Brevo Email Analytics Explained: Open Rate, CTR, and Beyond
Email analytics are the compass for any serious campaign. Without clear measurement you cannot know if your subject lines, content, automation, or deliverability changes are working. This guide walks through Brevo’s analytics landscape — how to interpret open rate, click-through rate (CTR), conversion metrics, list health indicators, and advanced signals — and shows the practical steps to turn those numbers into better decisions.
Why Tracking Email Metrics Precisely Matters
Metrics tell a story: which subject lines attract attention, which content drives clicks, and whether clicks become conversions. A clear measurement plan prevents wasted effort and protects your sender reputation. Good analytics allow you to iterate fast, scale the tactics that work, and stop doing the ones that don’t. With Brevo, you get a unified view of these metrics, plus tools to dig deeper into behavior and attribution.
Businesses that focus on conversion-led metrics consistently outperform those that chase vanity numbers. This guide emphasizes the signals that predict real value, and how to use Brevo to capture them.
Core Metrics: What They Mean and Why They Matter
Open Rate
What it is: The percentage of delivered emails that were opened.
Why it matters: Open rate reflects subject line effectiveness and sender reputation. However, it is an imperfect proxy — modern privacy protections and image-blocking can distort opens. Use open rate as an early indicator, not the sole measure.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
What it is: The percentage of delivered emails where recipients clicked at least one tracked link.
Why it matters: CTR measures content relevance and CTA clarity. CTR moves closer to user intent than opens and is a stronger predictor of conversion.
Click-to-Open Rate (CTOR)
What it is: The percentage of opened emails that generated at least one click (clicks / opens).
Why it matters: CTOR isolates content performance from subject line performance and helps you understand how persuasive the message was to those who opened.
Conversion Rate
What it is: The percentage of recipients (or visitors) who completed the desired action after clicking an email (purchase, signup, trial activation).
Why it matters: Conversion rate is the true KPI for most campaigns. Always tie your email CTAs to trackable conversion events and measure this with Brevo + your analytics platform.
Delivery & Bounce Rates
What it is: Delivery rate is delivered / sent; bounce rate is the percentage of emails that could not be delivered.
Why it matters: Bounces harm sender reputation. Monitor soft vs hard bounces and remove hard bounces quickly.
Unsubscribe & Complaint Rates
What it is: The percentage of recipients who unsubscribe or mark the email as spam.
Why it matters: Rising unsubscribe or complaint rates are an urgent signal that your content or targeting is off. Take corrective action immediately.
Brevo Reporting Tools You Should Use
Campaign Overview
High-level metrics for each send: deliveries, opens, clicks, bounces, unsubscribes, and average engagement. Start here for quick diagnostics.
Link-Level Tracking
See which links were clicked and how many times. Use this to refine CTAs and content placement.
Heatmaps
Visualize which areas of your email attracted attention. Heatmaps reveal positional performance and CTA visibility issues.
Cohort Analysis
Compare behavior across groups (signup month, acquisition channel) to spot long-term trends and shifting engagement patterns.
Workflow Reporting
Track each automation path, see drop-off points in journeys, and measure per-step conversion rates inside Brevo workflows.
Export & Integrations
Export event-level data to your analytics or BI tools. Connect Brevo with your analytics for full-funnel attribution.
Measurement Strategy: Align Metrics to Goals
Define your campaign goal first. Choose one primary KPI and supporting metrics:
- Awareness / Open-focused: Primary KPI — Open rate; Supporting — CTR, deliverability.
- Engagement / Content-focused: Primary KPI — CTR or CTOR; Supporting — time-on-page, scroll depth.
- Conversion / Revenue-focused: Primary KPI — Conversion rate; Supporting — CTR, revenue per email.
Example: For a product launch your primary KPI is conversion rate. You still monitor open rate and CTR to diagnose issues — low opens imply subject line problems; low CTR implies content or CTA mismatch.
Attribution: Use UTMs and Event Tags
To measure true conversion lift, tag every email link with UTM parameters and ensure your analytics platform picks them up. Example UTM pattern:
?utm_source=email&utm_medium=campaign&utm_campaign=spring_sale_1
Additionally, add event tags inside Brevo so you can export event-level data to your analytics tool and align clicks with downstream conversions.
