers before delivery.
- Stays a percentage you show in meetings without knowing what it is worth.
Sale
- Starts with a click: someone decided to open your URL.
- The prospect, then the sale, tied to the link from that particular send.
- Nothing to slip into the email: it is a URL, like any other.
- The same figure for you and your client, in their report.
Opens have become an estimate; the click has stayed a fact. And it is the only moment in the chain where your reader comes to your place — worth knowing what they do there.
In Subtraq
One link per send, one per button
The October 3rd send and the October 17th send no longer blur together. And if an email carries two buttons — the offer at the top, the article at the bottom — two links will tell you which one worked.
With your domain on it, the address is readable before the click: link.yourname.com/september. That is reassuring in an inbox where everyone is wary, and it stays yours — not a domain shared by thousands of senders.
The same logic applies to a LinkedIn post or a post on X — with the difference that in an email, no one but you decides what is shown.
Channel: Newsletter
When you create the link, you choose its channel — "where you'll publish it." The newsletter becomes a row in the overview, with its clicks, prospects, and sales; and each send, a row beneath it.
The method
Three steps, before the send
Measurement starts at the first click — it cannot backfill yesterday's sends.
Create the link before writing the email
Channel: Newsletter. One link per send — and one per button if the email has two, so the offer and the article do not get lumped together.
Paste it on the button, not in the link text
The reader sees your label; the address carries your domain. Leave the unsubscribe link exactly as your sending tool builds it: that one must stay theirs.
Read the Newsletter row at the end of the period
Clicks, prospects, sales — and under the channel row, each send with its own. The client report picks it up as-is.
The three objections
"My sending tool already counts clicks."
"Will replacing my links hurt deliverability?"
"My subscribers read in their mail app."
Frequently asked questions
Why does my open rate no longer mean much?
Because the mail client makers wrote it themselves. Apple, in its guide recorded on September 12, 2026: Mail Privacy Protection "also prevents senders from seeing whether you have opened the email they sent you." Google, on Gmail images: "image loading does not allow senders to gather information about your computer or location." An open pixel relies on exactly that.
Does a Subtraq link work inside an email?
Yes — it is a URL like any other: paste it on a button or a word. Nothing to install in your sending tool, nothing to add to the email template.
Do you need a different link for each send?
Yes, if you want to know which send drove the sale. One link tells you what the newsletter brings in overall; one per send tells you which one to repeat — and one per button tells you which of the two was clicked.
My sending tool already rewrites my links — does that stack?
Depending on the tool, yes: its tracking link can point to ours, which points to your page. We have not documented the behavior of each tool and will not describe it; if yours lets you turn off its own click tracking, you end up with just one.
What about the unsubscribe link?
Don't touch it. Your sending tool builds it and must handle it: that link has nothing to measure, it has a duty to fulfill.
Are my campaign parameters preserved?
Yes: the link carries them to the destination, along with the click ID. Your existing dashboards are untouched; you gain the sale that followed.
Your next send, measured.
Create the link, paste it on the button, send. You may never know who opened it — you will know who bought.
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