Open rate for an email

How an email's open rate is calculated and where to find the Opened report

Review your plan: Full access to this report is not available in all Constant Contact plans. If you don’t have full access, you may need to upgrade your plan.

After you send an email, its open rate is shown as a percentage on the Campaigns page, Email Details page, and Reporting tab, where you can also access several other reports, including the click rate, to gain some insight into how your email performed. 

So how is the open rate calculated?

An email's open rate is the percentage of contacts who opened your email compared to how many contacts were sent the email. The percentage of opens is calculated by dividing the number of unique opens by the number of emails sent, excluding the number of bounces. Each contact who opens the email is only counted once, even if that person opens it multiple times.

Open rate = [ Unique opens / (Sends - Bounces) ] x 100

Example: You send an email to 5 contacts, 1 email bounces, and 2 contacts open the email. The open rate is calculated like this: Open rate = [ 2 unique opens / (5 emails sent - 1 bounced email) ] = 1/2, or 50%

Note: There are some opens we can't track and other factors that may affect your open rate.
 

Learn more: Check out our video tutorial to learn more about opens and clicks.

To find the Opened report:

1. From the menu on the left, click Reporting.
2. Scroll down to the Email campaigns table, then click the hyperlinked numbers in the Opens column for the sent email you want to review.
   
   
    
3. From here, you’ll see the Unique Opens for this email. This report shows:     

• Which contacts opened the email.
• The last date and time the contact opened the email.
  Note: It can take up to one hour for an opened email to appear in the Opened report.   

4. Compare your Open Rate and Average Open Rate to the Industry Average:

• Your Average Open Rate is the average open rate across your last 10 sent emails, calculated by adding up the open rates and dividing by the number of emails. 
• The Industry Average displays if you selected an industry in your account settings, so you can see how your emails perform compared to others in your same industry. 

  Tip: If you don't feel like your rates stack up to the industry average, try these tips to help improve your email open rates.

  
  
  
   

5. (Optional) To see the total number of opens for your email, including the contacts who opened it multiple times, select “All Opens” from the drop-down. 
   
   
    
6. (Optional) To add these contacts to a list, use the checkbox in the top left to select all, then click Actions > Add to list.
   
   

Take a look at the days and times your contacts are opening your emails and use this to help determine the best time to send. You can also export this report to keep as a file on your computer.

Questions?