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The Tracking Lifecycle: Opens, Clicks, Bounces, and Unsubscribes

Describes what the platform records after a Broadcast is sent and how those events become your reporting.

In short​

When you send a Broadcast, the platform doesn't just hand each Edition to a subscriber and forget it. Every message carries lightweight tracking so the platform can record what happens next: whether it was delivered, opened, clicked, bounced, or triggered an unsubscribe. Those raw events accumulate over hours and days and are rolled up into the numbers you see in your reports.

Why it matters​

Understanding the lifecycle helps you read reports correctly and avoid over-interpreting a single snapshot. Numbers are not final the moment a Broadcast finishes sending — opens and clicks keep arriving as subscribers get to their inboxes, and delivery status can change as mailbox providers respond. It also explains why totals differ between metrics (for example, why "delivered" is lower than "sent," or why unique opens are lower than total opens).

How it works​

Each event type is captured differently:

  • Sent — the Edition has been accepted for delivery to a subscriber.
  • Delivered / Bounced — the receiving mail server either accepts the message or rejects it. A hard bounce (permanent, e.g. unknown address) is treated differently from a soft bounce (temporary, e.g. full mailbox). Repeated hard bounces typically remove an address from future sends.
  • Open — recorded when a subscriber's email client loads the message's tracking pixel. Because some clients block or pre-fetch images, opens are directional, not perfectly exact.
  • Click — recorded when a subscriber follows a tracked link. Links are rewritten at send time so the platform can log the click before passing the subscriber through to the destination.
  • Unsubscribe — recorded when a subscriber opts out, which also updates their subscription status for future Broadcasts.

Events are de-duplicated (unique vs. total) and aggregated into your report metrics. Because events trickle in, allow a settling period before treating a report as final (confirm typical reporting windows in your account).

Canonical terms: Author, Edition, Folder (Project Folder), Broadcast. See the Glossary.