Recent evaluation of social media advertising metrics shows that the click-through rate (CTR) for social networks in the second quarter of 2024 reached 0.66 percent. A quarter earlier, it stood at 0.64 percent.

In March 2023, apparel and footwear was the industry with the highest click-through rate (CTR) for Facebook ads worldwide, at 2.06 percent. The lowest CTR was recorded for technology products and services, at 0.93 percent.

How is ad success measured?

Click-through rate - the number of times an ad clicked divided by the number of total views - is a commonly used measure to gauge the effectiveness of an online advertisement. In the second quarter of 2023, CTR for social networks stood at 1.36 percent. This marked an increase of 13 percent compared to the previous quarter. Cost-per-mille (CPM) - the price of each 1,000 views of ads on one web page - is another noteworthy metric to examine the success of an advertisement. In the second quarter of 2023, global social media ads' CPM was 5.33 U.S. dollars.

The most click-worthy industry: apparel

The most valuable brand from the industry with the highest CTR in 2023 was Oregon-based giant Nike, which had a brand value of roughly 75 billion dollars. Apparel companies have spent heavily on advertising not only to build immense brand awareness and value, but also to cater brand loyalty. For instance, U.S. apparel and accessory stores ad spend amounted to 531 million dollars in 2022. In the same year, the average consumer spend just for female apparel in the United States was around 730 dollars. As long as consumers keep clicking on ads for clothing and footwear items, the apparel industry’s ad spend can be expected to grow proportionately.

In 2019, social video ads published on Instagram had a clickthrough rate of 0.46 percent among 18-to-24-year-olds. YouTube video advertising had the lowest CTR compared to Instagram and Facebook among all age groups, and the latter publisher was the most successful in reaching senior consumers with video ads.

In the realm of digital advertising, retail media advertising are ads appearing in online stores and online marketplaces. In the second quarter of 2024, the clickthrough rate of digital retail ads stood at 0.39 percent, which signifies that 0.39 percent of users who viewed them clicked on them.

The highest clickthrough rate on Google Display Network - 1.08 percent - belongs to real estate advertising. For Google Search Network, dating and personals ads have the highest CTR, reaching 6.05 percent. The difference between Google’s Display Network (GDN) and Search Network is that the former offers placement of display ads on numerous websites, while the latter is dedicated to text advertising appearing alongside search engine results. What about mobile search advertising?
With the internet becoming more accessible via mobile devices, search advertising is adapting to this format as well, but mobile CTRs in Google AdWords are a bit different. The highest mobile rates on Search Network are attributed to travel and hospitality ads and hair salon advertising has the highest CTR on the Display Network. How popular is Google among users and advertisers?
In certain countries, Google is widely used, as proven by the high share of desktop search traffic originating from the search engine. In Brazil, India, Spain, Australia, Germany, France and Italy Google commands over 90 percent of the search traffic. When it comes to advertising, Google is definitely the leader when compared to other major players in the market. In fact, its advertising revenue was roughly eight times higher than that of its closest competitor, Baidu.

The chart shows the average mobile clickthrough rate (CTR) in Google AdWords in selected industries in the United States between August 2017 and January 2018. For the arts and entertainment mobile search ads, the click-through rate amounted to 5.01 percent during the measured period.

As of the fiscal year 2023, industries advertising on gaming platforms saw the highest click-through rate (CTR) with the beauty and personal care sector in the lead with 2.2 percent. Indian short-form video apps provided the next most lucrative advertising platform that year, with the beauty sector once again having the highest CTR.

With the internet becoming increasingly accessible, the number of e-mails sent and received globally has increased each year since 2017. In 2022, there were an estimated 333 billion e-mails sent and received daily around the world. This figure is projected to increase to 392.5 billion daily e-mails by 2026.

E-Mail marketing Despite the increasing popularity of messengers, chat apps and social media, e-mail has managed to remain central to digital communication and continues to grow in uptake. By 2025, the number of global e-mail users is expected to reach a total of 4.6 billion - an approximate six hundred thousand increase in users, up from 4 billion in 2020. Not only that, when it comes to online advertising e-mail has seen higher click-through-rates than on social media. In Belgium and Germany, these were 5.5 and 4.3 percent respectively - compared to the 1.3 percent global average CTR for social media during the same time period.

Gmail Launched in April 2004, Google’s Gmail has earned its spot as one of the most popular freemail services in the world. According to a 2019 survey, its popularity worldwide was trumped only by Apple’s native iPhone Mail app with 26 percent of all e-mail opens worldwide taking place on the platform. Millennials surveyed in the United Kingdom listed Gmail among their top 5 most important mobile apps, while a similar survey carried out in Sweden saw Gmail tie with WhatsApp for a spot among the top mobile apps nationwide.