Dzen Open Rate: What It Is and How to Improve It
Until recently, authors focused only on impressions and read-throughs, believing that these two figures were enough to understand a publication's fate. But between them lay a gap that the platform didn't explicitly show: how many times an article was actually opened, regardless of whether it was read to the end or closed on the first screen. The Dzen open rate metric closed this gap and added the missing link to the content analysis funnel. Let's break down exactly what it measures, how it differs from related metrics, and what levers truly influence its growth.
What are opens in Dzen
What are opens in Dzen? Simply put, it's the number of page loads for a publication, regardless of the source of the transition. Unlike impressions, which record the fact that a card appeared in the feed, an open means that the user performed an action: clicked, followed a link, or opened the material from subscriptions. The system does not require the person to read the text – an open is counted the moment the page loads.
This approach provides a more honest picture of audience interest in the headline and cover, because it shows the conversion from impression to actual transition, rather than mixing it with the quality of the text itself. Previously, CTR partially fulfilled this role, but opens provide an exact absolute number, not just a relative percentage.
Why the platform introduced a separate metric
Before the introduction of opens, authors saw either read-throughs or impressions in the publication card, but not the intermediate link between them. This created confusion: it was unclear whether the audience was lost at the transition stage or already within the text itself. Dzen opens and read-throughs now stand side-by-side in the statistics table, and the difference between them has become a transparent diagnostic tool.
Impressions, Opens, Read-throughs Funnel
The impressions, opens, read-throughs funnel is a sequence of three stages that every user goes through on the way to reading the material. Impressions record that the publication appeared in the feed. Opens show that the user transitioned inside. Read-throughs mean they reached the end of the text.
A gap between impressions and opens indicates a weak headline or cover: the audience sees the publication but doesn't find it attractive enough to click. A gap between opens and read-throughs indicates something else – the quality of the text itself, its structure, and its ability to hold attention after the reader has already decided to open the material. Understanding exactly at which stage the audience is lost allows for more precise efforts to address a specific problem, rather than rewriting the entire article without understanding the cause.
Difference between opens and clicks in Dzen
The difference between opens and clicks in Dzen often causes confusion for authors accustomed to the terminology of other platforms. A click usually means a single user action – clicking on a link or card, while an open records the fact of content loading, which technically happens after a click but doesn't always coincide with it one-to-one.
In practice, for an author, this distinction is not critical in daily work with statistics, but it is important when comparing data from different sources – for example, if analytics are simultaneously conducted through external services where the terminology may differ from the platform's internal statistics.
How to increase article opens
Let's look at practical factors that directly influence the conversion from impression to open – that is, how to increase article opens without changing the text itself.
- Formulate the headline so that it contains a specific benefit or intrigue, supported by the content
- Test different Dzen publication cover options – visual contrast and readability of the text on the preview directly affect the decision to click
- Avoid generic headline formulations that the audience has already seen dozens of times from other authors
- Publish during your audience's peak activity hours so that impressions convert into opens faster
- Analyze the Dzen article CTR in conjunction with opens, not separately – a high CTR with a low absolute number of opens may indicate too narrow a display of the publication
These factors work at the user's decision-making stage, before they see the content of the text, which is why the headline and Dzen publication cover remain the main points of influence on this metric.
Publication cover: an underestimated lever
The Dzen publication cover often receives less attention than the headline, although the visual solution is read faster than text and forms a first impression even before the headline is fully read. A too dark, blurry, or cluttered image reduces the likelihood of a click even with a strong headline text.
An optimal cover combines readability on a small card size in the feed with a visual hint at the article's topic. If the image evokes an emotion unrelated to the content, it may temporarily increase opens, but at the same time increases the risk of falling under restrictions for content mismatch, so the balance between attractiveness and honesty remains a key principle.
Hourly open statistics: real-time control
Hourly open statistics are available in the analytics section and show the dynamic of the metric during the first hours after material publication. This is especially important because it is at this early stage that the algorithm assesses how attractive the publication is for further promotion in recommendations.
If opens are growing slowly in the first few hours, it makes sense to promptly adjust the headline or cover while the publication is still in the active display phase. Waiting a day for the overall statistics to update in this case is unprofitable – the hourly section allows for faster reactions.
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