How to measure email agency performance.
Measure an email agency on revenue per recipient, list health, deliverability and the quality of what they ship, not on opens or on total revenue alone. Agree the measures at the start, compare against a baseline or holdout, and review monthly with test results, not just charts.
Pick measures that cannot be gamed easily.
Open rates are distorted by privacy features, and total email revenue rises with sales that would have happened anyway. Revenue per recipient, click to order rates and flow revenue per message are harder to flatter.
Add health measures such as bounce rate, complaint rate and unsubscribe rate, because a programme can look strong while quietly damaging the list.
Agree a baseline.
Before work begins, record what each measure looked like over the previous quarter or year. Without that, every later number can be explained away.
Where possible, hold back a small group from a flow or a campaign, so you can see what email caused rather than what it merely touched.
What a good report contains.
A useful monthly report shows what shipped, what was tested, what the result was and what happens next. It names the changes that did not work and the reason it still mattered.
It should also flag risks, such as a falling placement rate or a segment growing stale.
Be fair on timing.
Flows and list quality take weeks to show effect, and seasonality moves everything. Compare like with like, such as the same period last year, and give tests enough volume to mean something.
In practice.
A store sees email revenue rise by a large amount in November and credits the agency. The same month last year also rose, and traffic was higher too. Comparing revenue per recipient against the previous year, and against a holdout group that did not receive a flow, gives a far more honest answer about what the agency changed.
Checklist.
- Baselines written down before work starts
- Revenue per recipient tracked alongside total revenue
- Bounce, complaint and unsubscribe rates reported
- A holdout or clear attribution method agreed
- A monthly report that includes failed tests
Common mistakes.
- Judging on open rate after privacy features changed what it means
- Crediting email for sales that happened anyway
- Comparing a peak month with a quiet one
Questions people ask.
How soon can I judge performance?
Judge the work shipped from week one, and judge revenue effects after a full cycle of flows and a few campaigns, often a quarter.
What if revenue is flat but health metrics improve?
That can be a good sign. Better deliverability and list quality usually come before revenue gains.
Should I trust the agency's own reports?
Cross check against your store analytics, and agree in advance how numbers are calculated so that both sides use the same definitions.
Inferno Emails is an agency, so we have an interest in you hiring one. This guide is written to help you choose well, including choosing someone else or doing the work yourself.
Want a straight answer on your own account? Our free audit lists what is missing and what to fix first, with no obligation. See the retention strategy service or book your free audit.
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