Understanding your Subscriber Collection Performance in Analytics

Goals and Outcomes:

Gain clear visibility into your subscriber collection efforts across different opt-in tools and sources. Learn how to track subscriber growth, identify high-performing collection methods, and optimize your SMS marketing strategies based on data-driven insights. In this article, you’ll learn how to access and interpret Subscriber Collection Analytics data to better understand your audience and optimize your SMS marketing efforts.

Subscriber Collection Analytics Overview

The Subscriber Collection Analytics feature helps you monitor how many users subscribe or unsubscribe via your SMS opt-in tools. It provides visual and detailed reporting by time period, opt-in source, and geographic location, enabling better marketing decisions and audience growth strategies.

Initial View:

• Navigate to Analytics > Subscriber Analytics in your Yotpo SMS & Email main menu.

• From the dropdown menu, select your preferred period:

  ➔ Last X days, Last X months, or Custom range.

• View the overall subscriber performance metrics over time.

Successful Outcome

When you open the Subscriber Analytics page, you’ll immediately see the key metrics presented as four cards:

• New SMS Opt-ins – Total number of first-time SMS opt-ins collected during the selected period. This metric only counts a unique phone number the first time it subscribes.

• New Email Opt-ins – Total number of first-time Email opt-ins collected during the selected period. Re-subscriptions are not counted as new opt-ins.

  Note

  Email opt-ins collected via the Import source are not included in this count. This applies to both the main dashboard card and the source breakdown table.

• SMS Opt-outs – Total number of opt-outs from your SMS program. Each opt-out action is counted as +1 opt-out, even if the same user opts out multiple times.

• Email Opt-outs – Total number of opt-outs from your Email program. Each opt-out action is counted separately.

The chart on the right visualizes your subscriber activity over time, making it easy to spot periods of strong or weak growth.

Important

• Opt-in metrics only reflect the first-time subscription of a unique phone number or email.

• Opt-out metrics count every opt-out action, regardless of whether it is from the same user multiple times.

Example:

• A customer subscribes to SMS for the first time → +1 SMS Opt-in

• The customer opts out of SMS → +1 SMS Opt-out

• The customer subscribes again to SMS → +0 SMS Opt-in (already counted as a subscriber)

• The customer opts out of SMS again → +1 SMS Opt-out

In this example, the total count would be +1 subscriber and -2 unsubscribers. This can cause slight confusion when tracking unsubscribers over time.

Good news

We are actively working on a product update to align opt-outs  to reflect unique users as well.

Stay tuned for an upcoming release that will simplify and improve subscriber tracking!

Opt-in Engagement by Source

Scroll down to view performance broken down by opt-in source:

Understanding the Source breakdown section

The source breakdown section below the chart provides a detailed view of where your opt-ins are coming from and how each source performs over time.

• Visual Chart (Left): Displays the distribution of opt-ins by source, such as pop-ups, keywords, checkout opt-ins, signup forms, and QR codes.

• Detailed Table (Right):

  • Lists the number of opt-ins by source, ranked from highest to lowest.

  • This table also counts first time opt-ins, similarly to the main dashboard cards.

  • Use this table to identify which sources are driving the most opt-ins and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Sources are ranked from highest to lowest by number of new subscribers.

Understanding Unexpected Sources: “Checkout,” “Signup,” and “Shopify Other”

While most source names are intuitive, such as “Pop-up” or “QR Code,” some source labels may appear in the breakdown that don't match the tools you actively use. These include:

• Checkout

• Signup

• Shopify Other

These sources can raise questions, especially if your brand doesn’t use a checkout-based opt-in or native Shopify forms. Here's what’s happening:

Yotpo receives subscription data directly from Shopify. Whenever Shopify identifies a phone number or email as having opted in — even if the action happened outside of Yotpo — it sends a subscription event to our system so we can keep your subscriber list fully synced. However, in doing so, Shopify sometimes labels the source using one of its default categories, depending on the type of event and how it was triggered.

As a result, you might see:

• An email opt-in labeled as Checkout, even if the customer didn’t subscribe directly during checkout.

• An SMS opt-in labeled as Shopify Other, which typically indicates that Shopify received the opt-in from a third-party tool or app and forwarded it to Yotpo.

