Proof
90% open rate. Here's the data.
Here's where that number comes from. 51% of ad mail is read by a household member, another 10% is set aside for later, and 29% is handled but discarded, roughly 90% who at least look at the piece before deciding what to do with it. Source: USPS Household Mail Survey, FY 2025, filed with the Postal Regulatory Commission in April 2026.
The page below shows each number, the source, and how our category-exclusive format compounds the baseline.
Last updated April 24, 2026
Section 01: Attention rates
61% of ad mail gets attention. And the rate is rising.
The USPS Household Mail Survey tracks 5,000 households through a one-week mail diary each year. In FY 2025, 51% of advertising mail pieces were read by at least one household member and another 10% were set aside for reading later, a combined 61% attention rate. Households don't triage their mailbox the way they triage an inbox: almost every piece gets a glance, even if the glance ends in the recycling bin a second later.
And the trend is running in LocalAd's favor. The share of ad mail discarded without being read has fallen from 48% in 2015 to 39% in 2025 as advertisers got more selective about who they target. Fewer mailers per household, more attention per mailer.
Source: USPS, Household Mail Survey, FY 2025 (published March 2026). Figure 5.7 (reading trends), Chapter 5 (advertising mail). Filed as PRC filing 139572 on 2026-04-01.
Section 02: Response rates
1 in 4 existing customers: “very likely to respond.”
When a piece of marketing mail lands with someone the advertiser already has a relationship with: the exact case for a LocalAd mailer that follows a QR scan. 64% of it gets read and 25% of recipients self-report as “very likely” to buy, donate, or respond (8 or higher on a 1–10 scale). Include a coupon and the existing-customer response number jumps to 37%; coupons roughly double intent.
These aren't vendor benchmarks or self-selected marketing surveys. They're diary entries submitted by 5,000 U.S. households to the USPS annual survey, then filed with the Postal Regulatory Commission as public record, the most authoritative direct-mail measurement the country produces.
Source: USPS, Household Mail Survey, FY 2025 (published March 2026). Table E.5 (reading and response rates by past relationship), Table 5.6 (coupons). Filed as PRC filing 139572 on 2026-04-01.
Section 03: LocalAd's method
How we build on the baseline.
The numbers above are for anydirect mail piece. LocalAd's format is designed to compound them, not just ride them. Three decisions do the compounding:
- Category exclusivity.One business per trade per card. The reader never sees two plumbers competing for their attention on the same piece, so your ad isn't fighting its direct rival for recall.
- Zone-level saturation.We ship to every door in a defined neighborhood, not a purchased list. That matches the “saturation / every door” format that the USPS Household Diary Study consistently rates highest for read-through.
- QR → digital retargeting. Every card carries a unique QR code. Scans are attributed, measured, and re-engageable through your dashboard, so the physical glance turns into a tracked, retargetable visitor on the web.
Section 04: Verification
You don't have to take the baselines on faith.
Industry averages are useful, but they aren't your data. The whole point of the QR code on every LocalAd postcard is that you get to audit the claim on your own campaign in real time.
After your drop mails, your merchant portal at /portal/analytics surfaces every scan: total scans, unique visitors, timestamps, device class, and approximate location. If the baseline does not hold for your zone, your category, and your offer, the evidence shows up in your own dashboard within a week.
We'd rather be auditable than persuasive.
Have a data request or methodology question?
If a claim here looks off, or you want the underlying spreadsheet for a specific campaign, tell us. We'd rather fix a stat than defend it.
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