Overview
Accounts that send campaigns can choose to measure either total or unique metrics.
Use case
It all comes down to how you want to track customer events. For example, if a customer opens an email ten times, should this factor into your open rate a single time or ten times. If you said once, then the Unique model is right for you. If you said ten times, then the Total model is right for you. More examples.
The Zaius default
The Unique model is the default display option because this measurement puts the customer and not events at the center of the reporting. Knowing how many of something happened will often provide misleading guidance, as opposed to knowing how many unique customers did something.
To illustrate this point with an extreme example, let's consider a campaign sent to 10 customers, and only 1 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%
As shown in the above example, total metrics are often higher than unique metrics, while unique metrics may portray a more accurate picture of how your campaigns are performing. That said, both are available so that comparisons can be made between providers.
Switch between models
To switch between Total and Unique metrics, click the dropdown menu at the top of the:
All campaigns level
Individual campaign level
Individual touchpoint level
Conversions and revenue
Conversions and revenue do not change when switching between total and unique metrics. In either case, Zaius is reporting the total revenue from those conversions.
Comparisons to other tools
Many tools default to using the total metrics model. They do this for a simple reason - 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 don't provide the right guidance for improvement. If you are using a tool that calculates total metrics instead of unique metrics, make sure to switch the option in Zaius 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
If 5 one-time campaigns are 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 and that customer opens that same email 5 times, the total opens are 5, but the unique opens is 1. This would make for a total open rate of 500%, but a unique open rate of 100%. See more on this below.
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%
#3: Recurring and continuous campaigns
Recurring and continuous campaigns can reach the same customers multiple times. For example, a cart abandonment campaign is run continuously, allowing a maximum of one email per day per customer.
In this case, 50 emails were sent to 50 separate customers on day 1. Each customer opened the email 4 times. At the end of day 2, another 50 emails were sent to the same 50 customers, who did not open them this time around. When reviewing the campaign in its entirety, there would be a huge difference in performance based on the selected model. See below.
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 1 and 2 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%