Click rate
Click rate, also called click-through rate (CTR), is the percentage of recipients who clicked on at least one link within an email, calculated as total clicks divided by total emails delivered, multiplied by 100. It is one of the most important engagement metrics in email marketing because it measures active interest rather than passive reception. An open means someone looked at the email; a click means someone engaged with it enough to act on what they saw.
Click rate and click-to-open rate (CTOR) are related but distinct metrics. Click rate measures clicks as a proportion of all emails delivered; CTOR measures clicks as a proportion of emails that were opened. CTOR is useful for evaluating whether the body content and call to action resonated with people who actually read the email, independent of subject line performance. Both metrics together give a more complete picture of where an email is performing well and where it is falling short.
For B2B email marketers, typical click rates vary significantly by email type. Highly targeted behaviour-triggered emails and nurture emails to warm audiences tend to have higher click rates than broad promotional sends. Industry benchmarks for B2B email click rates are typically in the range of 2 to 5 percent, but internal benchmarks drawn from your own historical data are more meaningful than industry averages for assessing whether a specific campaign is performing well or poorly for your particular audience.
What is a good click rate for B2B email?
B2B email click rates typically range from 2 to 5 percent for well-targeted campaigns to engaged lists. Highly personalised or behaviour-triggered emails can achieve click rates of 10 percent or above. Broad promotional emails to large, less targeted lists tend toward the lower end of the range. Rather than optimising to an industry average, the most useful benchmark is your own programme’s historical performance: if your average click rate has been 3 percent and a specific campaign achieves 6 percent, that is a strong signal worth understanding and replicating.
What is the difference between click rate and click-to-open rate?
Click rate (CTR) measures the percentage of all delivered emails in which at least one link was clicked. Click-to-open rate (CTOR) measures the percentage of opened emails in which at least one link was clicked. CTOR isolates the performance of the email’s body content and calls to action, controlling for subject line performance. A high open rate with a low CTOR suggests the subject line was compelling but the body content or call to action disappointed. A low open rate with a high CTOR suggests the content resonates with those who open it, but the subject line is not attracting enough opens.
How can I improve my email click rate?
The most effective levers for improving click rate are: ensuring there is a single, clear, and compelling call to action rather than competing with multiple links; making the value of clicking explicit in the CTA copy; placing the primary CTA above the fold where it is visible without scrolling; using HTML buttons rather than text links for the main CTA; personalising the content and offer to be relevant to the specific segment receiving the email; and segmenting your list so that each send is highly targeted rather than broadly distributed.