• An email opt-in labeled as Signup, which usually comes from Shopify’s native forms (e.g., footer signup forms included in some store themes).

In some cases, you may even see the same subscriber listed twice — once under the original source (like a pop-up) and once again under a fallback label like Checkout or Shopify Other. This occurs because both Yotpo and Shopify track the opt-in event, and Shopify may resend it with its own source labeling logic.

Quick Reference: What These Sources Usually Mean

Note

These labels are assigned by Shopify. Yotpo displays them as received and does not modify or override the source naming.

Understanding these source names helps clarify why some opt-ins appear under unexpected labels — and prevents misinterpreting data when comparing subscriber counts by source.

Performance Metrics by Collection Method

Each opt-in tool tracks its own performance based on specific metrics:

Subscription forms

With Yotpo SMS & Email, you can grow your SMS audience through powerful and engaging subscription forms such as pop-ups, embedded forms, floating buttons, and footers. Track their performance via these 2 key metrics:

• Sent Messages: The number of messages you have sent to new subscribers who signed up through the forms.

• Clicked Message Links: The number of times your new subscribers clicked on the URL in the text message.

Keywords

Keywords are a great way to collect subscribers. They are short, memorable, and easy to set up. To help you gain insights into their performance, we’ve provided 4 useful metrics:

• Sent Messages: The number of messages you have sent to new subscribers who signed up through a specific keyword.

• Conversion Rate: The percentage of collected subscribers compared to the number of sent messages.

• Clicked Message Links: The number of times your new subscribers clicked on the URL in the text message.

• Next Billing: The date you will be billed on if you have a paid keyword subscription.

QR Codes

QR codes are a popular and versatile way to collect subscribers.  Use these 4 metrics to check how your QR codes perform over time:

• QR Scans: The number of times customers scanned your QR code.

• Conversion Rate: The percentage of collected subscribers compared to the number of sent messages.

• Sent Messages: The number of messages you have sent to new subscribers who signed up through a specific QR code.

• Clicked Message Links: The number of times your new subscribers clicked on the URL in the text message.

Shareable Subscribe Links

Shareable links allow you to collect subscribers across multiple platforms. Track their performance with these 4 metrics:

• Link Clicks: The number of times customers clicked on your shareable link.

• Conversion Rate: The percentage of collected subscribers compared to the number of sent messages.

• Sent Messages: The number of messages you have sent to new subscribers who signed up through a specific link.

• Clicked Message Links: The number of times your new subscribers clicked on the URL in the text message.

Social Opt-in

Social media is an excellent channel for growing your SMS list. Monitor the performance of your social opt-ins through these metrics:

• Social Clicks: The number of times customers clicked on your social media opt-in links.

• Conversion Rate: The percentage of collected subscribers compared to the number of sent messages.

• Sent Messages: The number of messages you have sent to new subscribers who signed up through a social opt-in.

• Clicked Message Links: The number of times your new subscribers clicked on the URL in the text message.Dedicated Subscriber Collection Pages

Dedicated Subscriber Collection Pages

For deeper insights into specific opt-in tools:

1. Navigate to Audience > Subscriber Collection Tools.

2. Hover over any of the tools in the My tools section to display the Tool analytics button.

3. Click on Tool analytics on any of the tools you would like to analyse.

This opens a dedicated analytics page for that tool.

Use the dropdown menu at the top left to select the period for viewing metrics.

In the center of the screen, you’ll find SMS and Email opt-ins on the left and a metrics chart on the right, including Views data. These metrics are similar to those available on the General Analytics page.

Important

The Opt-ins and Opt-ins Growth include both new and returning subscribers collected via that specific tool.

Hover over the numbers to see a detailed breakdown.

Performance section:

In the Performance section, you will see specific performance metrics, which may vary depending on the opt-in tool (such as pop-ups, keywords, QR codes, etc.).

Key takeaways

The Subscriber Collection Analytics feature provides a comprehensive view of how your SMS and Email opt-in tools are performing. It allows you to:

• Identify top-performing sources of opt-ins.

• Track subscriber growth and opt-outs over time.

• Optimize collection methods to reduce churn and increase subscriber engagement.

Analyzing these metrics allows you to refine your strategy, allocate resources effectively, and drive better marketing outcomes.