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Email Deliverability Metrics: The Complete Guide to Measuring Success

Learn how to measure email deliverability success. Understand key metrics, benchmarks, and KPIs for inbox placement, authentication, and engagement.

MailSentinel Team

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December 12, 20247 min read

Email Deliverability Metrics: The Complete Guide to Measuring Success

Measuring email deliverability isn't just about whether emails arrive—it's about understanding the complete picture of email performance. This guide covers all the metrics you need to track, industry benchmarks, and how to use data to improve your results.

The Deliverability Metrics Framework

Email deliverability success is measured across four key areas:

  1. Authentication Metrics - SPF, DKIM, DMARC pass rates
  2. Delivery Metrics - Inbox placement, bounces, blocks
  3. Engagement Metrics - Opens, clicks, conversions
  4. Reputation Metrics - Sender scores, blacklist status

Authentication Metrics

DMARC Pass Rate

What It Measures:

  • Percentage of emails passing DMARC authentication
  • Indicates authentication health

How to Calculate:

DMARC Pass Rate = (Emails Passing DMARC / Total Emails) × 100%

Benchmarks:

  • Excellent: 95-100%
  • Good: 90-94%
  • Needs Improvement: <90%

Where to Find:

  • MailSentinel dashboard
  • DMARC aggregate reports
  • Email service provider analytics

Why It Matters:

  • Required by Google, Yahoo, Microsoft
  • Affects inbox placement
  • Prevents spoofing attacks

SPF Pass Rate

What It Measures:

  • Percentage of emails passing SPF validation
  • Indicates IP authorization

How to Calculate:

SPF Pass Rate = (Emails Passing SPF / Total Emails) × 100%

Benchmarks:

  • Excellent: 95-100%
  • Good: 90-94%
  • Needs Improvement: <90%

Common Issues:

  • Missing sending IPs in SPF
  • Too many DNS lookups
  • Syntax errors

DKIM Pass Rate

What It Measures:

  • Percentage of emails with valid DKIM signatures
  • Indicates email integrity

How to Calculate:

DKIM Pass Rate = (Emails Passing DKIM / Total Emails) × 100%

Benchmarks:

  • Excellent: 95-100%
  • Good: 90-94%
  • Needs Improvement: <90%

Common Issues:

  • DKIM not enabled
  • Key mismatch
  • Selector errors

Authentication Alignment Rate

What It Measures:

  • Percentage of emails with aligned SPF or DKIM
  • Required for DMARC to pass

How to Calculate:

Alignment Rate = (Aligned Emails / Total Emails) × 100%

Benchmarks:

  • Excellent: 95-100%
  • Good: 90-94%
  • Needs Improvement: <90%

Why It Matters:

  • DMARC requires alignment
  • Affects deliverability
  • Prevents spoofing

Delivery Metrics

Inbox Placement Rate

What It Measures:

  • Percentage of emails reaching the inbox (not spam)

How to Calculate:

Inbox Placement = (Inbox Deliveries / Total Sent) × 100%

Benchmarks:

  • Excellent: 95-98%
  • Good: 90-94%
  • Acceptable: 85-89%
  • Poor: <85%

How to Measure:

  • Seed list testing (GlockApps, Litmus)
  • Provider tools (Google Postmaster, Microsoft SNDS)
  • Engagement metrics (indirect indicator)

Factors Affecting:

  • Authentication status
  • Sender reputation
  • Content quality
  • Engagement rates

Bounce Rate

What It Measures:

  • Percentage of emails that bounce

Types:

  • Hard Bounces - Permanent failures (invalid addresses)
  • Soft Bounces - Temporary failures (mailbox full)

How to Calculate:

Bounce Rate = (Bounced Emails / Total Sent) × 100%

Benchmarks:

  • Excellent: <2%
  • Good: 2-5%
  • Needs Improvement: >5%

Best Practices:

  • Remove hard bounces immediately
  • Retry soft bounces (3 attempts)
  • Monitor bounce trends
  • Clean lists regularly

Block Rate

What It Measures:

  • Percentage of emails blocked by receiving servers

How to Calculate:

Block Rate = (Blocked Emails / Total Sent) × 100%

Benchmarks:

  • Excellent: <0.1%
  • Good: 0.1-0.5%
  • Needs Improvement: >0.5%

Common Causes:

  • Blacklisted IPs
  • Poor reputation
  • Authentication failures
  • Policy violations

Delivery Rate

What It Measures:

  • Overall percentage of emails delivered

How to Calculate:

Delivery Rate = (Delivered Emails / Total Sent) × 100%

Benchmarks:

  • Excellent: 98-100%
  • Good: 95-97%
  • Needs Improvement: <95%

Note:

  • Delivery ≠ Inbox placement
  • Emails can be delivered to spam
  • Focus on inbox placement rate

