Where can I find information on average click through rates?

February 5, 2009 7:45 AM

Where can I find information on average click through rates? Not simply for ads, but also products. So for example what the average click through rate is for an Amazon item on a blog, but also average CTRs on Google ads and the like. Overall trying to measure the success rate of current online methods of advertising...
posted by UMDirector to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

This is going to be proprietary information. Advertisers and advertising websites will have it, though you'd need to ask both to get all of the information you're looking for, but I can't think of any reason why they'd give it to you. That's pretty sensitive information. Effectiveness of advertising is massively hard to judge, and any edge they may derive from their information they're going to keep to themselves, thank you very much.

High-powered consulting firms may have it as well, but they'll charge you a couple of grand.

A little google-fu may find some rough estimates for press blurbs, but you aren't going to get all that much use out of them. The information probably isn't detailed enough for what you seem to be looking for.
posted by valkyryn at 7:55 AM on February 5, 2009

This information is going to be tough to find online, but I have real data I can share with you. If you'd like to know how I came across this information, or more information about Yahoo or MSN ads then PM me. However, I can say that MSN has the absolute worst conversion rate out of the three. Here is a sample:

For a period of 20 weeks with over 1.2 million impressions, CPC with Google Ads: $4.90

Conversion rate of those clicks into leads: 21%
posted by trueluk at 8:19 AM on February 5, 2009

Since this info is hard to come by, one way you get it is ask companies for the raw information in exchange for access to your analysis of all the data you gather. Anyone who gives a damn about these sorts of numbers is going to have a voracious appetite for indications that their numbers are above or below average. Of course, first they'll have to trust that you'll protect their individual numbers.

Or you go to a consulting or market research company because they already have the relationships needed to get the raw data, and its probably cheaper for you to pay for data they've aggregated from across 1000 companies than it is for you to collect the data across 50 companies.
posted by Good Brain at 9:32 AM on February 5, 2009

Oh man, I'm sorry. I gave you CPC, not CTR.

Google ads, same 20 week period, averaged .4% Yes, that's less than half of one percent. The best week was 1.1% and the worst was .15%. So that's about 4,000 clicks per 1,000,000 impressions, on average.
posted by trueluk at 10:59 AM on February 5, 2009