When it comes to measuring the performance of your email marketing, opens and clicks have long been the gold standard. But what happens when those numbers aren’t entirely human? With privacy systems and security bots regularly triggering email tracking pixels and links, marketers can be left with a false sense of campaign success.

That’s why Act-On’s new “True Open” feature is such a game-changer, and it’s something we at Goose Digital believe every marketer should pay attention to.

What Is True Open and Why Does It Matter?

True Open is a newly released analytics feature in Act-On that uses AI and machine learning to distinguish between human and non-human email interactions. It helps marketers see past the noise of bot-generated opens and clicks so they can:

  • Make data-driven decisions with greater confidence
  • Assess true engagement levels for content
  • Optimize lead scoring and automation flows

Why Bot Activity Matters More Than You Think

Security and privacy systems don’t just inflate open rates; they can also:

  • Distort click-to-open ratios
  • Trigger false lead scoring events
  • Initiate automation sequences prematurely or incorrectly

These outcomes don’t just affect reporting; they impact your customer journey, sales insights, and even revenue.

One of the most powerful visual tools in the new dashboard is the Engagement Breakdown by Source, which clearly distinguishes opens and clicks from People, Privacy Systems, and Security Systems.

TruOpen Engagement ActON

This clarity enables teams to recalibrate engagement baselines, refine scoring logic, and adjust automation triggers based on genuine behaviour.

How Marketers Can Use True Open Data Effectively

  • Clean Up Lead Scoring Models
    Remove inflated signals and focus on engaged human behaviour to improve MQL accuracy.
  • Refine Email Automation Rules
    Delay automation steps or insert confirmation layers when bot-triggered engagement is detected.
  • Evaluate Subject Line and Content Performance
    Separate human opens from automated ones to truly understand what resonates with audiences.
  • Benchmark Smarter
    Track year-over-year or campaign comparisons using True Open data as a consistent baseline.

A Look Inside the True Open Dashboard

Act-On’s enhanced analytics tools make it easy to:

  • View All Opens & Clicks vs. Human-Only (True Open) Metrics
  • Analyze Person vs Privacy vs Security system engagement
  • Surface campaign-specific insights and adjust accordingly

This streamlined view helps marketing and sales teams align on what real engagement looks like, and what actions to prioritize.

The Goose Digital Perspective

Accurate email metrics aren’t just nice to have, they’re foundational to performance marketing. That’s why we’re excited about True Open and what it means for smarter measurement.

As an agency that supports performance-driven marketing across insurance, financial services, SaaS, and manufacturing, we know the importance of precise insights. When your data reflects reality, your strategy does too.

If you’re using Act-On and want to leverage True Open for more accurate results, or if you’re simply curious how your engagement metrics stack up:

Contact Goose Digital today to get a customized audit or explore email performance best practices.