How to Measure Drip Campaign Performance

Key Metrics for Individual Messages

• Open rate: Percentage of recipients who opened the message. For email, a healthy drip open rate is 25-45% (higher for early messages, lower for later ones). For SMS, open rates are typically 90%+.
• Click-through rate (CTR): Percentage of recipients who clicked a link. A good email CTR is 3-8% for drip messages. If CTR is low but open rate is high, the content or CTA needs work.
• Unsubscribe rate: Should stay below 0.5% per message. A spike on a specific message indicates a problem with that message's content, timing, or relevance.
• Bounce rate: Hard bounces indicate bad email addresses. Soft bounces indicate temporary delivery issues. See Why Emails Bounce.
• Reply rate (SMS): For SMS drips, track how many contacts reply. High reply rates indicate engaged contacts.

Key Metrics for the Overall Sequence

• Conversion rate: What percentage of contacts who entered the drip completed the goal action (purchase, signup, booking, etc.). This is the most important metric.
• Time to conversion: How many messages (or days) it takes the average converter to reach the goal. This tells you if your sequence is the right length.
• Completion rate: What percentage of contacts received every message in the sequence without unsubscribing or bouncing.
• Revenue per contact: Total revenue generated divided by total contacts who entered the drip. Useful for comparing different drip variants.
• Drop-off points: Where in the sequence contacts disengage. If open rates drop sharply after Message 3, you have a content or timing problem at that point.

How to Track These Metrics

For email, set up webhook reporting from your SMTP provider to capture open, click, bounce, and complaint events. The platform records delivery data that you can review in your admin panel. For SMS, delivery confirmations and reply tracking are built into the SMS Broadcast app. For click tracking, use tracked links in both email and SMS.

What Good Performance Looks Like

Benchmarks vary by industry and campaign type, but here are general targets:

• Welcome sequence: 40-60% open rate on Message 1, 5-10% conversion rate
• Lead nurture: 25-35% average open rate, 2-5% conversion rate over the full sequence
• Cart recovery: 40-50% open rate on Message 1, 5-15% recovery rate
• Post-purchase: 35-50% open rate, 10-20% review submission rate

Improving Underperforming Drips

Review your metrics and focus on the weakest point in the sequence. Low open rates? Test new subject lines with A/B testing. Good opens but low clicks? Improve content and CTAs per writing tips. Sharp drop-off mid-sequence? Adjust timing or reduce message count. High unsubscribes? You may be sending too often or the content is not matching expectations.