What's a good SMS Reply Rate?
Karbon Agency's target for SMS Reply Rate is 15.0% or higher. That is Karbon's own grading target, not a published industry average. Percentage of delivered SMS messages that received a reply. Excellent is 30.0% or higher (Karbon target), and the minimum acceptable tier is 5.0% or higher (Karbon target).
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The three tiers Karbon grades against — and where each comes from
| Tier | Value | What it means | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum | 5.0% | The floor. Below this, something is broken. | Karbon target |
| Recommended | 15.0% | The tier a healthy campaign should hit. | Karbon target |
| Excellent | 30.0% | Top-tier performance worth defending. | Karbon target |
Higher is better for this metric.
Why SMS Reply Rate matters
Reply rate is the gold standard for SMS engagement. High reply rates indicate conversational messaging that builds relationships, not just broadcasts.
Karbon target
No independent public benchmark exists for SMS Reply Rate as Karbon measures it. The tiers above are Karbon Agency's own grading targets for local-business campaigns, not an industry average, and we don't cite one we haven't found.
Where does your SMS Reply Rate land?
Karbon Agency grades every client campaign against these exact tiers, live on a dashboard — no guessing, no quarterly PDFs.