Understanding Campaign Analytics

Tracking your campaign performance is essential for understanding what works and optimizing your outreach. BuffSend provides key metrics for each campaign. Here's what they mean:

Key Campaign Metrics

  • Sent: The total number of emails that BuffSend attempted to send for this campaign or specific step. This is the starting point for most other metrics.
  • Delivered: The number of emails that were successfully accepted by the recipient's mail server. This is calculated as Sent minus Bounced.
    (Note: Delivery doesn't guarantee the email reached the inbox, only that the server accepted it).
  • Opened: The number (and percentage) of delivered emails that were likely opened by the recipient. This is typically tracked using a tiny, invisible pixel image embedded in the email.
    Important: Open tracking isn't 100% accurate due to factors like image blocking, plain text emails, and privacy features like Apple's Mail Privacy Protection (MPP), which can preload images, inflating open rates. Use opens as a directional indicator.
  • Clicked: The number (and percentage) of delivered emails where the recipient clicked on at least one link. Links within your emails are rewritten to go through BuffSend's tracking server first before redirecting to the final destination.
    Clicks are generally a more reliable indicator of engagement than opens.
  • Bounced: The number (and percentage) of emails that could not be delivered. There are two main types:
    • Hard Bounces: Permanent failures, usually due to an invalid email address (doesn't exist, domain typo). BuffSend typically automatically stops sending to hard-bounced addresses in the future.
    • Soft Bounces: Temporary failures, possibly due to a full inbox, server temporarily unavailable, or overly aggressive spam filters. BuffSend might retry sending soft bounces a few times.
  • Unsubscribed: The number (and percentage) of recipients who clicked the unsubscribe link in your email. BuffSend automatically adds these contacts to a suppression list to prevent accidental future mailings. Respecting unsubscribes is crucial for compliance and sender reputation.
  • Replied (if tracked): Some systems may attempt to track replies by analyzing incoming emails to your connected sender account. This metric indicates direct engagement.

Calculating Rates

  • Open Rate: (Total Opens / Total Delivered) * 100%
  • Click-Through Rate (CTR): (Total Clicks / Total Delivered) * 100%
  • Click-to-Open Rate (CTOR): (Total Clicks / Total Opens) * 100% - Measures how effective your email content was at driving clicks among those who opened it.
  • Bounce Rate: (Total Bounces / Total Sent) * 100%
  • Unsubscribe Rate: (Total Unsubscribes / Total Delivered) * 100%

Where to Find Analytics

You can usually find these metrics:

  • On the main Campaigns list page (overview stats per campaign).
  • On a dedicated Analytics or Reports page.
  • On the specific detail page for each individual campaign, often broken down by sequence step.

Using Analytics for Optimization

  • Low Open Rates? Revisit your subject lines, sender name/address, sending time, and list quality/segmentation. Check for deliverability issues.
  • Low Click-Through Rates (or CTOR)? Analyze your email copy, calls-to-action (CTAs), link placement, and overall offer relevance.
  • High Bounce Rates? Clean your email list using verification tools. Investigate the source of your contacts.
  • High Unsubscribe Rates? Review your content relevance, sending frequency, and list segmentation. Ensure you're providing value.

Regularly monitoring these analytics will help you refine your strategies and improve the effectiveness of your email outreach over time.

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