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Peter Drucker is often quoted saying “You can’t manage what you can’t measure.”
Measuring and analyzing your campaign performance is the best way to:
- Understand your audience
- Double down on what’s working for you, and
- Get rid of what isn’t.
This guide helps you analyze the performance of SMS campaigns on CallHub and optimize them further for better results. In order to do that, let’s look at each metric in detail by seeing what it does and how it can help you.
What is an SMS campaign report? Why is analysing it important?
An SMS campaign report is a collection of data from all the ongoing and past campaigns from within a particular tool. (Mass Texting, Peer-to-Peer Texting, SMS Opt-in)
Here’s why analyzing it is important:
– Deeper insights into the results of your SMS campaign
– Opportunity to optimize your campaign till you achieve a satisfactory result
– Control over the different parameters of your campaign
How to analyse your SMS campaign report
The success of your SMS campaign starts with tracking the right metrics. Let’s go over what to track under each texting campaign you run on CallHub.
Text Broadcast Reach
This section helps you analyze the total number of messages sent and received on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. It also shows us the contact count. For example, 2 contacts were contacted twice in the given time period.
How to access the metrics:
Click on ‘Analytics’ from the top bar -> Click on ‘Text Broadcast Reach’.
- Messages sent
Total number of messages sent from your Text Broadcast campaigns within a selected time frame.
💡 Tips to improve the metric performance:
- Run an SMS Opt-in campaign to expand your database by letting people subscribe to your text updates.
👓 Related read: How to grow your SMS list
- Messages received
Total number of responses received from your Text Broadcast campaigns within a selected time frame.
💡 Tips to improve the metric performance:
- Get consent from your contacts before sending them the first message.
- Personalize each message with variables such as the contact’s first name. CallHub has merge tags to help you personalize your texts.
- Clearly identify yourself by mentioning the name of your organization.
- Keep your messaging simple and easy to consume to ensure your contact takes in the complete information.
- Ask a close-ended question that compels them to respond.
Use emojis, casual punctuation and sound human.
- Average times reached
An average of the total number of contacts contacted against the number of times each contact was contacted.
CallHub also displays the campaign statistics and the cost for each Text Broadcast campaign.
- Campaign statistics
Campaign statistics provides insights into each individual campaign’s status.
👇 The following parameters can be tracked here:
| Parameter | Meaning |
| Completed | The percentage of contacts contacted in the campaign. |
| Pending | The percentage of messages in the queue to whom the system is yet to send the message to. |
| Total blocked | The number of messages blocked by the carrier. |
How to access the metric:
Click on ‘Campaigns’ from the top bar -> Click on the campaign you need the performance of.
💡 Tips to improve the metric performance:
- Stay updated and compliant with the industry standards such as 10DLC. CallHub helps all our customers get a 10DLC number.
- The messages that have links shortened using public shorteners are more likely to get blocked. Use our in-built Link Shortener and Tracker to avoid getting your messages blocked by the carriers.
- Status Codes
For each message sent out from CallHub, the carriers send a status update in the form of Error Codes. Status codes refer to the current status of the campaign in terms of message delivery.
Let’s go over each status code:
| Parameter | Meaning |
| Total | The total number of messages sent to the campaign’s target audience, including the failed ones. |
| Sent | The total number of messages sent. The messages here may or may not be delivered to the recipient. |
| Delivered | The total number of messages delivered to your contacts. |
| Failed | The total number of messages that were not sent. This can happen due to various reasons such as network congestion, the phone being switched off, or the contact being out of network coverage. CallHub doesn’t charge you for these failed messages. |
| Filtered | The total number of contacts that were filtered out due to being invalid. For instance, a landline number, a VoIP number, or simply an invalid number. CallHub adds these numbers to the DNC(Do Not Contact) list and these numbers won’t be contacted in the future. |
| Rejected | The total number of contacts in your DNC list. |
| No Route | The total number of messages not sent due to the message or the Caller ID being blocked by the carrier. |
| Inbound | The total number of incoming messages in the campaign. |
How to access the metric:
Click on ‘Campaigns’ from the top bar -> Click on the campaign you need the performance of.
The metrics here help you derive the delivery rate of your campaign.
Delivery rate: (Delivered/Total)*100
Tracking the delivery rate gives you a better understanding of the quality of your database. A high delivery rate means that your messages are successfully reaching your contacts.
💡 Tips to improve the metric performance:
- If your delivery rate is low, it means you need to clean your database by editing or removing invalid contacts. This can also cut down your campaign cost! CallHub offers a free add-on called Contact List Analysis that analyzes your lists to identify the invalid numbers and edit or weed them out.
