For years, traditional analytics platforms, like Google Analytics and Adobe, have been treated as the go-to tools for marketing measurement. They’re free, easy to install, and familiar. But when it comes to email reporting, they fall short.

If you’ve ever looked at a traditional email report and thought, “This doesn’t seem right,” you’re not imagining it. These platforms weren’t built for email. And that’s a problem for businesses trying to understand what’s actually working.

They can’t track what they can’t see

 Let’s start with visibility. Traditional analytics tools rely on third-party cookies and scripts that many browsers and email platforms block by default.

• 11% of browsers block these tools automatically.
• In some regions, that number is over 27%.
• Apple Mail’s privacy protections block pixel tracking.
• Spam filters and security tools cut off engagement signals.

If your platform can’t see the open, the click, or the conversion, then it can’t report on it. That means every email report you get is missing key pieces of information. And when you’re basing optimizations and ROI decisions on those reports, you’re flying blind.

Misattribution is muddying your results

You run an email campaign. Someone opens it, clicks through, and later makes a purchase. But your analytics report gives the credit to “direct” traffic, or worse, not at all.

Here’s what’s really happening:

• Email clicks often get misattributed as referral or direct.
• Conversions are undercounted by 15–40% depending on the setup.
• Multiple touch points (email, social, display) are collapsed into a single, final session.
• Spam clicks and bots inflate your engagement data.

None of this tells you what’s actually driving sales. It just adds noise.

The funnel view? It’s not really a funnel

Email is often the first touch in a longer journey. But traditional analytics can’t follow that person across devices or connect the dots between email opens, site visits, and purchases.

Even if the same person engages on their phone, follows up on desktop, and converts in-store, traditional analytics platforms see them as separate users. 

And the 7-day window to classify “returning users”? It’s outdated. If someone engages with your email, waits 10 days, and comes back to convert, they’re labeled as a new user. That skews everything.

So why are businesses still using them?

Because it’s what they’ve always used. It’s familiar. It’s expected. But marketing is too expensive, and too important, to base decisions on flawed data.

If your analytics platform can’t show you the full impact of your email campaigns, it’s not built for how advertising works today.

It’s time to expect more from your measurement.

What we believe

BRIDGE connects businesses with real people across all digital channels, including email, and ties every engagement back to a real, measurable outcome.

We measure what matters: opens, clicks, site visits, purchases, and return on ad spend. And because we know who took action, we deliver direct attribution, so you can see exactly who from your audience converted.

Want to see the real difference between modeled data and measurable truth? Let’s talk.