Core Email Marketing KPIs
Open Rate
- What it measures: % of recipients who open your email
- Why it matters: Shows how effective your subject lines and sender name are
- Benchmark: 20–30% (varies by industry)
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
- What it measures: % of people who clicked a link inside your email
- Why it matters: Indicates how engaging your content and CTAs are
- Benchmark: 2–5%
Click-to-Open Rate (CTOR)
- What it measures: % of openers who clicked a link
- Why it matters: Reveals content performance for those who actually read the email
- Benchmark: 10–20%
Conversion Rate
- What it measures: % of recipients who completed a desired action (purchase, sign-up, etc.)
- Why it matters: Connects email performance to real business goals
Bounce Rate
- What it measures: % of emails not delivered
- Why it matters: A high bounce rate can hurt sender reputation
- Benchmark: Keep under 2%
Unsubscribe Rate
- What it measures: % of recipients who unsubscribed
- Why it matters: Measures list quality and content fit
- Benchmark: Under 0.3%
Spam Complaint Rate
- What it measures: % of recipients who marked your email as spam
- Why it matters: Impacts your deliverability
- Benchmark: Keep below 0.1%
List Growth Rate
- What it measures: Speed of email list growth (new subs – unsubscribes / total subs)
- Why it matters: Indicates audience interest and opt-in effectiveness
Revenue Per Email / Per Campaign
- What it measures: Direct sales generated by an email
- Why it matters: Essential for ROI tracking, especially in eCommerce
Email ROI
- What it measures: Return on investment for your email campaigns
- Formula:
(Revenue – Cost) / Cost
Bonus KPIs (for advanced teams)
- Email deliverability rate
- Engagement over time (heatmaps or journey mapping)
- Time spent reading the email
- Mobile vs. desktop performance
Pro Tip:
Use KPIs that align with your goal:
- For sales-driven brands → Focus on conversion rate & revenue
- For content-driven brands → Focus on CTR & engagement
- For list-building → Focus on list growth rate & opt-in conversion