As a digital marketer, you have a lot of metrics to pay attention to. From bounce rate to conversion rate to the amount of time on site, there are plenty of digital marketing KPI’s to evaluate. But what about click-through rate (CTR)? Are you giving your CTR as much time and attention as it deserves? If you aren’t dissecting it regularly, you could be missing out on a prime opportunity to optimize your business’s digital marketing strategy. Here are three reasons why your click-through rate could be the secret to catapulting your digital marketing success.
Click-through rates are directly correlated to conversion rates, and since conversions are the ultimate goal, a good CTR is crucial. The more people you have clicking through search or the Google Display Network (GDN), the more visitors you have on your site and in theory, the more conversions you will have. The logic is this: If people are excited enough about your meta description, social media post, latest email, or paid media ad to click, then that excitement will still be in play once they get to your site. If you can double your CTR, then there’s a good chance you will also double your conversions.
However, it is worth noting that click-through rates do vary pretty dramatically depending on not only the industry, but also the source of the traffic. Take a look at the average click-through rates by industry on both organic search and the GDN:
| Industry | Average CTR on Search | Average CTR on the GDN |
| B2B | 2.55% | 0.22% |
| Finance/Insurance | 2.65% | 0.33% |
| Legal | 1.35% | 0.45% |
| E-commerce | 1.66% | 0.45% |
| Education | 2.2% | 0.22% |
| Health/Medical | 1.79% | 0.31% |
| Travel/Hospitality | 2.18% | 0.47% |
Another reason why click-through rates are a true picture of your marketing tactics is because they are not biased, which cannot be said about conversion rates. The truth is that most people don’t purchase during their first interaction with your website, so a true conversion rate is really made up of people who already knew about your brand and what you had to offer. A CTR, on the other hand, is often from organic search, which usually indicates that someone searched for your keywords and came across your site. It is their first interaction with you, so if they click through, you know your offer was interesting enough to attract them and encourage action.
Essentially, your click-through rate is the true indicator of whether or not your marketing is working. If your CTR is high, then you have accomplished your goal of attracting the right audience for your brand, but if your CTR is low, then you need to get to work testing different offers. Again, conversion rate is important, but it is usually people who are familiar with your brand, while click-through rate is a new audience. By analyzing your CTR, you can learn what resonates with your target audience or market and make strategic modifications accordingly.
A high conversion rate may seem impressive, but if your click-through rate is incredibly low, then you still have a lot of work to do to reach your target audience. It’s one thing to convert a few clicks, but for true success, you need to up the clicks, and then up the conversion rate. To learn how to improve your click-through rate, or to have an expert conversion rate optimization agency handle it for you, contact Zero Gravity Marketing today.