What is a Good CTR for Facebook Ads? 8 Strategies To Improve
What is a good CTR for Facebook ads? The average Facebook ad CTR across all industries is around 1.57%, according to WordStream’s 2024 study. Today, we’ll discuss CTRs from different industries to give you a better idea of what to aim for.
In this article, we’ll cover:
- What CTR is and how it compares to other metrics
- How Facebook calculates CTR and what impacts it
- What CTR to aim for
- How it’s changed over the years
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Tips to improve yours
We’ll start by talking about what CTR is.
What is CTR in Facebook Ads?
Click-through rate (CTR) is the percentage of people who click on your Facebook ad. To know your CTR, you’ll need to also know how many impressions (every time your ad appears on someone’s screen) you have.
There’s a formula to calculate a CTR quickly:
CTR (%) = ( [Total clicks on the ad] / [Total impressions] ) x 100
For example, if your ad gets 1,000 impressions and 20 clicks, your CTR is 2%.
A higher CTR generally means your ad is grabbing attention and encouraging users to take action, while a low CTR could indicate that your ad isn’t clicking with your audience.
It’s worth noting that your click-through rate is just one way to measure the effectiveness of your Facebook ads. To fully understand how your ads are performing, it’s important to compare it with other key metrics. These metrics include:
- Conversion rate: CTR measures how many people click on your ad, but conversion rate tracks how many of those clicks lead to a desired action (like a purchase or a sign-up). A high CTR with a low conversion rate could mean your ad is effective and persuasive, but isn’t exactly targeting the right audience.
- Engagement rate: Engagement rate includes all interactions people make with your ads, such as likes, shares, and comments. High engagement shows your ad is sparking some interest, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that people want to buy from you.
Why CTR matters for Facebook ads
A strong click-through rate plays a key role in how your ads perform and, quite importantly, how much you pay for them. Here’s why it matters:
- Indicates ad engagement and relevance: A higher CTR is a good sign that your ad is catching attention and resonating with your audience.
- Improves cost-efficiency: Facebook rewards engaging ads with lower costs-per-click (CPC) and cost per thousand impressions (CPM), which means you could potentially stretch your ad budget.
- Show ads to ideal customers: Ads with better engagement are more likely to be shown to the right people, improving overall campaign performance.
What impacts Facebook CTR?
There are a few factors that can impact your Facebook ads’ click-through rate. Understanding these can help you optimize your campaigns for better performance. Consider:
- Industry: CTR benchmarks often vary by industry. For example, e-commerce ads often have higher CTRs than B2B ads since ad viewers in e-commerce are more likely to engage with direct product offers, while B2B users usually need more time and research before they take action.
- Ad type: Your ad’s format matters. For instance, carousel ads tend to have higher engagement than static images because they encourage interaction — and thus, they have lower cost-per-click and cost-per-conversion.
- Audience targeting: If your ads aren’t targeted well, you might get fewer impressions and clicks. You could have the best real estate ad in the world, but if you’re targeting younger audiences who aren’t in the market for houses, you won’t sell anything. The more relevant your audience, the better your CTR tends to be.
- Ad placement: Where your ad appears (Feed, Reels, Stories, Marketplace) affects engagement. For example, Reels may give you better results than other placements.
Does Facebook optimize ads based on CTR?
Yes. Facebook’s algorithm considers CTR when determining which ads to show more frequently. A higher CTR can improve your ad’s quality ranking, leading to:
- Lower cost-per-click (CPC): Facebook rewards ads that generate engagement by giving them lower costs (so you can save on ad spend!).
- Better auction performance: You might save even more money from your ad placement bids, since there’s a higher chance to win when you have strong CTRs.
Types of CTRs that Facebook reports
We’ve already established what a CTR is, but did you know there are different types?
Choosing the right CTR metric depends on your campaign goal. For example, if your focus is website traffic, outbound CTR is the most relevant. If you’re more worried about engagement, then engagement CTR gives a broader view of interactions.
Here's a deeper breakdown of the different types:
Link CTR
Link CTR measures how often people click on any links in your ad, whether they lead to another Facebook page or an external website. It's a good indicator of how engaging your ad is overall.
Outbound CTR
Outbound CTR is a type of link CTR that shows the percentage of people who saw your ad and clicked on a link that drives traffic to your website.
A higher outbound CTR means your ad is effective at driving traffic to your website, which is pretty important for campaigns focused on sales, sign-ups, or other website-based actions.
Engagement CTR
Engagement CTR measures how often people interact with your ad within Facebook itself by liking, commenting, or sharing. A high engagement CTR indicates that your ad connects well with your audience, fostering brand awareness and community engagement — even if they don't click through to an external site.
What is a good CTR for Facebook ads?
Knowing the average click-through rate on Facebook is a good way to find out what you should be aiming for when you set up your campaigns. These numbers help you gauge how your ads are performing compared to others in the sector so you can start making adjustments to improve them.
There are different CTRs through various industries that advertise on Facebook. This study from 2024 gives you a look at the average click-through rates for traffic campaigns. Let’s take a look at them below:
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- Finance & insurance: 0.85%
- Dentists & dental services: 0.88%
- Attorneys & legal services: 0.99%
- Industrial & commercial: 0.99%
- Automotive (cars for sale): 1.02%
- Physicians & surgeons: 1.07%
- Automotive (repairs, service, & parts): 1.10%
- Apparel/fashion & jewelry: 1.14%
- Business services: 1.16%
- Education & instruction: 1.21%
- Furniture: 1.21%
- Home & home improvement: 1.26%
- Sports & recreation: 1.27%
- Personal services: 1.37%
- Career & employment: 1.41%
- Beauty & personal care: 1.51%
- Health & fitness: 1.61%
- Shopping, collectibles, & gifts: 1.67%
- Animals & pets: 1.87%
- Restaurants & food: 2.19%
- Travel: 2.20%
- Arts & entertainment: 2.59%
- Real estate: 2.60%
Common mistakes that lower Facebook CTR
If your Facebook ad’s click-through rate (CTR) is lower than you’d like, you might be making some mistakes. Here’s what could be hurting your CTR:
- Weak calls to action (CTAs): If your CTA just says, “Learn More,” don’t be surprised if people scroll right past it. Give them a real reason to click. An engaging CTA like “Shop Now – 20% Off!” makes it tempting and provides them some value.
