The Engagement tab on the [Reports](/reports/messages-dashboard) page shows you what happens after your email lands in the inbox. SendOps tracks opens and clicks for every message that passes through AWS SES and presents the data through dedicated charts and tables.



## Open Rate Over Time

A time-series chart showing open rates across the selected date range. Use this to spot trends in recipient engagement — a declining open rate may indicate list fatigue or deliverability issues pushing messages to spam.

## Click Rate Over Time

A time-series chart showing click rates over the same period. This tracks how often recipients click links in your emails, giving you a measure of content effectiveness.

## Engagement by Domain

A bar chart breaking down engagement metrics by recipient domain. This shows which domains (e.g., gmail.com, outlook.com, yahoo.com) have the highest and lowest engagement, helping you identify domain-specific issues or patterns.



## Engagement by Template

A bar chart showing engagement broken down by template. Compare how different templates perform to identify high-performing content and templates that may need revision.



## Template Performance Breakdown

A detailed table listing every template with its key performance metrics:

| Column | Description |
|--------|-------------|
| **Template** | The template name. |
| **Sent** | Total messages sent using this template. |
| **Open%** | The percentage of sent messages that were opened. |
| **Click%** | The percentage of sent messages where at least one link was clicked. |
| **Bounce%** | The percentage of sent messages that bounced. |
| **Complaint%** | The percentage of sent messages that generated a spam complaint. |

This table gives you a single view of how each template performs across all key metrics, making it easy to compare templates and identify ones that need attention.



## How tracking works

SES provides open and click tracking natively. When tracking is enabled on your configuration set, SES modifies outgoing messages before delivery:

### Open tracking

SES inserts a tiny, invisible **tracking pixel** (a 1x1 transparent image) at the end of the HTML body. When the recipient's email client loads images, it requests the pixel from SES, which records an `Open` event. That event flows through EventBridge to SendOps just like any other SES event.

### Click tracking

SES rewrites links in the HTML body to point to a **redirect URL**. When the recipient clicks a link, the request goes to SES first, which records a `Click` event with the original destination URL, then redirects the recipient to the intended page. The redirect is fast and transparent to the recipient.

If you have configured a [tracking domain](/domains/tracking-domains), SES uses your custom domain for both the tracking pixel and redirect URLs instead of the default SES domain. This improves deliverability and provides a more professional appearance.


  Open tracking requires the message to be **HTML email** — plain-text messages have no image support. Additionally, many email clients block external images by default or use privacy proxies (such as Apple Mail Privacy Protection) that pre-fetch images regardless of whether the recipient actually reads the message. Treat open rates as a directional signal rather than an exact count.


## Reading the data

A few patterns to watch for:

- **High open rate, low click rate** — recipients are opening but not engaging with the content. Consider whether calls to action are clear and above the fold.
- **Declining open rate over time** — may indicate list fatigue. Recipients are losing interest or your messages are being filtered to spam. Check your [deliverability reports](/reports/deliverability-reports) for rising complaint rates.
- **Sudden drop in open rate** — could reflect a deliverability issue (messages going to spam) rather than a content issue. Cross-reference with bounce and complaint trends.

## What's next?

- Set up a [Tracking Domain](/domains/tracking-domains) so tracking URLs use your own domain instead of the default SES domain.
- Review the [Reports Overview](/reports/messages-dashboard) to see open and click events on individual messages.
- Check [Deliverability Reports](/reports/deliverability-reports) to ensure your messages are reaching the inbox in the first place.