Email Marketing ROI and Click Rate Calculator

An email campaign leaves a trail of numbers: how many went out, how many bounced, how many opened, clicked, bought and unsubscribed. Each rate in the chain tells you something different about the subject line, the content, the page behind the link and the offer. This page takes the counts, computes the rates the usual way, and adds the money side: revenue per email, cost per click and the return on what the campaign cost.

The chain

Start with emails sent, then delivered, which is sent minus bounced. Of those delivered, some are opened, and some click. Of the clickers, some buy. The page expresses each step as a rate: delivery rate, open rate, click rate against delivered, click-to-open rate against opens, and conversion rate against clicks. The unsubscribe rate is shown to three decimals because it is usually tiny.

The money

Revenue per email delivered divides the revenue by the people who got the message. Cost per click and cost per conversion divide the campaign’s cost by those counts. Return on investment is revenue minus cost, divided by cost, shown as a percentage, and profit is the plain difference. The cost box should include the sending platform, design time and any discount you gave, if you want the figures to be honest.

A worked example

The default is a product launch: 50,000 sent, 750 bounced, 11,000 opens, 1,200 clicks, 90 sales worth 6,300, a cost of 450 and 60 unsubscribes. Delivered is 49,250, a delivery rate of 98.50%. The open rate is 22.34%, the click rate 2.44% and the click-to-open rate 10.91%. The conversion rate is 7.50% and the unsubscribe rate 0.122%. Revenue per email is 0.128, the cost per click 0.38 and the cost per conversion 5.00. The return is 1,300% and the profit 5,850. The second sample is a newsletter that sold nothing: 12,000 sent, 120 bounced, 3,300 opens, 260 clicks, a cost of 60 and 14 unsubscribes. Delivered is 11,880, the open rate 27.78%, the click rate 2.19% and the click-to-open rate 7.88%. With no revenue the return is minus 100% and the profit minus 60.

Why open rates mislead

Some mail apps download images automatically for privacy or speed, which a tracker counts as an open even if no one read the message. So an open rate can rise without any change in interest. Clicks, conversions and revenue per email are steadier measures, which is why the click-to-open rate is shown beside the open rate and the money lines are given such prominence.

Edge cases

Opens and clicks cannot be more than delivered emails, and conversions cannot be more than clicks. If there are no clicks, cost per click and conversion rate show a dash, and with no conversions so does cost per conversion. A cost of zero shows a dash for ROI, since the return on nothing is not a number. Unique opens and unique clicks are the right counts to use, not total opens.

Limits

ROI here uses revenue, not profit. For a stricter figure, subtract the cost of the products sold from the revenue before you enter it. Sales that a recipient makes later, or on another device, may not be attributed to the email by your tracking. The page also does not weigh the long-term value of a subscriber, so a campaign that loses money on the first send can still be worth it.

Related tools

• ROAS, CPM, CPC and CTR Calculator applies the same ratios to paid advertising.
• Customer Retention and Repeat Purchase Rate Calculator shows whether the buyers come back.
• ROI Calculator states any return as a percentage of the amount invested.
• Affiliate Commission and Payout Calculator estimates earnings from a referral programme you promote by email.