We don’t hear much about the click-through rate when we consult analyses and recommendations for digital marketing campaigns (search engine marketing).
Nevertheless, it is one of the easiest performance indicators to calculate, but also to optimize.
In this article, we will see in detail how to calculate the click-through rate and the best practices to put in place to optimize and improve it.
The click-through rate is defined by the number of clicks a campaign receives compared to the number of times it is displayed.
For example, if 10 consumers see an ad and 2 click on the banner, then the CTR is 20%. Click-through rate = (2/10) x 100.
What is the click-through rate?
The definition of CTR (click-through rate) is the percentage of people who click on an ad compared to the total number of people who see the ad.
Closely related to the bounce rate and conversion rates, the CTR can be improved and optimized independently of the other digital marketing performance indicators.
It is mainly used to measure the performance of digital activities and campaigns. Whether on social networks, but also on Google Ads or even in SEO.
Therefore, during advertising campaigns, it is very easy to analyse the advertising formats that perform best with this metrics.
You can also compare several formats and optimize your campaigns according to the click rate.
Generally, a low CTR means a poor choice of audience, an unsuitable advertising format or a hook/claim which is not relevant to the targeted prospect.
How to calculate the CTR?
Nowadays, most of the analysis tools propose to automatically calculate the CTR. Whether in advertising management tools such as Google Ads or Facebook Business Manager, the CTR is provided automatically.
Nevertheless, it could be interesting to calculate it “manually” in some specific cases.
For example, if you want to consolidate the total number of clicks of several campaigns on different advertising channels.
This way, you can have the average click rate of a campaign across all channels and ad formats.
To do this, you need to divide the number of clicks that an ad format has had by the number of times it has been displayed.
Let’s take, for example, an advertising campaign displayed 100 times, and clicked 20 times. We divide 20/100 and get 0.2. We multiply this result by 100 to be expressed in percent.
This ad format therefore has a click-through rate of 20%.
What is a good click-through rate (CTR)?
Many factors influence the click-through rate, which is why it is difficult to define a global value that corresponds to a good click-through rate.
Nevertheless, we can classify the CTR according to the digital marketing channels (email, social networks, search engines) and the different industries.
On this subject, a detailed study by Wordstream is available on their website.
It is agreed that a good click rate in terms of statistical average is between 4 and 6%.
You might think that a high click-through rate is synonymous with a successful marketing campaign, but it can be detrimental to your business.
If you bid on a keyword ad with a very high search volume, you will very often have a high click-through rate. However, it is imperative to check the number of conversions associated with this keyword.
If it is not relevant for your digital marketing activity, it is counterproductive for the overall performance of your campaign towards your websites or landing pages.
That’s why, in addition to monitoring the CTR, it is essential to monitor the conversion rate, the bounce rate.
Best practices to improve the click rate
The click-through rate can be improved by setting up regular tests.
Therefore, you can test different advertising formats, for the same campaign. Some dimensions may have a better click-through rate, depending on the devices (computers or phone) used by the prospects.
Also, you can try different hooks or calls to action in your ad formats.
- “Buying now” on a button is very often perceived as a commitment by a prospect.
- “Discover now” can be a very good alternative to test and improve the CTR.
To conclude
The click-through rate is a performance indicator that is frequently put on the back burner.
Nevertheless, improving it doesn’t require an extra budget and can be very effective.
For a digital marketing campaign that displays 10,000 impressions with a click-through rate of 4%, that represents 400 clicks.
If the conversion rate is 10%, the number of sales is 40.
Improving the click rate by 1% represents 10 more sales without having increased the initial budget.
For this reason, it is essential to analyse and optimize the click-through rate of a campaign as regularly as possible.
If you think that your click rate is low, and you want to find solutions to this problem. Don’t hesitate to contact us, I will be happy to discuss with you the digital strategies to adopt!