Email Engagement Metrics
Email engagement metrics measure how well your audience interacts with your email content.
1. Open Rate
Open rate is the percentage of recipients who open your email out of the total number of emails delivered successfully.
Open Rate = (Emails Opened ÷ Emails Delivered) × 100%
Most email platforms, like Klaviyo, track opens using a tracking pixel—a tiny invisible image embedded in the email. When the recipient opens the email, the pixel loads, recording the action.
Factors impacting open rate accuracy:
Tracking pixel placement: Many platforms place the pixel at the end of the email, but for long emails (especially in Gmail), the pixel may not load if the email gets truncated. You can consider moving the pixel closer to the top of your email for more reliable tracking.
Image loading settings: If recipients have image loading disabled (common in Gmail), the tracking pixel won’t load, and the email open won’t be recorded. However, if the recipient clicks a link, the open action may still be recorded.
Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection auto-loads tracking pixels. This means some “opens” might be recorded even if the recipient didn’t actually view the email.
While open rate offers useful insights, it only tells part of the story:
Inflated by curiosity: Recipients might open an email because of an intriguing subject line but not engage with the content.
Doesn’t equate to interest: Just because someone opens an email doesn’t mean they care about your message.
Using open rate alone to judge performance is risky. It’s like grading students based solely on their attendance—being present doesn’t mean they’re paying attention.
My recommendations when using open rate metric:
Focus on the relative movement of open rates over time rather than the absolute percentage. For example, did a specific subject line increase email opens compared to your average? Are open rates improving or declining across campaigns?
Use open rate as a diagnostic tool: Low open rate may indicate deliverability issues or unappealing subject lines. Sudden drops in open rates could signal that your emails are landing in the spam folder.
2. Click Rate
Click rate measures the percentage of recipients who clicked on a link in your email compared to the total number of emails delivered. It’s a more reliable indicator of audience engagement than open rates because clicking indicates active interest.
Click Rate = (Unique Clicks ÷ Emails Delivered) × 100%
I'd recommend focusing on unique clicks rather than total clicks because:
Unique clicks count only the first click by each recipient, regardless of how many times they click on the same link.
Unique clicks give a more accurate picture of individual engagement, avoiding inflated results from multiple clicks by a single user.
The problem with bot clicks
Bot clicks, or server clicks, are interactions performed by automated systems rather than actual users. These bots, often from mailbox providers or security tools, click links in your emails to verify safety or scan for malicious content.
Bot clicks can distort metrics in the following ways:
They inflate click rates.
They create a false impression of engagement, making your campaigns seem more effective than they actually are.
They give misleading insights.
High click rates caused by bots can obscure true user behaviour, leading to flawed strategies and decisions.
You can enable bot filtering in Klaviyo to filter out bot clicks from performance reports. Also, look for patterns, such as instant clicks after sending an email or from the same IP address.
Recipients with high click counts but no opens (indicating auto-clicks).
Recipients who click links in a very short timeframe after the email is sent.
Email Deliverability Metrics
Email deliverability metrics are essential for ensuring your emails successfully reach your audience’s inbox. Below, I’ll focus on three key indicators: unsubscribes, marked email as spam rate, and bounce rates.
1. Unsubscribes
The unsubscribe rate measures the percentage of people who choose to stop receiving your emails. While unsubscribes might feel discouraging, they’re not always bad.
If you frequently send emails to people who don’t engage—no opens, no clicks, no interactions—they can drag down your deliverability. Many mailbox providers like Gmail and Outlook monitor how recipients interact with your emails. If they notice low engagement, your emails may:
Be deprioritised (sent to the Promotions tab or a less visible folder).
Start landing in the spam folder altogether.
In this scenario, a subscriber actively unsubscribing is better than ignoring your emails. At least now you know they’ve disengaged, and your list becomes more focused on engaged recipients.
Some notes on healthy unsubscribe rates:
A healthy unsubscribe rate is typically under 0.2%.
Zero unsubscribes might sound ideal, but it’s a potential red flag. If no one unsubscribes:
It could mean your unsubscribe link is hard to find, violating email regulations.
Mailbox providers may view this as suspicious behaviour, potentially harming your sender reputation.
2. Marked Email As Spam Rate
When recipients mark your email as spam, it’s a clear signal to mailbox providers that your emails are unwanted. Even a small percentage of spam complaints can severely harm your sender reputation and email deliverability.
Mailbox providers track spam complaints closely. A high spam rate signals that your emails are intrusive or irrelevant. This can lead to more of your emails being filtered into spam/junk folders or blocked altogether.
Poor sender reputation results in lower inbox placement rates. Lower placement leads to fewer opens, clicks, and conversions, creating a downward spiral.
3. Bounce Rates
Bounce rates measure how many of your emails fail to reach the recipient’s inbox. Bounces fall into two main categories:
Hard bounces:
Permanently undeliverable emails (e.g., invalid or non-existent addresses).
Keeping these addresses in your list can harm your sender reputation.
You should immediately remove hard-bounced addresses from your email list. Also, consider using an email verification tool before sending campaigns to a new list.
Soft bounces:
Emails that fail temporarily due to reasons like the recipient’s inbox being full or the mail server being temporarily down.
Soft bounces are less harmful than hard bounces but should still be monitored.
Most email platforms will automatically retry soft-bounced emails over a few days. If an address continues to soft-bounce, consider removing it after several attempts.
Final Thought
Metrics are undeniably crucial for evaluating the performance of your email marketing campaigns. They provide insights into what’s working, what needs improvement, and where opportunities lie. However, it’s important to remember that any metric can be misunderstood or misused.
Are you looking to refine your email marketing strategy or outsource the process to an expert? I can help. Book a free 30-minute discovery session with me, and let’s discuss how we can work together to boost your revenue from email marketing.
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