Understanding email results & metrics

Email results show how recipients interacted with a sent email campaign. Open a completed campaign from the Emails landing page to see them on the campaign's overview. This guide explains what each figure means and how it's calculated, so you can read your results with confidence.

Why click rates look lower than before

Click rate is now calculated as unique clicks ÷ delivered emails. That is the definition other email platforms use, so you can compare your SwiftFox results with other tools and industry benchmarks like for like.

Previously, the figure labelled click rate was unique clicks ÷ unique opens. That figure is still available under its proper name, Click-to-open rate, in the Clicked panel (see below).

Rates are calculated from each campaign's stored totals, so past campaigns show the new click rate too, and it will usually read lower than the figure you saw or reported before. Your results haven't dropped — the same contacts clicked. The figure now divides by everyone who received the email, not only the people who opened it.

For example, a campaign delivered to 1,000 contacts, opened by 200 and clicked by 40 used to show a click rate of 20%. Its click rate is now 4%, and its click-to-open rate is 20%.

If you report click rates to a board or committee, it's worth explaining the change before someone spots the difference.

Counts and rates on the Campaign performance card

The Campaign performance card at the top of the overview has eight tiles. The # (Show numbers) and % (Show percentages) buttons at the top right of the card switch every tile between a count and a rate, and each tile's label changes with the view:

• Requested is every email the campaign queued for sending. Delivery rate, bounce rate and block rate divide by Requested, so they can read low while a staggered campaign is still sending, and on a campaign that was stopped part-way. They settle once the campaign has completed.
• Every other rate divides by Delivered, because an email that never arrived can't be opened, clicked, unsubscribed from or reported.
• The Opened and Clicked tiles count unique contacts. Someone who opens an email three times is counted once.

Metric panels

Click any tile to open a panel for that metric. Each panel shows the figures behind the tile, the calculation behind its rate (for example 1 ÷ 3 delivered) and a short explanation. Close it with the × at the top right. A dash (—) in place of a rate means it can't be calculated because the figure it divides by is zero — for example, click-to-open rate on a campaign with no recorded opens.

Delivered

• Delivered — accepted by the mail provider.
• Delivery rate — delivered emails as a share of every email requested.
• Requested — queued for sending. Processed — accepted for sending. Deferred — delayed, then retried.
• A Delivery outcomes table breaks the campaign down into Delivered, Bounced, Dropped and Blocked.

Opened

• Unique opens — contacts who opened. Total opens — includes repeat opens.
• Open rate — unique opens ÷ delivered.
• Treat open rate as a rough signal rather than proof that someone read the email. Opens are tracked using a small, invisible image that loads when the email is viewed. Privacy features such as Apple Mail Privacy Protection load that image automatically and can inflate opens, while recipients who block images can lower them.

Clicked

• Unique clicks — contacts who clicked. Total clicks — includes repeat clicks.
• Click rate — unique clicks ÷ delivered. Use this one when comparing against other platforms.
• Click-to-open rate — unique clicks ÷ unique opens. Use it to judge the content itself: of the people who opened the email, how many clicked.
• Click-to-open rate can exceed 100%. A click can be recorded without a matching open — for example, when the recipient's mail app blocks the tracking image — so recorded clicks can outnumber recorded opens. If no opens were recorded at all, it shows a dash.
• The panel also holds a Link activity table: each tracked link with its Unique clicks, the number of contacts who clicked that link. View-email and unsubscribe links are excluded. A contact can click several links, so the per-link figures may not add up to the campaign's unique clicks.

Bounced

• Bounced — rejected on delivery.
• Bounce rate — bounced ÷ requested. Keep it under 2%: a high bounce rate damages your sender reputation, so later emails are more likely to be filtered.

Unsubscribed

• Unsubscribed — unsubscribes triggered by this email.
• Unsubscribe rate — unsubscribed ÷ delivered. Under 0.5% is healthy; a few on every send is normal.

Blocked

• Blocked — recipients prevented from receiving this email, including contacts excluded before sending because they had previously unsubscribed or opted out of the campaign's category.
• Block rate — blocked ÷ requested. The panel also shows Deferred — delayed, then retried.

Preferences saved

• Preferences saved — contacts who saved their email preferences through this email. This includes opting into categories, and saving without changing any settings.
• Share of delivered — preferences saved ÷ delivered.

Marked as spam

• Marked as spam — reported as spam by the contact.
• Spam rate — marked as spam ÷ delivered. Stay under 0.3%: complaints hurt your sender reputation more than the small numbers suggest.

Metric definitions

The names below are the underlying events. The performance tiles and the per-recipient Status column don't always use the same words — see Per-recipient status on the Email status table, below, for the mapping.

