Metrics defined
What each rate means in plain terms, the exact formula behind it, and why bounce rate reads differently on the dashboard and on a campaign report.
Here’s what each number in your reports means, plus the exact formula behind it. Bounce rate and complaint rate appear on both your Dashboard and a campaign’s report, and they don’t always match, for the reason below.
If a rate shows — instead of a number, that’s not zero: it just means there’s nothing to divide by yet (no sends in that window).
Delivery, open and click metrics
These appear on a campaign’s report and, added up across your recent sends, on the Dashboard:
| Metric | What it tells you | Formula |
|---|---|---|
| Delivered (delivery rate) | How many of the emails you sent actually reached an inbox | delivered ÷ sent |
| Open rate | How many delivered emails were opened at least once | unique opens ÷ delivered |
| Click rate | How many delivered emails had a link clicked | unique clicks ÷ delivered |
| Click-through rate (CTOR) | Of the people who opened, how many went on to click | unique clicks ÷ unique opens |
| Unsubscribe rate | How many delivered emails led to an unsubscribe | unsubscribes ÷ delivered |
Each person counts once for opens and clicks, the first time they do it. Open rate is a useful trend, not an exact number: see Why open rates are inflated.
On the Dashboard, Avg open rate and Avg click rate use the same formulas, totalled across every campaign in your selected window.
Bounce rate: why it isn’t the same number in two places
- Campaign report: the row Bounce rate (hard + soft) is
(hard bounces + soft bounces) ÷ sent, the whole picture for that one send. - Dashboard, Sending health: Hard bounce rate is
hard bounces ÷ sent, hard bounces only. Hard bounces are what damages your reputation, so that’s what your health badge is judged against.
So a campaign can show a higher bounce percentage on its own report than it contributes to the dashboard’s meter. That’s normal: the two rows count different things. See Soft bounces vs hard bounces.
Complaint rate
Both screens use complaints ÷ sent. Only the scope differs: a campaign report covers that one send, the Dashboard covers every message across your account in the trailing 30 days (see below), including automation sends.
The Dashboard’s Sending health always looks at 30 days
The window switcher (7 / 30 / 90 days) controls the engagement chart, audience growth chart and averaged headline rates. Sending health is the exception: it always looks at a fixed trailing 30 days, and covers every message with recent activity, so an automation that’s been quietly bouncing counts too. Automations shows a lifetime total, never windowed, since an automation message never “completes” the way a campaign send does.