PB DATA LABS

2026 Business Texting Benchmark Report:

2-Hour Replies and Unsubscribes

Conversations Drive the Highest Engagement
Many businesses treat SMS like email, sending promotional messages to large lists. The PB Data Labs report shows this might not be the best strategy. Messages that invite or encourage a reply consistently outperform traditional broadcast messages.
When customers respond to a text message, the interaction shifts from marketing to conversation, and starts driving real value.
The report explores how businesses can send messages that initiate conversations, rather than simply deliver promotions.
Conversations Drive the Highest Engagement

Text Message Marketing Benchmarks

Strategies to optimize your text marketing:

• The best times of day to send text messages
• How message length impacts reply behavior
• Why conversational messaging outperform traditional campaigns
• How to maintain low unsubscribe rates, at scale

Download the full report:

Timing Matters More Than Most Businesses Realize
Because text messages are often read shortly after delivery, timing has a major impact on engagement. The analysis revealed clear differences in reply behavior depending on the hour a message is sent. Certain times of day consistently produced stronger engagement while maintaining low unsubscribe rates.
Timing Matters More Than Most Businesses Realize

Not All Text Message Types Perform the Same
Businesses send many different types of SMS messages, including 1-on-1 chat, broadcasts, keyword replies, etc. Each message type produces different engagement patterns. In fact, the report shows that some types of messages generate up to 17X the reply rate of others. Understanding these patterns can dramatically improve messaging performance.
Not All Text Message Types Perform the Same

Text Message Marketing Benchmarks

What You’ll Learn in the Full Report

Strategies to optimize your text marketing:

• The best times of day to send text messages
• How message length impacts reply behavior
• Why conversational messaging outperform traditional campaigns
• How to maintain low unsubscribe rates, at scale

Download the report to see what 170 million real-world text messages reveal about how customers interact with businesses via SMS.

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Text Message Marketing Benchmarks

Why We Created PB Data Labs

PB Data Labs was created to help businesses better understand how customers interact with SMS messaging. Instead of relying on assumptions or small datasets, PB Data Labs analyzes messaging behavior across millions of real-world interactions.

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