Publisher CTR good or bad?

How do you determine for your account?

[farmboy]

I read a number of threads in which publishers indicate their CTR is good, or bad, or lousy, or great, or whatever.

I'm curious what publishers use to determine whether the CTR is good or bad or whatever.

Is it based on opinion/expectation, on the success rate of direct mail, magazine ads, roadside billboards, etc?

What basis do you use to determine this?

I know from direct mail experience that a 1% success rate is a happy experience and 2% means it's time to throw a party. Compared to direct mail, AdSense has essentially no risk and is much easier from an effort perspective, so I think I'm on top of the world with a 1% or 2% AdSense CTR.


FarmBoy

[londrum]

i think the only useful comparison you can make is with yourself. compare the click through rate with what you got this time last year, or this day last week.

if you're only getting a CTR of 1% and someone tells you that they're getting 2%, or 5% or whatever, then its almost meaningless. because it all depends on what kind of site they've got, their audience, the time of year, the quality of the advertisers... loads of things

[Jaideemaak]

Agree with londrum. It's based only on previous experience for my own sites. If one day the CTR is x and the next it is one-tenth of x I consider it a lousy day.

I might do this day by day, week by week or month by month. I've given up comparing year-on-year because that exercise is really depressing.

I'm not sure that your direct mail analogy is relevant. Yes, Adsense is easier for publishers but it's also easier for visitors.

Selling to people via direct mail requires them to part with some money so it is a difficult sell, and 1%-2% would be very good. Clicking on an ad costs nothing so there is no need to overcome the initial reluctance to buy. It's completely risk-free.

[ember]

We get around 4% to 5% overall, and I had been worried about that, but a Google adsense guy told me that that is okay. It's when you get to 10% or higher that you should be worried.

[azn romeo 4u]

if ctr was determined by just visits and not pages viewd I have a 15-25% ctr. my visitor view 15-80 pages. I think most people get 1% though. people with high bounce rates get higher imo.

anything over 1% is good for me. wish I could touch 5%. then I can retire today.

[DaStarBuG]

I use CTR as measurement. I try new placements or different formats to see if I can increase it.

However comparing it to others does not help you at all.

A Forum that gets a 1.5% CTR with 500k uniques is doing good.
Comparing it to a blog with a 15% CTR and 11k Visitors per month does not help at all. It is like comparing apples with oranges.
Even a different niche means different CTR.

[ken_b]

I think eCPM/RPM is a better measure.

[fanboy]

+1 ken_b

I average about 1% and I used to worry about that. But I make good money with that one percent. :) I too wish it was 5%. I'd be out shopping for real estate.

[alika]

It is always good idea to strive to improve your metrics -- within the allowed guidelines.

Increasing your CTR from 1% to 3% may positively impact your revenues. You can start by simple changes with the ads (e.g. changing colors) to redesigning your website to change the placement of the ads

[denisl]

Personally, I think I would be getting worried well before the 10% level that there was something wrong with my site to cause such a high number to want to click on ads.

[netmeg]

I have multiple sites and my CTR is all over the map for them. So I don't spend a lot of time on it, except now and then to compare it to last year to see if it's outside the norm.

[MikeNoLastName]

When you all calculate your "CTR" do you look at Clicks per page (which could have 1-3 ad blocks), Clicks per ad block (which could have 1-5 ads) or Clicks per ad, which would ideally be the lowest common denominator. Which does G look at to determine if your site CTR is too high? Each is manipulable to an extent in various ways, but which to manipulate?

[matrix_jan]

When you all calculate your "CTR" do you look at Clicks per page

I'll add more questions that were given above but were not answered so far. CTR of unique visitors (uv/clicks), CTR of pageviews (pv/clicks) or CTR of visitors (visits/clicks) or what? please be more specific otherwise this whole conversation is pointless..
I get 1% CTR(uv/clicks) and 0.15% (pv/clicks)

Perhaps it would be better to compare "page eCPM or RPM". I get $0.61 RPM in adsense.

[Lame_Wolf]

When you all calculate your "CTR" do you look at Clicks per page (which could have 1-3 ad blocks), Clicks per ad block (which could have 1-5 ads) or Clicks per ad, which would ideally be the lowest common denominator. Which does G look at to determine if your site CTR is too high? Each is manipulable to an extent in various ways, but which to manipulate?

Personally, I look at the overall CTR. ie. The whole account.

[ember]

Personally, I think I would be getting worried well before the 10% level that there was something wrong with my site to cause such a high number to want to click on ads.

Depends on the site topic, the type of traffic, the type of content, the layout, etc. If Google says a particular CTR is okay, then I think it is okay.

[Lame_Wolf]

If Google says a particular CTR is okay, then I think it is okay.

How would you know or not, if Google says it's okay ?

[ember]

How would you know or not, if Google says it's okay ?

I'm not sure where it says CTR has to be 1%.

[netmeg]

this whole conversation is pointless

Bingo!

I mean, I'm sorry to sound harsh, but it really is pointless, because it can vary so much just because of the factors already mentioned and others besides, a few of which are outside our immediate control.

It's one thing to compare notes because you're interested in it as theory, but there are no practical takeaways without knowledge of niche, target audience, traffic, ad placement.. (I could go on) I see variances between 1% and 23% just on my own sites. All you can do is monitor your own and see if it rises.

[alika]

A more useful discussion will be how to increase your CTR ... not really whether your CTR of 1% or 10% is good or bad

[azn romeo 4u]

From experience and talking to other webmasters, 1% CTR is considered "good". Especially if you have a lot of visitors and return visits. Return visitors rarely click on ads, that's evident with forums. Forums have the worst CTR I have ever seen in the history of online advertising. And I have a lot of forums that I run. A few with 2 million + posts.