Engagement Metrics

Open Rate

What It Measures:

  • Percentage of delivered emails opened

How to Calculate:

Open Rate = (Opened Emails / Delivered Emails) × 100%

Benchmarks:

  • Excellent: 25-30%+
  • Good: 20-24%
  • Average: 15-19%
  • Poor: <15%

Factors Affecting:

  • Subject line quality
  • Sender reputation
  • Inbox placement
  • List quality
  • Send time

Note:

  • Open tracking requires images
  • Privacy features affect accuracy
  • Use as trend indicator, not absolute

Click Rate (CTR)

What It Measures:

  • Percentage of delivered emails with clicks

How to Calculate:

Click Rate = (Clicks / Delivered Emails) × 100%

Benchmarks:

  • Excellent: 5%+
  • Good: 3-4%
  • Average: 2-2.9%
  • Poor: <2%

Factors Affecting:

  • Content relevance
  • Call-to-action clarity
  • Design quality
  • List segmentation

Click-to-Open Rate (CTOR)

What It Measures:

  • Percentage of opened emails with clicks
  • Better engagement indicator than CTR

How to Calculate:

CTOR = (Clicks / Opened Emails) × 100%

Benchmarks:

  • Excellent: 20%+
  • Good: 15-19%
  • Average: 10-14%
  • Poor: <10%

Why It Matters:

  • Measures content quality
  • Independent of open rate
  • Better engagement indicator

Conversion Rate

What It Measures:

  • Percentage of emails leading to conversions

How to Calculate:

Conversion Rate = (Conversions / Delivered Emails) × 100%

Benchmarks:

  • Varies by industry
  • E-commerce: 1-3%
  • SaaS: 0.5-2%
  • B2B: 0.25-1%

Factors Affecting:

  • Offer quality
  • List quality
  • Content relevance
  • Landing page quality

Unsubscribe Rate

What It Measures:

  • Percentage of recipients unsubscribing

How to Calculate:

Unsubscribe Rate = (Unsubscribes / Delivered Emails) × 100%

Benchmarks:

  • Excellent: <0.2%
  • Good: 0.2-0.5%
  • Average: 0.5-1%
  • Poor: >1%

Best Practices:

  • Make unsubscribe easy
  • Honor requests immediately
  • Monitor trends
  • Segment lists

Spam Complaint Rate

What It Measures:

  • Percentage of recipients marking as spam

How to Calculate:

Complaint Rate = (Spam Complaints / Delivered Emails) × 100%

Benchmarks:

  • Excellent: <0.1%
  • Good: 0.1-0.2%
  • Acceptable: 0.2-0.3%
  • Critical: >0.3% (Google/Yahoo/Microsoft limit)

Why It Matters:

  • Directly affects reputation
  • Can cause blocks
  • Required to stay below 0.3%

How to Reduce:

  • Only send to opted-in subscribers
  • Make unsubscribe easy
  • Send relevant content
  • Honor preferences

Reputation Metrics

Sender Score

What It Measures:

  • Overall sender reputation (0-100 scale)

Providers:

  • Sender Score (Return Path)
  • Google Postmaster Tools
  • Microsoft SNDS

Benchmarks:

  • Excellent: 90-100
  • Good: 80-89
  • Average: 70-79
  • Poor: <70

Factors Affecting:

  • Complaint rates
  • Bounce rates
  • Authentication
  • Volume consistency
  • Engagement

Domain Reputation

What It Measures:

  • Reputation of your sending domain

Where to Find:

  • Google Postmaster Tools
  • Microsoft SNDS
  • Email service provider

Benchmarks:

  • Excellent: High/Good
  • Good: Medium
  • Poor: Low/Bad

Why It Matters:

  • Affects all emails from domain
  • Independent of IP
  • Long-term impact

IP Reputation

What It Measures:

  • Reputation of your sending IP

Where to Find:

  • Microsoft SNDS
  • Sender Score
  • Blacklist checks

Benchmarks:

  • Excellent: Clean, no blacklists
  • Good: Minor issues
  • Poor: Multiple blacklists

Best Practices:

  • Use dedicated IPs for high volume
  • Warm up new IPs gradually
  • Monitor reputation regularly

Blacklist Status

What It Measures:

  • Whether your IP/domain is blacklisted

How to Check:

  • MXToolbox blacklist checker
  • MultiRBL
  • Individual blacklist sites

Benchmarks:

  • Excellent: 0 blacklists
  • Good: 1-2 minor blacklists
  • Poor: Multiple major blacklists

Common Blacklists:

  • Spamhaus
  • SpamCop
  • SURBL
  • Barracuda

Industry Benchmarks

Overall Deliverability

IndustryInbox PlacementOpen RateClick Rate
E-commerce92-96%18-22%2.5-3.5%
SaaS94-97%22-26%3-4%
B2B90-94%20-24%2-3%
Non-profit91-95%19-23%2.5-3.5%
Education93-97%21-25%3-4%

