Political texting is a powerful tool for reaching and engaging voters, but measuring its success requires tracking the right metrics.
Arena clients find comfort in knowing our experienced in-house texting team tracks these metrics and uses the data to optimize every campaign.
We believe that informed clients make for better collaboration, which leads to better performance. As such, we highly recommend having a basic understanding of these metrics.
1. Opt-In Rate
The most effective political texting programs begin with building a strong list of engaged and opted-in subscribers. Opt-in rate measures how effectively your organization acquires subscribers through any avenue, like your website, ads, social media posts, and more.
Why Opt-In Rates Are Important
A high opt-in rate indicates strong interest and effective acquisition strategies, and can sometimes lower the price of sending texts A2P (application to person in one tap) instead of P2P (person to person).
How to Improve Opt-In Rates
Use clear, compelling language for your opt-in prompt and offer an incentive (e.g., exclusive updates, event access).
Always ask for mobile numbers wherever possible and ensure you have the correct opt-in disclaimers.
2. Delivery Rate
Delivery rate is the foundation of a successful texting campaign, ensuring your messages reach the intended audience and not the spam inbox or getting blocked completely.
Why Delivery Rates are Important
This metric reflects the percentage of messages successfully delivered. A low delivery rate may indicate issues with contact list quality, spammy language, or technical problems within the platform.
How to Improve Delivery Rates
Regularly clean your contact list to remove invalid or outdated numbers and ensure compliance with carrier regulations.
3. Click-Through Rate (CTR)
CTR is a critical metric for measuring the effectiveness of your messages.
Why CTR is Important
This metric measures the percentage of recipients who clicked on a link in your message. High CTR indicates strong message content and clear calls to action.
How to Improve Your CTR
Make your call to action clear, urgent, relevant and benefit-focused. Use short, trackable URLs for better engagement.
4. Response Rate
Response rates show how engaged your audience is with your messages.
Why Response Rates are Important
A high response rate suggests that the messaging is compelling and resonates with the voters. Voter ID, polls, petitions, surveys, and GOTV messages all rely on high response rates to fulfill the intended goal.
How to Improve Response Rate
Ask clear, direct questions that invite quick replies (e.g., “Will you join us? Reply YES or NO”).
5. Unsubscribe Rate
The unsubscribe rate shows how many subscribers are opting out of your list.
Why Unsubscribe Rates are Important
This metric shows how many subscribers are opting out after receiving a certain message. A high rate may indicate spammy content, excessive frequency, or message relevance.
How to Improve Unsubscribe Rates
Segment your list for more personalized messaging and monitor frequency to avoid overwhelming subscribers.
6. Conversion Rate
Conversion rate measures the ultimate success of your texting campaign by tracking how many recipients take a desired action.
Why Conversion Rates are Important
For political texting, conversion rates measure how many recipients clicked and then took a desired action (e.g., donated, volunteered, RSVP’d, responded to a poll, etc.).
How to Improve Conversion Rates
Craft compelling CTAs that highlight urgency or impact (e.g., “Donate now to protect voting rights!”).
7. Cost Per Conversion
Cost per conversion helps you understand the financial ROI of your texting campaign.
Why Cost Per Conversion is Important
Knowing if your spending is worth the upfront investment is important to future sends, targeting, and measuring success.
How to Improve Cost Per Conversion
Optimize your contact list for high-quality leads and refine messaging to increase conversion without raising costs.
In Closing
When you’re armed with this knowledge, it will be easier for your campaign to screen potential political texting vendors when the time is right. If you can use guidance from an expert conservative political texting vendor like Arena, contact us now!
