Key Email Metrics#
Open Rate#
Formula: (Unique Opens / Emails Delivered) × 100
- Industry average: 20-25%
- Tracked via invisible 1×1 pixel image
- Affected by Apple MPP (inflated for Apple Mail users)
Click-Through Rate (CTR)#
Formula: (Unique Clicks / Emails Delivered) × 100
- Industry average: 2-5%
- More reliable than open rate
- Measures actual engagement
Click-to-Open Rate (CTOR)#
Formula: (Unique Clicks / Unique Opens) × 100
- Industry average: 10-15%
- Best measure of content effectiveness
- High CTOR = good content, regardless of subject line
Bounce Rate#
Formula: (Bounces / Emails Sent) × 100
- Should be under 2%
- Hard bounces: permanent (invalid email)
- Soft bounces: temporary (mailbox full)
Complaint Rate#
Formula: (Spam Complaints / Emails Delivered) × 100
- Must stay below 0.1%
- Higher = ISPs may throttle or block you
- Gmail's threshold: 0.3% (danger zone)
AcelleMail Dashboard#
Your campaign report includes:
- Real-time delivery progress
- Open and click tracking (hourly breakdown)
- Geographic map (opens by country)
- Device breakdown (desktop vs mobile)
- Click map (visual heatmap of link clicks)
- Subscriber-level engagement data
- Export to CSV for further analysis
What Good Looks Like#
| Metric |
Poor |
Average |
Good |
Excellent |
| Open Rate |
<15% |
15-20% |
20-30% |
>30% |
| CTR |
<1% |
1-2% |
2-5% |
>5% |
| Bounce Rate |
>5% |
2-5% |
1-2% |
<1% |
| Unsub Rate |
>1% |
0.5-1% |
0.1-0.5% |
<0.1% |
Improving Your Metrics#
- Low opens? → Test subject lines, send times, sender name
- Low clicks? → Improve CTA placement, content relevance, design
- High bounces? → Clean your list, verify emails before import
- High complaints? → Send more relevant content, honor frequency expectations
