It’s not always easy to make sense of your campaign results. What does your open rate really mean? Are people engaging with your content, or opting out? To help put these numbers in context, we’ve gathered useful benchmarks and tips.
Since email remains central to most marketing strategies, we took a closer look at its performance — but not just email. We also analyzed all types of messages sent through Brevo, including SMS, WhatsApp, and push notifications, to uncover the most relevant average metrics.
In this article, you’ll find some key performance benchmarks and best practices to help you evaluate your marketing campaigns and sharpen your overall strategy. For more insights, download the Brevo Marketing Benchmark 2025 ⬇️:
📈 Download the Brevo Marketing Benchmark 2025 📉
Email key performance indicators
We analyzed approximately 44 billion emails from over 80,000 companies worldwide. This review provided the average metrics for an email.
Let’s start with a quick summary of key indicators to measure the success of an email:
| KPI | Description |
|---|---|
| Open rate | Percentage of recipients who have opened your email. |
| Click-through-rate (CTR) (or Click rate) | Percentage of delivered emails that have received at least one click. |
| Click-to-open rate (CTOR) | Percentage of opened emails that have received at least one click. |
| Unsubscription rate | Percentage of recipients who have unsubscribed from your email. |
| Soft bounce rate | Percentage of failed deliveries due to temporary issues in relation to the total number of recipients. |
| Hard bounce rate | Percentage of failed deliveries due to permanent issues in relation to the total number of recipients. |
The table below displays the average email performance metrics from our study:
Next, we segmented these metrics by industry verticals. The chart below presents the results of our analysis:
Best practices for successful email campaigns
Email KPIs are closely connected: higher open rates can lead to more clicks, while relevant content helps keep unsubscribes low. Improving one metric will have a cascading effect on the others.
Here are some expert tips to help improve your email performance:
📬 Open rate
- Use a trustworthy sender address with a real sender name and branded domain.
- Optimize your sending timing with Brevo's Send at best time option.
- A/B test your subject lines and identify what content sparks interest.
🖱️ Click-through and click-to-open rates
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Create visually engaging content, optimized for both desktop and mobile devices.
- Send up-to-date content relevant to each recipient.
🙅 Hard bounce rate
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Regularly clean your contact list and keep only engaged subscribers.
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Implement a double opt-in process for your forms to ensure quality sign-ups.
👋 Unsubscribe rate
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Adjust your sending frequency to avoid overwhelming recipients with too many emails.
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Make it easy to unsubscribe by providing a clear option in every email.
What about other channels?
Email remains a foundational channel, but others, like WhatsApp and mobile wallet, are growing in popularity. That’s why we expanded our analysis to include these channels, uncovering key trends, advantages, and performance metrics ⬇️:
In 2024, the number of SMS users at Brevo increased by 69.57%. Analyzing nearly 16 million SMS messages across all industries, we identified the following trends:
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A strong Q4, driven by user growth and end-of-year activity, contributed to the rise in SMS usage.
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Retail leads the way, using SMS for direct and efficient updates, including order confirmations and sales announcements.
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SMS messages are highly visible, with an estimated open rate of 55%.
Push adoption is growing rapidly. In 2024, the number of push notifications sent through Brevo increased by 927.50%, driven by an expanding user base.
With around 10% of users opting in on websites and up to 60% on mobile apps, push notifications offer a strong engagement potential. Companies across various industries, including eCommerce, media, and gaming, are already using push notifications to promote products, send live updates, and re-engage users with their apps.
Wallet marketing is becoming a key tool for boosting engagement and generating in-store and online traffic. With 31.1 million wallet passes generated in 2024, Brevo users have created 4,000 times more cards than in 2016.
Mobile wallets are helping businesses build stronger relationships with customers, leading to a 52% revenue increase for walletized customers compared to non-walletized ones and a 95% retention rate in their customers' wallets.
In 2024, Brevo experienced a 48.15% increase in chat users. With a strong presence in industries with high customer interactions, the immediacy of live chat improves customer experience and drives higher sales.
Chatbots also offer great value by collecting important visitor data for better marketing, handling FAQs, and freeing up time for live agents.
WhatsApp is the most popular messaging service, with over 2 billion users worldwide. In 2024, Brevo's user base grew by 101.8%, reflecting strong interest and rapid adoption.
WhatsApp messages boast an impressive 98% open rate, making them perfect for delivering time-sensitive offers to a targeted audience. With end-to-end encryption, they also provide a secure way to engage with privacy-conscious contacts.
Integrating email into a well-structured omnichannel strategy helps you meet customers where they’re most engaged. It amplifies the impact of email and strengthens relationships across multiple touchpoints.
The metrics from our benchmark reflect this shift: more companies are expanding their presence across channels to capture and retain audience attention.
That said, building an effective omnichannel strategy takes time. It’s an ongoing process of testing, learning, and adapting until you’re able to know what your customers need before they do.
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