If you’re sending cold emails and not tracking what’s working, you’re basically throwing spaghetti at the wall. This guide is for anyone who uses Woodpecker, wants better results, and doesn’t have time for guesswork or vanity metrics. We’ll walk through how to actually track and analyze your email performance in Woodpecker, what numbers matter, and what you can safely ignore.
1. Get Your Tracking Set Up Right
Before you even look at a metric, make sure Woodpecker is set up to track the basics:
- Open tracking: Measures if someone opened your email.
- Click tracking: Measures if someone clicked a link in your email.
- Reply tracking: Measures if someone actually responded (the most important one).
- Bounce tracking: Spots which emails failed to deliver.
How to check your settings:
- Go to Settings > Email Accounts in Woodpecker.
- For each account, make sure open and click tracking are enabled. Reply and bounce tracking should be on by default.
- Double-check your sending domain’s DNS settings. If your emails are landing in spam, your metrics are pointless.
Pro tip:
If you’re sending to Gmail, remember that some privacy-focused recipients never load tracking pixels (so open rates will look lower than reality). Don’t obsess over it.
2. Start With the Dashboard
Woodpecker’s dashboard gives you a snapshot of your current campaigns. Here’s what you’ll see and what it actually means:
- SENT: Number of emails sent.
- DELIVERED: Emails that didn’t bounce.
- OPENED: Number and percentage of emails opened.
- CLICKED: People who clicked a link.
- REPLIED: The real gold—people who replied.
- BOUNCED: Emails that didn’t make it.
What to look for:
- If your bounce rate is above 5%, your list needs cleaning.
- Open rates under 30% probably mean your subject lines or deliverability stink.
- Reply rates are the only number that really matters. Everything else is noise if you’re not getting responses.
3. Drill Down Into Campaign Metrics
Now, dig into specific campaigns.
- Click on any campaign to see its details.
- You’ll see the same stats as the dashboard, but broken down by step and by template.
- Look for patterns:
- Did step 2 get more replies than step 1?
- Is one template outperforming the rest?
- Are certain days or times working better?
Honest take:
Don’t get distracted by click stats unless your goal is to get people to a link (like booking a call). Most cold emails are better off without links in the first touch anyway—links can hurt deliverability.
4. Segment Your Data (The Smart Way)
Metrics are only useful if you know who is engaging. In Woodpecker, you can segment by:
- Campaign
- List or group
- Company type or industry (if your lists are tagged properly)
- Email template/version
How to do it:
- Use filters in Woodpecker to view metrics by campaign or by prospect group.
- Compare results side by side. Is one list bringing in more replies? Is a certain industry ghosting you?
Pro tip:
If you’re running A/B tests (two templates in one campaign), check the “A/B” tab for side-by-side stats. But don’t overthink minor differences—small sample sizes can be misleading.
5. Watch the Metrics That Actually Matter
There are a million numbers, but you can safely ignore most of them. Here’s what’s worth your attention:
- Delivery Rate: If this drops, fix your list or sender reputation.
- Open Rate: Useful for testing subject lines or deliverability. But don’t obsess over small changes.
- Reply Rate: This is the real measure of your campaign’s effectiveness.
- Positive Reply Rate: If you mark replies as “Interested” or “Not Interested” in Woodpecker, this stat tells you how many replies actually lead to conversations. It’s the number that matters for sales.
Ignore these (mostly):
- Clicks: Unless your goal is to drive traffic.
- Time to open/reply: Fun trivia, but rarely actionable.
- Forwarded emails: Woodpecker can’t reliably track this.
6. Diagnose Problems and Take Action
If a campaign is underperforming, here’s how to troubleshoot:
- Low open rates:
- Check your sending reputation (use tools like Mail-Tester).
- Test new subject lines.
- Scrub your list for bad addresses.
- Low reply rates:
- Rewrite your email to be more human and relevant.
- Make your ask clear and low-pressure.
- Shorten your message.
- High bounce rates:
- Clean your list with a verification tool before uploading.
- Don’t buy old, scraped email lists (they’re poison).
Honest truth:
Most of the time, the problem is either your list is weak (wrong targets) or your message is generic. Metrics can only tell you what happened, not why—so talk to real people, too.
7. Export and Analyze Outside Woodpecker (Optional)
Woodpecker’s reporting is fine for daily use, but if you want to slice and dice beyond what the UI allows, export your data:
- Go to the campaign or prospects list.
- Click “Export” to download CSV files.
- Open in Excel or Google Sheets.
Now you can:
- Pivot by company size, industry, or any custom field.
- Track results over time, not just per campaign.
- Build your own charts, if that’s your thing.
Pro tip:
Don’t waste hours making fancy dashboards unless you really need them. The goal is better results, not prettier charts.
8. Iterate—Don’t Chase Perfection
Metrics are there to help you improve, not to stress you out. Here’s how to use what you learn:
- Test one thing at a time: subject line, call to action, or audience.
- Give campaigns enough time and volume to get real data (at least a few hundred sends).
- Apply what works. Kill what doesn’t.
- Don’t let a bad week send you into a panic.
What Actually Moves the Needle
Here’s the blunt truth: Most cold email tools—Woodpecker included—offer the same basic metrics. The difference is how you use them.
- Focus on reply rates and positive replies.
- Don’t waste energy chasing open or click rates.
- Always be cleaning your lists and tweaking your copy.
If you do that, you’ll get better results than 90% of people who obsess over dashboards and forget to actually send good emails.
Keep it simple:
Use the metrics to guide your next move, not to drown in analysis. Track, tweak, send, repeat. That’s how you get better—no growth hacks required.