Email Marketing ROI Calculator

Click rate isn't applied to the list — it's applied to opens, and conversion rate is then applied to clicks. Because the funnel stages multiply in sequence, a percentage-point gain in click rate carries through to conversions and revenue at full force, while list size or open rate gains further upstream get diluted by every rate below them. Small click-rate improvements on an engaged list often move revenue more than they appear to on paper.

ROI compares monthly revenue to monthly cost, and a large list only helps if the funnel actually converts. If open rate, click rate, or conversion rate are low, monthly revenue can stay small no matter how many subscribers are on the list, while the platform and content cost is fixed — producing a negative or even close to −100% ROI when revenue barely covers, or falls well short of, that fixed cost.

Rates vary enormously by industry and list quality, but marketing benchmarks commonly cite roughly 15–25% open rates and 2–5% click-through rates (of sends, or higher measured as a share of opens) for permission-based B2C and B2B lists. Use your own platform's historical numbers when you have them — they will be far more accurate than any industry average for your specific list.

Revenue per email sent divides total campaign revenue by the entire list size, so it reflects the whole funnel's efficiency including everyone who never opened the email. Average order value, by contrast, only reflects the spending of people who actually converted. Revenue per email is the better metric for comparing whether growing the list or improving funnel rates would be more valuable.

It increases monthly revenue proportionally, since each additional campaign adds another full pass through the funnel at the same rates. Whether ROI improves too depends on whether monthly cost rises with campaign frequency — if the platform and content cost stays flat while campaigns increase, ROI improves; if content costs scale with campaign count, the net effect is smaller.