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To boost email engagement rates in Braze, work in a fixed order. First check what your open and click numbers actually measure, then stop sending to disengaged users, then let Intelligent Timing choose send times, and only then test content. Each step changes the data the next one reads, so skipping ahead tends to optimise the wrong number.
Key Takeaways
- Check what your open and click numbers measure before you change anything else.
- Machine Opens can include preloaded opens, so judge success on clicks, conversions, app sessions or site visits.
- Define "unengaged" on more than opens, then apply it with a suppression list.
- Send at varied times first, then switch on Intelligent Timing with a fallback time, launched at least 48 hours ahead.
- Test content last, on a signal that has already survived the first three steps.
What does an engagement rate actually measure in Braze email?
Braze counts a unique open as a delivered message opened by a single user at least once, tracked over a seven-day period. A single user who opens the same email again after seven days counts as a new unique open. Know that window before you compare reports.
An open depends on a tracking pixel loading, and open pixel tracking and click tracking can be turned on or off for each user profile. Braze frames that as a way to follow regional privacy laws. This post doesn't settle the legal question, but it does mean your rate covers whatever tracking each profile allows.
Dashboard and Snowflake figures are measured separately and can show discrepancies. Braze describes Snowflake as the more precise source and recommends referring to it when the two disagree.
Click tracking has a scope too. Braze only rewrites links that use http or https, so mailto and tel links aren't click-tracked. To track clicks on a phone number or an email address, use a secure redirect link that forwards to the destination.
Why do open rates need a second look before you optimise anything?
Apple's Mail Privacy Protection preloads emails using proxy servers. That caches images and hinders the use of tracking pixels for metrics like open tracking. It applies to anyone who has connected a mail account to the Apple Mail app and opted in, regardless of email service, so Gmail and Outlook addresses are included.
Braze's own guidance is that this doesn't change the rules that govern email and deliverability. It changes how you benchmark success and which tools you can use. We read that plainly: the mechanics are the same and the yardstick has moved.
Braze reports two groups of opens, Machine Opens and Other Opens. Machine Opens cover both non-human and human opens from users with Mail Privacy Protection switched on, and one user can log several.
Braze does not have visibility into human versus non-human opens within that group. The reporting page says a precise "true" open rate cannot currently be determined.
Estimated Real Open Rate covers part of the gap. Braze built a model that uses click data from each campaign to infer how often humans opened the message.
It evaluates up to 10,000 delivered emails per variation at first. Reaching that volume doesn't guarantee an estimate, because each variation also needs enough qualifying clicks.
How do bot clicks affect the click numbers you rely on?
Braze notes that some security tools scan incoming email for malicious content by clicking links to check they're legitimate. These clicks are often called bot clicks or non-human interaction. Clicks, like opens, are not entirely reliable indicators of human interaction, and Braze describes the effect as not preventable.
Braze suggests secure links, which draw fewer of these clicks. It also suggests a preference centre in place of single-click unsubscribe, because the clicks can inadvertently unsubscribe users.
Braze also suggests adding a hidden link to your campaigns. Bots tend to click all links, so clicks on it point to non-human activity.
The reverse happens as well. A click can be logged without an open when the open pixel never loads. Braze says more unique clicks than unique opens usually means opens are undercounted, clicks are inflated, or both.
Braze also suggests judging email success on conversions, app sessions or site visits. We read that as the key instruction here. If engagement rate is the only number on your dashboard, one scanning tool can move it.
How do you boost email engagement rates in Braze without chasing the wrong number?
We sequence the work as measurement, list hygiene, send time and then content. Sunset policies and Intelligent Timing both read engagement data, and content tests report it. A distorted signal at the start distorts every later decision.
The table sets out each step against what Braze documents, what to settle first, and the failure we plan for.
| Step | What Braze documents | Settle this first | Failure mode to plan for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Measurement | Machine Opens, Other Opens, Estimated Real Open Rate | Pick the click, conversion or session signal you will judge by | Judging subject lines on a number that includes preloaded opens |
| 2. List hygiene | Sunset policies, suppression lists, the Last Engaged With Message filter | Define "unengaged" on more than opens | Treating every Mail Privacy Protection user as engaged |
| 3. Send time | Intelligent Timing, fallback time, 48 hours of lead time | Send at varied times first so there is history to read | Launching too close to the send date |
| 4. Content | Variant testing (not covered by the sources used here) | Hold steps 1 to 3 steady | Declaring a winner on a distorted signal |
How does a sunset policy protect engagement rates?
For email, your sending IP and domain reputation factor in engagement, spam reporting, blocklisting and more. Braze says sunset policies limit ongoing sends to disengaged users, which helps protect reputation. Fewer sends to people who never respond means your reported rate covers a more responsive audience.
Braze asks you to decide what counts as unengaged: clicks, purchases, app usage, or a mix. It points to the Has Marked You As Spam and Last Engaged With Message filters in the Retargeting section of the filter dropdown. Those two filters are the building blocks for the segment.
