CTR what does that mean?

The abbreviation CTR means the so-called click through rate or click through rate. How to understand it? It is about the ratio of the number of clicks to the number of views of a given content (e.g. advertising, search result, e-mail). If 1,000 people see your ad and 250 clicks on the link in your ad, your click-through rate will be 25%.

CTR is one of the main measures of audience engagement. It can refer to organic search results as well as paid advertising, email marketing, push notifications and many other activities. It is often referred to in the context of Google Ads ads as it allows you to check your effectiveness in driving traffic to the website. In short, the click-through rate shows how many people the message contained in a given ad (or notification, e-mail, etc.) reached enough to make them want to learn more by clicking on the link. Therefore, it allows you to check whether a given material performs its function properly. Constant CTR monitoring also allows you to track whether campaigns are going in the right or wrong direction.

CTR and other statistics in a mailing campaign

Of course, however, the CTR alone does not provide enough information about the effectiveness of the activities carried out. It is worth comparing it with other indicators to get a more complete picture of the situation. What correlations are worth paying attention to?

CTR and OR
A high Open Rate (OR, message open rate) means that the campaign has piqued interest, was timed, and made it through spam filters. However, if your CTR is also low, the content of the message may not have been enticing enough. Sometimes it can also indicate technical problems.

CTR and ROI
ROI is an abbreviation that stands for Return On Investment. This is actually the most important indicator of whether you are making money with your activities. If sales are low despite high click-through rates, it means, for example, problems with the offer itself or its presentation on the website.

CTR and unsubscribes
The combination of a high CTR with the growing number of unsubscribes is an alarming factor. This may mean that the content of the mailing does not reach the target group at all or is of little interest.

CTR in Google organic search results

Google uses CTR to evaluate the quality performance of Google Ads campaigns. It also uses it to evaluate organic search results. There are also reasons to believe that the index affects the position of the page in the search engine. (of course as one of many other factors). Google’s algorithms are constantly learning from Internet users’ behavior, so they likely also use click-through information to identify what is most popular and why. Therefore, high click-through rates mean not only more traffic on the website, but also better positioning for specific phrases, which will allow you to gain even more recipients (of course, this last statement is a presumption, not a fact). You can check information about your website’s CTR in Google Search Console.

CTR in the ad and the conversion rate

High ad click-through rates (e.g. Google Ads) should be a joy. The goal of a campaign, however, is usually not just to increase traffic to the site, but sales. Therefore, a high CTR should lead to an increase in the conversion rate. What if it doesn’t? What does it mean? There may be several reasons for this. The most common are:
– inappropriate matching of the ad content to the content of the website,
– bad matching of the ad to keywords,
– unattractive offer,
– UX / UI nature problems (e.g. unintuitive conversion path),
– technical problems on the site.

So if seemingly good ad performance doesn’t translate into profits, take a close look at what you’re doing.

Good CTR, or what?

How high should CTR be? There is no definite answer to this question. Optimum results will vary, including depending on the marketing channel. In the case of e-mail marketing, a few percent can be considered a satisfactory result – especially if it translates into conversion.

In the case of organic search results, high click-through rates improve the position of the website and, at the same time, increase traffic. The average CTR for the first link in Google search results is 30-50%. The second position can only count on 10 – 15%, and the third one on 5 – 9%.

When analyzing the CTR ratio, it is worth focusing not so much on its height, but on trends related to its increases or decreases. They provide information on the correctness of the election campaigns undertaken.

How to increase CTR?

When asked “how to increase the CTR?” also can be answered in many ways. The key is to arouse the interest of recipients. The message must therefore be tailored to the target group – personalized messages allow you to achieve much better results. You can segment your audience base by targeting separate messages to different groups of potential customers.

Regardless of the marketing channel, the factor that influences click-through rates is definitely the use of CTA (Call To Action). Even using such simple phrases as “Check!” or “Learn More!”, you are able to get better results. Undoubtedly, CTAs that directly speak about the benefits, such as “Download for free”, are also beneficial. It is worth analyzing the CTR level on an ongoing basis to see which treatments work best. The key to high click-through rates is constant optimization and improvement of conducted activities.

Also, remember not to overwhelm your audience with your message. This is a principle that mainly applies to email campaigns and push notifications. Too many messages lowers CTR and may increase unsubscribe rates.

Permission Marketing – What Is It?

Both newsletters and PUSH notifications are forms of the so-called consent marketing. What is this? Associate requests for permission to send notifications that are displayed to you on various websites? Until you confirm that you want the information … the website cannot send it to you. The same applies to the newsletter – to receive it, you must enter your e-mail address and confirm that you are interested in receiving messages from a given brand.

