According to Doubleclick, the average click-through rate for an online ad campaign is .10% . Yes, that’s one-tenth of one percent.
Wow, I was surprised. I’ve managed campaigns, my own or others, over the years and while .10% may be average, I certainly don’t consider it good – unless that tiny percentage translates to hundreds of visitors.
I expect a campaign to be really worthwhile if it’s getting at least 1.5% click-through and, even then, I’m going to tweak to try to get it higher. I consider it really successful if I can get it to 5% or higher.
Of course, all of this is very dependent on the phrase/keyword/brand being advertised. I’ve always felt it’s better to be a big fish in a little pond and if you read this blog regularly, you know that Yahoo! recently issued a whitepaper that said the same thing.
Be specific with your ad phrases and demographics.