Why Segment-Level Metrics Matter
High-level averages hide variation. Your overall open rate may be 20%, but a newly-acquired segment could be 40% while an older cold list is 8%. Segment-level insights guide tactical choices:
- New subscribers vs long-time subscribers
- Purchase behavior: buyers vs non-buyers
- Geography and timezone differences
- Acquisition source (paid vs organic)
Always break down campaign metrics by segment to find where gains can be made most efficiently.
Use Cases — Which Metrics Matter for Which Campaigns
Welcome Series
Watch open rate (subject line fit), CTR (resource engagement), and conversion rate (activation or next-step completion).
Promotional Launch
Track CTR and conversion rate. Use heatmaps to see whether product links are noticed.
Cart Recovery
Primary KPI: conversion rate. Secondary: time-to-conversion and revenue per email.
Newsletter
Primary KPI: CTR or CTOR (engagement). Secondary: long-term retention and list growth rate.
Re-engagement
Primary KPI: re-activation rate. Monitor unsubscribe & complaint rates carefully to protect list health.
Advanced Signals: Mix Quantitative and Qualitative Insights
Numbers tell what happened; qualitative feedback often explains why. Combine Brevo metrics with quick user feedback (one-question surveys) and session recordings for deeper insight. Useful signals include:
- Heatmap attention zones
- Post-click behavior (time on page, scroll depth)
- Survey responses and micro-feedback
- Support requests correlated to campaigns
Example: High CTR but low conversion suggests a mismatch between email promise and landing page content. Use session recordings and quick surveys to find the disconnect.
Optimization Routine: Weekly to Quarterly
Weekly
- Review last 3 campaigns for CTR and conversion trends.
- Pause poor-performing audience segments.
- Run one micro A/B test — subject line or CTA variant.
Monthly
- Audit list health: remove hard bounces and inactive recipients.
- Analyze top-performing segments and content patterns.
- Refresh templates and update CTAs based on data.
Quarterly
- Run a deliverability and domain audit (SPF/DKIM/DMARC, warm-up status).
- Perform cohort analysis across acquisition channels.
- Re-evaluate primary KPIs and growth targets.
Pricing Reference (Analytics Features by Plan)
| Plan | Analytics Features | Best for | Price (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Basic campaign reports, opens, clicks | Testing & learning | Free |
| Starter | Enhanced reports, link tracking, basic automation insights | Small teams | $9 / month |
| Standard | Advanced reporting, cohorts, workflow analytics | Growing programs | $18 / month |
| Professional | Dedicated reporting, deliverability insights, export tools | High-volume & agencies | $499 / month |
Common Analytics Pitfalls to Avoid
- Relying solely on open rate: Opens are impacted by image-blocking and privacy tools. Combine them with CTR and conversions.
- Ignoring sample size: Small tests produce noisy data. Use adequate sample sizes or longer test windows.
- Not segmenting data: Aggregates hide important differences between groups.
- Confusing correlation with causation: A spike in clicks does not always cause conversions; check post-click experience.
- Forgetting list hygiene: Bad lists produce misleading metrics and harm deliverability.
Pros & Cons — Practical View
Pros
- Actionable insights that drive real improvements.
- Ability to test and validate creative decisions.
- Better attribution when combined with UTMs and analytics.
- Improved deliverability through monitoring and corrective action.
Cons
- Requires discipline to track tests and results consistently.
- Misinterpretation of noisy data can lead to wrong changes.
- Some advanced analysis requires external analytics or BI tools.
Final Verdict
Brevo provides the core analytics tools needed to measure and improve email performance. The value comes not from the metrics themselves, but from how you act on them. Focus on conversion-led KPIs, segment your audience, use UTMs for clear attribution, and combine quantitative metrics with qualitative feedback. Follow a disciplined testing and optimization cadence and your email program will deliver reliable, scalable results.
Recommendation
Next Steps — Make Analytics Work for You
Email Educate can provide a downloadable analytics checklist and a spreadsheet template to log tests, metrics, and results. Start by tagging links with UTMs and defining your primary conversion. Measure for four full campaign cycles before making large structural changes.