If you're sending out email campaigns and not 100% sure if they're actually landing, rendering, and getting read, you're not alone. It’s way too easy to hit send and hope for the best. This guide is for marketers and email folks who want to stop guessing and start making their campaigns actually work better—by using real data from Emailonacid.
Let’s skip the fluff and get straight into how to actually use Emailonacid’s analytics, what’s genuinely useful, and what you can probably ignore.
Why bother with Emailonacid analytics?
Most email platforms will tell you how many people opened an email or clicked a link. That’s fine, but it’s also pretty surface-level. If you actually care about whether people can see your email (or if your cool new design just looks broken in Outlook), you need more. That’s where Emailonacid comes in.
Emailonacid analytics shows you how your email is performing in the wild—across devices, inboxes, and clients—and can help you pinpoint what’s working and what’s a dumpster fire. The trick is knowing how to actually use that info.
Step 1: Set up Emailonacid analytics tracking
If you haven’t already, you’ll need an Emailonacid account (not just a free trial—you’ll need access to analytics). Once you’re in:
- Create a new campaign.
- Upload your email HTML or import it from your ESP (Email Service Provider).
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Give it a name that makes sense. Trust me, you’ll thank yourself later.
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Enable analytics tracking.
- There’s an option to inject analytics into your email. Make sure this is turned on before sending.
- Emailonacid will add a tiny tracking pixel (just like most ESPs) plus a bit of unique code to track extra stuff.
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Pro tip: If your ESP also tracks opens/clicks, you’ll get double data. Don’t panic, but keep it in mind if the numbers don’t match up.
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Send yourself a test.
- Before blasting your list, send a test to make sure the tracking is firing. Open it on your phone and desktop, maybe even forward it to a friend.
- Check back in Emailonacid to confirm you see a couple of opens and client data. If not, troubleshoot your ESP’s settings or double-check that you enabled tracking.
What to ignore: Don’t get hung up on the initial spike of “opens” from spam filters or bots. It happens, and every analytics tool struggles with this.
Step 2: Send your campaign as usual
Now that you know analytics tracking is working, send your email to your real list as you normally would. Emailonacid doesn’t replace your ESP—it just sits in the background, collecting extra info.
- Don’t change your subject line or content just for the sake of tracking; keep it real.
- If you’re running an A/B test, make sure both versions have tracking enabled.
Pro tip: If your campaign is time-sensitive, check analytics data early, but give it at least 24–48 hours to collect meaningful results.
Step 3: Dive into the analytics dashboard
After your campaign goes out, head back to Emailonacid and open the analytics dashboard for your campaign. Here’s what you’ll see—and what actually matters:
1. Opens by Email Client & Device
- What’s useful: This tells you where people are opening your emails (Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail, mobile, desktop).
- How to use it: If 60% of your readers are on Outlook and your email looks like garbage there, you have a problem worth fixing.
- What to ignore: Don’t obsess over tiny slivers of fringe clients. If 2% of opens are on something obscure, don’t lose sleep.
2. Read, Skim, and Glance Rates
- What’s useful: Emailonacid tries to figure out who actually read your email (opened for more than 7 seconds), skimmed it, or just glanced and closed.
- How to use it: If your “read” rate is low, your content or design probably isn’t grabbing people. If a lot of folks are skimming, maybe you need shorter paragraphs or better headlines.
- Caveat: These numbers aren’t perfect—some people read quickly, some just scroll, and bots can throw things off.
3. Geographic Data
- What’s useful: See where your readers are. If you’re a local business and half your opens are overseas, something’s off.
- What to ignore: Unless you’re running regional campaigns, don’t overanalyze this.
4. Link Clicks (if enabled)
- What’s useful: Emailonacid can track link clicks if you enable it (and your ESP isn’t already tracking).
- How to use it: Compare which links get attention and which get ignored. Move your best stuff higher up.
- Note: Some ESPs handle clicks better, so don’t double-count.
5. Forwarding & Print Tracking
- What’s useful: Occasionally, seeing that people are forwarding or printing your email is interesting—especially for internal comms.
- What to ignore: For most marketing emails, these numbers will be tiny or zero. Don’t sweat it.
Step 4: Spot issues and patterns (the stuff that actually matters)
Now you’ve got the data. Here’s how to use it without drowning in spreadsheets:
- Is your main audience reading on mobile or desktop?
- If mobile dominates, make sure your design is genuinely mobile-friendly (test it, don’t just hope).
- Are certain clients (hello, Outlook) showing high open-but-low-read rates?
- That’s usually a sign something looks broken, or loads slowly.
- Are your “read” rates terrible across every client?
- It’s probably not a rendering issue—it’s your content or subject line.
- Do certain links get all the clicks?
- Move them up, make them more prominent, or rethink the rest.
Pro tip: Look for big, obvious trends. Ignore the noise. If 80% of your audience is on Gmail mobile, stop worrying about how your email looks in Yahoo! Mail from 2007.
Step 5: Use the insights to actually improve your next campaign
Don’t just file the report and move on. Take what you learned and build it into your next send.
How to act on what you see:
- Fix rendering issues for popular clients.
- If Outlook is mangling your layout, use Emailonacid’s previews to tweak your code.
- Optimize for your real audience.
- If 70% read on mobile, design for thumbs—not giant screens.
- Rethink your content.
- Low “read” rates? Try shorter copy, more engaging headlines, or better visuals.
- Test, don’t guess.
- Change one thing at a time and see if the numbers move.
What not to do:
- Don’t chase perfection across every email client. Focus on where your audience actually is.
- Don’t obsess over tiny fluctuations. Look for big shifts.
- Don’t confuse “opens” with real engagement. Dig deeper.
Step 6: Rinse, repeat, and don’t get overwhelmed
The point of analytics isn’t to make you a slave to numbers—it’s to spot problems and make better choices, faster. Don’t try to fix everything at once. Pick your biggest issue, make a change, and see what happens.
A few quick reminders: - Analytics are never perfect. Use them as a compass, not a map. - Human behavior is messy. Expect some weird data. - The best campaigns are simple, clear, and focused.
Wrapping up
If you use Emailonacid analytics with a clear head and a focus on your actual readers, you’ll spot what matters, fix what’s broken, and stop sweating the small stuff. Keep it simple, keep iterating, and your email performance will get better—no magic required.