Click-through Rate (CTR)

What is Click-through Rate?

Click-through rate, or CTR, is the percentage of delivered emails where the recipient clicked at least one link in the body. It measures intent rather than mere attention, which makes it a more reliable engagement signal than open rate, especially in the post-Mail Privacy Protection world.

Why it matters

CTR is the closest email metric to revenue. A strong open rate with a weak CTR usually means the subject line oversold the content. For marketers running acquisition or retention campaigns, CTR is the number that correlates most directly with downstream conversion. Founders should watch it alongside conversion rate to understand funnel health.

How it works

The sending platform rewrites every link in the outgoing message to point at a tracking redirect on its own domain. When the recipient clicks, the redirect logs the event with the recipient ID, link URL, and timestamp, then forwards the browser to the real destination. CTR is then unique clickers divided by delivered messages, usually expressed as a percentage.

Examples

• A product announcement with a 6.2 percent CTR, driving 3,100 visits from 50,000 sends
• An onboarding drip where the second email hits 12 percent because the CTA is a single clear action
• A newsletter at 1.8 percent CTR, prompting the team to try shorter summaries with one link per story

Best practices

• Use one primary call to action per email to avoid diluting clicks
• Measure unique clickers, not total clicks, for a cleaner denominator
• Compare CTR within audience segments; averaging across segments hides problems
• Keep tracking domains on a subdomain you own to preserve brand trust

FAQs

What is a good click-through rate?

It depends heavily on industry and audience. Two to five percent is typical for marketing email, while transactional and highly targeted messages can exceed 20 percent.

What is the difference between CTR and click-to-open rate?

CTR is clicks divided by delivered. Click-to-open rate is clicks divided by opens, and it measures how compelling the body is relative to the subject line.

Do link-wrapping redirects hurt deliverability?

Only if the tracking domain has poor reputation. Using a custom CNAME on your own domain avoids the issue and is the recommended setup.