Email Marketing ROI Calculator
Follow your email campaigns through the funnel from sends to opens, clicks and sales, then see monthly revenue, cost, profit, ROI and revenue per email. It is built for email's own funnel; for paid ads use the ROAS calculator instead.
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Formula
Emails sent = list size × sends per subscriberConversions = emails × open rate × click rate (of opens) × conversion rate (of clicks)Revenue = conversions × revenue per conversionCost = emails × cost per emailROI = (revenue − cost) ÷ cost × 100Revenue per email = revenue ÷ emails
Worked example
10,000 subscribers, 4 emails each a month: 40,000 emails. Opens at 25% = 10,000; clicks at 10% of opens = 1,000; conversions at 5% of clicks = 50. At 80 per conversion, revenue is 4,000. At 0.002 per email, cost is 80. Profit is 3,920, so ROI is 3,920 ÷ 80 × 100 = 4,900% and revenue per email is 0.10.
Another example
5,000 subscribers, 2 emails each a month: 10,000 emails. Opens at 30% = 3,000; clicks at 5% of opens = 150; conversions at 4% of clicks = 6. At 50 per sale revenue is 300. At 0.005 per email the cost is 50. Profit is 250, ROI is 250 ÷ 50 × 100 = 500% and revenue per email is 0.03.
When to use it
Use it to forecast a newsletter or automation, to test what a better subject line is worth, or to compare email with other channels on one profit figure. Replace the defaults with your own measured rates.
Common mistakes
- Using a platform's click rate as a share of sends while this funnel applies it to opens.
- Leaving out content, design, staff and list-building costs, which flatters ROI.
- Counting all revenue from subscribers, including sales that would have happened anyway.
- Trusting open rates, which can be inflated by privacy features in some email clients.
How it differs
Email ROI is profit over cost for a full programme. ROAS is revenue per unit of ad spend, and the general ROI calculator takes any revenue and cost. CTR measures the click step alone.
Frequently asked questions
How do you calculate email marketing ROI?
ROI = (revenue − cost) ÷ cost × 100. With 4,000 revenue and 80 cost, ROI is (4,000 − 80) ÷ 80 × 100 = 4,900%.
How are sales worked out from the rates?
Emails sent = list × sends. Opens = sent × open rate, clicks = opens × click rate and conversions = clicks × conversion rate. 10,000 subscribers × 4 sends at 25%, 10% and 5% gives 40,000 → 10,000 → 1,000 → 50 conversions.
What counts as cost per email?
Use your sending-platform fee divided by emails sent, and add any per-email content, design or staff cost you want to include. A 0.002 cost per email on 40,000 emails is 80 a month. Fixed costs left out make ROI look better than it is.
Is this ROI exact?
No, it is an estimate from average rates. Open tracking is unreliable on some email clients, conversions may happen later or through other channels, and revenue is not the same as profit margin. Use your own measured rates and treat the result as a planning figure.
What is a good email marketing ROI?
Email is cheap to send, so its ROI is often high compared with paid channels, but quoted averages come from vendor surveys and vary widely. Use your own numbers. In the 10,000 email example here, 4,000 of revenue on 80 of cost is a 4,900% ROI, mostly because the cost per email is tiny.
What is the difference between email ROI and ROAS?
ROI is profit divided by cost, while ROAS is revenue divided by ad spend. If an email programme costs 50 and earns 300, ROI is (300 − 50) ÷ 50 = 500% and revenue per unit of spend is 6. Email uses ROI more because its main costs are not ad spend.
How do I calculate revenue per subscriber?
Multiply revenue per email by the emails each subscriber receives. At 0.10 of revenue per email and 4 emails a month, each subscriber is worth 0.40 a month, which is 4,000 ÷ 10,000 subscribers. Compare this with the cost to acquire a subscriber.