If you can’t answer "In my key funnel moments, what percentage of shoppers can I actually reach with email?" you’re flying blind in email marketing and lifecycle retention.
Most brands track conversion rate, AOV, and revenue. But there’s a foundational constraint underneath all of them:
You can only convert (or re-convert) the shoppers you can identify.
This is why we built a new metric for email marketing and retention teams: Identification Rate.
TL;DR
Identification Rate tells you what % of shoppers at each funnel event are reachable (email/known profile), which directly constrains your email and retention upside.
- It’s calculated at the "event level": `Identification Rate = Total Identified / UV at event`.
- Total Identified = `Native pixel identified + Incremental lift`.
- Incremental lift comes from two sources: `Recapture` (extra known profiles) + `Capture` (enriched anonymous shoppers).
- Once you know your incremental lift, you can estimate "monthly incremental revenue" and spot where your retargeting audiences are leaking (especially on iOS).
The problem nobody measures
I couldn’t find a product in the market that answers a simple, practical question for brands:
> Across key funnel moments (Product View → ATC → Checkout → Purchase), what share of shoppers can you actually reach via email later?
That share determines whether your abandoned cart flows, win-back campaigns, and retargeting audiences have enough coverage to work.
If your "reachable audience" is small, your retention program will look weak even if your copy and offers are great.
Definition: What is Identification Rate?
Identification Rate is the percentage of unique visitors (UV) at a given funnel event that you can tie to an identified profile (typically email).
Formula
Identification Rate = Total Identified / UV at event level
Where:
- UV at event: unique visitors who triggered that event (e.g., ATC, Checkout Started).
- Total Identified: the total number of those visitors with an identified profile.
How it’s calculated (Native vs Incremental Lift)
To calculate Identification Rate, we break "identified profiles" into components:
- Native pixel identified: profiles identified by your existing native tracking/pixels.
- Attribuly incremental lift**: additional identified profiles contributed by Attribuly.
And incremental lift is split into:
- Recapture: additional *known profiles* that native pixels missed but Attribuly can identify.
- Capture: enriched anonymous shoppers* that become identifiable (depends on configuration).
So:
- `Incremental lift = Recapture + Capture`
- `Total Identified = Native pixel identified + Incremental lift`
Why this matters: "flow coverage" is a math problem
Email revenue (and broader retention revenue) is constrained by how many shoppers enter your flows in the first place.
At a high level:
Email revenue = Shoppers identified × Conversion rate × AOV
If identification is low, you’re not just missing revenue—you’re missing the opportunity to even attempt recovery*.
What the dashboard reveals (Identity Lift by event)
When you visualize Identification Rate across funnel events, you can see "where identity is leaking".
In one real store example, Recapture contributed meaningful lift before ATC, and Capture provided even larger lift (depending on configuration).
This matters because the earlier you increase identification (e.g., Product Viewed / ATC), the more:
- shoppers can enter abandoned cart flows,
- audiences can be built for retargeting,
- and first-party signals can be sent back to ad platforms.
How to use Identification Rate (practical playbook)
Start with the "lowest-hanging fruit": Incremental lift
Incremental lift is value you can get immediately because it increases your reachable audience without changing your offers or creative.
Example: clone your best-performing Klaviyo flow using best practices so the "flow coverage increases" as incremental identified profiles enter the automation.
Predict monthly incremental revenue
If you know how many additional shoppers you can identify, you can estimate the upside.
A simple version:
`Monthly incremental revenue ≈ Incremental lift × Revenue per recipient`
If you want a more explicit model:
`Monthly incremental revenue ≈ Incremental identified shoppers × Flow conversion rate × AOV`
Either way, Identification Rate turns email/lifecycle planning from "hope" into forecasting.
Diagnose retargeting audience loss (especially on iOS)
Incremental lift also implies how many “first-party signals are” not reaching ad platforms today.
When those identities and events are missing, retargeting audiences shrink and performance can degrade—especially in iOS-heavy traffic.
