What is a good click through rate?
Much like conversion rates, click through rates are a crucial metric in PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising – and vary considerably depending on your industry. So, what are they? And what is a good click through rate? Let’s run through the basics.
What is a click through rate?
Commonly abbreviated to CTR, a click through rate is the percentage of people who click on your advert, having seen it online. As a general rule of thumb, the higher the rate, the more relevant and attractive your advert is proving to be.
Say your ad was seen by 1,000 people and clicked 50 times. This would give you a click through rate of 5%.
Most PPC platforms, including Google Ads, display this metric in your account dashboard. It’s considered to be one of the most important measures of a PPC campaign’s success because, ultimately, if people are seeing your advert but not clicking on it, a return to the drawing board may be required.
Do I have a good click through rate?
As touched on at the beginning, the definition of a ‘good’ click through rate is by no means a blanket one – it will vary depending on your business sector. Other factors affecting your click through rate include the way your campaign is configured and which keywords it’s focusing on… even if your click through rate is poor, it doesn’t necessarily mean that your advert isn’t attractive. It could just be that you’re targeting the wrong keywords and, consequently, the wrong audience.
Click through rates will of course vary depending on the PPC platform you’re using, too. Google Ads is the most popular, and anything from 2% upwards is considered a decent click through rate for ads placed on Google search results pages.
Standout campaigns on this platform can achieve click through rates of 5% and upwards, however.
But these numbers are very much a generalisation. Click through rates in certain industries tend to be higher than in others, the likes of insurance and technology tending to experience higher rates across the board, for example.
As with conversion rates, the higher your click through rate, the better your campaign is doing. Your rate may be considered good, but that doesn’t mean it can’t still be improved upon.
