Click-Through Rate (CTR): Definition, Formula, and Tips

What Is Click-Through Rate (CTR)?

Click-through rate (CTR) is how many people clicked on your ad (clicks) divided by the number of people who saw it (impressions). It is expressed as a percentage.

The formula to calculate CTR is (clicks / impressions) x 100.

It’s a metric that can be used to measure the effectiveness of pay-per-click (PPC) ads on platforms such as Google Ads.

For example, if you type “dog food” into Google, you might encounter a search ad similar to the one below on the search engine results page (SERP).

Suppose this search ad appears in the SERP 10,000 times in one week. And 200 people click on the ad in that week. This ad would have a CTR of 2%.

CTR is commonly used for PPC ad campaigns on search engines and social media.

But it can also be used to measure how effective your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts are. Because a higher CTR means more organic traffic (unpaid traffic from search results) to your website.

For example, look at the organic results beneath the ad for the same “dog food” search. Unpaid search results like this will each have their own CTR.

But this article will focus on CTR in the context of search ads. That’s what most people are referring to when they talk about CTR.

Why Is Click-Through Rate Important?

Understanding CTR is important because a high CTR indicates that your ads effectively capture the interests of your target audience.

A high CTR is also important for:

• Driving cost efficiency: If you’re paying for ads on...