TLDR: Email click-through rate (CTR) is the percentage of delivered emails that got at least one click. Published averages sit around 2% to 3%, with click-to-open rate (clicks divided by opens) usually landing between 6% and 10%. Clicks are more reliable than opens, but security scanners can inflate them. Before your audience can even register a click, they’ll need to actually receive the email and trust who sent it.
Open rates got messy when Apple made the counts less reliable. Marketers did the sensible thing and started leaning on clicks instead.
Clicks are a better signal, too. Opens don’t tell you as much. They tell you that someone opened an email, but they don’t really tell you if the person read it, whereas clicks are a much more reliable proxy.
Still, many marketers confuse click-rate, click-through rate, and click-to-open rate all the time. Plus, platforms define them differently, and the number on your dashboard may include clicks from software rather than subscribers.
You deserve better, more reliable numbers to track yourself against. We’ll show you how to calculate your email click-through rate the right way and how to improve it.
What is email click-through rate?
Email click-through rate (CTR) is the percentage of delivered emails where a recipient clicked at least one link. It measures how well an email turns delivery into action.
A “click” can be any tracked link in the message:
- Main button
- Product image
- Text link in the body
- Link in the footer
- Logo
Most platforms count unique clicks, so a subscriber who clicks three different links still counts as one.
While your CTR measures the effectiveness of a single campaign, it also captures more of the customer’s journey. For a click to happen, your email has to reach the inbox, get noticed, get opened, and give the reader a reason to take action. A weak point anywhere in that chain ultimately shows up in your CTR, which makes it a solid single-number read on overall email health.
Click rate vs. click-through rate vs. click-to-open rate
These metrics all use different denominators to track different actions:
| Metric | Formula | What it tells you |
| Click-through rate (CTR) | Unique clicks ÷ emails delivered | How many recipients took action |
| Click rate | Usually the same as CTR | Same thing, different label in some platforms |
| Click-to-open rate (CTOR) | Unique clicks ÷ unique opens | How well your content performed for people who opened |
Some platforms use “click-through rate” to mean clicks divided by opens, which is what most people call click-to-open rate. Before you compare your number to a benchmark (or another team’s dashboard), check which denominator your platform uses.
Just remember: CTR judges the whole email, from inbox to click. CTOR judges only the content, starting after the open.
How to calculate email click-through rate
The email click-through rate formula:
CTR = (Unique clicks ÷ Emails delivered) × 100
And the click-to-open rate formula:
CTOR = (Unique clicks ÷ Unique opens) × 100
For example, let’s imagine you delivered 20,000 emails with 7,000 unique opens and 560 unique clicks:
- CTR = 560 ÷ 20,000 × 100 = 2.8%
- CTOR = 560 ÷ 7,000 × 100 = 8%
Here’s how to keep your math honest and consistent:
- Use unique clicks. One person clicking multiple links counts once. As it should.
- Use delivered (not sent). Bounced emails never had a chance to be clicked. Don’t let “sent” emails drag your numbers down.
What’s a good email click-through rate?
You’ll find published email click-through rate benchmarks in a narrow range:
- Mailchimp: 2.62% average click rate across all users
- MailerLite: 2.09% median click rate, with a 6.81% median click-to-open rate
A CTR between 2% and 3% is typical for marketing email, and a CTOR in the 6% to 10% range means your content is doing its job for the people who open.
Context matters more here than with almost any other metric. Transactional emails usually have super high open rates, but there’s not much to click on if it’s a receipt. Then, there’s newsletters—some are just meant to be in the inbox, while others push recipients back to the website to engage. Those will have very different click-through rates.
Then, there’s industry performance. For example, B2B emails will perform differently than retail.
Benchmark against your own campaigns of the same type before you benchmark against anyone else’s.
Clicks > opens (but neither are perfect)
Apple Mail Privacy Protection inflates open rates by loading the tracking pixel whether or not anyone reads the email. This process doesn’t click links, though, so using CTR sidesteps that problem. That’s primarily the reason why clicks have become the metric marketers trust most.
Still, clicks aren’t a perfect metric. They have their own distortion: security scanners.
Many corporate email systems check every link in an incoming message before the recipient sees it…by visiting the link. To your ESP, that visit can look like a click. The result is a burst of “clicks” seconds after delivery, often on every link in the email, from people who haven’t opened it yet.