• Delivered — the recipient's mail server accepted the email. This means the server accepted it, not that it necessarily reached the inbox — it may still be filtered into a spam or junk folder.
• Opened — the recipient opened the email at least once.
• Clicked — the recipient clicked at least one tracked link within the email.
• Bounced — the recipient's mail server rejected the email. A hard bounce is a permanent failure (for example, the address doesn't exist), and that address is suppressed from future sends. A soft bounce is a temporary failure (for example, a full mailbox or a server that's temporarily down), and may be retried.
• Blocked — the email was prevented from reaching the recipient, either because the recipient's mail server refused it (for example, due to sender reputation or content filtering) or because the contact was excluded before sending after unsubscribing or opting out of the campaign's category.
• Dropped — the delivery provider didn't attempt the send at all, most often because the address is already suppressed after a previous bounce, unsubscribe or spam report, or appears more than once in the same send. Dropped emails appear in the Delivery outcomes table and the Status column; they don't have a tile of their own.
• Marked as spam — the recipient marked the email as spam in their inbox.
• Unsubscribed — the recipient chose to unsubscribe from future emails.
• Preferences saved — the recipient saved their email preferences through this email, including opting into categories or saving without changing anything.

Per-recipient status on the Email status table

The campaign overview's Email status table shows one row per recipient with its own Status column. That column uses a slightly different set of words from the performance tiles:

• Processed — the recipient is queued but the email has not gone out yet. This is what you see for recipients whose turn has not come during a staggered send. Processed is not offered in the Status filter, so you cannot filter the table down to it.
• Sent — handed to the delivery provider.
• Delivered, Opened, Clicked, Bounced, Blocked, Dropped — as defined above.
• Permanently unsubscribed — shown on the tiles as Unsubscribed.
• Updated preferences — shown on the tiles as Preferences saved.

The tiles also include Marked as spam, which has no matching value in the Status column — a recipient marking the email as spam is reported on the tiles only.

Before a scheduled campaign starts sending, the Email status table is empty — rows are created as the send begins, not when it is scheduled.

On a staggered send, the Scheduled send time column shows each recipient's own slot time rather than the campaign's send time. It is the only place that shows how the stagger has spread recipients across its slots.

If a send is stopped part-way, recipients who had not yet been sent to keep their Processed status and their future slot time. The row itself does not record that the send was cancelled — the campaign's status does.

Important notes

• Total emails sent counts what was scheduled, not what went out. On a staggered send it reaches the full figure before the last slot has fired, and on a cancelled campaign it keeps that figure even though the remaining emails were never sent. Use Delivered for what actually reached recipients.
• Opens and clicks on the tiles, and the open and click rates, are based on unique contacts. The Opened and Clicked panels also show total opens and total clicks, which include repeats.
• Click rate is calculated from delivered emails, not from opens. The opens-based figure is click-to-open rate.
• Delivery issues such as bounces or blocks reduce the number of emails eligible for opens and clicks.

Common questions

Why is my click rate lower than it used to be?

Click rate now divides unique clicks by delivered emails instead of by opens, and past campaigns are recalculated the same way. Nothing about your audience has changed — the old figure is still there as Click-to-open rate in the Clicked panel.

Which click figure should I report?

Use click rate to compare with other platforms or industry benchmarks, which use the same definition. Use click-to-open rate to judge how persuasive the content was for the people who opened it.

Do A/B tests use the new click rate?

Yes. When a test is judged by click rate, the A/B Test results card compares each test's click rate on the same basis as the tiles — unique clicks ÷ delivered.

Why is my click-to-open rate over 100%?

Some mail apps block the tracking image, so a contact can click without an open being recorded. When that happens, recorded clicks can outnumber recorded opens.

Why is my open rate lower than expected?

Open rate is unique opens ÷ delivered, so only delivered emails that nobody opened bring it down — bounced and blocked emails aren't part of it. Opens also depend on the tracking image loading: recipients whose mail app blocks images may read the email without an open being recorded.

Why don't Total emails sent and Delivered match?

Total emails sent counts the emails the campaign committed to send. Delivered excludes bounced, blocked or dropped emails — and, on a staggered or stopped campaign, also excludes emails whose turn never came. The Delivered panel's Delivery outcomes table shows where the rest went.

Do multiple opens or clicks increase my results?

Not the tiles or the rates — each contact is counted once. The Opened and Clicked panels show total opens and total clicks separately if you want to see repeat activity.

Why does blocked or dropped happen?

Blocked usually means the recipient's mail server refused the email based on its content, the sender's reputation, or the server's own rules — or that SwiftFox excluded the contact before sending because they had unsubscribed or opted out of the campaign's category. Dropped means the delivery provider never attempted the email — most often because the address was already suppressed from an earlier bounce, unsubscribe, or spam report, or appeared more than once in the same send.