12 WiFi Marketing KPIs Every Venue Should Track, and What to Do When They Drop

Why Open Rate Alone Is Not a KPI Framework

Open rate measures one step in a long chain: a guest connects, signs in, agrees to marketing, receives an email, acts on it and comes back. A strong open rate on a tiny list means little if most guests never got past the portal.

Opens are also the least reliable number in email now. Apple's Mail Privacy Protection "prevents senders from seeing if you've opened the email message they sent you" (Apple Support), so opens from Apple Mail users are not a clean signal. Treat opens as a trend line and judge campaigns on clicks, redemptions and return visits.

A note on ranges: where a primary source gives a figure, it is linked next to the number. Everywhere else, your own last three months are the baseline to beat, and the examples below are labelled illustrations, not benchmarks.

KPI 1: Portal Opt-In Rate

What it measures: two rates, kept separate. Sign in rate: guests who complete the portal as a share of devices that reach it. Marketing opt-in rate: guests who tick the marketing box as a share of sign ins. Reference point: your own baseline. A separate, unticked marketing box gives a lower but honest rate. A rate from a pre-ticked box or an automatic opt-in is not comparable and does not show real consent. What to do if it drops: check what changed on the portal first: an extra form field, a slower page, new wording, a broken image on mobile. Then check the guest mix, because a seasonal shift in who visits moves the rate without anything being wrong. In VoqadoWiFi the dashboard insights read logins and opt-ins in plain words, which is the quickest place to spot the week it changed.

KPI 2: List Growth Rate

What it measures: net new subscribers per month: new opt-ins minus unsubscribes and deletions. How to work it out: Illustration, not a benchmark: a cafe with 60 WiFi sign ins a day over 30 days has 1,800 sign ins. If 20% tick the marketing box, that is 360 new opt-ins. With 10 unsubscribes, net growth is 350. What to do if it stalls: look at the two inputs. A falling opt-in rate is a portal problem (KPI 1). Rising unsubscribes are a content problem (KPI 8). If both are steady and growth still stalls, fewer people are walking in.

KPI 3: Email Open Rate

What it measures: opens as a share of delivered emails. Reference point: Mailchimp's benchmark page, last updated in December 2023 and based on campaigns sent to at least 1,000 subscribers, gives an average open rate of 35.63% across all users (Mailchimp, Email marketing benchmarks). Mailchimp itself warns that Apple's privacy changes affect open rate accuracy. What to do if it drops: split by subscriber age. If older subscribers drag the average down, run a short re-engagement send to them and then prune (KPI 7). If every group drops at once, look at subject lines, sender name and how often you send.

KPI 4: Click-Through Rate

What it measures: unique clicks as a share of delivered emails. We use delivered rather than opens because opens are unreliable. Reference point: the same Mailchimp page gives an average click rate of 2.62% across all users. Check how your own platform calculates click rate before you compare. What to do if it drops: if people still open but do not click, the email is being seen and not acted on. Check that there is one clear action, that the button is visible without scrolling on a phone, and that the offer is worth it.

KPI 5: Campaign Redemption Rate

What it measures: recipients who redeem the offer in the venue, as a share of recipients. You need a way to count it: a unique code per campaign that staff enter at the till, or a voucher they collect. Reference point: your own previous campaigns with a similar offer. What to do if it drops: if opens and clicks hold but redemptions fall, the offer is not worth the trip, or staff are not recording it. Check the second one first: ask the team whether codes are being entered.

KPI 6: Revenue Attributed Per Campaign

What it measures: redemptions multiplied by average spend per redeeming visit. How to work it out: Illustration, not a benchmark: a campaign to 400 subscribers produces 20 redemptions at an average spend of $18, so attributed revenue is $360. Caveat: some of those guests would have come anyway. To see the real effect, hold back a random tenth of the list from a campaign and compare their visits with everyone else's. What to do if it drops: check the segment size (did this go to fewer people?), the offer, and whether codes are still being recorded at the till.

KPI 7: List Engagement Score

What it measures: the share of your list that clicked at least one email in the last 90 days. We use clicks, not opens, for the reason above. Reference point: your own trend. What to do if it falls: send one re-engagement email to people with no clicks in 90 days, asking whether they still want to hear from you. Remove those who do not respond within your chosen window. A smaller list of people who click is worth more than a large one that ignores you.

KPI 8: Unsubscribe Rate Per Send

What it measures: unsubscribes as a share of delivered emails, per send. Reference point: Mailchimp's benchmark page gives an average unsubscribe rate of 0.22% across all users. Watch spam complaints alongside it: Google's sender guidelines ask senders to keep the spam rate reported in Postmaster Tools below 0.10% and to avoid ever reaching 0.30% (Google Workspace Admin Help). What to do if it spikes: that send was not relevant to the people who got it. Check whether it went to the wrong segment, whether the gap since the last email was too short, and whether it was all offer and no reason to care.

KPI 9: Repeat Visit Rate (Email Subscribers vs Non-Subscribers)

What it measures: the 30 day return rate of guests who opted in to marketing, compared with guests who did not. Caveat: guests who opt in may already be keener fans, so some of the gap exists without any email. A hold out group (KPI 6) tells you how much the emails add. What to do if there is no difference: the email programme is not changing behaviour. Review content, timing and offers before sending more of the same.

KPI 10: Average Visits Before Churn

What it measures: the median number of visits a guest made before going quiet. In VoqadoWiFi, a guest moves to the Lost segment after 90 days with no visit, which is a workable definition of churn. Reference point: your own baseline, by venue. What to do if it is low: if most guests stop after one or two visits, the venue is not building a habit, and that is an experience problem before it is a marketing one. A 0 to 10 NPS question helps here: detractors (0 to 6) usually tell you what went wrong, promoters (9 to 10) what to protect.

KPI 11: Subscriber Lifetime (Months on List)

What it measures: how long a subscriber stays engaged: months from opt in to unsubscribe, or to their last click. Reference point: your own baseline. What to do if it shortens: find the month when people tend to drop off and look at what you were sending then. It often lines up with a change in frequency or content.

KPI 12: Cost Per Acquired Subscriber

What it measures: monthly platform cost divided by new opted in subscribers that month. Add any incentive you give for signing up. How to work it out: Illustration, not a benchmark: on VoqadoWiFi Growth at $49 a month, a venue adding 250 opted in guests a month pays $49 / 250 = about $0.20 per subscriber. On the free Starter plan the platform cost is nil, so the cost is your incentive and staff time. What to do if it climbs: fewer connections means fewer subscribers for the same fee. Check whether the drop is seasonal, caused by a competitor, or a longer trend in footfall before you change anything on the portal.