Average CTR's

[netsnets]

I just started messing with Adsense on my site last night. Just put them on a few pages as a little test run. What would you guys say is an average CTR? I've only done cpm ads and 3rd party ads on my sites, so I'm not really too sure what a good CTR is.

[europeforvisitors]

1) Only Google knows what an average CTR is (or a median CTR, for that matter).

2) Averages are meaningless in any case, because there are so many variables in terms of content type, audience, topic, and ads served.

[ken_b]

There is no meaningful average CTR that applies in a general sense.

There are just too many variables to try to arrive at an average. It all depends on the topic of your site, your page layout, your content, how many other exit options ther are on your pages, etc.

Not to mention that the Adsense TOS limits what many people are willing to share.

In the end, ll you can do is try the program and see if it works for you.

It doesn't work for every site.

[netsnets]

i was wondering if anyone has any ideas about what the longest drought (in terms of impressions) theyve gone without getting a click?

[blairsp]

17 days-about 185000 imps. Not a publisher anymore so give this info freely.

[Undead Hunter]

As I mentioned in an earlier thread, Doubleclick reports the average banner CTR as 0.44%, rich media ads as 1% CTR, for an overall average of around 0.5% (I don't know how the split works, but that's the median this quarter.)

Apparently, AdWords Advisor has said:

"Just as a point of reference, I'd say the average CTR across all keywords system wide is about 2%."

I *have* heard elsewhere that Adwords outperforms standard ads by a factor of 2 to 4, so that all seems right.

Of course, if you're targetting a site that sells vs. running ads on a content site, you're going to see a higher CTR.

[shrirch]

Undead, You're spot on with all three observations.

[shorebreak]

Agree with Undead, but I'd bet paid search industry average CTR is more like 1.2-1.4 than 2.0

[mquarles]

Mine is substantially higher, but my traffic is highly targeted (which, naturally, means lower volume).

MQ

[wonderboy]

17 days-about 185000 imps. Not a publisher anymore so give this info freely.

Sounds like you had PSAs for those days! Can't beleive that not a single person out of 185000 wouldn't click, not even by accident. Out of interest, why are you no longer a publisher, I don't know of many people that join google, then go away. W.

[dhatz]

Mine is substantially higher, but my traffic is highly targeted (which, naturally, means lower volume).

Same here, significantly higher than the quoted 2%, very targeted, low volume. Overall CTR and impressions are stable day after day.

average banner CTR as 0.44%, rich media ads as 1% CTR, for an overall average of around 0.5%

Btw I think the CTR number for "classic" graphical banners (non-targeted) by DoubleClick are inflated by a factor of 2-3 at least... Unless they're talking about very good match of ads+site combination.

[blairsp]

Wonderboy

Got kicked out for fraudulent clicks (which I denied) and then went through a long turgid process, the end result being "we don't believe you"(paraphrasing obviously). Now I come to think about it I wonder if my CTR was too low. Overall it averaged about 0.1% which from some of the pther posts seems incredibly low.

[level80]

Perhaps you were costing Google more to serve the ads then they were making on them :) 0.1% - well perhaps you needed to change the positioning/colours... but seriously... from my own personal experience in the sector I'm in - that CTR would equate to a measly $0.07CPM so I'd be jumping ship after about 24 hours of that... of course CPC may be higher for you. In the earlier example on this board of someone getting a CPC of $3-$4 due to a clickthrough on a forum about mortgages - 0.1% CTR on those high CPC rates would equate to a whopping $3-£4 CPM (not quite seen since the heady days of the dot-com boom).

So, as many people have pointed out here - unless you're comparing apples with apples - same type of ad - eg 120x600 (4 ads instead of 2), levels of PSA, same colouring, same industry, same type of visitors - comparisons are rather meaningless.....

[adfree]

Two of my sites use the exact same template for two totally different topics. Traffic is similar. AS ads identical positioning and color code. Very targeted sites, so there are hardly any charity ads.

One site has continuously 5 times as many CTRs than the other, go figure...

[annej]

I get a really nice (above average)click through rate on my hobby/history topics, in fact it has improved this month. It wasn't as good in April so Google must have tinkered with their new algo to the point where the targeting is now better.

On another topic I am getting next to nothing and it's all in the targeting. The topic is personal creativity and all I get is creativity in business ads. I did some searching on Google then checked the ads on the side and all the ads are business oriented so I may just be out of luck on that one.

I can't use AdSense on my health topic as it gets too many questionable 'cures' and such.

I wish I could find a good alternative for these sites.

[netsnets]

well, since starting this thread, my glorious run with google adsense ended early this morning. what a complete flop this was for me. my ctr was .35%, at a whopping 9 cents a click clip, for a mindboggling cpm of about 31 cents.. I was also dissapointed with the quality of the ads. Selling Valentines day gifts in may doesnt seem to make much sense.

Anyone with a sports related site manage to do well with adsense? Perhaps my topic is too general and the pages i tried the ads on too general to generate a higher ctr.

[wonderboy]

Try placing the ads differently netsnets, I found this was the biggest factor in moving from 0.1% CTR to a reliable 3% which is good for my site.

Adsense works for everyone as long as you give it the best setting to work in!

W.

[netsnets]

but with clicks in my area being so cheap, it doesnt seem worth it to give the adsense ads the best spaces on the site. i would rather spend those spaces promoting other things which would lead to more profit.