Documentation/Analytics
Metrics glossary
What each number actually means, and what good looks like.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Reached | The whole intended audience — sent + skipped |
| Emails sent | What Engage actually attempted — delivered + bounced |
| Delivered | Accepted by the recipient's mail server |
| Delivery rate | Delivered ÷ emails sent — shown as *% of sent* |
| Bounce | Undeliverable. *Hard* = permanent (bad address); *soft* = temporary (mailbox full) |
| Bounce rate | Bounced ÷ emails sent — shown as *% of sent*. Delivery rate and bounce rate together make up 100% of what was sent |
| Skipped | Never sent to at all — for example, the contact was suppressed |
| Skip rate | Skipped ÷ reached — shown as *% of reached* |
| Open rate | Opens ÷ delivered. Treat as directional — privacy features both inflate and deflate it |
| Click rate | Clicks ÷ delivered — usually a more reliable engagement signal than opens |
| Unsubscribe rate | Opt-outs ÷ delivered — an opt-out can only happen on a mail that arrived. Rising numbers mean you're mailing too often or too broadly |
| Completion rate | Contacts who finished a flow ÷ contacts who entered it |
These rates deliberately use different denominators, which is why they don't add up to 100% together. Delivered, bounced, and skipped are the three shares that do sum to the whole audience — that's delivered + bounced + skipped = reached.
Rough benchmarks
- Open rate — Engage flags anything below 20% as under target.
- Click rate — 2–5% is typical for broadcast campaigns; automated flows usually do better.
- Bounce rate — keep under 2%. Higher means your list needs cleaning.
- Unsubscribe rate — keep under 0.5% per send.
Benchmarks vary a lot by industry and list quality. Your own trend over time is a far more useful signal than any published average.