What is CTR?

The average number of click-throughs per hundred ad impressions, expressed as a percentage.

What is a good CTR?

There is no universal answer.

It depends on several variables.

  1. channel (email, search, display…)
  2. industry (tech, gaming, B2B…)
  3. creative type (text, banner…)
  4. targeting (broad vs. precise)

Keep in mind that CTR is a supporting metric to actual goals, not an end-goal.

That said, you might find some decent benchmarks if you can narrow down your searches by channel or industry.

i.e. “average email ctr”
or “email ctr benchmarks”

How to improve CTR?

Here are two major factors:

  1. improve creative unitsThis is as much an art of a science, and the solutions are not always obvious. Luckily, most online platforms make it easy to do extensive testing. Focus on your audience and what they want, then commit to regular testing.
  2. improve targetingFor example, in a search campaign, an unmodified broad match keyword could have a lot of irrelevant search queries, hurting your CTR. The solution would involve more precise targeting of the desired audience, plus refinement with negative keywords.

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