This is where "server-side tracking" becomes valuable: send enriched emails + event data back to platforms like Meta so audience match quality improves over time (e.g., visible in Meta Events Manager).
Pick the right funnel moment to invest in
Look at Identification Rate by event:
- If Product View is low: you’re missing top-of-funnel identity, impacting future reach.
- If ATC / Checkout is low: your recovery flows and high-intent audiences are underfed.
- If Purchase is low: your post-purchase retention and LTV expansion workflows have gaps.
The goal isn’t "100% identification."The goal is to “close the highest-impact identity gap first".
Quick comparison table
| Metric | What it tells you | What it misses |
|---|---|---|
| Conversion rate | Efficiency of your funnel | Whether you can reach the rest later |
| AOV | Revenue per order | Audience coverage constraints |
| Email revenue | Output of retention efforts | The *ceiling* caused by identification gaps |
| Identification Rate | Reachable audience share at each funnel event | Doesn’t replace attribution; it improves the data foundation |
Common mistakes
Mistake 1: Treating identification as a single site-wide number
"Why it matters": identification varies dramatically by funnel event.
"What to do instead": track Identification Rate at the event level (PV, ATC, Checkout, etc.).
Mistake 2: Using Identification Rate as an attribution metric
"Why it matters": Identification Rate measures *reachability*, not credit assignment.
"What to do instead": pair it with your attribution model; use it to improve the event data your attribution relies on.
Mistake 3: Ignoring traffic mix changes
"Why it matters": a channel shift (paid vs organic) can change identification.
"What to do instead": compare trends within similar traffic periods, or segment by channel.
FAQ
Is Identification Rate the same as email opt-in rate?
No. Opt-in rate measures how many new subscribers you collected. Identification Rate measures how many shoppers at a specific event can be tied to an identified profile, which may include known customers and enriched identities.
Which funnel events should I track first?
Start with "ATC" and "Checkout Started" because these events feed the highest-intent recovery workflows. Then expand to **Product Viewed** for earlier audience building.
What’s a “good” Identification Rate?
There isn’t one universal benchmark because traffic mix, region, and product category matter. The most useful benchmark is: your current baseline by event, and how much incremental lift you can unlock.
Does higher Identification Rate always mean higher revenue?
It increases your reachable audience, which raises the ceiling for retention. Actual revenue still depends on offers, deliverability, flow design, and conversion rate.
What’s the difference between Recapture and Capture?
Recapture identifies additional known profiles that native pixels missed. Capture turns more anonymous shoppers into identifiable profiles (often configuration-dependent).
How does this help paid ads?
Higher identification means more reliable first-party signals and better audience matching, especially when you send events server-side. This supports stronger retargeting and measurement quality.
Do I need server-side tracking to improve Identification Rate?
Not always, but it can help send higher-quality identity + event data to ad platforms, especially when browser restrictions or iOS reduce client-side signal reliability.
Closing
If you’re serious about retention, don’t only ask “What is my conversion rate?”
Also ask:
> “At each key funnel event, what % of shoppers can I actually reach again?”
That’s what Identification Rate makes visible.
If you want to see Identification Rate by event for your store (and the incremental lift you can unlock), comment “ID RATE” or DM me.
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SEO / Intent Notes (for repurposing on your blog)
- "Primary intent": Informational (define a metric + explain why it matters for email/lifecycle teams) with Commercial Investigation (measurement tool evaluation).
- "Core keywords": identification rate, email marketing metrics, lifecycle email, identity resolution for ecommerce, email identification, retention marketing metrics, event-level identity lift.
- "Query cluster":
- What is identification rate in email marketing (and retention)?
- How to measure reachable shoppers by funnel stage?
- Why abandoned cart flows miss shoppers?
- How to improve retargeting match rate on iOS?
- Recapture vs capture identity lift (ecommerce)
- "Suggested URL slug": `/blog/identification-rate-email-marketing`