You mostly see this with B2B lists where gateways and link-protection features are standard. Many ESPs now filter suspected bot clicks or let you exclude them. If yours does, turn it on. If your B2B click rate looks surprisingly healthy while conversions stay flat, this is the first place to look.
Here are a few signs a high CTR is likely bot traffic:
- Clicks recorded within seconds of delivery
- Every link in the email clicked by the same recipient
- Clicks with no matching open or no follow-on activity on your site
Customers can’t click if they don’t get your emails (and trust them)
There’s a lot of CTR optimization work you can do (more on that in a second), but it doesn’t mean much if your recipients never see the emails in the first place. That’s why the most important thing you can do doesn’t start with your subject line:
1. Emails must reach the inbox
CTR is calculated on delivered email, but delivered actually includes the spam folder. That’s right, an email sitting in spam counts against your click rate and has close to zero chance of ever being clicked.
If CTR dropped across every campaign at once, and nothing about your content changed, look into your deliverability. It’s likely the culprit. Mailbox providers rely heavily on authentication (SPF, DKIM, and DMARC) when deciding inbox placement, and Gmail, Yahoo, and Microsoft all require it from bulk senders.
Check your domain to see where you stand.
2. Customers need to recognize and trust the sender
People know not to click links in an email unless they’re confident who sent it. That means your customers are always a little bit suspicious whenever you include a link, especially in categories that get impersonated often (like retail, finance, and shipping).
If attackers send phishing emails in your brand’s name, your customers will learn to associate spam with your brand. And when that happens, your click-through rates are going to be impacted today, tomorrow, and a long time after that.
Here are two things you can do to improve trust with your recipients:
- Authentication at enforcement. DMARC at p=reject stops attackers from sending email from your exact domain, so the messages that do arrive as you are real.
- Your logo in the inbox. BIMI puts your verified logo beside your messages in supporting inboxes. Recipients get a cue that the email is genuine before they decide whether to engage. It requires DMARC at enforcement, and Valimail Amplify handles the setup.
7 ways to improve your email click-through rate
Here’s how to improve your emails’ click-through rate once you’re confident they’re landing in the inbox:
- Give each email one main job. One primary call to action beats five competing ones. Secondary links can stay, but make it obvious what you want people to do.
- Make the CTA look clickable. A button with clear text (“See your report,” “Claim the discount”) outperforms a buried text link.
- Put the CTA where people will see it. Most readers skim. Get the main action into the first screen, then repeat it once lower down for longer emails.
- Match the email to the click. If the subject line promises something, the link should deliver exactly that. Your subscribers learn when subject lines don’t match the content. It’s called clickbait. They don’t like it.
- Segment by behavior. People who clicked on a topic before are more likely to click on it again. Send them more of it. And when people don’t click on a certain topic, send them less of it.
- Design for mobile first. Small tap targets and cramped layouts cost clicks. Give buttons room to breathe.
- Clean your list. Remove subscribers who haven’t engaged in six months or more. This improves your CTR and long-term sender reputation. Win-win.
Earn the click before the email is even opened
The best-written CTAs always lose if nobody ever sees them. Fix your email authentication and sender recognition first—everything else in the email depends on it.
Valimail Monitor is free and shows every service sending email as your domain, along with whether each one is passing authentication. It’s a fast way to spot the deliverability gaps behind a sliding click rate.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good click-through rate for email?
For most marketing emails, a click-through rate between 2% and 3% is typical. Mailchimp reports a 2.62% average click rate, and MailerLite reports a 2.09% median. For click-to-open rate, 6% to 10% is a healthy range. Transactional emails and highly targeted sends often run well above these numbers.
What is the difference between click rate and click-through rate?
In most platforms they mean the same thing: unique clicks divided by emails delivered. Some platforms use “click-through rate” for clicks divided by opens, which is more commonly called click-to-open rate. Check which denominator your platform uses before comparing your numbers to a benchmark.
How do you calculate CTR for email?
Divide unique clicks by emails delivered, then multiply by 100. For example, 560 unique clicks on 20,000 delivered emails is a 2.8% click-through rate. Use delivered rather than sent, and count each recipient’s clicks only once.
Why is my email click-through rate low?
Common causes include emails landing in spam, too many competing calls to action, CTAs below the fold, weak alignment between subject line and content, and an unengaged list. If CTR dropped suddenly across every campaign, check deliverability and authentication before changing your content.
