How to Use This Tracker
This guide explains the Outbound Metrics Tracker — a framework for measuring and optimizing your B2B outbound campaigns. Tracking the right metrics consistently is what separates teams that improve from teams that plateau.
The tracker is organized into daily, weekly, and monthly metrics with built-in formulas for calculating conversion rates, pipeline velocity, and ROI.
Key Metrics Explained
Send Volume
The total number of outbound emails sent in a given period.
- **Track daily and weekly** to ensure consistent output
- Compare to capacity: Are you using your full sending infrastructure?
- Watch for anomalies: Sudden drops may indicate deliverability issues or tool problems
- Target: Aim for consistent daily volume rather than spikes and valleys
Open Rate
The percentage of sent emails that were opened by the recipient.
- **Formula**: (Unique opens / Emails delivered) x 100
- Healthy range: 35-55% for cold outbound
- Warning signs: Below 25% indicates deliverability issues, subject line problems, or poor data quality
- Factors that influence open rate: Subject line quality, sender reputation, send timing, deliverability health
Important note: Open tracking relies on pixel tracking, which is not 100% accurate. Apple Mail Privacy Protection and some email clients can inflate or deflate open rates. Use open rate as a directional signal, not an exact measurement.
Reply Rate
The percentage of sent emails that received a reply.
- **Formula**: (Total replies / Emails delivered) x 100
- Healthy range: 3-10% total reply rate, 1-5% positive reply rate
- Track positive and negative separately: Not all replies are good. Track "interested," "not interested," "wrong person," and "do not contact" separately
- Factors that influence reply rate: Email copy relevance, personalization quality, value proposition clarity, targeting accuracy
Meeting Booked Rate
The percentage of positive replies that convert to scheduled meetings.
- **Formula**: (Meetings booked / Positive replies) x 100
- Healthy range: 30-60%
- Losing meetings at this stage indicates: CTA is too aggressive, follow-up to positive replies is too slow, or the prospect was mildly curious but not truly interested
- Best practice: Respond to positive replies within 2 hours during business hours
Pipeline Generated
The total dollar value of opportunities created from outbound-sourced meetings.
- **Formula**: Meetings held x Average deal size (weighted by stage probability)
- Track monthly and quarterly: Monthly for tactical adjustments, quarterly for strategic planning
- Distinguish from revenue: Pipeline is potential revenue, not closed revenue
- Attribution: Tag all outbound-sourced opportunities in your CRM for accurate tracking
Setting Up Your Tracker
**Daily tracking columns:**
- Date
- Emails sent
- Emails delivered
- Bounces
- Opens
- Replies (positive / negative / out of office / auto-reply)
- Meetings booked
**Weekly summary columns:**
- Total sent / delivered / bounced
- Open rate
- Reply rate (total and positive)
- Meeting book rate
- Meetings held
- Pipeline created
**Monthly summary columns:**
- All weekly metrics aggregated
- Pipeline value generated
- Revenue closed from outbound
- Cost of outbound operation
- ROI calculation
- Comparison to previous months
Built-In Formulas
Conversion Rate Calculations
Track each step of the funnel to identify where prospects drop off:
- **Delivery rate**: Delivered / Sent x 100 (target: 95%+)
- Open rate: Opens / Delivered x 100 (target: 40%+)
- Reply rate: Replies / Delivered x 100 (target: 5%+)
- Positive reply rate: Positive replies / Delivered x 100 (target: 2%+)
- Meeting rate: Meetings / Positive replies x 100 (target: 40%+)
- Show rate: Meetings held / Meetings booked x 100 (target: 80%+)
- Opportunity rate: Opportunities / Meetings held x 100 (target: 50%+)
Pipeline Velocity
Pipeline velocity measures how quickly you generate revenue from outbound:
- **Formula**: (Number of opportunities x Average deal size x Win rate) / Average sales cycle length
- Example: (20 opportunities x $30,000 x 15%) / 90 days = $1,000 per day
- Use this to: Project future revenue, set team targets, and justify outbound investment
Cost Per Meeting
Understanding your cost per meeting helps evaluate outbound efficiency:
- **Formula**: Total outbound costs / Meetings booked
- Include: Tool subscriptions, data costs, team salaries or agency fees, sending infrastructure
- Healthy range: Varies by deal size. A $50 cost per meeting is excellent for $50K+ deals but expensive for $5K deals
- Benchmark: Your cost per meeting should be less than 5% of your average deal size
ROI Tracking
Monthly ROI calculation:
- **Formula**: (Revenue from outbound - Total outbound cost) / Total outbound cost x 100
- Track cumulative ROI: Outbound ROI improves over time as pipeline matures
- Break-even analysis: At what point does cumulative revenue exceed cumulative costs?
- Factor in time lag: Most outbound deals take 3-6 months to close
Weekly Review Process
Conduct a weekly review every Monday to assess performance and make adjustments:
**Step 1: Review the numbers**
- Compare this week's metrics to last week and to your targets
- Identify any metrics that moved significantly (up or down)
**Step 2: Diagnose issues**
- If open rates dropped: Check deliverability, subject lines, or data quality
- If reply rates dropped: Check email copy, targeting, or personalization
- If meeting rates dropped: Check follow-up speed and messaging
- If pipeline dropped: Check meeting quality and sales process
**Step 3: Plan adjustments**
- Decide what to change this week based on the data
- Make only one change at a time so you can measure impact
- Document the change and the hypothesis behind it
**Step 4: Update the team**
- Share key metrics with sales leadership
- Highlight wins and areas for improvement
- Align on priorities for the coming week
Benchmarks to Aim For
These benchmarks are based on well-executed B2B outbound campaigns. Use them as targets, not guarantees:
**Email Performance:**
- Delivery rate: 95-98%
- Open rate: 40-55%
- Reply rate: 5-10%
- Positive reply rate: 2-5%
- Bounce rate: Under 3%
**Conversion Performance:**
- Meeting book rate (from positive replies): 40-60%
- Show rate: 80-90%
- Opportunity creation rate: 40-60% of meetings held
- Close rate (outbound-sourced): 10-20%
**Efficiency:**
- Emails per meeting: 50-200 (varies by industry and deal size)
- Cost per meeting: 1-5% of average deal size
- Time to first meeting: 2-4 weeks from campaign launch
- Pipeline payback period: 3-6 months
**Volume Targets (per SDR):**
- Daily sends: 50-100
- Monthly sends: 1,000-2,000
- Monthly meetings booked: 8-15
- Monthly pipeline generated: $100K-$500K (depending on deal size)
Key Takeaways
- Track metrics consistently — daily inputs lead to weekly insights and monthly improvements
- Focus on the full funnel, not just vanity metrics like open rates
- Use formulas to calculate pipeline velocity, cost per meeting, and ROI
- Conduct weekly reviews to catch issues early and make data-driven adjustments
- Benchmark against industry standards but focus on improving your own baseline
- Attribution is critical — tag all outbound-sourced opportunities in your CRM