email click through rate
1-Minute Recap (If You Read Nothing Else)
  • CTR = clicks ÷ delivered emails × 100. It shows how many people actually did something after opening your email.
  • In recent benchmark studies, average email CTR usually sits around 2–3% across industries, with many sources calling 2–5% a “good” range.
  • CTR matters more than ever as open rates get noisy (privacy changes, auto-opens). If you haven’t read it yet, pair this with iPost’s open rate 101 guide.
  • The fastest CTR wins in 2026 come from:
  • Better targeting & segmentation
  • Stronger offers & CTAs
  • Mobile-first design (over half of opens happen on mobile for many audiences)
  • Consistent A/B testing

For casinos, hospitality, and franchises, CTR jumps when you use player/guest data and event signals (visits, spend, loyalty tier) intelligently—exactly the kind of data iPost is built to handle, as covered in Maximizing Email Marketing for the Casino and Gambling Industry.

What Is Click-Through Rate (CTR) in Email Marketing?

Click-through rate (CTR) measures the percentage of people who clicked a link, button, or image in your email out of all the emails that were successfully delivered (excluding bounces).

CTR formula:

CTR (%) = (Total number of clicks ÷ Delivered emails) × 100

Example:

You send 100,000 emails.

  • 98,000 are delivered
  • 2,450 total clicks

CTR = 2,450 ÷ 98,000 × 100 ≈ 2.5%

That 2.5% is your headline “email CTR” for the marketing campaign.

CTR vs CTOR vs Open Rate (And Why It Matters in 2026)

Marketers mix these up all the time, so quick refresher:

  • Open rate – % of delivered emails that were opened. Great for gauging subject line & sender reputation, but skewed by privacy/autoloading.
  • CTR (click-through rate) – % of delivered emails that got a click. This is the broadest measure of engagement after delivery.
  • CTOR (click-to-open rate) – % of openers who clicked. This isolates how compelling your in-email content & CTAs really were. MailerLite pegs recent average CTOR around 6.8%.

In a world where open rates are inflated and noisy, CTR + CTOR tell you whether people actually cared about what you sent.

If you haven’t yet, this pairs nicely with iPost’s explainer What is an Open Rate? Email Marketing 101 so readers understand the full metrics stack.

What Is a “Good” CTR in 2026?

There’s no single magic number, but multiple benchmark reports land in a similar range:

So as a simple rule of thumb for 2026:

  • Under 1% – Something is off (list, offer, design, or deliverability).
  • 1–2% – Needs optimization; common for unsegmented or older lists.
  • 2–3.5% – Solid “in the pack” performance.
  • 3.5%+ – Strong CTR, especially at scale.

For casinos, resorts, and franchises that use rich behavioral and transactional data (think Player ID, stay data, or visit frequency), it’s realistic to push CTR above these generic averages—especially when pairing data-driven content with creative best practices from Transforming Business Emails: From Blasé to Brilliant with Creativity.

Why CTR Still Matters (Even With AI and Privacy Changes)

Three reasons CTR is still a key “health metric”:

  1. It’s closer to real business value.
  2. User clicks lead to bookings, deposits, reservations, orders, and form fills.
  3. It’s less distorted than opens.
  4. Privacy features can auto-open emails, inflating open rate; CTR is based on intentional action.
  5. It’s a feedback loop for everything else.
  6. If your subject lines work but CTR is weak, the problem is content, offer, or UX—not your from-name.

For verticals like casino, hospitality, and franchise dev, CTR is also a proxy for how well you’re leveraging your data. If you’re sitting on rich customer or player data and still getting low CTR, the issue is usually strategy, not the audience.

7 Practical Ways to Improve Email CTR in 2026

1. Start With Better Targeting (Not Just Better Copy)

You’ll never write your way out of bad targeting.

  • Segment by behavior: last visit, last purchase, last bet, last content consumed.
  • Segment by value: VIP vs casual player, high vs low lifetime value.
  • Segment by intent: cart/booking abandoners, website visitors to specific pages, near-expiry points.

In casino and gambling, iPost leans hard into Player ID–driven segmentation, which you can see in action in Maximizing Email Marketing for the Casino and Gambling Industry.

Rule of thumb:

The more relevant the audience, the higher the CTR—even if the design is average.

2. Align the Offer With the Segment

CTR isn’t about the button color; it’s about the reason to click.

Ask for each segment:

  • What is the most obvious next step this person would want to take?
  • What problem am I solving or desire am I amplifying?

Examples:

  • Casino: “Finish your trip with one more night at X% off” for guests who checked out 3–7 days ago.
  • Publisher: “Read the rest of this premium story” for recent paywall visitors.
  • Franchise dev: “Download the investment overview” for leads who watched your discovery webinar.

