What's a good click-thru-rate?

[pointy]

What do you think constitutes a decent click through rate on Adsense.

1%, 2%, 3%, 5%?

I suppose it is a test of how well Google understands your pages?

I'm getting about undisclosed% (sigh) BTW

Cheers
Justin

[robwatts]

Hi Justin

The adsense terms prohibit discussion of statistics and such like.

https://www.google.com/adsense/terms

[Daminc]

You agree not to disclose Google Confidential Information without Google's prior written consent. "Google Confidential Information" includes without limitation: ...(b) click-through rates or other statistics relating to Site performance in the Program provided to You by Google;

That doesn't mention general discussion, just the information provided to you by Google.

[robwatts]

Very true Daminc.

Nothing wrong with a bit of general discussion at all. If people want to express a view that they believe that 2% or 3% or 4% is a good click through rate then fine, who am I or anyone else to argue that they can't.

As long as people don't get into specifics then all is well and good :)

My two pence worth is that click throughs %'s will vary from website to website dependant upon, and in no particualr order, what type of content is on the page, the placement of the adverts, type of advert size, the adverts relevancy to the page in question, type of visitor, advert content, intended audience and quite probably a few other factors that haven't immediately sprung to mind.

[dragonlady7]

:D I think it's all right for me to disclose that I have a precise clickthrough rate of 0.
I only just put the code on this afternoon... Depressing, though, that I have so few visitors to my site. My site logs looked so big! ;)

[altyfc]

I would suspect that the most crucial factor in determining CTR is the way in which it is integrated. Those AdSense ads which have a background colour similar to the background of the whole page, blend in much better IMO and would be more likely to get clicked upon, because they don't just scream 'banner'.

Aaron

[cline]

A good CTR is one that is profitable for you. Any other standard isn't really meaningful.

[Articus]

Is there any general rule of thumb established for baseline. Just curious if I were to put on my resume I achieved a 1% clickthrough. Is that good, bad, mediocre? Metrics are good but I hope there is some metrics available? Thanks

[Dan0]

The click-through rate is going to vary a lot, depending on the format of ads that you show. I really like the (undisclosed) click through rate that I get with the skyscraper format. In fact, I would characterize my click-through rate as "pretty good."

The average click-through for ads in the search results is said to be 2%, although I can't remember who said it so it might be some useless "fact" you get from online forums that has no basis in reality.

Anyway, if the CTR from the search results pages is less than half a percent, they stop showing your ad. While these numbers don't apply to Adsense, they might make a good measuring stick.

I think it's safe to assume that Adsense gets a lower click-through rate overall than the ads they show on the search results - if it didn't they would have done Adsense first, right?

Therefore, anything better than 2% (with 4 ads) would be pretty good, since that works out to an average CTR for each ad of over half a percent. Enough to keep them in the rotation even if your website URL was Google.com, and that's not too shabby.

[bwelford]

Originally posted by Dan0
I think it's safe to assume that Adsense gets a lower click-through rate overall than the ads they show on the search results - if it didn't they would have done Adsense first, right?

I would wonder about that. You can't assume anything about the timing of Adsense versus Adwords. I believe Adsense is based on Applied Semantics technology and this company was only acquired in April 2003.

With search pages, the searcher was searching based on keywords and Google then puts ads based on these same keywords "around the edges" of what the searcher was looking for.

When someone visits a web page, the Adsense process puts some ads that are calculated to be on the same topic in a fairly prominent position on the page.

Which produces the better CTR is a matter for conjecture. However, Dan0, I agree with your comments on the percentages that seem to be appropriate. I am pleasantly surprised by the CTR achieved on average, and occasionally even more pleasantly surprised by what a "click through" is worth.
8)

[Dan0]

My assumption that Adsense delivers lower clickthrough rates than Adwords, is based on my experience as an advertiser. Content-based ads are probably great for branding, but the CTR we see for them could be described as "not very high" even though our overall CTR is "pretty good."

[altyfc]

Originally posted by cline
A good CTR is one that is profitable for you.

I can't say I agree. If you have a CTR of say 0.00000001% but still manage to make a profit, that doesn't mean to say you have a good CTR, surely. Not when you could achieve something far better and far more profitable.

Aaron

[Dan0]

Aaron:

The minimum click-through rate Adwords will tolerate is 0.5%, less than that and they'll stop showing your ad. Anything more than that is good, if it's profitable.

That doesn't mean that you can't do "better," but profit is good.

[altyfc]

Ok, but you understand my point, no? A good CTR isn't necessarily just simply one that is profitable. Not if something far more profitable can be achieved.

Aaron

[Dan0]

Yes, you're talking about the difference between "good, better, and best."

[altyfc]

I suppose I am. :)