What’s a “good” click through rate?

The other day I had a consult with a blogger, and we were talking about his click through rates.

He routinely gets 10% click rates when he sends out an email.

Seems pretty good, no?

It’s easy to see a stat like that and immediately think, “Wow, I’m only getting 1-2% CTR. My emails must be REALLY bad.”

Or the “glass is half full” version:

“Wow, I’m only getting a 1-2% CTR. If I buy Guru X’s email marketing course and get that up to 10%, I can 5X my business!”

Trouble is, the way that most email software reports click through rates is pretty much useless.

Here’s why:

Before your email copy can entice a subscriber to click through, they have to open your email.

Yet most email software doesn’t factor in open rates when it reports your click rates.

The same exact email will likely get a 2% click rate if sent to a list that averages 20% open rate—then generate a 5% click rate when sent to a list with a 50% open rate.

That’s why number I look at to gauge a particular email’s performance is the opens-to-clicks rate.

In the example I just mentioned, the opens-to-clicks rate is 10%.

That 10% is a pretty good baseline number.

If you’re at or above 10% opens to clicks, that’s pretty solid.

Too much below that, and you might be missing the mark in terms of what your audience wants. Or maybe your copy is really weak.

Above that, and high five, you’re doing well.

So is 2% a good click through rate?

If you get a 40% open rate usually, then no—it’s abysmal.

If your list averages 10% open rates then congrats, you’re an email copy rock star.

Although you might want to work on that open rate thing…

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