2025 Email Marketing Performance Benchmarks & Statistics
Email continues to be one of the most reliable marketing channels in 2025, even as privacy changes reshape how engagement is measured. The numbers tell a clear story: strong delivery, steady growth, and meaningful returns for teams that stay focused on quality, automation, and mobile-first design.
Why You Can Trust the Data in This Report
Before diving into the benchmarks, it helps to know where all these figures come from. The data in this report is pulled from large-scale analyses conducted by the DMA Email Benchmarking Report 2025, MailerLite’s benchmark studies, Growth Onomics, Insider, HubSpot, Omnisend, and additional trusted sources including Roar Digital, Search Engine Land, Dyspatch, Stripo, Kinsta, and Wise Marketer.
Together, they represent hundreds of billions of emails and thousands of marketing programs observed throughout 2023–2025.
Global Performance Metrics
Email deliverability remains exceptionally high at 98%, and core KPIs show consistent gains. One thing to keep in mind this year is how Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) continues to inflate open rates, making CTR and CTOR far more dependable when evaluating content performance.
Core KPI Benchmarks
| Metric | 2025 Benchmark | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Open rate | 35.9%–42.35% | Inflated by MPP by ~15–20 points |
| CTR | 2.0%–2.62% | Stronger indicator of true engagement |
| CTOR | 5.63% global avg | As high as 10.71% in media |
| Unsubscribe rate | 0.08%–0.13% | Reflects healthy list practices |
| Bounce rate | 0.5%–0.62% | Improved authentication and hygiene |
| ROI | 36:1–40:1 (avg) | Up to 68:1 in the U.S. |
If bounce rates creep upward, cleaning the list helps restore deliverability. VerifiedEmail, with its real-time verification and bulk list scrubbing, offers a straightforward way to remove malformed, disposable, or risky emails before they affect sender reputation.
Platform-level distortions
MPP now marks emails as “opened” upon delivery, so reported open rates can sit 15–20 points higher than reality. Many teams are shifting to quality-based KPIs such as CTOR, revenue per recipient, and conversion rate. In practice, this creates a healthier view of performance because it highlights strong calls to action rather than inflated impressions.
Regional Breakdowns
Performance varies widely across regions, and adjusting send time, localization, and mobile optimization often makes an immediate impact.
| Region | Open Rate | CTR | Unsub Rate | Highlights |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| North America | 31–40%+ | 1.34–5% | 0.4% | Highest ROI; strong automation adoption |
| Europe | 30.69–46% | 2.3% | 0.08% | GDPR-driven list quality; 99.2% B2C delivery |
| Asia-Pacific | 19.14% | 1.09% | 0.13% | 60%+ mobile opens |
| Latin America | 22.87% | 1.09–1.5% | 0.13% | Growth market; lower engagement |
| Oceania | 46.34% | 2.35% | 0.08% | Leading open rates globally |
| Middle East & Africa | Emerging | Emerging | Higher variance | Rapid mobile adoption |
A simple adjustment—such as region-based send windows—can lift opens by 12–15%. This becomes especially helpful when dealing with APAC and LATAM, where morning mobile peaks differ from North American workday patterns.
Industry-Specific Benchmarks
Some industries naturally see higher engagement because of trust, community, or urgency, while others face competition or longer decision cycles.
Sector performance comparison
| Industry | Open Rate | CTR | CTOR | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Religious organizations | 59.7% | 3.25% | 8.5% | Community-driven engagement |
| Government | 54.78–30.5% | 4.31% | 9.2% | Urgency and trust |
| Media & publishing | 45–50% | 4.02% | 10.71% | Content-forward strategies |
| Nonprofit | 48% | 3.25% | 7.8% | Mission-based messages |
| Hobbies | 52% | 4.36% | 9.5% | Passion-led engagement |
| E-commerce | 38.58% | 1.34% | 4.62% | High send volume impacts fatigue |
| SaaS/tech | 38.14% | 1.19% | 6.81% | Education-focused content |
| Legal | 35–40% | 1.8% | 5.5% | Relationship-driven |
| Education | 42% | 2.1% | 6.2% | Seasonal engagement cycles |
| Automotive | 12.6–22.57% | 0.77% | 3.5% | Long sales cycles |
| Travel | 22.57% | 1.2% | 4.1% | Price-sensitive audience |
A nice perk of reviewing industry benchmarks is spotting when performance issues are structural (such as long buying cycles) versus list-driven. When quality is the culprit, VerifiedEmail’s continuous cleanup helps keep deliverability stable by removing duplicates, spam-prone addresses, and domains with failing DNS records.
Device & Demographic Behavior
Mobile remains the center of gravity for email consumption, especially for younger audiences.
Mobile vs. desktop usage patterns
55% of all opens happen on mobile
- Gen Z: 67% mobile-first
- Millennials: 59% mobile-dominant
- Gen X/Boomers: more balanced use
A few helpful reminders for mobile-first readers:
- 42% delete emails that aren’t mobile-optimized.
- Responsive layouts lift mobile clicks by about 15%.
- Desktop, however, still drives deeper content engagement and stronger B2B conversions.
Generational preferences
- Gen Z gravitates toward interactive elements and SMS tie-ins.
- Millennials respond to personalization and reviews.
- Gen X favors practical, time-sensitive offers.
- Boomers prefer straightforward layouts and larger text.
Automation & Campaign Types
Triggered messages remain the powerhouse of email marketing, generating 37% of sales from only 2% of total volume.
Triggered campaign performance
| Automation Type | Open Rate | CTR | Conversion | Notable Impact |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Welcome series | 50% | 23.33% | 10.7% | 86% more effective than newsletters |
| Abandoned cart | 39.07% | 23.33% | 10.7% | Recovers 3–5% of lost sales |
| Browse abandonment | 35% | 15% | 8% | Strong intent signals |
| Back-in-stock | 45% | 18% | 12% | Highest year-over-year growth |
| Re-engagement | 25% | 5% | 3% | Revives 5–10% of lapsed users |
| Post-purchase | 65% | 12% | 15% | Encourages repeat purchases |
Tip: Sending a welcome email within the first five minutes of signup has a noticeable effect on engagement. Cart abandonment emails work best when the first message goes out within 30 minutes as well.
Send Timing and Optimization Trends
Send timing still matters, though mobile behavior has blurred the edges of traditional “best times.”
Best-performing days and times
- Tuesday–Thursday: strongest performance window
- 10 AM–2 PM (recipient local time): consistent engagement peak
- Morning mobile peaks: 7–9 AM
- Evening mobile peaks: 7–10 PM
For global audiences, segmenting by time zone tends to lift both opens and clicks. Many teams use a staggered rollout to avoid mid-day troughs in regions where mobile activity drops around lunchtime.
Frequency and audience tolerance
Most audiences do well with a 2–3 per week cadence for B2C and 1–2 per week for B2B. When frequency climbs too fast, unsubscribe rates can jump dramatically. A gentle check: if unsubscribes spike, it’s worth reviewing both cadence and message relevance.
Key Strategic Takeaways
- CTR and CTOR provide the clearest picture of success in an MPP world.
- With 55% of opens on mobile, design that scales cleanly is crucial.
- Automation, particularly welcome and abandonment flows, drives disproportionate revenue.
- Regional optimization—timing, language, and cultural cues—helps raise engagement in APAC and LATAM.
- Zero-party data and preference centers support better personalization at scale.
- Authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) is now essential for inbox placement.
- Healthy lists matter more than ever, and routine verification keeps engagement stable.
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