# Read the Campaign Report: AcelleMail Analytics Tour

> AcelleMail's campaign report has 6 tabs (Overview / Insights / Links / Map / Sending logs / Email review) and 5 headline metrics. This walkthrough shows where each metric lives, what 'good' looks like, and what to do when a number's bad.

- Canonical URL: https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/understanding-email-analytics-and-key-metrics
- Author: Ryan Walsh, Audience & Analytics Editor
- Category: Analytics & Reporting — Open rates, click maps, campaign performance, device reports, exports
- Content type: guide · Difficulty: beginner
- Tags: Acellemail
- Published: 2026-02-02 · Last updated: 2026-08-15
- Reading time: 8 min
- Publisher: AcelleMail Knowledge Base, https://acellesend.com/kb

---

## What this is for

Every campaign you send generates a report with 6 tabs and a dozen numbers. Most of the time you only need 4 of those numbers — but knowing where the other 8 live (and why they matter) is the difference between *"the campaign worked"* and *"the campaign got opens but no clicks, here's the fix."*

This is the orientation tour: where every metric in the AcelleMail campaign report lives, what *good* looks like, and what to do when a number's off.

## Open the report

After a campaign sends, click its name from the **Campaigns** index. You land on the **Overview** tab, which is the right place to start for every campaign.

![Campaign report Overview tab for "Holiday Edition 35" with Sent badge, "Sent 4 days ago to 14,794 recipients" subtitle, and tab navigation: Overview (active) · Insights · Links · Map · Sending logs · Email review. Below: a green "Solid performance" insight banner ("Your open rate of 24% is on track. Consider A/B testing subject lines to push it higher.") followed by 4 stat cards (RECIPIENTS 14,794 · DELIVERED 3,838 (25.94%) · OPENED 931 (24.26%) · CLICKED 146 (3.80%)). Below the cards: a Statistics breakdown bar chart on the left and a Rate summary card on the right showing Opened 24.26% / Did not open 75.74% / Clicked 3.80% / Unsubscribed 0.00% / Bounced 0.00%.](https://acellesend.com/plugins/acelle/landing/images/help/kb/analytics/01-campaign-overview.png)

The 6 tabs in this report:

| Tab | What's there |
|---|---|
| **Overview** | The 4 headline numbers + statistics breakdown + rate summary — read this first |
| **Insights** | AI-generated analysis ("subject worked but CTA underperformed") |
| **Links** | Per-link click breakdown — which CTA actually drove the clicks |
| **Map** | Geographic distribution of opens and clicks |
| **Sending logs** | Per-recipient delivery status (sent / failed / bounced) |
| **Email review** | The actual email HTML as subscribers received it |

Most decisions are made from **Overview** + **Links**. Use the others to drill down.

## The 4 headline numbers (Overview tab)

The stat cards are the order metrics matter in. Read them left-to-right.

### 1. RECIPIENTS

The size of the audience the campaign was sent to. Pulled from your list + segment + any exclusions.

> Use this to sanity-check the next number. If you sent to 15,000 but only 3,800 are "delivered," something's wrong with delivery (not engagement).

### 2. DELIVERED

How many emails actually reached an inbox (subscriber's mail server accepted the message). The percentage shown — *"3,838 (25.94%)"* — is delivered as a share of recipients.

| Delivered % | Diagnosis |
|---|---|
| **>97%** | Excellent — list is clean, sender reputation healthy |
| **92-97%** | Normal — a small portion bounces on every list |
| **80-92%** | Warning — your list is going stale OR you've hit a deliverability problem |
| **<80%** | Crisis — STOP sending, run [list hygiene](https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/email-list-hygiene-clean-your-list-for-better-deliverability), check sending domain auth |

> **Why "Holiday Edition 35" shows 25.94% delivered?** Because it was sent to 14,794 recipients but only 3,838 are "delivered" — the rest are still being processed, or it's a partial send. For a finished campaign you'd expect 92%+. Always read the campaign's "Last updated" timestamp to know if numbers are final.

### 3. OPENED

Unique opens — how many recipients triggered AcelleMail's open-tracking pixel by loading images. The percentage is opens as a share of **delivered** (not recipients).

| Open rate | Status |
|---|---|
| **>30%** | Excellent — strong subject line + relevant audience |
| **20-30%** | Good — solid program |
| **15-20%** | Average — room to improve subject + sender name |
| **<15%** | Poor — audit subject, sender reputation, list freshness |

> **Caveat: Apple Mail Privacy Protection inflates this number** for ~30-45% of subscribers. See [Open rates in the age of Apple MPP](https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/understanding-email-open-rates-in-the-age-of-apple-mpp). For most modern lists, the "real" open rate is 30-50% lower than what the dashboard shows.