A suppression list applies the policy across campaigns and Canvases. Users on it don't receive them by default, even when they sit in the target segment. Membership is dynamic, so users leave the list when they engage again, and exception tags let a final win-back campaign still reach them.
Braze also says that users who opt in to Mail Privacy Protection affect how you should structure the policy. Our reading is that a policy built only on opens will keep users whose opens are preloaded. Build it on clicks, or on a signal from outside email such as sessions or purchases.
If reputation has already slipped, CustomerIK's email reputation recovery service covers domain reputation, SPF, DKIM and DMARC.
How does Intelligent Timing help, and when should you hold it back?
Intelligent Timing delivers each message when Braze determines a user's optimal send time, which is the time that user is likeliest to open or click. You can read the full setup in the Braze Intelligent Timing documentation. Its inputs include email clicks and email opens, with Machine Opens excluded from the calculation.
Two setup details decide how well it works. Users without relevant engagement data get a fallback time that you specify. Braze also advises sending at different times of day before you switch it on, because thin sampling can lead to a suboptimal time.
Braze adds that it can calculate the optimal send time more effectively later in a user's lifecycle. That matters for onboarding emails, where recipients are new and the fallback time will do much of the work. It's a reason to measure those programmes separately.
The scheduling rules are specific. Launch a campaign at least 48 hours before the send date. Allow at least a 3-day window in segment filters.
In a Canvas, add a Delay step of at least two calendar days before the Intelligent Timing step. It isn't available for API-triggered campaigns, and Braze's guidance is to avoid it while you warm a new IP. Braze also recommends turning quiet hours off unless policy, compliance or legal reasons apply.
What does the sequence look like for a hypothetical retailer?
Take a hypothetical retailer whose weekly promotional email shows a healthy open rate while site visits stay flat. This is an illustration, not client work, and it uses no figures. The audience definition hasn't changed in a long while.
- Read Machine Opens and Other Opens beside Estimated Real Open Rate, and compare clicks with site visits. If opens look strong while visits stay flat, treat opens as a weak signal for this programme.
- Rebuild the "unengaged" definition on clicks and site visits, place those users on a suppression list, and give the final win-back campaign an exception tag.
- Send the weekly email at several different times over a run of sends, so Intelligent Timing has history to read. Then switch it on with a chosen fallback time, launched at least 48 hours ahead.
- Add a hidden link, and move single-click unsubscribe to a preference centre, so bot clicks don't pollute the click signal or unsubscribe people.
- Test a subject line last, and judge it on clicks and site visits rather than opens.
How does this connect to the rest of the programme?
Measurement choices carry into reporting, so read Email Campaign Reporting: What to Track in Braze alongside this post. List hygiene and reputation sit in Email Deliverability in Braze: A Practical Setup Guide. When you reach the content step, A/B Testing Your Email Campaigns: What Works in Braze covers the testing side.
Timing is its own discipline on each channel. Optimising Push Notification Timing in Braze for Engagement deals with push, and How to Trigger Retention Messages at the Right Time in Braze deals with lifecycle messages. Automated programmes bring their own risks, which Email Automation in Braze: Six Failure Modes to Plan For sets out.
For a worked account of suppression rules and a sender reputation rebuild, see a case study on rebuilding sender reputation.
What should you do first?
As a Braze implementation partner, CustomerIK recommends fixing the measurement and the audience definition before touching send time or content. Both are decisions you make inside your own programme. Each makes the later steps easier to read, and send time and content testing then start from a signal you can trust.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Do Machine Opens count towards Intelligent Timing?
They don't. Braze documents that Machine Opens are excluded from the calculation of the optimal time.
2. Can Braze tell me my true open rate?
Braze says a precise true open rate can't currently be determined. Estimated Real Open Rate is a modelled estimate that uses click data to infer how many humans opened the message.
3. Which links does Braze click-track?
Links that use http or https. For a phone number or an email address, use a secure redirect link that forwards to the destination.
4. Is Intelligent Timing available for API-triggered campaigns?
It isn't. Braze documents that it's unavailable for API-triggered campaigns.
5. Does Mail Privacy Protection only affect Apple addresses?
It doesn't stop at Apple addresses. It applies to anyone who has connected a mail account to the Apple Mail app and opted in, regardless of email service.
Sources
- Braze, Apple's Mail Privacy Protection. Retrieved 01 Nov 2026.
- Braze, Email open pixel and click tracking. Retrieved 01 Nov 2026.
- Braze, Intelligent Timing. Retrieved 01 Nov 2026.
- Braze, Sunset policies. Retrieved 01 Nov 2026.
- Braze, Email reporting. Retrieved 01 Nov 2026.
- Braze, Email analytics glossary. Retrieved 01 Nov 2026.
- Written by CustomerIK, a Braze implementation partner.
CustomerIK is a Braze implementation partner working across onboarding, technical integration, marketing operations and customer data management. If your open rates and your site visits tell different stories, let's talk.
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