👓 Related read:Ensure high SMS delivery rates with these simple steps
- Total campaign cost
This metric shows the total amount spent in the campaign. The amount is deducted from your CallHub credits.
How to access the metric:
Click on ‘Campaigns’ from the top bar -> Click on the campaign you need the performance of.
💡 Tips to improve the metric performance:
- Send brief and to-the-point messages that can be wrapped as a single message, i.e., within 160 ASCII characters.
- Time your messages well to avoid sending follow-ups. For example, if your contact is a working individual, they are more likely to read and act on your message during non-working hours or lunch and tea breaks.
- Ask your customers to take the action you want them to with a clear mention.
Peer to Peer Texting reports
How to access the metrics:
Click on ‘Analytics’ from the top bar -> Click on ‘Peer to Peer Texting Reach’.
- Conversations
Total number of conversations between your agent and the contacts. If a contact replies to your initial message and gets a second response from your agent, it’s considered a conversation.
💡 Tips to improve the metric performance:
- Add text templates to make it easier for your agents to reply and handle multiple conversations simultaneously.
- Use a casual and conversational tone.
- Messages sent
Total number of messages sent from your Peer to Peer Texting campaigns within a selected time frame.
- Messages received
Total number of messages received from your Peer to Peer Texting campaigns within a selected time frame.
- Unique contacts reached
Total number of unique contacts reached within all your Peer to Peer Texting campaigns.
- Average times reached
An average of the total number of contacts contacted against the number of times each contact was contacted.
- Campaign statistics
👇 The following parameters can be tracked here:
| Parameter | Meaning |
| Initial messages | The total percentage of initial messages sent in the campaign. |
| Unassigned contacts | The percentage of contacts that haven’t been assigned to any agents yet. |
| DNC contacts | The percentage of contacts moved to the DNC list. |
How to access the metric:
Click on ‘Campaigns’ from the top bar -> Click on the campaign you need the performance of.
A high delivery rate means that your messages are successfully reaching your contacts.
💡 Tips to improve the metric performance:
- Reassign agents as soon as they complete contacting a set of contacts assigned to them. CallHub has an automated process that identifies unengaged agents and directs them towards the next set of contacts.
- Conversation statistics
👇 The following parameters can be tracker here:
| Parameter | Meaning |
| Ongoing conversations | The percentage of conversations taking place between your agents and the contacts. |
| Completed | The percentage of conversations that are closed/completed. |
| Opt outs | The percentage of contacts that opted out during the campaign. |
How to access the metric:
Click on ‘Campaigns’ from the top bar -> Click on the campaign you need the performance of.
- Status Codes
The Status Codes here work in the same manner as the ones in the Text Broadcast campaigns.
How to access the metric:
Click on ‘Campaigns’ from the top bar -> Click on the campaign you need the performance of.
- Agent statistics
👇 The following parameters can be tracked here:
| Parameter | Meaning |
| Active agents | Total number of active agents in the campaign. |
| Inactive agents | Total number of inactive agents in the campaign. |
How to access the metric:
Click on ‘Campaigns’ from the top bar -> Click on the campaign you need the performance of.
- Spend
This metric shows the total amount spent in the campaign. The amount is deducted from your CallHub credits.
How to access the metric:
Click on ‘Campaigns’ from the top bar -> Click on the campaign you need the performance of.
SMS opt-in campaigns
Here, you get a detailed overview of individual opt-in campaigns.
How to access the metrics:
Click on ‘Campaigns’ from the top bar -> Click on the campaign you need the performance of.
- Opt-ins
The number of opt-ins within a particular SMS Opt-in campaign.
- Prompts sent
Total number of prompts sent within a campaign. Each message that goes out to your contacts is considered a prompt in an SMS Opt-in campaign.
- Total Responses
The number of responses received within a specific campaign. Each response from your contacts is considered as a single response.
A high delivery rate means that your messages are successfully reaching your contacts.
💡 Tips to improve the metric performance:
- Set up follow-up nudges that act as reminders to your contacts.
- Categorize your Opt-in keywords to initiate conversations depending on their interests.
Texting insights
This section gives insights into the performance of all the texts you send and receive in your campaigns on CallHub.
How to access the metrics:
Click on ‘Analytics’ from the top bar -> Click on ‘Texting Insights’.
- Messages sent
Shows the total number of messages sent from your account.
- Outbound error rate
Outbound error rate is the total percentage of failed messages, which is calculated from the status update CallHub receives from the carriers.