### 4. CLICKED

Unique clicks — recipients who clicked at least one link in the email. The most reliable engagement signal because it requires real human action (not just image-loading).

| Click rate (CTR) | Status |
|---|---|
| **>5%** | Excellent — content + CTA pulling together |
| **2-5%** | Good — typical for well-targeted lists |
| **1-2%** | Average — CTAs probably need work |
| **<1%** | Poor — content or audience mismatch |

Click rate is the metric to optimise most heavily. It's the proxy for *"did this campaign cause action?"*

## The Rate summary (Overview tab right side)

The right-side panel restates the headline numbers as **percentages with absolute counts in parentheses**:

| Row | What it means |
|---|---|
| **Opened** | Same as Opened stat card — share of delivered who loaded images |
| **Did not open** | The complement — recipients who delivered but never opened |
| **Clicked** | Same as Clicked stat card — share of opens (not delivered!) who clicked |
| **Unsubscribed** | Share of delivered who unsubscribed from this campaign |
| **Bounced** | Share of recipients whose delivery failed |

> **Two important nuances:**
> 1. The *Clicked* row shows **clicks as % of opens** (the click-to-open rate / CTOR), not % of recipients. CTOR is a better measure of content quality than CTR because it isolates content from subject-line effect.
> 2. The *Unsubscribed* and *Bounced* rows are absolute — anything above 0.5% on either is a warning.

**Healthy targets:**

| Row | Healthy | Warning |
|---|---|---|
| Opened (as % delivered) | 20-40% | <15% |
| Clicked (CTOR — % of opens) | 10-25% | <5% |
| Unsubscribed | <0.5% | >1% |
| Bounced | <2% | >5% |

## Statistics breakdown chart (Overview tab left side)

The bar chart breaks every status into absolute counts:

- **Delivered** — top bar, largest
- **Opened** — middle, smaller (subset of delivered)
- **Clicked** — small (subset of opened)
- **Bounced** / **Failed** / **Reported as spam** — bottom rows, should all be near zero

The bars give you a visual sanity check: opens should be 20-40% of delivered; clicks should be 5-20% of opens. Anything dramatically off says something's wrong upstream.

## The "Insight banner" — AcelleMail's quick read

Above the stat cards, AcelleMail shows a one-line insight banner. In the screenshot above:

> *"Solid performance — Your open rate of 24% is on track. Consider A/B testing subject lines to push it higher."*

The banner pulls from the actual numbers and recommends the highest-leverage next action:

| Banner verdict | Typical recommendation |
|---|---|
| **Strong engagement** | "Try stronger CTAs to lift clicks" |
| **Solid performance** | "A/B test subject lines" |
| **Mixed results** | "Audit list hygiene OR re-segment audience" |
| **Underperformed** | "Run re-engagement first, then re-send to remaining" |

It's not a substitute for thinking, but for a quick read at the top of the report it's accurate.

## When to drill into each other tab

| If you want to know... | Open this tab |
|---|---|
| "Which CTA worked best?" | **Links** — per-link clicks ranked |
| "Where geographically did opens/clicks come from?" | **Map** |
| "Did the email actually get delivered to my own inbox?" | **Sending logs** (search your email) |
| "What did the email look like in the wild?" | **Email review** |
| "Should I follow up on this campaign?" | **Insights** (read AcelleMail's analysis) |

Each tab has its own [deep-dive article](https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/click-map-analysis-optimize-your-email-layout) — start with Overview, drill in only when a specific number raises a question.

## What good looks like overall

A "healthy" campaign report (well-built audience, decent content, no deliverability issues):

| Metric | Healthy benchmark |
|---|---|
| Delivered | >97% of recipients |
| Open rate | 20-30% (or higher; inflated by MPP) |
| Click rate | 2-5% of delivered |
| Click-to-open rate (CTOR) | 10-15% |
| Unsubscribe rate | <0.5% |
| Bounce rate | <2% |
| Spam complaint rate | <0.1% |

Hit these consistently and your sender reputation stays healthy, which keeps your inbox placement strong, which compounds across every future campaign.

