Every marketing decision eventually comes down to numbers. For Informed Delivery, that means understanding actual performance data—not theoretical benefits, but measured results from real campaigns. This analysis compiles available benchmark data from USPS program reports and industry sources to give you realistic expectations for what Informed Delivery campaigns deliver.
The bottom line upfront: Informed Delivery offers impressive reach (72.9 million users) and engagement rates that exceed email marketing averages, but campaign click-through rates are modest compared to some digital channels. Whether that represents good value depends on how you view Informed Delivery—as a primary response channel or as a supporting touchpoint that enhances your direct mail's overall impact.
Program Reach: Who Actually Uses Informed Delivery#
Before evaluating campaign performance, understanding the user base tells you what audience you're potentially reaching.
According to USPS data covering April 2024 through March 2025, Informed Delivery has 72.9 million registered users representing 50.5 million households. That household coverage translates to 34.7% of all U.S. residential addresses having at least one enrolled member.
The growth trajectory remains positive—the program added users at a 17% annual rate during that period, suggesting the service continues expanding its footprint. USPS reports 94% user satisfaction, indicating the service delivers genuine value rather than accumulating inactive accounts.
What this means for your campaigns: roughly one-third of residential recipients on your mailing list likely have Informed Delivery access. Your actual coverage depends on your list's geographic and demographic composition—some areas and demographics have higher enrollment rates than others.
Daily Digest Engagement: Where the Numbers Shine#
The Daily Digest email is where most Informed Delivery engagement happens. Recipients receive this morning email showing grayscale scans of their incoming mail, along with any enhanced campaign images you've submitted.
The standout metric: 60.1% average open rate for Daily Digest emails. For context, email marketing benchmarks typically hover around 20% across industries. The Daily Digest achieves triple that rate because recipients have opted in specifically to see their mail—they're checking for expected deliveries, bills, packages, and correspondence they care about.
Time-on-dashboard metrics tell a similar story. Users who visit the Informed Delivery dashboard spend an average of 1 minute and 13 seconds reviewing their incoming mail. That's meaningfully longer than typical email engagement, though still a brief interaction—recipients are scanning for what matters to them, not leisurely browsing.
These engagement rates represent opportunity, but with an important caveat: high Daily Digest opens don't automatically translate to high engagement with your specific campaign. Recipients are opening to see all their incoming mail, not specifically to see your promotion. Your campaign competes for attention against whatever else is arriving that day.
Campaign Click-Through Rates: Setting Realistic Expectations#
Here's where expectations often need calibration. USPS reports aggregate campaign metrics showing approximately 0.26% click-through rate for campaigns using grayscale scans with ride-along images.
That number deserves context. A 0.26% CTR means for every 1,000 Informed Delivery impressions, about 2-3 recipients click through to your landing page. For a mailing to 10,000 addresses with 35% Informed Delivery coverage, you might see 9-10 clicks from the digital preview portion of your campaign.
Compared to email marketing benchmarks (typically 2-3% CTR), Informed Delivery click rates appear modest. But the comparison isn't quite apples-to-apples—email CTR counts clicks from people who opened the email, while Informed Delivery impressions include everyone who received the Daily Digest whether or not they engaged with your specific piece.
More meaningfully, Informed Delivery clicks represent an additional touchpoint beyond your physical mail. These are recipients who engaged with your message digitally before your mailpiece even arrived—some of whom may have converted through the click, and others who will convert when the physical piece reinforces the digital impression.
A Counterintuitive Finding: Grayscale Outperforms Color#
One data point challenges assumptions about campaign strategy. USPS analysis shows that grayscale images generate approximately 13% higher click-to-open rates than color representative images.
The interpretation suggests that authentic, "this is really in the mail" grayscale scans build trust more effectively than polished promotional graphics. Recipients may subconsciously treat representative images more like advertisements than mail previews, creating resistance to clicking.
This doesn't mean color representative images never make sense—they're valuable when grayscale scans don't display your mailpiece effectively. But it does suggest that defaulting to grayscale plus a ride-along image may perform better than automatically upgrading to color representative images.
The practical application: test both approaches with your audience. The 13% difference is an aggregate finding that may or may not apply to your specific creative and audience. Data from your own campaigns provides more relevant guidance than industry averages.
Campaign Volume and Impressions#
The scale of Informed Delivery campaign activity provides additional context for expectations.
USPS reports over 1 million campaigns completed annually through the program, generating 45.1 billion total impressions. That volume represents meaningful advertiser adoption, suggesting businesses are finding value despite the modest click-through rates.
High impression counts relative to click counts reinforce the reality that most Informed Delivery value isn't captured in direct click metrics. The impressions represent awareness—recipients saw your mailpiece preview and your enhanced campaign images, even if they didn't click through immediately.
The Attribution Challenge#
Measuring Informed Delivery ROI runs into the same attribution challenges as any multi-channel marketing. Consider this scenario:
A recipient sees your postcard in their Informed Delivery preview at 8 AM. They click through to your website, browse your offer, but don't convert. At 3 PM, they retrieve the physical postcard from their mailbox. The tactile experience reminds them of the offer they browsed earlier. That evening, they return to your site (typing your URL directly) and complete a purchase.
Which channel gets credit? The Informed Delivery click created awareness and initial engagement. The physical mail reinforced the message and drove the return visit. Standard web analytics might attribute the conversion to direct traffic, understating both the Informed Delivery and direct mail contributions.
This attribution complexity means click-through rates tell an incomplete story. Campaigns with "low" click rates may still contribute meaningfully to overall response rates by creating multiple impressions that compound toward conversion.
