What is email click-through rate (CTR)?
The click-through rate (CTR) of an email is the number of people who clicked on one or more links (CTA or image) in your email message divided by the number of emails successfully delivered. It shows the percentage of people who clicked on any link, CTA, or image in your email. This metric reveals the engagement of your email – indicating your subscribers' activity.
How to calculate click-through rate?
To calculate the email click-through rate, divide the ‘number of individuals who clicked one or more links in the message’ by the ‘number of emails successfully delivered’ (discarding the bounces) and multiply by 100. Be careful to include only unique clicks. For example, if a person clicks the same link 3 times, it will be counted as 1 while calculating CTR. Also, if your email contains 2 links and a person clicks both of them, it’ll count as only 1 click while calculating CTR.
Formula for calculating click-through rate
Real-life example of click-through rate
Let’s say you sent an email to 120 people and 20 of them got bounced, which means 100 emails got successfully delivered. Out of those 100 recipients, 25 of them clicked on your call-to-action (CTA) link. This way, your click-through rate will be: 25/100 x 100 = 25%
What’s considered a good click-through rate (CTR)? (benchmark)
A good click-through rate ranges between 2-5%, across various industries. The CTR greatly depends on the industry, audience size, call-to-action, type of email, and much more. If you achieve a CTR of more than your industry average that’s a great success. According to MailChimp, in 2022, the average email click-through rate across industries is 2.62%. Check out this report for industry-specific CTR: Email Marketing Campaign Stats
Ways to increase your click-through rate (CTR)
- Nail your Call-to-Action (CTA): Pay close attention to call-to-action details, as this is what drives the audience to click on a link. The number of CTAs, positioning, type of CTA (text or button), and many other factors affect the click-through rate. Read this massive list of best CTA examples: Best Call to Action Examples of 2022
- Run a segmented email campaign: Segmenting your subscribers based on different categories for your product or services helps in sending relevant and targeted emails to your audience, increasing the click-through rate. Here is an info-packed read: 30 Ways to Segment Your Email List
- Optimize your emails for mobile: Most of the audience check their emails on mobile. So if you don't optimize your email for mobile, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity that will ultimately lead to decreased CTR. Ensure that your texts and designs look good and interactive on phones. Suggested read: The Essential Guide to Optimizing Your Emails for Mobile