## When numbers are bad — what to do

| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| **Low delivered %** | List hygiene problem OR sending-domain auth issue | Run [list hygiene](https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/email-list-hygiene-clean-your-list-for-better-deliverability); audit SPF/DKIM on your sending domain |
| **Low open rate** (and not just MPP) | Weak subject, wrong send time, sender-name issue | A/B test the [subject line + from name](https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/ab-testing-email-subject-lines-for-better-open-rates) |
| **High open / low CTR** | Subject promised something content didn't deliver, OR CTA is buried | Re-write body to lead with the promised value; bigger / brighter button |
| **High bounce rate** | Old list, imports without verification, OR sending-server problem | Run [email verification](https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/email-list-hygiene-clean-your-list-for-better-deliverability) on the list before next send |
| **High unsubscribe rate** | Frequency too high, content irrelevant, OR list bought rather than opted-in | Reduce cadence, segment, or run [re-engagement](https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/re-engagement-campaigns-win-back-inactive-subscribers) |
| **High spam-complaint rate** | Buying lists is the #1 cause — even one purchased segment poisons the whole list | Immediately suppress the offending segment; future sends slow-warm only |

## Common questions

| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Why does the dashboard show 14,794 recipients but only 3,838 delivered? | Either the campaign is mid-send (read the "Last updated" timestamp), OR there's a deliverability problem. Re-check in 1 hour. |
| My open rate suddenly dropped from 30% to 15% — what happened? | Most commonly: sender reputation took a hit (a recent bad send), OR a major ISP changed how they count opens (this happens). Check the previous 3 campaigns' rates to spot the trend. |
| Why is CTR ≠ Clicked-card-percentage? | CTR can be calculated as clicks / delivered OR clicks / opens (CTOR). AcelleMail's *Clicked* stat card uses clicks / delivered. The *Rate summary* "Clicked" row uses clicks / opens. They're both valid — just know which is which. |
| The "Opened" map shows 931 opens but the stat card says 931. Where's the discrepancy I'd expect? | No discrepancy here — both reflect unique opens. The map plots their geographic locations; the card counts them. |

## Related articles

- [Understanding Email Open Rates in the Age of Apple MPP](https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/understanding-email-open-rates-in-the-age-of-apple-mpp)
- [Click Map Analysis: Optimise Your Email Layout](https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/click-map-analysis-optimize-your-email-layout)
- [Setting Up UTM Parameters for Campaign Tracking](https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/setting-up-utm-parameters-for-email-campaign-tracking)
- [Email ROI Calculation](https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/email-roi-calculation-measuring-campaign-profitability)

---

## Related articles

- [Open Rates + Apple MPP: What AcelleMail's Numbers Actually Mean](https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/understanding-email-open-rates-in-the-age-of-apple-mpp): Apple Mail Privacy Protection inflates 30-45% of your "opens" by pre-fetching pixels. This guide shows how to spot MPP inflation in AcelleMail (open-log IPs), what to measure instead, and how to adjust your A/B tests + reporting.
- [Email Campaign ROI: Math + AcelleMail Data Points](https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/email-roi-calculation-measuring-campaign-profitability): Email ROI = (Revenue − Cost) / Cost. This guide shows the math, which AcelleMail data points feed each variable, the costs people forget to count, and a working revenue-attribution pattern using UTMs + your store.
- [UTM Parameters in AcelleMail — Tracking Clicks to Your Analytics Tool](https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/setting-up-utm-parameters-for-email-campaign-tracking): Configure UTM tags once in your campaign settings — AcelleMail appends them to every link in the email automatically. This guide walks the campaign-level + global UTM settings, the post-send click report, and how the UTMs land in Google Analytics or Plausible.
- [A/B Report Deep Dive: Reading AcelleMail Test Results](https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/comparative-campaign-analysis-ab-test-results-deep-dive): After your A/B test finishes, the A/B Report tab tells you the winner — but the real value is in the variant-level numbers. This guide walks through the report, the statistical-significance rules, and what to do for winner / inconclusive / loss verdicts.
- [Click Analysis in AcelleMail: Links Tab + Geographic Click Map](https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/click-map-analysis-optimize-your-email-layout): AcelleMail has two views for click analysis: the Links tab (per-link breakdown — which CTA worked) and the Map tab (geographic distribution). This walkthrough shows both and tells you which to read for what question.