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Understand Opened Rates
The opened rate (referred to as the Opened statistic in email campaign reports) represents
the number of recipients who opened an email for an email campaign at least once. For
example, a user may open an email on a mobile device and then open it at another time on a
computer. Counting the unique opens for each recipient helps you understand how many
users your email campaign reached, rather than the total number of times an email was
opened.
Typically, an opened rate of 20 to 30 percent is considered to be good. A high opened rate
may indicate a strong level of trust by recipients in your brand and value proposition. If trust is
lacking, recipients may not even open your emails.
This statistic is considered to be a key metric for judging an email campaign's success, but
may under-represent the actual number of opened emails. Campaigner counts an email as
opened only if at least one of the following conditions is met:
• The recipient opens the email with images displayed.
• The recipient clicks a tracked link in the email.
These conditions mean that if a recipient has configured the email interface not to display
images (for example, for performance reasons) and also does not click any tracked links in
the email, Campaigner does not count the email as opened for this recipient.
Similarly, if a recipient receives only plain text emails (which do not include images), and the
user does not click any tracked links in the email, it will not be counted as an opened email.
As well, when evaluating the opened rate, remember that an opened email doesn't
necessarily mean that the recipient read the email. Some email interfaces can be configured
to show a selected email in a preview pane. If a recipient is scanning their message list, the
preview pane may have displayed the email, but the recipient didn't read it.
Measure Clicked Through Rates
The clicked through rate (referred to as the Clicks, Click, or Click Through statistic in email
campaign and autoresponder reports) represents the number of recipients who clicked at
least one link in the email for an email campaign or autoresponder. For example, assume
that you run an email campaign in which an email with five trackable links is sent to 100
recipients. If 30 recipients click one or more of the links in the email, then the clicked through
rate is 30 percent.
The clicked through rate provides a high-level metric of an email's effectiveness by
measuring its recipients' motivation to act on links. For example, recipients may consider the
offer valuable or timely because they took action by clicking its link. Similarly, a high number
of clicks may indicate an effective layout of the links in the email design.
Sometimes, a clicked rate is used to measure the effectiveness of an email campaign. The
clicked rate measures the number of recipients who clicked at least one link in delivered
emails for an email campaign or autoresponder. Because the clicked through rate is
calculated using emails that were both delivered and opened, it is a better indicator of link-
related activity.
Campaigner User Guide
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