Click Through Rate
Click Through Rate
The click through rate (CTR) is the ratio of clicks to impressions of an ad or a search result, given as a percentage. It answers a single question: how many of the people who saw an ad also clicked it? It is calculated as clicks divided by impressions, multiplied by 100.
| Abbreviation | CTR, also called the click rate |
|---|---|
| Formula | clicks ÷ impressions × 100 |
| Unit | per cent |
| Typical magnitude | banner advertising mostly below 1 %, search results clearly above that depending on position |
| Says nothing about | revenue - that is what the conversion rate is for |
What is a click through rate (CTR)?
The click through rate (abbreviated CTR) is an important metric in online marketing. It relates the number of impressions to the number of clicks on an element (banner, keyword and so on). The CTR matters especially in banner advertising, because a low average click rate often means a low conversion rate as well. The fewer visitors click an ad, the smaller the revenue usually is.
How to calculate the click through rate
The click through rate is easy to calculate. The formula is:
(number of clicks / number of impressions) x 100 = click through rate.
Example: if a keyword is clicked 48 times across 10,000 impressions, that equals a CTR of 0.48 per cent. Which also means: on average there are around 208 impressions per click.
What is a good click through rate?
In the nineties a high single-digit click rate was not unusual in online marketing. Back then the internet was slow, visitors were more focused and the bounce rate was lower. A visitor spent more time on a website. Banners and creatives got more attention. Partner programmes paid money for plain impressions. All of that is history now. The reasons are many:
- A lot more advertising is shown.
- A visitor spends far less time on a page on average.
- Besides advertising there are many other media on a website.
- Banner advertising is often perceived as intrusive.
All of this means a CTR with a leading zero is the norm today. Billing by impressions has largely disappeared. Ad networks only pay for clicks or even for conversions. The latter is also a consequence of many webmasters faking impressions in the past.
Even so, the value of a click rate always has to be judged individually. Ads on Facebook often have a better click through rate than banners or text links. In the end a webmaster has to define a good click through rate for themselves. If they measure a poor ratio of clicks to impressions, the website needs optimising.
How can I improve my click through rate?
Tips for achieving a good click rate or conversion:
- Place keywords where they are clearly visible.
- Keep the content clear.
- Make sure the ad matches the content of the page.
- Optimise the bounce rate.
Compared with the conversion rate, the CTR by definition says nothing about the revenue achieved. The webmaster only sees that an element was clicked. The CTR is nevertheless an important metric for optimising a page, and it gets more precise the more impressions are recorded. Anyone who draws website traffic from several sources should also evaluate the click rate per source - an average across all channels hides exactly the differences that matter.
Why the click through rate matters for SEO
Keywords that rank well in Google should also receive clicks. If they do not, or if the CTR has dropped over the last months, the metadata needs optimising. The meta title has to contain the keyword of the URL. The description has to be meaningful. Also very important: both the title and the description have to meet Google's standards. The texts must never be too long. With the SERP snippet generator you can check pages against those standards.
Since Google is the most important source of organic traffic for most webmasters, its relevance for SEO cannot be overstated. As part of OnPage optimization you have to make sure a high CTR from Google is possible in the first place.
