Email and SMS marketing benchmarks 2026: Americas edition

Dotdigital’s Global benchmark report shares benchmarks for key marketing channels, including email, SMS, MMS, and WhatsApp. This data is taken from over a billion real marketing campaign sends and anonymized and averaged to give marketers a clear indicator of what success looks like.

In this blog, we’re sharing these benchmarks for the Americas region with comparisons to the global average, noting where the Americas is leading globally, and identifying the year-on-year trends that marketers need to pay attention to.

Email marketing benchmarks in the Americas

Email is a key marketing channel for many brands, and the channel is not slowing down. Sends were up year-on-year, and the channel continues to be an audience favorite with 60% of consumers citing email as their preferred communication channel.

The average email open rates in the Americas

What is a good open rate in the Americas?

The Americas region saw strong open rates this year and earned the title of best open rate and unique open rate globally.

The Americas’ average open rate is 3.4% higher than the global average open rate of 55.4%. For unique opens, the Americas is again beating the global average of 37.7% with a unique open rate of 40.8%.

The Americas also outperformed the global average in year-on-year open rate growth. Open rates in the region increased by 7.1% year-on-year, compared with the global average growth rate of 6.5%. Unique opens also grew faster, rising 8.2% year-on-year versus 7.2% year-on-year growth globally.

These numbers prove that email is still an incredibly powerful channel for getting your message in front of your customers, and it’s showing no signs of slowing down.

As with any benchmark, use these as a guide, and always compare against your own results, aiming for a steady improvement over time as you optimize your email marketing strategy.

Email open rate benchmarks for the Americas:

• Open rate: 58.8%
• Unique open rate: 40.08%

How are open rates calculated?

• Open rate = (Total number of opened emails ÷ total number of emails delivered) × 100
• Unique open rate = (Number of unique recipients who opened the email ÷ total number of delivered emails) × 100

The average email click rates in the Americas

What is a good email click rate in the Americas?

Click rates in the Americas saw a mixed picture when looking at year-on-year trends. Overall clicks saw an increase of 9.4% growth year-on-year, but both unique click-through rate and click-to-open rate were down. This shows that audiences are overall less motivated to click through from an email campaign.

Marketers to audiences in the Americas should be using other channels to bridge this gap in clicks. Mobile marketing offers a great solution, as the SMS click-through rate for the Americas region is 22.2%, which is nine times higher than email.

The Americas click metric benchmarks:

• Click-through rate (CTR): 2.5%
• Unique click-through rate: 1.2%
• Click-to-open rate (CTOR): 2.8%

How are click rates calculated?

• Click-through rate = (total number of clicks ÷ total number of delivered emails) × 100
• Unique click-through rate = (number of unique recipients who clicked at least one link ÷ total number of delivered emails) × 100
• Click-to-open rate = (total number of clicks ÷ total number of opened emails) × 100

Email delivery metrics for the Americas

Why is email deliverability important?

Email delivery is one of the most important metrics, because even the most optimized campaigns won’t perform if they don’t get all the way into the inbox. Dotdigital’s Deliverability Consulting Lead, Lisa Dixon, shares the best ways to boost delivery and explains the crucial, and often misunderstood, difference between delivery and deliverability in this blog.

What is a good email delivery rate for the Americas?

A good delivery rate is generally considered to be 97% or higher. Dotdigital customers in the Americas region are seeing an especially strong delivery rate of 99.4%. At Dotdigital, we focus on compliance and building customer trust to keep all of our senders in good standing, maximizing deliverability and customer reach.

What is a good email bounce rate for the Americas?

Email delivery and bounce rates for the Americas are:

• Soft bounce rate: 0.56%
• Hard bounce rate: 0.04%
• Bounce rate: 0.06%
• Delivery rate: 99.4%

How are bounce rates calculated?

• Soft bounce rate = (Number of soft bounces ÷ number of emails sent) x 100
• Hard bounce rate = (Number of hard bounces ÷ number of emails sent) x 100
• Bounce rate = (Number of overall bounces ÷ number of emails sent) x 100
• Delivery rate = (Number of emails sent ÷ number of delivered emails) x 100

The Americas is the lowest region for bounce rates, which is a great achievement, but the gap is reducing as the Americas is the only region to see an increase in bounce rates year-on-year.

To keep bounce rates low, focus on list hygiene, acquiring contacts that are of good quality, and ensure you’re sending content people want (so you don’t get marked as spam).

The average email unsubscribe rate for the Americas

What is a good email unsubscribe rate in the Americas?

The global average is 0.14%, and the Americas (and the APAC region) has a lower unsubscribe rate of 0.12%.

Unsubscribes are to be expected, and a low level shows that your email list is happy with the content you’re sending.

Making unsubscribing easy is both the law and best practice; a clear and easy-to-action unsubscribe link will positively impact deliverability and inbox placement. This is because customers can easily unsubscribe if they want to, rather than flagging your emails as spam, which would impact future reach.

Get tips for boosting email list growth in the full 2026 Global benchmark report.

Mobile marketing benchmarks in the Americas

As we all spend more and more time on our phones, mobile channels offer a great channel direct to your audience’s hands. SMS messages are perfect for timely updates, flash promotions, and reminders that prompt instant action.

SMS click rates in the Americas

What is a good SMS click rate in the Americas?

SMS is seeing real success for driving clicks, offering marketers a much higher click-through rate than email. Smartphone screen time is high, with the average screen time sitting at 4.8 hours per day; so it’s no surprise that mobile-first marketing channels are seeing high engagement.

Average SMS click rates for the Americas:

• Click-through rate: 22.2%
• Unique click-through rate: 18.8%

SMS unsubscribe in the Americas

What is a healthy SMS unsubscribe rate in the Americas?

SMS is a great channel for driving action, but it’s also more intrusive than email. It’s important to always obey quiet hours laws for SMS, and to monitor frequency and quality of your SMS campaigns.

Quiet hours vary by region and define when you’re legally prohibited from sending marketing SMS messages; this is often overnight. Always check local regulations for your customers’ locations, schedule campaigns for compliant, optimal times, and apply these exclusions to automated SMS programs as well.

A healthy SMS unsubscribe rate is anything below 1%.

SMS average unsubscribe rate for the Americas is:

• Unsubscribe rate: 0.53%

Get tips on SMS marketing, including what to be aware of in the full 2026 Global benchmark report.

Email and mobile marketing benchmarks for the Americas in 2026

Email is still a key channel for marketers to communicate with their customers and drive action. The healthy engagement rates shown by Dotdigital customers prove that targeted, personalized, and relevant marketing campaigns see real results.

To complement email, SMS is a huge opportunity for driving clicks, and marketers in the Americas are already seeing very encouraging click-through rates from the channel.

Get more insights, advice, and industry-specific benchmarks in the 2026 Global benchmark report.