Get more from your Email logs with Azure Communication Services

If you're sending emails with Azure Communication Services, you already know how powerful the platform is for delivering messages at scale. But what happens after you hit send? 

In our latest video, we walk through how to unlock insights from your email activity using logs and telemetry in the Azure portal. Whether you're tracking delivery success, debugging failures, or analyzing engagement, this guide helps you get started with the tools that matter. 

Why email telemetry matters 

Understanding how your emails perform is critical—especially when you're running campaigns, monitoring sender reputation, or troubleshooting delivery issues. With Azure Communication Services, you can tap into Log Analytics for real-time visibility into: 

• Delivery and failure rates
• Suppression reasons
• User engagement (opens, clicks)
• Correlation IDs for tracing specific messages 

While this video focuses on email, the same logging and telemetry setup applies to other Azure Communication Services like SMS, voice, and chat—so once you’ve got the hang of it, you can reuse the same approach across channels. 

Step 1: Set up your log analytics workspace 

Before you can start querying logs, you’ll need a place to store them. In the Azure portal: 

1. Create a Log Analytics workspace.
2. Choose your subscription and resource group.
3. Name your workspace and click Review + Create. 

This workspace acts as the central hub for all your telemetry data. 

A GIF of a user creating a Log Analytics Workspace in the Azure Portal.

Step 2: Configure diagnostic settings 

Next, connect your Azure Communication Services resource to the workspace: 

1. Navigate to your Communication Services resource.
2. Under Monitoring, select Diagnostic settings.
3. Add a new setting and choose the email-related log categories:
   
   • Send mail logs
   • Delivery status updates
   • User engagement logs
4. Point them to your Log Analytics workspace and save. 

Now your logs will start to flow into the workspace automatically. 

A screenshot of how to add a "diagnostic setting" in the Azure portal, with the "Diagnostic settings" tab highlighted and specific categories to select also highlighted

Step 3: Explore insights in the portal 

With logs enabled, you can start exploring your data: 

• Use the Insights tab for a high-level overview of delivery and engagement.
• Filter by sender address or time range.
• View metrics like delivery success, failures, and clicks. 

This is great for quick checks—but for deeper analysis, you can write custom queries. 

A screenshot of the Insights dashboard in the Azure Portal. It shows charts with an overview of the number of emailsdelivered,failed, and suppressed.

Step 4: Run custom queries with KQL 

In the Logs section of your workspace, use Kusto Query Language (KQL) to dig into the details: 

• Find suppressed or bounced emails
• Trace delivery failures with correlation IDs
• Identify which links were clicked in a campaign
• Export results to CSV, Power BI, or Excel 

The video walks through several examples, including how to change sample queries and build your own. 

A screenshot of the Azure Queries Hub from within the Azure Portal. It shows a sample query looking for logs that have a specific RecipientId and UserAgent

Bonus: Reuse this setup across Azure Communication Services channels 

While this walkthrough focuses on email, the same telemetry setup works for other Azure Communication Services channels. Whether you're building with SMS, voice, or chat, you can use Log Analytics to monitor performance, debug issues, and improve user experience. 

Watch the full walkthrough 

Want to see it in action? Watch the preceding full video above for a step-by-step demo of everything covered here. 

And if you’re already using logs in creative ways—or have questions about telemetry for other Azure Communication Services features—drop us a comment. We’d love to hear how you use it!