In the world of digital marketing, you will hear and read a ton about click-through rate or, as we call it, CTR. Before a new customer can visit your online store and make a purchase, he first must click. It might be on a Facebook ad, a Google search result, or a link in an email. Regardless of what it is, it brings the customer to your website.
The logic is clear – the more people click, the more traffic you get, and the more potential customers you have on your website. That means that in order to increase your sales and revenue, you need to improve your click-through rate (CTR). It sounds simple enough, right?
But then come the questions – what is a good CTR? Is mine any good? If not, how can I improve it? Well, we’re here to give answers to them so that the topic of CTR becomes less confusing for you.
What is a Good CTR?
Well, it’s hard to give a “one fits all” answer to this question. A “good” CTR for a business largely depends on a variety of factors. However, the most important thing is whom you compare yourself to – if you choose to look at the results of other companies, your expectations might be too high or too low; that’s why the best benchmark for your CTR is your own past results.
What Factors Affect the Click Through Rate?
Many things have an impact on your click-through rate; the most common factors include
- Relevance to your audience: People are much more likely to click on something they’re interested in or that brings them value.
- Search engine ranking: Pages that are able to get a higher ranking on the search engine results page (SERP) tend to have a higher CTR.
- Link location: The location of the link or CTA button on the page can affect how often people click on it.
- Appearance: If the CTA button is visually pleasing and aesthetically fits the page, then visitors are much more likely to click on it. Remember, font, layout, colors, and images do matter.
- Industry: Some industries tend to have higher click-through rates than others, so it’s good to know the average of your company’s industry.
Every business will have a different benchmark for what a reasonable click-through rate is. However, we know you want to see some actual statistics, so we’ve prepared some for a few different channels.
Organic Search Click-Through Rates
Ranking higher has a ton to do with improving your organic search CTR. The first result on the Google search page has an average CTR of 31.7%, the second one of 24.7%, and the third has 18.7%. When it comes to the results on the second page, stats show that very few people are likely to click on any of them.
All of this means that moving up just one spot can significantly improve your CTR. That is why most companies tend to preach search engine optimization, and it’s a marketing strategy used by almost all modern-day companies.
Email Click-Through Rate
According to one survey, the average email click-through rate is 2.6%. However, that number varies and is ultimately debatable. Average CTRs tend to be different for each industry, and it’s a good tip to see which category your company falls into. For some niches, getting a high click-through rate is incredibly difficult and not worth the effort.
As a general rule, the best way to improve your email CTR is by creating email marketing campaigns that are engaging and relevant to your target audience. Along with that, when it comes to email it’s vital that you send yours out at the right time – that way, there is a much better chance the recipient will open your message.
Pay-Per-Click Ad Click-Through Rates
Pay-per-click ads include all kinds of Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and other different types of ad campaigns that you can invest money into. For Google, the average CTR is 1.91% for search ads and 0.35% for display ads; however, that largely varies depending on the industry, so you shouldn’t immediately jump to conclusions.
When it comes to Facebook, the ads CTR is 0.89%, and the average one for Bing (now Microsoft Ads) is 2.83%; however, here, it also depends on your niche, and the numbers aren’t similar across the board.
The most important thing you need to remember about PPC ads is that targeting is vital. If a Facebook Ad about kitchen supplies is shown to 1,000 people out of whom 500 are children, it will get a much lower CTR than if it was delivered to 1,000 females aged 30-50 and who have shown previous interest in cooking.
Final Thoughts
All in all, determining what a reasonable click-through rate is can be tricky. Our main advice is to not look at what other companies are achieving and to instead put focus on your previous results and the average CTR for your industry and for the channels that you use. That way, you will get a sense of whether you’re doing well and if you’ve improved in comparison to your past results, and so you will have a way of knowing whether you’re on the right path or not.
At the end of the day, the CTR remains one of the best metrics that tells you what your audience responds to and what they like. Do they like funny memes or more serious articles with a ton of data and research? That information will, later on, help you improve not only your PPC ads but also the other marketing content you create.