Authentication Rates

MetricExcellentGoodNeeds Work
DMARC Pass95-100%90-94%<90%
SPF Pass95-100%90-94%<90%
DKIM Pass95-100%90-94%<90%
Alignment95-100%90-94%<90%

Engagement Rates

MetricExcellentGoodAverage
Open Rate25%+20-24%15-19%
Click Rate5%+3-4%2-2.9%
CTOR20%+15-19%10-14%
ConversionVariesVariesVaries

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Primary KPIs

  1. Inbox Placement Rate - Most important deliverability metric
  2. DMARC Pass Rate - Authentication health
  3. Spam Complaint Rate - Must stay below 0.3%
  4. Bounce Rate - List health indicator
  5. Engagement Rate - Overall performance

Secondary KPIs

  1. SPF/DKIM Pass Rates - Authentication components
  2. Sender Score - Reputation indicator
  3. Blacklist Status - Security indicator
  4. Open/Click Rates - Engagement indicators
  5. Conversion Rate - Business impact

Measuring Tools

MailSentinel

Metrics Provided:

  • DMARC pass/fail rates
  • SPF/DKIM status
  • Source identification
  • Historical trends
  • Alert notifications

Best For:

  • Authentication monitoring
  • DMARC analysis
  • Real-time alerts

Google Postmaster Tools

Metrics Provided:

  • Spam rate
  • IP reputation
  • Domain reputation
  • Delivery errors
  • Feedback loop data

Best For:

  • Gmail-specific metrics
  • Reputation tracking
  • Spam rate monitoring

Microsoft SNDS

Metrics Provided:

  • IP reputation
  • Complaint rates
  • Volume data
  • Filtering status

Best For:

  • Outlook-specific metrics
  • IP reputation
  • Complaint tracking

Email Service Provider Analytics

Metrics Provided:

  • Delivery rates
  • Bounce rates
  • Open rates
  • Click rates
  • Engagement metrics

Best For:

  • Campaign performance
  • Overall email health
  • Engagement analysis

Creating a Metrics Dashboard

Essential Metrics to Track

Daily:

  • DMARC pass rate
  • Bounce rate
  • Spam complaint rate
  • Blacklist status

Weekly:

  • Inbox placement rate
  • Open rate
  • Click rate
  • Sender score

Monthly:

  • Overall deliverability trends
  • Engagement trends
  • Conversion rates
  • ROI metrics

Dashboard Components

  1. Authentication Health

    • DMARC pass rate
    • SPF/DKIM status
    • Alignment rate

  2. Delivery Performance

    • Inbox placement
    • Bounce rate
    • Block rate

  3. Engagement Metrics

    • Open rate
    • Click rate
    • Conversion rate

  4. Reputation Status

    • Sender score
    • Domain reputation
    • Blacklist status

Using Metrics to Improve

Identify Issues

  1. Low DMARC Pass Rate

    • Fix SPF/DKIM issues
    • Check alignment
    • Review sources

  2. High Bounce Rate

    • Clean email lists
    • Verify addresses
    • Remove invalid emails

  3. High Spam Complaint Rate

    • Improve content
    • Better list hygiene
    • Make unsubscribe easy

  4. Low Engagement

    • Improve content
    • Better segmentation
    • Optimize send times

Set Goals

Short-term (1-3 months):

  • DMARC pass rate: 95%+
  • Inbox placement: 90%+
  • Spam complaints: <0.2%

Long-term (6-12 months):

  • DMARC pass rate: 98%+
  • Inbox placement: 95%+
  • Spam complaints: <0.1%
  • Engagement: Industry benchmarks+

Reporting Best Practices

Regular Reports

Daily:

  • Authentication status
  • Critical alerts
  • Blacklist checks

Weekly:

  • Deliverability summary
  • Engagement trends
  • Issue identification

Monthly:

  • Comprehensive analysis
  • Trend comparison
  • Goal tracking
  • Recommendations

Report Components

  1. Executive Summary

    • Key metrics
    • Trends
    • Issues
    • Recommendations

  2. Detailed Analysis

    • Metric breakdowns
    • Source analysis
    • Provider-specific data
    • Historical comparison

  3. Action Items

    • Issues to fix
    • Improvements to make
    • Goals to achieve

Conclusion

Measuring email deliverability requires tracking multiple metrics across authentication, delivery, engagement, and reputation. Use these metrics to:

  1. Identify Issues - Find problems early
  2. Track Progress - Measure improvements
  3. Set Goals - Establish targets
  4. Make Decisions - Data-driven optimization

Start tracking these metrics today to improve your email deliverability.

Additional Resources

Start Monitoring Your Metrics →

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