I was just looking at my click through rate, and I decided to look at it in a different way - clicks per visit. I think this is a more reasonable thing to look at, because I shouldn't penalize myself because people are looking around on my own site. Taking this into consideration, I'm very happy with the number of clicks I'm seeing. Does anybody else out there consider this stat? Do you prefer people to stick around at your site a while before clicking through? I'm thinking that if I end up with a low CTR - but a high page count per visitor - I'm doing my job - as long as I stay in a reasonable position as far as Clicks per visitor. That means that the visitors are staying a while before they give me revenue, and they are likely to come back and give me repeat revenue, since I was able to hold their interest for a while.
nice perspective, i didn't think of it that way. would be better to know that they are interested in your website enough to stay and explore. then at the end of the day, a click on the ads would be a bonus.
I prefer seeing a high page views:visits ratio rather than just a high CTR with a low ratio. The more people read, the more likely they are to return. I try to stick a "bookmark this" link to every article so people come back -- increasing the likelihood of them finding advertising they're interested in. I'm probably one of the few AdSense users who don't want users clicking unless they're truely interested. From a few referrals to the same advertiser I actually received an offer to carry a regular ad directly (which I turned down for now). Quality clicks will make you more money with less work in the long run. The only way to get quality clicks is to get quality users who are truly interested in what you have to say (today and in the long run).
meh i don't think you're alone. lots of adsense users are also adwords clients, who know all too well what quality clicks mean.
I prefer high page impression per visits too. And I think I have it (about 12 page impressions per visit). I realy don't care my CTR - number of clicks is much more important (and of course number of ads(=page) impressions). Think that your real CTR (per visit not per impression) is above (CTR from adsense statistic)*(average page impression per visit). That could mean that much more visitors click on ad than you think seeing your adsense CTR.