Unsubscribe Rate
How many people you lose for good every time you press send. Down is good.
What it means
Unsubscribe Rate is the share of delivered messages that ended with someone using the unsubscribe link. It's measured per send against DeliveredDeliveredHigher usually means a larger reachable audience., and it excludes spam complaints, which never appear in this column. Lower is better, because every unsubscribe is permanent and you paid to acquire that name once already.
Show the math
Formula and a worked example
Unsubscribe Rate = unsubscribes ÷ DeliveredDeliveredHigher usually means a larger reachable audience., counting only the people who used the unsubscribe link on that specific message.
Worked example. A campaign is delivered to 9,600 profiles and earns €4,800. 24 people opt out, so the rate is 24 ÷ 9,600 = 0.25%. If a subscriber is worth roughly €30 a year to you, that send also cost about €720 of future revenue.
Somebody has to open a message before they can leave it. A send that never reached the inbox shows a flattering rate for the worst possible reason.
It answers the question
What did this send cost you in people? A rising rate means you're spending list to make revenue, and the list doesn't grow back by itself.
Why it matters
It's the only number on the row that spends an asset instead of measuring one. A quiet non-opener might still buy in March; someone who opted out is a customer who walked out of the shop and asked you never to call again.
It also feeds back into reach. Inbox providers read unsubscribes and complaints as a quality score, so a rate that climbs quietly makes every future send land worse — the cost shows up twice.
What good looks like
There's no universal standard here, but the direction is unambiguous: down is good. Judge each send against your own last ten of the same type, since a full-list discount blast and a welcome message will never sit at the same level. One send spiking above your own normal matters more than a monthly average, which hides exactly the send you need to find.
How to improve it
| Lever | What you do | Expect | How long | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fast Stop mailing people who never open | Exclude anyone silent for 180 days from campaign sends | Rate down from the very next send | 1 send | Delivered falls with it, and so does total campaign revenue. You're protecting the list by mailing less of it. |
| Fast Offer fewer emails before the exit | Put a preferences page in front of the unsubscribe link — monthly only, or email only | Rate down, as some exits become downgrades instead | 2 weeks | You now have cadence segments to honour and maintain, and a shopper on a monthly setting misses most of your offers. |
| Slow Set the expectation at signup | Say what you'll send and how often on the form, then repeat it in the welcome message | Rate down from month two onwards | 6–8 weeks | Honest forms convert worse. Fewer people join the list at all, so growth slows while quality improves. |
| Slow Cut how often you send | Drop from five campaigns a week to three, removing the weakest performers | Rate down per send and per month | 1 quarter | Fewer chances to sell. Revenue usually dips for a month or two before the healthier list makes it back. |
Every lever costs something somewhere. The last column is the one to read twice.
Read it with
Opt-outs alone look like a cost. Beside orders, they tell you what that cost bought.
Selling without spending the list
The message earned orders and nobody minded receiving it. It's the only combination that compounds.
Buying orders with subscribers
It worked and it cost you people. Defensible once for a Christmas push, expensive as a weekly habit — you're borrowing next year's audience to pay for this month.
Quiet and safe
Nobody objected because nobody was moved. Low unsubscribes on a send that sold nothing isn't restraint, it's a missed week.
Losing on both sides
The wrong message reached the wrong people. Every send like this shrinks the list and returns nothing for it.
A rate next to a headcount. 0.3% of 50,000 is 150 people gone; 0.3% of 3,000 is nine. Scale your sending and the percentage can sit perfectly flat while the monthly damage multiplies, which is exactly when nobody notices.
Together they show whether the email programme is compounding or eating itself. Revenue share climbing while unsubscribes climb with it means today's numbers are funded by next quarter's audience. Revenue share climbing on flat unsubscribes is the same result with nothing borrowed.
Common misreads
Multiply it out. Four sends a week at 0.4% is roughly 20% of the list gone in a quarter, and you have to acquire every one of those names again just to stand still.
People have to open a message before they can leave it. A send that landed in spam, or bored everyone at the subject line, produces a low rate for the worst possible reason. Read it beside Open RateOpen RateHigher is better; it signals a stronger subject line and send time..
A list that never sheds anyone usually isn't being asked to do anything. Some churn is the cost of selling. What matters is whether it's stable at your own normal or climbing send after send.
Also called
Opt-out rate · unsub rate · list churn per send
See yoursYour Unsubscribe Rate for every campaign and flow in the period, so you can find the single send that did the damage.
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