Benchmarks
What is a good newsletter sponsorship CTR?
A good newsletter sponsorship click through rate is around 0.2% of total subscribers, measured as unique clicks, excluding bots and duplicates, divided by total subscribers. So a newsletter with 100,000 subscribers might see roughly 200 unique clicks on a sponsorship. A number that looks low is often healthy, as long as it is measured honestly.
How to measure CTR honestly
Calculate it as unique clicks, net of bots and duplicates, divided by total subscribers, times one hundred. That is a more honest picture than the numbers many placements report. Counting total clicks rather than unique clicks, or dividing clicks by opens instead of by subscribers, both inflate the rate and make a placement look stronger than it is. If you want to compare newsletters fairly, insist on unique clicks over total subscribers.
Why 0.2% is not a bad number
Newsletter audiences are opted in and reading in a trusted environment, so even a small share clicking can represent genuinely high intent readers. Click through rate is a shallow measure of a channel whose value shows up after the click. Judge a placement on what those clicks do on your site and on cost per acquisition, not on the click rate by itself.
How to improve sponsorship click through rate
The biggest lever is fit. A sponsor that matches what the audience already cares about, written in the newsletter's voice, earns more clicks than a louder but misaligned one. Beyond alignment, keep to a single clear call to action, lead with the value to the reader rather than the brand, and let the publisher place it where it reads naturally in the issue.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good newsletter sponsorship CTR? +
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Related: How to measure a newsletter sponsorship and Why newsletter sponsorships fail.