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The Email Metrics You Aren’t Tracking (But Should Be)
Click rates, spam, bounces—are you tracking the right numbers?
Lindsay Kirsch
February 11, 2025
Last week, we talked about bot attacks—how they impact your signup forms and downstream email systems. But that’s just one piece of the puzzle.
If you really want to understand your email performance, you need to go beyond open rates and unsubscribes. This week, we’re diving into non-obvious email metrics that reveal deeper insights into your automation, deliverability, and revenue.
Start with Your Overall Account Metrics
What to track: Click rate, revenue, spam complaints, bounce rates
Why it matters: This gives you a big-picture view of account health.
Benchmarks to aim for:
Click Rate: At least 1-3%
Unsubscribe, Spam Complaints & Bounces: Below 2%
💡 In ActiveCampaign, you can find this under Campaign Performance. Scroll down to the bottom of the report.
Analyze Your Automations
What to track: Average click rate, revenue, spam complaints, bounce rates
Why it matters: If your account-wide performance seems ok, the next step is to analyze specific automations (e.g., nurture sequences, post-purchase emails, re-engagement campaigns).
What to look for:
Some signup forms may attract more spam—high bounce rates can be an indicator.
Click rates will vary by automation type, but spam/bounce rates should still be under 2%.
💡 You can find this under Automation Performance in ActiveCampaign. Sort by click rate, unsubscribe rate, bounce rate, and spam rate to review automation by metric.
Drill Down into Individual Emails
What to track: Click rate, revenue, spam complaints, bounce rates
Why it matters: This is where you identify specific emails needing optimization.
Common red flags:
A well-performing automation with one or two bad emails dragging it down.
High spam complaints on a welcome email (this could indicate a lousy list source).
A sharp drop in clicks in a multi-email sequence (this could be a content mismatch).
💡In ActiveCampaign. you can find this information back in Campaign Performance.
The Ultimate Email Marketing Audit Checklist [LindsayKirsch.com]
Email Bounce Rate - Causes & Proven Ways to Reduce It [Clearout.io]
How to Reduce High Email Spam Rates [ActiveCampaign]
Industry News
This week, I’m focused on Email Trends in 2025 - here are some great articles with some very different perspectives!
via Beehiiv, an email newsletter software. This is based on the viewpoint that email newsletters can be monetized and not just a way to keep them at the top of your audience’s mind.
via Mailmondo, this article looks at the content and how it’s displayed within emails. I look forward to seeing more interactive emails (and I don’t just mean links!)
Can you help me out?
I’ve recently switch email providers from ActiveCampaign (although I still love it!) to Beehiiv to better support this newsletter. In order to build my sender reputation, I would love to get more replies.
Please hit reply to this email and send me a message, even if just your favorite emoji. This will help me tremendously!
Thank you for reading this week’s edition of Press Send!
Lindsay
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