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GlossaryUpdated

What is an email click-through rate?

Click-through rate is the number of unique clicks divided by the number of delivered emails. It measures how many recipients took a deliberate action, not how many loaded an image. Click-to-open rate divides clicks by opens, so it inherits the noise in open tracking.

Key facts

  • Klaviyo documents engagement reporting for lists and segments, including opens and clicks. Source
  • Apple says Mail Privacy Protection can prefetch remote content, which affects how email opens are measured. Source
  • Mailprompt credits revenue on a click with a five-day, last-click window and does not use opens for attribution. Source

What click-through rate means

This definition is part of the Mailprompt glossary. Click-through rate is the number of clicks on a message divided by the number of messages delivered. It answers a simple question: how many recipients took a deliberate action?

The denominator matters. Clicks divided by sends includes addresses that bounced. Clicks divided by delivered excludes them. A report should say which denominator it used, because the two numbers are not interchangeable.

Clicks and opens are different signals

An open is recorded when a tracking image loads. A click is recorded when a person follows a link. The first can happen without a person; the second requires a decision.

Apple's Mail Privacy Protection can prefetch remote content, and security scanners can load images. That makes opens noisy. Clicks are not immune to noise, but they are much harder to generate without a person acting.

Click-to-open rate tries to combine the two by dividing clicks by opens. It can be useful as a diagnostic, but it inherits the noise in the open count. A high click-to-open rate on a low open count may mean the people who opened were highly engaged, or it may mean the open count was undercounted.

What moves the rate

The subject line and preview text affect whether the right person opens. The offer affects whether the message is worth reading. The layout and the link placement affect whether the click happens. The send time affects whether the person is paying attention.

The list is often the biggest factor. A campaign sent to a broad, old list will usually underperform the same campaign sent to an engaged segment. That is not a copy failure; it is an audience difference.

A change in the denominator can also move the rate. If the delivered count grows and the clicks stay flat, the rate falls. Always compare the raw clicks and the delivered count before you conclude that the creative got worse.

How to use it

Use click-through rate to compare messages sent to similar audiences. Change one thing at a time. A subject-line test with two different offers is not a subject-line test.

Pair the rate with conversion rate and attributed revenue. A high click-through rate that produces no orders may be sending traffic to a weak page. A lower click-through rate with a higher order value may be the better campaign.

Mailprompt reports clicks per message and uses a click-based attribution model. The click is the signal; the order is the outcome. The revenue per email page explains the connection.

Frequently asked questions

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

Click-through rate divides clicks by delivered emails. Click-to-open rate divides clicks by opens. The second metric can look better when opens are undercounted, and worse when opens are inflated by prefetching. For comparing campaigns, click-through rate has the clearer denominator.

Why did my click-through rate drop?

A drop can come from the list, the offer, the subject line, the layout, the send time or the link placement. It can also come from a change in the denominator: a larger delivered audience with the same clicks produces a lower rate. Compare the raw clicks and the delivered count before you rewrite the email.

Is click-through rate a revenue metric?

No. A click is a step toward a purchase, not a purchase. A campaign with a high click-through rate and a low order rate may be sending traffic to a weak landing page. Use click-through rate with conversion rate and attributed revenue, not as a substitute for them.

Sources