2026 ActiveCampaign Email Marketing Benchmarks: Open & Click Rates by Industry

For lean marketing teams and SMB founders wearing every hat in the business, knowing where you stand against industry standards isn't just about vanity metrics—it's about understanding if your message is actually landing.

At ActiveCampaign, we are data-driven. We analyzed email performance data across our customer base from 2025 to show you what strong engagement actually looks like. The benchmarks below are real results from businesses using our platform, and they're pretty impressive.

Before we dive into the numbers, let's talk about why they happen. You can write the perfect subject line, but it means nothing if you don't land in the inbox.

High open rates start with deliverability. This is the art and science of ensuring your emails aren't flagged as spam. In the most recent industry study, ActiveCampaign claimed the #1 spot with a deliverability rate of 94.2%.

We do the technical heavy lifting so you don’t have to:

• Authentication: We help you implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to prove you are who you say you are.
• List hygiene: Automated tools help you clean your lists, removing inactive contacts that drag down your reputation.
• Compliance: We handle the complex security and compliance standards (such as GDPR and SOC 2) to keep your sending reputation pristine.

When you have a foundation of trust with inbox providers like Gmail and Yahoo, your emails get seen. And when they get seen, they get opened.

An email open rate is your first signal of engagement and measures the percentage of recipients who opened your email.

The average open rate for ActiveCampaign customers is 39.26%.

This figure is based on campaigns with over 1,000 sends sent between Jan 1, 2025, and Dec 10, 2025. A solid baseline falls between 30-40%, though your actual performance will vary based on factors like the campaign type, timing, industry, and more.

While opens get eyes on your brand, clicks drive revenue. The click-through rate (CTR) measures how many people clicked a link in your email and is the truest test of whether your content is compelling enough to inspire action.

Industry averages for click rates vary widely. Across all campaigns sent in 2025, ActiveCampaign customers had an average click rate of 6.21%. This includes transactional, marketing, and other campaign types, as well as customers of all sizes and industries.

This high level of performance comes from treating emails like conversations, not broadcasts. With features like predictive send times and AI-powered personalization, ActiveCampaign gives customers the tools to send the right message to the right person at the right time.

If your numbers aren't where you want them to be, you don't need a bigger team—you need smarter tools.

• For low open rates: Look at your deliverability. Are you authenticated? Is your list clean? Improving your sender reputation is the fastest way to the inbox.
• For low click rates: Focus on personalization. Are you sending the same email to everyone? Use segmentation and AI-driven content to make every email feel like a 1:1 message.

ActiveCampaign is built to help lean teams punch above their weight. With enterprise-level deliverability and easy-to-use automation, you can achieve these benchmarks, too.

If you want to see exactly how much better your results could be, you’re in the right place.

We’ve built a free tool to help you visualize the impact of switching to a platform with industry-leading deliverability and strong engagement rates. Simply select your industry, enter your current deliverability rate, open rate, and click rate, then add how many hours you spend per email campaign each week.

Our calculator will show you:

• How many more emails could land in inboxes.
• The potential increase in opens and clicks.
• How many hours per week you could save with our automation tools.

Don't just guess at your growth—calculate it.

Enter your current performance and use the calculator to see where you stand.