You can measure either total or unique campaign metrics, depending on how you want to track customer events. For example, a customer opening an email ten times can factor into your open rate one time or ten times. The unique model factors it once, and the total model factors it all ten times. You can view additional examples further in this article.
The unique model is the default display because this measurement focuses on the customer for the reporting. Knowing how many times something happened may provide misleading guidance, instead of knowing how many unique customers did something.
Consider a campaign sent to ten customers, and only one of the customers opens the email. If that customer opens the email 20 times, would you expect an open rate of 200% (total) or 10% (unique)?
- Total open rate = 20 total opens / 10 total sends = 200%
- Unique open rate = 1 unique open / 10 unique sends = 10%
Total metrics are often higher than unique metrics, while unique metrics may portray a more accurate picture of how your campaigns are performing. You have access to both to compare between providers.
Switch between models
You can switch between total and unique metrics for all campaigns, individual campaigns, or individual touchpoints.
Conversions and revenue
Conversions and revenue do not change when switching between total and unique metrics. Optimizely Data Platform (ODP) reports the total revenue from those conversions.
Comparisons to other tools
Many tools default to using the total metrics model because total metrics are often higher than unique metrics. This performance inflation makes the campaigns, and the tools themselves, seem like they are performing better than they are and do not provide the right guidance for improvement. If you are using a tool that calculates total metrics instead of unique metrics, switch the option in ODP for your performance comparisons.
Notable differences
| Metric | Total | Unique |
| Sent | # email sends | # of users sent email |
| Open Rate | # opens/# sends | # of users opened/# of users sent |
| Click Rate | # clicks/# sends | # of users clicked/# of users sent |
| Global Unsubscribes | # global unsubscribes | # of users globally unsubscribed |
| List Unsubscribes | # list unsubscribes | # of users unsubscribed from list |
| Conversions | # of conversions | same as total |
| Revenue | sum of revenue | same as total |
| Qualified | # of qualified | # of users qualified |
| Hard Bounces | # of hard bounces | # of users with a hard bounce |
| Soft Bounces | # of soft bounces | # of users with a soft bounce |
| Spam Reports | # of spam reports | # of users that gave a spam report |
| Click-to-Open Rate | # clicks/# opens | # of users clicked/# of users opened |
| Aborts | # of aborts | # of users aborted |
Additional examples
Sends
Five one-time campaigns sent to 100 customers – The total sends are 500, but the unique sends are 100.
Opens and open-rate
If a one-time campaign is sent to a single customer who opens that email five times, the total opens are five, but the unique opens is one. This would make for a total open rate of 500% but a unique open rate of 100%.
Total Metrics Calculation:
- Total sends = 1 total email sent
- Total opens = 5 total emails opened
- Total open rate = 5 total opens / 1 total send = 500%
Unique Metrics Calculation:
- Unique sends = 1 unique customer that was sent the email
- Unique opens = 1 unique customer that opened the email
- Unique open rate = 1 unique open / 1 unique send = 100%
Recurring and Continuous Campaigns
Recurring and continuous campaigns can reach the same customers multiple times.
For example, a cart abandonment campaign runs continuously, allowing a maximum of one email per day per customer. In this case, 50 emails were sent to 50 separate customers the first day. Each customer opened the email four times. At the end of the second day, another 50 emails were sent to the same 50 customers who did not open them this time. Reviewing the campaign would show a huge difference in performance based on the selected model.
Day 1
Total Metrics Calculation:
- Total sends = 50
- Total opens = 50 emails * 4 opens each = 200
- Total open rate = 200 / 50 = 400%
Unique Metrics Calculation:
- Unique sends = 50
- Unique opens = 50
- Unique open rate = 50 / 50 = 100%
Day 2
Total Metrics Calculation:
- Total sends = 50
- Total opens = 0
- Total open rate = 0 / 50 = 0%
Unique Metrics Calculation:
- Unique sends = 50
- Unique opens = 0
- Unique open rate = 0 / 50 = 0%
Day One and Two Combined
Total Metrics Calculation:
- Total sends = 100
- Total opens = 200
- Total open rate = 200 / 100 = 200%
Unique Metrics Calculation:
- Unique sends = 50 unique customers * 2 unique emails each = 100
- Unique opens = 50
- Unique open rate = 50 / 100 = 50%
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