Note: Your outbound error rate should be less than 10%.
👓 Related read: Best practices for reducing the message error rates
- Messages received
Shows the total number of messages received in all your texting campaigns.
- Opt-out rate
The percentage of contacts who unsubscribed from your campaigns. Telecom carriers require service providers to let contacts unsubscribe from the text messages by sending a message such as STOP. CallHub allows contacts to opt out of campaigns using keywords such as STOP, REMOVE, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, QUIT.
Note: Your opt-out rate should be less than 1%.
There are various reasons why a contact may opt out from your campaigns:
- They don’t see value in your messages.
- They feel spammed.
- They don’t recognize your phone number.
💡 Tips to improve the metric performance:
- Review the frequency of the messages.
- Send texts to your contacts as per their timezones and within the normal hours.
- Communicate what to expect from your campaigns right after they opt in.
👓 Related read:Best practices for reducing the message opt-outs
The default time frame for the above 4 metrics is set to ‘Last 7 Days’.
- Outbound message status
Outbound text report gives you detailed insights on the messages sent in specific texting campaigns.
🗒️ You can filter the results by the following parameters:
- Date range
- Status of the message
- Error code
- Campaign name
- Direction
- Text type
👇 The following parameters can be tracked here:
| Parameter | Meaning |
| Send date | Date and time the message was sent. |
| Sender | The Caller ID used to send the message. |
| Recipient | Your contact’s phone number |
| Agent | Agent’s name who was a part of the conversation, if any. |
| Direction | This will be set to ‘Outbound’ as we are viewing the status of the outgoing messages. |
| Cost | Cost per each message sent. |
| Status | Shows the status of the message using Status Codes. |
| Status MSG | The number of segments a message is sent as. For example, if a message is within 160 characters, it’s considered as a single message. See how this works. |
| Error Code | Telecom carriers indicate the reason for a failed message using an Error Code. The metric shows the error code if any. See what each Error Code means. |
- Inbound message status
The metrics here work in the same manner as the Outbound message status ones.
🗒️ Note: You can export the reports as CSV files.
- Responses
The responses tab shows you all the inbound messages in a campaign. This only applies if you have used a number to send messages to your contacts, and not a Sender ID. The data in this section can be downloaded as a CSV file and used to create a new targeted campaign.
How to access the metric:
Click on ‘Campaigns’ from the top bar -> Click on the type of campaign you want to track -> Go to the ‘Responses’ tab.
Data from the Link Shortener and Tracker
CallHub offers a feature called the Link Shortener and Tracker, which helps you add links in your SMS campaigns that can be shortened, customized and tracked.
- Total clicks
Shows the total number of clicks on a link included in your SMS within a selected time frame, helping you gauge the true impact of your call-to-action in a campaign.
- Unique clicks
Indicates the percentage of unique clicks on the links used in your SMS within a selected time frame.
This overview helps you understand which links are performing well. For example, the link named ‘Insurance Distribution Channels: An Ove…’ has received a total of 61 clicks, 8.9% of unique clicks and is a part of 5 campaigns.
Here’s a guide to analyzing and using the data from the Link Shortener and Tracker to efficiently plan a follow-up strategy.
💡 Tips and reminders to optimize your campaign evaluation:
- Create a tracking schedule such as weekly, monthly and quarterly tracking. This helps you spot ups and downs in line with the timeline.
- Set goals and choose metrics that align with your goals. This helps in tracking the right metrics. For instance, if you’re looking to drive website traffic, link clicks is the metric you need to keep a close watch on.
- Set benchmarks to compare your campaign performance against, so you can take the appropriate action. You can look at industry standards and your previous campaign performance to set these benchmarks. For example, say in your previous SMS opt-in campaign, you received a total of 170 opt-ins. For this campaign, you could aim for 200 opt-ins.
- Look for patterns in your delivery rates, click-through rates, etc. to find the common elements and build on them. For instance, say the text messages you sent on Wednesdays have the highest delivery and click-through rates. You can run your next set of messages only on Wednesdays. Of course, you will need to test this theory before you decide to put all your eggs in one basket.
- Test different variations of your message and analyze the impact of each message against the key metrics we discussed above. To give you an example, craft two sets of messages with slight variations, say the CTA phrase and send these to two sets of identical contacts. Observe the results against different metrics for a defined timeframe and compare the results to declare a winner.
With this guide, you’re well on your way to understanding your SMS campaign reports and gaining valuable insights into your campaign performance.
If you need more help getting the best out of your SMS campaign reports, reach out to our Support team at [email protected].
