Tracking Email Events (Sends, Opens, and Clicks) with Snowplow: A Comprehensive Tutorial

Implementing email event tracking using Snowplow is vital for gaining insights into user engagement and optimizing email campaigns. This tutorial outlines how to track email sends, opens, and clicks by leveraging Snowplow’s structured events and the Iglu webhook for advanced use cases. For email sends, users can either use custom applications with appropriate Snowplow trackers or configure third-party email providers like SendGrid with webhooks. Email opens are tracked using a tracking pixel with structured event parameters, while the Iglu webhook allows for more detailed data tracking with custom schemas. Clicks on email links are monitored either through query parameters appended to URLs or by redirecting through the Snowplow collector. Best practices include ensuring recipient IDs are secure, monitoring collector capacity, and regularly reviewing schema definitions to meet changing data requirements. These methods collectively facilitate a comprehensive email tracking strategy that integrates smoothly with the Snowplow pipeline, offering valuable insights into campaign performance.