Cost Efficiency Analysis#
Informed Delivery campaigns are free to run—USPS charges nothing for ride-along images, representative images, or campaign reporting. The cost comes from the infrastructure requirements: Full-Service Intelligent Mail barcodes, electronic documentation, and either internal capability or mail service provider fees for campaign management.
For businesses already using Full-Service mail, the incremental cost for Informed Delivery campaigns may be minimal—primarily the time to prepare images and submit campaigns (or the marginal cost if your MSP charges for campaign management).
For businesses not currently using Full-Service mail, the infrastructure investment is the real cost consideration. The campaign-specific costs are trivial compared to the setup costs of becoming Full-Service capable.
This cost structure favors regular mailers over occasional ones. If you're running multiple campaigns annually, the infrastructure costs amortize across many campaigns. For single-campaign projects, the setup investment likely doesn't pencil out.
Promotional Incentives#
USPS mailing promotions periodically include Informed Delivery components, providing postage discounts for participating mailers. The specific structure changes annually, but recent promotions have included base discounts for Full-Service mail with add-on incentives for including interactive campaigns.
These discounts can offset campaign preparation costs, particularly for high-volume mailers where even small per-piece reductions add up. Check current USPS promotional calendars for active incentives and eligibility requirements—these programs have specific registration and compliance requirements beyond basic Informed Delivery participation.
Industry Comparisons#
How does Informed Delivery stack up against alternative marketing channels?
vs. Email Marketing: Informed Delivery's 60% open rate crushes email's ~20% average, but email offers higher click-through rates and direct control over your audience list. Email has lower infrastructure requirements and supports higher frequency. The channels serve different purposes rather than directly competing.
vs. Display Advertising: Digital display ads typically see 0.1-0.2% click-through rates—roughly comparable to Informed Delivery campaigns. But display ads reach broader audiences while Informed Delivery reaches only enrolled recipients who are already receiving your mail. The targeting is fundamentally different.
vs. Direct Mail Alone: This is the relevant comparison. Informed Delivery doesn't replace direct mail—it enhances it. The question is whether the enhanced engagement justifies the infrastructure and campaign management effort compared to mailing without the digital component.
Making the ROI Case#
Evaluating Informed Delivery ROI requires looking beyond click metrics to the full picture of how it contributes to campaign performance.
What you can measure directly:
Informed Delivery impressions (how many recipients saw your campaign)
Click-through rate (immediate digital engagement)
Landing page behavior from Informed Delivery traffic (time on site, pages viewed, conversions)
What requires inference or testing:
Lift in overall response rate compared to mailings without Informed Delivery
Brand awareness and recall effects
Influence on responses attributed to other channels
A reasonable framework: If you can isolate response rates between Informed Delivery-enhanced mailings and non-enhanced control groups, you can estimate the marginal value of the digital touchpoint. The ROI calculation then becomes: does the incremental response value exceed the incremental cost of campaign preparation and management?
For businesses where the incremental cost is low (already Full-Service, MSP handles campaigns efficiently), even modest lifts justify continued use. For businesses facing significant infrastructure investment, the lift needs to be substantial or the volume high enough to justify setup costs.
Frequently Asked Questions#
What's a "good" click-through rate for Informed Delivery?#
The USPS aggregate benchmark is approximately 0.26% for campaigns using grayscale scans with ride-along images. Rates vary significantly by industry, offer strength, and creative quality. Better than 0.3% suggests above-average performance; significantly below 0.2% suggests room for optimization.
Why are Informed Delivery click rates so much lower than email click rates?#
Email click-through rates are typically calculated from opened emails, while Informed Delivery rates count all impressions. Also, Daily Digest recipients are checking their incoming mail generally, not engaging with your specific campaign—your message competes against whatever else is arriving that day.
Do Informed Delivery clicks lead to actual conversions?#
USPS reports conversion data isn't publicly available at aggregate level. Anecdotally, marketers report that Informed Delivery clicks show higher purchase intent than typical display ad clicks because recipients already know your mail is coming—but conversion rates depend heavily on your specific offer, landing page, and audience.
Is Informed Delivery worth it for small mailings?#
The infrastructure costs (Full-Service IMb, campaign management) are relatively fixed regardless of mailing size. Small mailings don't generate enough impressions to meaningfully impact results, and the per-piece cost of compliance is higher. Informed Delivery makes more sense for ongoing programs with regular volume than for occasional small campaigns.
How do I track whether Informed Delivery is actually helping my campaigns?#
The cleanest approach is testing: run matched mailings where some recipients get Informed Delivery-enhanced mail and others don't, then compare overall response rates. You can also analyze landing page traffic from Informed Delivery clicks to understand engagement patterns, though that captures only direct click effects.
The Practical Takeaway#
Informed Delivery performance metrics tell a nuanced story. The 60% Daily Digest open rate demonstrates impressive reach, but that attention is distributed across all incoming mail rather than focused on any single campaign. Click-through rates are modest compared to some digital channels but represent an entirely incremental touchpoint that wouldn't exist without the program.
The strongest case for Informed Delivery isn't about click rates in isolation—it's about the cumulative effect of multiple impressions. A recipient who sees your preview, clicks to your site, receives your physical mail, and then converts has encountered your message through channels that reinforced each other. That multiplier effect is harder to measure but may be more valuable than click metrics suggest.
For businesses already operating in the Full-Service mail environment, adding Informed Delivery campaigns offers an essentially free way to extend campaign reach. For businesses evaluating whether to build that infrastructure, the question is whether your mailing volume and program consistency justify the investment.
Either way, going in with realistic expectations beats chasing inflated projections. Informed Delivery is a useful tool with measurable but modest direct response metrics. Its value comes from enhancing fundamentally sound direct mail programs, not from transforming mediocre campaigns into winners.