How to measure the success of your marketing automations

Once your email marketing automations are live, it’s tempting to check them off the list and move on. After all, they’re supposed to run on autopilot, right?

The truth is, high-performing automations aren’t “set-it-and-forget-it” systems. They need regular check-ins, smart testing, and thoughtful tweaks to keep delivering the ROI you launched them for in the first place.

As Sean Donahue, director of email marketing at Power Digital, puts it:

“I don’t know if we’ve ever reached a place where we just stop and say, ‘OK that’s it.’ We’re always listening to the data and adjusting.”

Whether you’re running welcome flows, abandoned cart sequences, or personalized win-backs, here are four proven ways to test, measure, and optimize your automations—without overwhelming your team or your customers.

1. Know Your North Star Metrics

Before you can optimize, you need to define what success looks like. Start by identifying your key performance indicators (KPIs).

Some of the most important metrics for automation include:

• Open rate

• Click-through rate

• Conversion rate

• ROI

• Deliverability

• Bounce rate

• Unsubscribes

• Customer lifetime value (CLV)

But not all flows have the same goals. A welcome series might focus on driving first-time purchases, while a win-back flow might measure success by re-engagement rates.

Chris Gordon from ecommerce agency Noticed explains:

“In my view, the job of the email is to drive traffic. Conversion happens on-site. So we focus heavily on click rates—and then dig into what happens after the click.”

If your emails are driving high traffic but low conversions, the issue might not be the email—it could be your landing page. In short: zoom out. Look at how your automations impact the full customer journey.

💡 Pro tip: Use Klaviyo’s custom reporting tools to filter by message drop-off, revenue generated per message, and deliverability issues.

2. A/B Test Your Way to Better Performance

If you’re wondering what’s working—and what’s not—A/B testing is your best friend.

In a platform like Klaviyo, you can test variables such as:

• Subject lines

• Email copy

• Images

• Time delays

• Send times

• Message cadence

• Incentive types (or none at all)

Heather Browne from Blue Acorn iCi sums it up well:

“We always want to increase—or at least maintain—engaged customers. A/B testing lets us do that in a non-intrusive way.”

Just remember: look for statistical significance before jumping to conclusions. And the more volume a flow has, the faster you’ll see meaningful results.

💡 Pro tip: Flows with higher send frequency (like abandoned carts) produce test results faster than lower-volume flows like post-purchase follow-ups.

3. Don’t Just Analyze the Flow—Dig Into Each Step

It’s easy to look at overall flow performance and make broad assumptions. But email automation is often won or lost within individual touchpoints.

One welcome email might be generating all the revenue, while the rest fall flat. Or maybe customers drop off after the second reminder in a browse abandonment flow.

Lindsey Murray, VP of performance marketing at Blue Acorn iCi, recommends building safeguards:

“We build checkpoints into longer flows—if someone hasn’t opened or clicked in the last 3 emails, they drop out. That helps us stay respectful of our subscribers’ inboxes.”

💡 Pro tip: Use Klaviyo’s flow analytics to monitor individual message performance—and adjust or pause underperformers without breaking the full sequence.

4. Respect the Line Between Personalization and… Creepiness

Personalization is powerful—but too much can feel invasive. We’ve all had that moment where we talked about something and then magically saw an ad for it five minutes later.

Let’s not do that with email.

“You don’t want to creep anybody out,” says Donahue. “Marketing automation should feel helpful, not intrusive.”

Watch for red flags like:

• Spike in unsubscribes

• Drop in engagement

• Complaints or marked spam

When personalization pushes the line, the data will reflect it. That’s your cue to reassess cadence, frequency, or targeting.

💡 Pro tip: Segment subscribers based on engagement and preferences (email vs. SMS, promo vs. content) to tailor communications without overwhelming anyone.

Automations Work Best When You Work With Them

Automations can absolutely scale your business—but only when they’re aligned with what your customers actually want.

So here’s your game plan:

✅ Define your top KPIs
✅ A/B test high-impact variables
✅ Analyze flow performance and individual messages
✅ Respect the inbox, and know when to back off

As Sean Donahue puts it:

“Be helpful. Marketing automation is about finding those opportunities—making sure you’re in the right place at the right time, and not where you shouldn’t be.”

Need a second set of eyes on your automations or want to build smarter flows from scratch? As a Klaviyo Partner, we’re here to help you turn data into decisions—and flows into revenue.