"Is a 2.3% click-through rate good or bad?"
As an agency owner, this question lands in my inbox frequently. Business owners stare at their campaigns and dashboards, wondering if their audience actually cares about what they're sending, or if they're slowly losing their grip on customer engagement.
Here’s the thing: increasing engagement is as difficult as it is important. Tracking metrics, especially engagement metrics, is important because click-through rate can mean the difference between a profitable campaign and money down the drain. Metrics don’t just show what worked—they also help you identify where you can improve your next campaign.
Click rate vs. click-through rate
Before we dive into the specifics of click-through rate, let's clarify something important. Click rate and click-through rate might seem like the same metric, but they actually refer to two different types of engagement.
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Click rate (CR) measures the percentage of recipients who clicked at least one link relative to emails delivered.
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Click-through rate (CTR) compares total clicks to total opens.
Most platforms default to CR, but understanding both metrics helps you diagnose engagement issues and optimize performance.
How to calculate and interpret your click-through rate
Remember, email CTR measures how many recipients clicked on a call to action (CTA) after opening your email.
Most email platforms show you CR by default, but let's break down both calculations:
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Click rate (CR): (total unique clicks / total delivered emails) × 100
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Click-through rate (CTR): (total unique clicks / total opens) × 100
Here’s an example:
If you sent 10,000 emails, 2,000 people opened them, and 250 clicked through:
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Your CR would be 2.5% (250 / 10,000)
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Your CTR would be 12.5% (250 / 2,000)
Most marketers focus on CR, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. CTR tells you how compelling your content is to people who are actually engaged enough to open.
What your CTR really tells you about performance
Your CTR is essentially a health check for 3 critical areas:
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Content relevance – Low CTR often signals a mismatch between what your subject line promises and what your email delivers.
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Audience segmentation – A declining CTR across your entire list usually means you're sending the same message to people with different interests, purchase behaviors, or engagement levels.
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Email design and user experience – Poor mobile optimization, unclear CTAs, or overwhelming layouts can kill CTR even when your content is perfect.
Understanding CTR benchmarks
Industry benchmarks give you context when you're staring at numbers in isolation. According to a study by Shopify, average email CTRs hover around 1.4% across industries. While email CTR varies across industries and company size, I consider a “good” CTR to be 2–5%.
But here's where it gets tricky: Shopify also reports that only 24% of email marketing pros measure CTR. So make sure you start tracking your own metrics as soon as possible so you can better gauge historical data and improvement needs.
Your 2.3% CTR could represent incredible performance or a red flag, depending on your specific context.
The key is using benchmarks as your baseline, then diving deeper into what your numbers actually mean for your business. These averages include everything from abandoned cart sequences (which often see higher CTR, in my experience) to weekly newsletters.
CTR benchmarks tell you if you should investigate further, but they don't tell you what to do about it. Think of your CTR like a dashboard warning light in your car. When it's flashing, you know something needs attention, but you still need to pop the hood and diagnose the actual problem.
If your CTR is below benchmark, that's your signal to dig into segmentation, content relevance, and design to understand the drop-off of click-throughs along the customer journey. If it's above benchmark but revenue is flat, you might have a conversion issue.
Case study: How one ecommerce brand transformed performance through CTR analysis
I recently worked with an ecommerce brand that was frustrated with their email performance. Both CR and CTR were well below industry benchmarks, and revenue per email was declining month over month.
The owner was ready to blame "email fatigue" and cut their send frequency to redirect some of their email budget to other channels. But when we dug into their CTR data, we discovered more to the story.
The problem
This ecommerce brand was treating all of their email subscribers the same, with no segmentation strategy. They were sending out generic weekly email blasts that didn’t speak to their audience personas or the ideal customer profiles they were trying to cater to.
Then, even if someone opened an email, they often did not click through because the messaging was not relevant or personalized and the email design was prohibitive. Emails were landing in spam in some inboxes, and all-image emails with no alt text were turned off by default. This meant there wasn’t enough information for subscribers to take action on the email.
The result? Poor inbox placement, poor engagement, and poor deliverability.
The solution
We conducted comprehensive brand research to understand the client’s wellness-focused demographic and develop targeted messaging for their brand personas, improving behavioral segmentation. We also:
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Took a modular approach to email design to cater to the brand’s older demographic, who, in A/B tests, preferred a healthy ratio of images and text to all-image emails
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Put repeat customers into targeted flows, increasing subscriptions and monthly recurring revenue
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Sent browse abandoners targeted emails featuring the specific products they viewed, with social proof and product ingredient transparency
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Incorporated user-generated content in campaigns, along with early-access offers for new products and resources
The results
By the end of the year, the ecommerce brand’s overall CR increased to an all-time high, CTR increased above the industry benchmark, and repeat business increased to an all-time high.
The breakthrough came from understanding what the data had been trying to tell them all along.
Good CTR across industries
As I mentioned earlier, a “good” CTR in email marketing varies depending on the industry. Other factors include messaging, targeting, and campaign design.
Klaviyo provides email marketing benchmarks that offer insights into average CTR across different industries for both campaigns and automated flows.
| Email campaigns – Average CTR | Automated flows – Average CTR |
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Note: These are average benchmarks. Your actual CTR can vary depending on factors like segmentation, copy, and CTA effectiveness.
In our testing, highly segmented emails consistently outperform unsegmented sends.
Red flags in your CTR data
A few warning signs that your CTR needs immediate attention:
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Consistent month-over-month decline
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High open rates with terrible CTR
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Low new subscriber CTR
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Mobile CTR significantly lower than desktop
7 tactics to boost your click-through rate
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Focus on the goal of your emails. One CTA per email works best.
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Align subject lines with your content. Avoid clickbait—build trust.
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Perfect your preheader text. Use it to tease what’s inside.
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Enhance your email design. Prioritize clarity and visual hierarchy.
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Optimize for mobile first. It's where most of your audience lives.
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Leverage advanced segmentation. Behavior-based sends = better clicks.
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A/B test CTA copy and placement. "Shop Now" vs. "Learn More" can matter.
The bottom line: CTR is a business growth indicator
Your CTR isn't just a vanity metric. It's a direct indicator of how well you understand and serve your audience.
When CTR improves sustainably, revenue usually follows.
Focus on benchmarks, trends, and connecting engagement metrics back to business outcomes.
Your customers are telling you what they want—one click at a time. You just need to listen.
Do you track CR, CTR, or both? I’d love to hear your strategies for improving these metrics.
Sincerely,
Kristin
About me!
Kristin McFarland is the founder & CEO of The Source Marketing Group, a marketing technology company focused on highly regulated consumer and emerging markets. A Klaviyo Partner and 2025 Klaviyo Community Champion, she helps businesses optimize their tech stacks, automate sales, and scale revenue through data-driven marketing. She also hosts the Market Like A Badass podcast, sharing actionable marketing strategies for business owners, entrepreneurs, and marketers.