- Suboptimal targeting: If your audience is too broad, your ad might be reaching people who just don’t care. And if it’s too narrow, then you could limit your chances for success. Consider refining your target audience and adjusting your ads accordingly.
- Forgetting about mobile: Most people see Facebook ads on their phones (and have really short attention spans). If your ad is too busy or isn’t engaging enough, people may just scroll on. Facebook helps to optimize your ads for mobile, but it’s still a good idea to make mobile-friendly designs.
- Ad fatigue is real: If you keep showing the same ad over and over, people will start ignoring it. Switch things up by refreshing your visuals, tweaking the messaging, and testing new formats to keep things interesting. If you need more ad creatives, check out the best ad generators this year (some of them use AI and look better than you’d think).
- Not using retargeting: If someone clicks on your site but doesn’t buy, don’t just let them go. You can retarget those people with another ad to remind them why they were interested in the first place.
8 strategies to improve your Facebook Ads CTR
Are you still learning about Facebook ads? Let’s talk about some simple but effective ways to improve your CTR. You can try:
Optimizing ad creatives for higher CTR
- Use high-quality visuals. People scroll fast, so your ad needs to stand out immediately. Bright colors, clear images, and eye-catching thumbnails work best. If your ad looks like a boring stock photo, people will ignore it. Try using close-ups of your product or lifestyle shots that show it in action.
- Write compelling ad copy. Your headline is the first thing people read — make it count. Instead of “Check out our new collection,” say something like “Flash Sale: 30% Off Today Only!” See the difference? Adding urgency or an emotional hook makes people more likely to click.
- Leverage user-generated content (UGC). People trust real people. It’s a good idea to add user-generated content like reviews and testimonials into your campaigns since they can make the ads more authentic, trustworthy, and relatable. If you’ve ever bought something after seeing a friend rave about it, you already know how powerful this is.
Targeting and audience optimization
- Refine your audience targeting. Don’t just throw your ad out to everyone and hope for the best. Use Facebook’s Custom Audiences to reach people who have already interacted with your brand, Lookalike Audiences to find users similar to your best customers, and interest-based targeting to zero in on people who genuinely care about what you're offering.
- Use Facebook’s A/B testing tool. Sometimes, the smallest tweaks make the biggest difference. Run a few versions of your ad with different headlines, images, or calls to action (CTAs) and see which one performs best. You might think your first idea is great, but your audience could respond better to something else. Let the data decide.
Placement and Ad type optimization
- Test different ad formats. Some businesses get way more clicks with video ads, while others see better results with carousels or Stories. If you’re running an eCommerce store, try a carousel to show off multiple products. If you’re building brand awareness, video ads can make stronger emotional connections to make it memorable for a new audience.
- Optimize ad placement for CTR. Where your ad appears makes a difference. News Feed ads usually get more clicks than right-hand column ads, and Stories and Reels tend to work well on mobile. If your CTR is low, try switching up placements and see where your audience is most engaged.
- Use dynamic creative optimization (DCO). If you’re not sure which images, headlines, or descriptions will work best, let Facebook do the heavy lifting. DCO automatically tests different combinations and finds the one that gets the most engagement. It’s like A/B testing on autopilot.
Facebook benchmarks vs. other ad platforms
If you’re thinking about advertising on other platforms, it’s good to remember that they have different CTRs.
Remembering that Facebook’s average CTR across industries is 1.57%, let’s take a look at the other platforms:
- Google Ads: The Search Ads CTR average is around 3.17%, while Display Ads CTR is 0.46%.
- TikTok Ads: The average CTR on TikTok Ads is about 0.84%.
- LinkedIn Ads: The average sponsored content CTR is around 0.44 to 0.65%.
Use Bestever to find the CTRs of your competitors’ Facebook ads
Now you know what a good CTR is for Facebook ads. You also now know the average CTR for your industry. But wouldn’t it be more helpful to know your competitors’ CTR?
With Bestever, you can look under the hood of your competitors' ads to see their data, like CTRs and ad spends. You can also get more AI-powered insights from your own historical data.
Here’s how:
- See what your competitors are doing: The console allows you to search for up to four competitors you want to track and benchmark your ads against. There, you can see a summary of their ad strategies, their audience data, and creatives.
- Analyze your creatives: One of Bestever’s unique features is our Ad Analysis Dashboard. Upload your image or video creative and our tool will use computer vision combined with past data to give you concrete insights on its visual appeal, call to action strength, audience relevance, and info density.
- Get actionable feedback: Using AI computer vision and your ads’ past historical performance data, Bestever gives you actionable and data-based suggestions to help you make improvements to your ads.
- Generate ads: If you need a help creating your ads, Bestever can help you AI generate image, video, and audio ads. You can use them as is, or give them to your designer for improvement. Bestever also has an in-house design team to take your creatives to the next level.
- Improve your targeting: If you’re just starting, you can enter your website URL to get a more specific idea of your audience. Bestever can generate audience personas to help you narrow your targeting down.
Ready to boost your FB ad click-through rates? Let our team show you how Bestever can help optimize your ads for better performance.