A 1% CTR is quite normal for an adsense advert. Assuming your advert is a banner ad, it should have similar CTR.
It is important to understand that over time people develop banner blindness - your ad could have copy providing a lot of value, but the human brain would simply be ignoring it. I would suggest A/B testing with different types of ads, with different copy and call to actions.
One more suggestion is that you can build an email list. It might be slow at start, but over time as the list grows, you no longer have to depend on users coming to your website and clicking your ads. You can contact them directly in their inbox. Obviously don't spam them with useless emails - offer them something of value in every email and try to email them every month (or every week if you can). People also react differently to emails since they are more personal and if you build up trust, it should be a lot easier to get their attention.
