Push Notification Open & Purchase Rate Calculator

Understanding the push notification conversion calculator — concept and principle

This calculator turns the raw numbers from a push notification campaign into the metrics marketers compare: open rate, purchase rate among people who opened, total revenue and revenue per 1,000 pushes delivered. App teams use it to judge whether a message, audience or send time worked, and to compare push with email or SMS on a like-for-like basis.

How it is calculated

• Open rate = opens ÷ pushes delivered × 100
• Purchase rate (of opens) = purchases ÷ opens × 100
• Revenue = purchases × average purchase value
• Revenue per 1,000 pushes = revenue ÷ pushes delivered × 1,000

Use delivered pushes, not pushes sent, as the base. The calculator shows USD by default but works with any currency.

The principle

A push campaign is a funnel: delivered, then opened, then bought. Each step keeps a fraction of the previous one, so revenue equals delivered × open rate × purchase rate × average purchase. Splitting the funnel shows where you lose people. A weak open rate points to the message, timing or audience; a weak purchase rate after opening points to the landing screen, offer or price. Revenue per 1,000 pushes folds every step into one number, which makes campaigns of different sizes directly comparable.

Worked example

1. Inputs: 50,000 delivered, 2,400 opens, 120 purchases, average purchase $15.
2. Open rate: 2,400 ÷ 50,000 × 100 = 4.8%.
3. Purchase rate: 120 ÷ 2,400 × 100 = 5%.
4. Revenue: 120 × 15 = $1,800.00.
5. Revenue per 1,000 pushes: 1,800 ÷ 50,000 × 1,000 = $36.00.

How to read the result

Open rates depend strongly on platform, opt-in rules, app category and how personal the message is, so the most reliable benchmark is your own past campaigns. Look at the two rates separately: if a new message raises opens but lowers purchases, it may be attracting curious rather than ready buyers. Revenue per 1,000 is the fairest way to compare campaigns and channels, but remember that it is revenue, not profit, and that some of these buyers might have purchased anyway.

Common mistakes

• Using sent instead of delivered pushes, which understates the open rate.
• Calculating purchase rate from delivered rather than from opens, which mixes two funnel steps.
• Attributing every purchase within days of the push to the push.
• Ignoring opt-outs and uninstalls caused by sending too often.

Frequently asked questions

Why does my analytics tool show a different conversion rate?

Many tools divide purchases by delivered pushes. Here the purchase rate is divided by opens; multiply open rate by purchase rate to get the delivered-based figure (4.8% × 5% = 0.24%).

How can I improve the open rate?

Segment the audience, personalise the text, test send times and send less often to people who rarely open.

Is revenue per 1,000 pushes the same as RPM?

It follows the same idea of revenue per thousand, applied to delivered pushes instead of ad impressions.

Sources: P. Farris, N. Bendle, P. Pfeifer and D. Reibstein, Marketing Metrics, Pearson