Google CTRs in 2024: Surprising Insights for Search Marketers

As a search marketer, staying on top of Google's click-through rates (CTRs) is essential. After all, these stats reveal where people are actually clicking, helping us make smarter decisions about where to invest our time and budgets. I recently dug into a meta-analysis of 2024 Google CTR data carried out by FirstPageSage, and here are the 10 most important takeaways:

1. The top 3 organic results still dominate: A whopping 68.7% of all clicks go to the top 3 organic search results. Ranking high organically is more important than ever.

   
   

2. Snippets are CTR gold: If you can snag a featured snippet for the #1 spot, your CTR jumps to 42.9%. That's the highest CTR of any search element.

   
   

3. #1 organic crushes #1 paid: The top organic result gets a massive 19 times more clicks than the top paid result. Organic search is still king.

   
   

4. People trust the top results more in 2024: CTRs for positions #1 and #2 have slightly increased compared to 2023. It seems users are placing even more trust in Google's top organic results.

   
   

5. Paid CTRs have dipped slightly: The average CTR for the top 3 paid positions has decreased a bit. This suggests that organic results might be getting even more attention.

   
   

6. Local Service Ads have decent CTRs: If you're targeting local searches, the Local Service Ad boxes have respectable CTRs, ranging from 2.5% to 3.1%.

   
   

7. The #1 organic result beats #3-#10 combined: The top spot gets more clicks than all the results from #3 to #10 put together. Talk about the power of ranking high!

   
   

8. The top paid result is way ahead: The #1 paid ad gets 40% more clicks than the #2 paid ad. Even within paid results, the top spot is highly coveted.

   
   

9. "People Also Ask" boxes are getting clicks: These boxes have an average CTR of 3.0%. They're becoming a noticeable part of the search experience.

   
   

10. Image and video results have potential: While not as high as text results, image and video results do get clicks, with CTRs ranging from 1.4% to 6.4%.

Source: FirstPageSage