This “consent” factor ensures the sender is confident that it is reaching initially interested audiences. They may be at different stages of the marketing funnel, but contact with each of them is valuable and may sooner or later bring benefits.

There is one more important advantage, the psychological one. Since the recipient himself agreed to receive the message – he performed some action. Consequently, he is to some extent involved in the communication process. Such a peculiar “foot in the door” also increases the probability that the established relationship will result in a purchase.

However, it should be remembered that consent marketing also brings challenges: first of all, it requires building a database of people who have decided to subscribe to messages on their own. Nevertheless, the results are worth the effort, and skillfully planned and targeted campaigns bring good results. Therefore, it is definitely worth going in this direction.

PUSH newsletter and notifications: how do they work?

Before we answer the question about the advantages of individual consent marketing tools, it is worth taking a closer look at exactly what each form of communication looks like.

PUSH notifications

PUSH notifications are short pieces of information that appear on the screen of the user’s device with his prior consent. They can be generated, among others through applications installed on the phone, however, the most important role is played by sms and web-PUSH messages, i.e. those displayed by web browsers.

These notifications:
– are small – contain literally 1-2 sentences of text and small graphics,
– they appear spontaneously at the moment selected by the advertiser,
– are enriched with a CTA element, which most often refers to a website with more information.

Newsletter

A newsletter is a form of communication via e-mail. It is about sending new messages to the interested group – be it with information about new products and current promotions in the store, or with interesting entries on the company’s blog.

Newsletter:
– it can take various graphic and text forms – it can be very simple and minimalist, and it can contain a long message,
– also most often includes CTAs pointing to a website.

What are the similarities between these tools?

Apart from the similarity discussed earlier, in which in both cases messages are sent after receiving consent from the recipient, other similarities can also be indicated.

Both forms of communication:
– they can be used at every stage of the marketing funnel – to build brand visibility, arouse interest in products or the desire to buy immediately,
– they must be attractive for the recipient to be willing to interact,
– can be used in conjunction with marketing automation tools, which in turn improves the entire communication process and reduces service costs in this area.

The cost of sending both types of messages may also be similar, especially when you calculate the cost per click.

Newsletter vs PUSH notifications: the most important differences

Despite significant similarities between the discussed forms of communication, there are also many differences. Here are the most important ones.

A. The time it takes to plan your campaign
PUSH notifications work a bit like Google ads – they contain little content with a very high CTA saturation. As they are displayed by the browser, there is no need to design their graphic layout or make other tedious preparations. All you need to get started is a catchy, short text that will encourage action and small graphics.

In the case of a newsletter, you may need a much broader strategy – think about the layout, content, communication pattern and much more. Therefore, the preparation of an email campaign may be more time consuming.

B. Shipping time
Even automated mail sending to a large subscriber base can take a long time, with gusts of up to several hours. Such delays can cause the mail to be delivered to the inbox late and… ignored. PUSH notifications are displayed in real time.

C. Ease of Delivery to Addressee
PUSH messages in the browser are not blocked neither by AdBlock nor by other systems. The only limitation is whether the given user has the browser enabled when the message is sent.

In the case of a newsletter, it is not always so rosy – overly sensitive spam filters can intercept such an email. It can also get stuck in the less visited “offers” tab or remain invisible among dozens of other e-mails.

D. The speed of growth of the recipient base
In the case of PUSH notifications, 2 clicks are enough to start receiving messages. What’s more, the recipient does not have to provide any personal data or register anywhere. Subscribing to the newsletter requires at least an e-mail address and confirmation of willingness to receive the message by clicking on the activation link received.

These features translate into the effectiveness of acquiring new customers. As you can guess, the number of PUSH notifications subscribers arrives much faster than those subscribed to the newsletter.

E. Read / convert probability
PUSH messages usually assume an immediate response and require quick action. It could be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the user, for example, if he is overwhelmed with too many such messages, can reject them without looking. On the other hand, it may click instinctively, e.g. if it finds out that a quick sale in the store ends in 30 minutes.

E-mails are most often viewed at most a few times a day, but if the recipient decides to look at the newsletter message, they usually look at it more closely than quick notification. Something for something.

Does this mean that the newsletter should be replaced with PUSH messages? Not necessarily. The newsletter is part of any good inbound marketing strategy, and the effects of its conduct can bring long-term effects. Web-PUSH works more in the short term. So these tools are not mutually exclusive. On the contrary – they can complement each other.