What is a good CTR range?

[MidwestWebGuy]

I was just wondering what CTR some of you have. I can't seem to get more than 1.5 - 1.6

[Jenstar]

If it is a non-forum site, you can definitely achieve a higher CTR than that. For forums, that is in the average CTR range.

[roycerus]

I keep hearing that forum don't perform well. I have consistently received an ECPM of $20 and clickthrough rates of 5%. And the industry I target is NOT one of those very high paying ones. The maximum goes to about $3 /click [according to overture]

1.5% is definitely low for ANY kind of website. There are MANY ways you can improve it. You just need to work at it a little.

Work on it.

Regards,
R

[MidwestWebGuy]

It's not a forum. And my userbase is considered good for click thorughs. They are consumers and tend to be less tech savvy.

I don't have a lot of traffic, only 150 - 200 unique visitors per day, but they are coming to my site to either buy or sell things so you would think I'd have a higher click through.

[CheeseburgerBrown]

"1.5% is definitely low for ANY kind of website. There are MANY ways you can improve it. You just need to work at it a little."

Statements like this make me roll my eyes.

I recently ran a niche website for a fixed period of time which achieved insanely huge popularity, and the AdSense ads on the site were beautifully, perfectly targetted and placed according to the prevailing SEO wisdom.

While certain crowds of surfers pushed the CTR up as high as 2.5% (depending on what kind of a website they were following the link from), the overall average for three months was 1.2%.

I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that there is NO ONE HERE who could have taken my content and that audience and made more money.

Frankly, if I *had* been getting a higher CTR I'd be concerned that my visitors weren't sufficiently interested in the content.

[MidwestWebGuy]

I am doing pretty much what the prevailing wisdom says to also, with the exception of using the block ads blended into the content. It just wouldn't work with my layout. Other than that, I'm doing everything they recommend. (I think)

The highest CTR I've had in the 2 months I've been using AdSense is 2.1.

My site is tricky in that I rely on user posts for content, but the ads are targeted pretty well.

My ads belnd in with my look & feel so they actually look like navigation links, which I would think would return a high CTR.

[Brett_Tabke]

Generally - as click rates go up - quality of site goes proportionatly down. Hence, as click rate goes up, the chances of sustaining a hand check go down.

That said, 8% and up is a possiblity and actively happening on alot of sites. I know of one site doing 20% right now - I know some others that claim higher, but knowing the quality of the sites - those will be the ones crying about being booted...

[MidwestWebGuy]

Goog point about the high CTR. I'd like to at least get the CTR up to 3%. That'd be doubling where I'm at now.

[europeforvisitors]

I agree with Brett [("Generally - as click rates go up - quality of site goes proportionatly down."), but I'd add that the topic and the type of content play a role in clickthrough rate, too.

For example, on my travel-planning site, photo galleries have low clickthrough rates while destination articles, cruise and hotel reviews, and other travel-planning pieces have much higher CTR. If I were obsessed with clickthrough rates, I could delete those photo galleries and other low-CTR pages, but that would be foolish because it would reduce my income, make my site less useful to readers, and discourage repeat visits.

Bottom line: Don't get worked up about clickthrough rates (or EPC, for that matter); instead, focus on eCPM and total earnings.

[roycerus]

Hi Brett,
What you are saying is true in the larger sense but it is definitely possible to get a pretty good click through rate even with a good quality site.

I have run a forum which has maintained a click through rate of over 5% for 8 months with an ECPM averaging $15. The industry [like I said] is not very high paying.

Here's what I think has helped it achieve the high CTR ECPM.

* Used two ad blocks for some time to sort out the better performing ads to the first block.

* Used one ad block [a leader board] for a long time above the first post. This kicked up the ECPM to higher level since impressions were reduced.

I think this has kind of sorted the way the ads are chosen. And oh! I weed out all adwords who's landing pages have adsense. These guys are mostly looking for those 1 cent clicks and bid very low on the content network.

I also think I got a bit lucky here since the addition of the CPM ads which I think based the CPM price on my existing ECPM.

I personally feel it's best to have just one ad block and an adlink if it works for your niche. And also, this forum is highly respected in its feild and people love it. I will start an optimisation for an article based site now.

Let me know what you think of this.

Regards,
R

[Jenstar]

I know some others that claim higher, but knowing the quality of the sites - those will be the ones crying about being booted...

I know many sites that ARE doing higher than 20%, nothing even remotely spammy or TOS violating about them, with unique and quality content.