Question: What do the different status mean within the Campaign Stats Page?
Answer: The fields define the various stages and status that take place during the delivery of a promotional campaign.
- Delivered - The accepted response generated by the recipients’ mail server (Successful Send)
- Opened - The response generated by a recipient opening an email
- Deferred - The recipient mail server temporarily refuses connection which delays delivery
- Clicked - Whenever a recipient clicks one of the Click Tracked links in an email.
- Bounced - The receiving server refuses connection and provides one of the following SMTP failures (Soft/Hard Bounce)
- Unsubscribed - Whenever a recipient unsubscribes from an email program.
- Spam Reported - Whenever a recipient marks your email as spam, and a complaint is received through an FBL.
- Dropped - A message is dropped by the Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) and is not attempted.
- Queued - Message queued internally for delivery to the MTA.
- Sent - Is a message delivered to the MTA but has not to be sent out for delivery.
These fields update in real time. It is recommended to wait 24 to 48 hours after a scheduled campaign to review performance metrics.
A message is marked as delivered when successfully accepted by the receiving MTA (Mail Transfer Agent). This status is based on the sending MUA (Mail User Agent) receiving a 250 SMTP response confirming acceptance. It may, however, not mean that the send is successfully placed in the inbox. Each Internet Service Provider (ISP) has various sets up reputation based rules that manage the filtering of a message (Engagement, Complaints, Unknown Users, Spam Traps, to name a few).
Once a message is defined as delivered, it may only change to a different status when there’s an action taken by the recipient. A user action includes Complaint, Unsubscribed, Open, and Clicked.
An open is based on the recipient opening the received message. This action is dependent on a small, transparent 1x1 image pixel appended to the bottom part of every message sent. One the message is opened, and images are enabled, the users status will change from ‘Delivered’ > ‘Open.’ An open is Unique, so multiple opens will not be accounted for.
There are known issues associated with the accuracy of opens. That is because not all ISPs will auto-enable images by default. Microsoft Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird, and Gmail do not load images.
Open rate is all open messages divided by all messages attempted (’Sent’ in Upper Window).
Opens have no end of life. So a user status can change at any point following a successful send.
Related Answers: Gmail - Message Clipped
A deferred message is a temporary refused by the receiving ISP. All deferrals are ’Soft Bounces’ retried for up to 72 hours. After 72 hours, the deferred status is changed to a Soft Bounce and no longer retried for the related campaign.
Receiving a deferral can occur for several reasons. It includes an influx in volume (Possibly around the holiday), ISP unable to manage the number of connections, or most common is negative reputation metrics that cause a temporary refusal by the ISP.
Related Answers: Best Practice: Volume
Clicks are defined by an end user clicking through a wrapped link. Link wrapping is the act of replacing all links in a message with ones authenticated and hosted by Revinate's MTA. Once a user has clicked on a link, the users status will change from ‘Delivered>Clicked.’ A click is unique, so multiple clicks will not be accounted for.
Clicks reported in the app make up only active clicks. This means that Revinate excludes all clicks associated with the act of ‘Unsubscribing’ from a marketing program.
Click percentage is based on the sent volume (This includes all attempted messages except for dropped sends).
Related Answers: Click Tracking, What is Link Wrapping
A Bounce is a message returned to the sending MTA. The return message can either be a permanent failure (Hard Bounced) or a temporary failure (Soft Bounce).
- Hard Bounce: Is a message returned because the recipient’s address is invalid. It may occur because a domain may not exist, or the user may no longer have an active email account within the mail system (Unknown User). Revinate suppresses all Hard Bounces and marks them invalid.
- Soft Bounces: A message that gets returned due to temporary failure. Temporary failures can consist of a mailbox full, reputation-based blocks. Most Soft Bounces will get retried for up to 72 hours. During that time, that status of the temporary failure will stay as ‘Deferred’ until the maximum number of retries reached. Soft bounces are not permanently suppressed.
Bounce rate is based on all Attempted sends (Sent).
Related Answers: Unknown User
A recipient who requests to be removed from a promotional campaign. Unsubscribes include users who click the ‘Unsubscribe’ link located within the email template or the header unsubscribe. Header Unsubscribes are commonly displayed within an email mail client. This is dependent on either a Mailto or HTTPs based unsubscribe.
Unsubscribe is not counted towards a campaign click count.
Related Answers: Unsubscribe Options for Email Recipients
A complaint is triggered when a user marks a message as ‘This is Spam’ in their mailbox. Revinate gathers these complaints from ISPs that participate in offering Feedback Loops. Revinate will unsubscribe the user once a complaint is received.
A Spam Report rate is Spam Report/Volume= ’Spam Report %
Related Answers: Complaints
A message is dropped by the Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) and is not attempted for delivery. Drops are defined in the app. The following describes the various dropped failures.
- Invalid: An invalid email occurs when an attempted send to an address that is formatted in a manner that does not meet internet email format standards or the email does not exist at the recipient’s mail server. Examples include addresses without the “@” sign or addresses that contain certain special characters and/or spaces. This response can come from our server or the recipient mail server. Revinate’s MTA will complete a check against the format of the email address to attempt to verify its validity.
- Bounced Address: This occurs when our MTA suppresses a message to an email address that previously experienced a Bounce (Hard Bounce).
Dropped messages are not included in the total sent.