A store benchmark is not a solo ad price

Answer A store benchmark is not a solo ad price. On June 23, 2026, John Riewerts, chief product and technology officer at Acoustic, published a case that batch-and-blast is the thing in trouble, and he hung it on Acoustic's 2026 Marketing Benchmark Report. He says the report covers 12.2 million mailings across 519 senders. On that panel, automated emails drove 2.2 times the click-through rate of scheduled sends, 2.36 percent versus 1.07 percent, and 2.3 times the click-to-open rate, 6.8 percent versus 2.9 percent. He also says the upper quartile of automated mail reached a 14.8 percent click-to-open rate. Those are his panel's figures. They are not a rate card for a rented solo.

The note that started this: Is email marketing dead, or just evolving beyond batch-and-blast, John Riewerts, Acoustic, June 23, 2026.

A store flow mails a person who already did something with that store. Viewed a product, left a cart, came back, bought before. The message is late to a scene the person started. A solo ad is a guest appearance on a file you do not own, often on a schedule the seller picked. If you buy solo ads for affiliate marketing, you are closer to the scheduled column than to the flow column, and you do not get to import the flow's multiple because you liked it.

Riewerts says Apple Intelligence, Gmail's Gemini, Yahoo Mail, and Outlook Copilot filter on engagement history. He says Gmail's Gemini 3 launched in January 2026 with content scanning across roughly 1.8 billion users. Attribute the user count and the product list to him. They are reasons he gives for why a blast with no history struggles to stay visible. They are not a measurement of your next drop, and they are not a reason to pay a premium on solo ad pricing that cites his table.

What did Acoustic's 2026 benchmark compare?

John Riewerts cites Acoustic's 2026 Marketing Benchmark Report, 12.2 million mailings across 519 senders. He says automated emails drove 2.2 times the click-through rate of scheduled sends, 2.36 percent versus 1.07 percent, and 2.3 times the click-to-open rate, 6.8 percent versus 2.9 percent.

Read the nouns. Automated versus scheduled, inside that report, on those senders. Click-through and click-to-open, which are ratios on mail that was already in a program those senders operate. He adds that the upper quartile of automated emails reaches 14.8 percent click-to-open. Quartiles describe a spread inside the panel. They do not describe a solo ad seller who was not in the panel. A buyer who quotes 14.8 percent in a negotiation has left the building where the number was earned.

He is also arguing a product point, as an officer of a company that sells the kind of system he praises. Keep that in the margin. The figures can still be true of the panel and still be the wrong object for your order. Truth about their senders is not a coupon for your guest spot.

• The panel size is stated as 12.2 million mailings and 519 senders.
• The comparison is automated versus scheduled, on their mail.
• No solo ad price is derived from the multiples.
• The author's role at Acoustic is not hidden.

Can that store panel set a solo ad price?

No. The panel is their senders' mail, much of it to people who already have a relationship with the brand. A solo ad is one rented send to someone else's list. The rates do not transfer onto your quote.

Relationship is the missing ingredient. A flow can look brilliant because the person was already in motion. A solo can look cheap per thousand and still be expensive per human who asked. Dividing his 2.36 percent by his 1.07 percent and pasting the result onto a seller's price is arithmetic without a subject. The subject of his rate is a mailing in the report. The subject of your price is a file you have not seen.

Ask the seller for their own last sends. Clicks on a link like yours, from a creative like yours, to a page like yours. If they answer with a brand benchmark from a software company, they do not have their own number. You can still buy. You should not pretend the benchmark was the answer.

What does Riewerts say is in trouble?

He says batch-and-blast is what is in trouble, and he says Apple Intelligence, Gmail's Gemini, Yahoo Mail, and Outlook Copilot filter on engagement history. He also says Gmail's Gemini 3 launched in January 2026 with content scanning across roughly 1.8 billion users. Those are his claims about inboxes, not a promise for a rented drop.

Batch-and-blast, in his telling, is the calendar send to a list whether or not each person did anything. That description fits a lot of solo ads. The fit is a warning, not a death certificate for mail. He says the channel is not what is dying. Take the warning at the size he wrote it. A rented blast does not inherit a store's engagement history. It borrows a sender's reputation for an hour. If that reputation was built on mail people wanted, you may be fine. If it was built on blasts, his panel is a hint that the hour is uphill. Hint is the right size. It is not a refund clause.

Use the June 23 piece as a label on the wrong comparison. A store benchmark is a store benchmark. Your price needs a list, a domain, and a creative. His 2.2 times is not any of those three.