Email Clicks is a count of the total number of times any link in an email was clicked by recipients. Marketers use Email Clicks to calculate key performance metrics like Click-Through Rate (CTR) and Click-to-Open Rate (CTOR), and to compare engagement across campaigns.
Over one month, you send two newsletters to your subscriber list. Each email contains a link to your product page and several links to blog posts.
Email 1: 300 clicks. Email 2: 650 clicks.
Formula: Count(Email Clicks)
Total Email Clicks for the month: 300 + 650 = 950.
The second email generated more than twice the clicks of the first. To understand why, calculate CTR and CTOR for each send. Those metrics account for list size and open rate, giving you a more accurate picture of what drove the difference.
It is difficult to benchmark email click volume. Instead, you can compare your email CTOR, CTR, and Open Rates to the global benchmark:
There are two ways to optimally visualize your Email Clicks: either in a summary chart to know the overall number, or in a line chart to observe changes in trend over time. Either way, it is absolutely necessary to measure Clicks alongside other email metrics to get a complete picture of your campaign's performance.
An email click is recorded when a recipient clicks any link inside your email. Common link types include:
- Product or homepage links that drive traffic to key landing pages
- Blog or article links that support content marketing goals
- Source links that reference external data or research cited in the email
- Store or offer links that support promotional campaigns
Each click on each link is counted. If one recipient clicks three links, that registers as three Email Clicks.
Email Clicks as a building block metric
Email Clicks on its own is a volume metric. It tells you how many clicks happened, but not how efficient your email was at generating them. For that reason, it functions best as an input to other calculations:
Tracking Email Clicks alongside Emails Delivered and Open Rate helps you isolate where drop-off occurs in the engagement funnel.
Monitoring trends over time
Email Clicks is sometimes described as a vanity metric because volume alone does not reflect campaign quality. A large list will produce more clicks than a small one, regardless of content quality.
That said, monitoring Email Clicks over time is still worthwhile. A sustained decline in click volume, even when list size holds steady, is an early signal that content relevance or link placement may need attention. Catching that trend early gives you time to investigate and adjust before it affects conversion metrics.
What to do when Email Clicks decline
If Email Clicks are falling, consider these areas:
- Link relevance: Are the links in your emails directly connected to the content around them? Misaligned links reduce clicks.
- Call to action clarity: Each email should include at least one clear, specific call to action. Vague prompts reduce engagement.
- Link placement: Links buried at the bottom of long emails get fewer clicks. Test placement higher in the email body.
- Audience segmentation: A single email sent to your full list may underperform compared to segmented sends tailored to specific subscriber interests.