If your CTR is low, test offer relevance before obsessing over micro-copy.

3. Make Your CTAs Completely Obvious

Several providers describe CTR as the metric that separates “curiosity from engagement” – it tells you whether people just looked at your email or actually tried to do something with it

To nudge more clicks:

  • Use one primary CTA per email whenever possible.
  • Make the button visually distinct and mobile-friendly.
  • Use action-focused copy:
  • “See tonight’s offers”
  • “Claim your bonus spins”
  • “View available dates”

If your subject lines are strong (helped by resources like ALL CAPS in Email: Effective Emphasis or Digital Yelling? and Black Friday Subject Lines), your CTAs need to deliver on that promise.

4. Go Mobile-First, Not Mobile-Also

Mobile dominates email usage:

  • Multiple studies report roughly half or more of email opens happening on mobile, with some segments seeing 80%+ mobile.

If your email looks cramped, tiny, or broken on a phone, CTR dies.

Checklist:

  • Single-column layout
  • Large tap targets (buttons, not tiny text links)
  • Short paragraphs and scannable sections
  • Hero CTAs visible without scrolling

If you’re designing in iPost’s editor, build mobile-first and then confirm via device previews before every send.

5. Use Data to Personalize (But Don’t Be Creepy)

Personalization boosts CTR when it’s actually useful:

  • Use behavioral data to surface relevant content:
  • “Because you played…”
  • “Since you last visited on…”
  • “You recently read…”
  • Use context instead of just first name:
  • “Finish planning your long weekend?”
  • “Here’s what’s happening this Friday on the casino floor.”

Remember: over-personalization with highly sensitive data can backfire. Focus on personalization that helps the subscriber, not just shows off how much you know.

6. Test, Don’t Guess (Especially Subject Lines + Layout)

Benchmarks show that click rates have nudged upward for some senders even while other engagement signals fluctuate—largely for those who actively test and refine.

Things to A/B test regularly:

  • Subject line + preheader combo
  • Single CTA vs multiple secondary CTAs
  • Short vs long body copy
  • Static hero vs simple GIF or “live” content
  • Offer framing (“% off” vs “bonus credit” vs “VIP access”)

Run tests long enough to get statistically meaningful results, then bake the winners into templates for your team.

7. Fix Deliverability Issues That Quietly Kill CTR

Bad deliverability doesn’t just hurt opens—it kills clicks, because your emails never show up where people actually see them.

Basic checks:

  • Authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) properly configured.
  • Low bounce rate and spam complaint rate.
  • No aggressive list purchasing or “spray and pray” sends.
  • Healthy engagement on recent email campaigns.

If you want a more advanced view on the infrastructure side, iPost covers this in The Future of Email Marketing: Dedicated IPs and the Death of Traditional Metrics, including dedicated IPs, IP seasoning, and modern deliverability strategies.

FAQ: Email CTR in 2026

1. What is a good CTR for email marketing?

Most current benchmark reports put a “good” email CTR in the 2–5% range, with many senders clustering around 2–3%. High-performing programs often exceed that, especially when using strong segmentation and personalization.

2. Does CTR still matter now that open rates are inflated?

Yes—more than ever. With privacy features auto-opening some emails, open rate is less reliable on its own. CTR shows real engagement from actual clicks and is still one of the best indicators of whether your email content and offers are working.

3. Should I optimize for CTR or conversion rate?

Both. CTR tells you how well your email drives traffic; conversion rate shows how well your landing experience and offer convert that traffic. Use CTR to diagnose email-side issues (segment, subject, design, CTA) and conversion rate to evaluate your post-click experience.

4. How often should I expect CTR to change?

CTR is sensitive to audience, offer, seasonality, and list health. Expect it to fluctuate campaign to campaign. Track:

  • Rolling averages over 30/90 days
  • CTR by segment (VIP vs casual, casino vs hotel, etc.)
  • CTR by campaign type (event invites vs newsletters vs promos)

Over time, you want your overall trend line to creep upward, even if individual sends jump around.

5. How can casinos, publishers, and franchises get above-average CTR?

Use the data most ESPs struggle with:

  • For casinos: Player ID, visit frequency, spend, game preferences, and events (tournaments, shows) to power targeted journeys—exactly what iPost’s Casino Email Solutions are built around.
  • For publishers: Paywall events, categories read, subscription status, and renewal windows.
  • For franchise dev: Lead source, region, capital range, and funnel stage—iPost goes deeper on this in Email Marketing for Franchise Development.

When your ESP can actually use that data, CTR follows.