Click-through rates for desktop and mobile are moving in opposite directions, according to the new data from Advanced Web Ranking.
The direction here, especially on desktop, runs counter to the recent narrative in recent CTR reporting. Organic clicks have been eroding overall as AI Overviews expanded, a pattern we’ve covered here using AWR’s data as well as figures from Ahrefs and Seer Interactive, among others. For desktop, however, Q1 data points in the other direction.
What The Data Shows
First, note that the desktop-mobile comparison uses data from AWR’s CTR tracking tool, which reflects dataset-specific movement rather than direct changes in Google’s algorithm or SERPs.
Across 22 industries, top desktop click-through rates generally increased over two quarters, while mobile declined at #1.
On desktop, gains appeared mostly below the third position, while on mobile, the #1 spot dropped by 2.20 percentage points, with little change elsewhere in the top ten.
As with many of the SERP analyses we’ve looked at, AWR also splits the data into branded and unbranded search queries, and the desktop-mobile split holds up for both, though branded desktop gains were larger overall.
Desktop branded searches gained in all top-ten positions, ranging from 1.99 to 5.78 percentage points. Mobile branded search changes were mostly minor. Unbranded queries saw a 3.07-point drop in CTR at the #1 position on mobile, while desktop positions gained.
Beyond the intent split, AWR breaks its data down into additional categories, such as keyword length and industry.
According to the report, the desktop-mobile split held broadly across the 22 industries measured, with some notable single-position swings. Within the 22 industries analyzed, the largest desktop increase was a 7.05-percentage point gain for first-ranked sites in Family & Parenting. The largest mobile decline was a 9.03-point drop for first-ranked sites in Law, Government, & Politics.
Often, AWR releases combined figures adding gains across several positions in the top ten, but those aggregated totals merely sum up the per-position changes. They don’t describe what happened to a single site. To be clear, when we talk about the first-ranked site in any position-by-position breakdown, the per-position figures actually map to specific ranking placements.
How This Fits The Recent CTR Story
A recent string of CTR data has generally pointed downward, alongside the rising prominence of AI Overviews on the SERP. Ahrefs data found a 58% drop in CTR for the position-one result on queries with an AI Overview. Seer Interactive similarly measured declines in that same range and Pew Research reported that users who saw an AI summary clicked on the “traditional” links less often.
That doesn’t mean desktop gains cancel out months of mobile softness, however. Looking at AWR’s Q1 data, it’s tempting to say this fits neatly into a recovery signal we’ve started to see elsewhere.
In an April report, Seer reported that CTRs for “organic queries that have AI Overviews on the SERP” were rebounding sharply from the mid-December lows they’d observed. AWR now adds a desktop-versus-mobile layer to that emerging recovery signal. The difference is that Seer’s work isolates AI Overview queries, while AWR doesn’t.
In AWR’s report, they’re monitoring CTR benchmarks across different SERP positions, regardless of whether the SERP includes AI Overviews. Desktop CTR rates rose across positions during the quarter, while mobile was weaker at the top. Why? Neither AWR nor Seer explicitly assigns causation to their observed movement (e.g., due to AI Overviews or changing ad layouts).
Why This Matters
It’s increasingly important to consider how your CTR varies across different devices. In the past, the gap between desktop and mobile wasn’t wide enough to worry about when using one as a stand-in for the other.
Now, if we stick to single-device benchmarks, or worse, blended estimates, we risk overstating mobile and understating desktop.
Looking Ahead
Modeling forward traffic from last month’s impressions and your desktop CTR curve works well when SERPs stay static, with no AI Overviews, Product ads, Featured snippets, or other elements above the organic results.
As search results change with device, intent, and features above organic results, the original curve becomes less reliable.
Featured Image: Nobody_man/Shutterstock
