What are “unique” vs “total” clicks?
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Unique clicks count each subscriber once per campaign. Total clicks count every click event, including multiple clicks from the same person.
Example: you send to 1,000 subscribers. 100 people click. Of those, 30 click multiple links or come back and click again. Unique clicks: 100. Total clicks: 130 (or however many extra clicks those 30 generated).
For most engagement analysis, unique clicks are the right metric. They tell you reach: how many distinct people took action. Total clicks can be misleading if a handful of highly engaged (or suspicious) sources generate lots of events.
Total clicks become useful when you want to understand intensity. If your total clicks are significantly higher than unique, some subscribers are clicking multiple links in your email. That might mean your email has a lot of relevant content, or it might mean bot scanners are generating automated events. Compare total to unique to distinguish signal from noise.
The same distinction applies to opens: unique opens vs. total opens follow the same pattern. Unique counts deduplication, total counts raw events.
One practical note: when reporting to stakeholders, be clear which number you're using. "We got 500 clicks" means very different things depending on whether that's 500 unique people or 500 total click events from 100 people.
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