Forget about open rates and clicks for a moment. In digital marketing that truly works, the conversation revolves around one word: profitability. And in email marketing, the eternal battle is between two heavyweights: newsletters and automations.
While newsletters focus on maintaining contact and strengthening the brand, automations act at strategic points in the customer lifecycle: welcome emails, abandoned cart reminders, re-engagement of inactive users… Measuring the return on investment (ROI) of each format fairly, however, isn’t as straightforward as it seems.
Why attribution makes all the difference
Imagine this scenario: a user receives your weekly newsletter on Monday, glances at it, and forgets about it. On Wednesday, they add a product to their cart but don’t complete the purchase. Two hours later, they receive an automated abandoned cart email with a small discount. They click and buy.
In email marketing, conversions rarely happen after a single touchpoint. Attribution is about identifying which campaigns contributed to a conversion: purchase, sign-up, download, etc. The problem is that users often experience multiple touchpoints before making a decision. Who do we thank? The abandoned cart email that pushed them over the line, or the newsletter that kept your brand top of mind?
Without a clear attribution model, there’s a risk of overestimating or underestimating the ROI of certain emails.
Newsletters vs automations: key differences
Although part of the same strategy, newsletters and automations play in different leagues.
Newsletters work on the strategic level: their main goal is to generate recurring traffic and reinforce brand visibility. Their advantage is reaching a wide audience simultaneously, keeping subscribers engaged and reminding them of your value proposition. The challenge is that it’s difficult to isolate their direct impact on sales; often they contribute indirectly, building relationships and paving the way for future conversions without generating immediately measurable results.
Automations, on the other hand, focus on driving conversions at the right moment. They act at specific stages of the customer lifecycle and respond to user behaviour, resulting in higher conversion rates. The challenge is measuring their ROI accurately: if you only use a “last click” model, you risk overestimating their immediate effectiveness and overlooking the value of previous touchpoints.
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Attribution models for measuring ROI
To get a realistic view of each email’s impact, it’s important to go beyond last click. Common models include:
* First click, giving credit to the first email that started the conversion journey.
* Last click, assigning full credit to the last email before the action.
* Linear, distributing credit across all emails the user interacted with.
* Position-based, giving more weight to the first and last emails and distributing the rest across the middle.
* Data-driven, using algorithms and machine learning to assign credit according to the actual impact of each interaction.
When measuring the ROI of your email campaigns, it’s not enough to focus solely on the last click. For newsletters, it is usually more appropriate to use a first click or linear attribution model, as these emails play a more strategic role: they open the relationship with the user and help build brand awareness.
In contrast, for automations, it is more effective to use last click or data-driven models. These emails are designed to drive conversions at specific points in the customer lifecycle, so measuring their precise effectiveness is crucial.
Adopting this distinction between newsletters and automations allows you to obtain more realistic metrics and make data-driven strategic decisions, thereby optimising your email marketing investment and maximising its impact on business results.
Key metrics for calculating ROI in email marketing
It’s not enough to focus on opens and clicks: to truly measure the return on investment of your email campaigns, it’s essential to concentrate on metrics that directly connect to business results. One of the most important is revenue attributed to the email channel, which shows how much each send is generating in real economic terms.
Another key indicator is average order value (AOV), which helps compare the effectiveness of newsletters and automations and understand which type of email generates higher-value purchases. It’s also important to analyse cost per send or per flow versus the revenue generated, as this relationship allows you to assess the true profitability of each action and optimise your investment.
Finally, don’t forget the Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), especially relevant for automations that drive retention. Measuring CLV allows you to quantify the long-term value a customer brings beyond the immediate conversion and demonstrates the real impact of your email marketing strategies on customer loyalty and business growth.
Our roadmap to success
It’s not about choosing between newsletters or automations: they are two sides of the same coin. Newsletters fill the top of the funnel and build relationships, while automations convert at critical moments.
Balanced analysis, supported by a robust attribution model and the right business metrics, allows you to optimise investment and demonstrate the real value email marketing brings to your business.
At PGR Marketing & Technology, we know attribution can be a puzzle and connecting every marketing action to a tangible result is a real challenge. That’s why we don’t just design email campaigns – we build measurable strategies that show their true impact.
Want to know which part of your email marketing is generating real ROI and how to optimise the rest? Let’s talk – we’re here to connect every send with your business results.
