Click-through rate, or CTR, is the share of people who saw something and clicked it. It’s the first number most marketers check on an ad, an email or a search listing.
The sum is easy. The trouble is deciding what to compare it with, so the page also covers what counts as a decent figure and what usually moves it.
How to use the CTR Calculator#
- Enter your clicks. Use the number of clicks on your ad, link or email over the period you’re measuring.
- Enter your impressions. Use the number of times it was shown over the same period.
- Read your CTR. The calculator divides clicks by impressions and gives a percentage.
The CTR formula#
If an ad was shown 20,000 times and got 250 clicks, the CTR is 250 ÷ 20,000 = 0.0125, which is 1.25 percent. That works out at about 80 impressions for each click.
What counts as a good CTR#
It depends on the channel and the audience, so treat any single figure with caution. As a rough guide, search ads often do better than display ads, and email click rates are usually lower than ad CTRs. Your own history is the best benchmark. Look at what the same campaign did last month and what your best ad did.
| Channel | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Search ads | Often a few percent |
| Social ads | Often around 1 percent |
| Display banners | Often well under 1 percent |
| Email (click rate) | Often 1 to 5 percent |
These are broad ranges and they shift by industry, country and year. Use them as a sanity check, not a target.
Ways to raise your CTR#
Test the headline first, because it’s what people read before anything else. Make the offer specific. Match the ad to the page it leads to, so the click feels like what was promised. Target a narrower audience instead of a wider one. Change one thing at a time so you know what worked.
A higher CTR isn’t always better. An eye-catching ad that attracts the wrong people can lift CTR and still lose money. Check conversions as well. Our Facebook ads cost calculator carries CTR through to cost per click.
Testing two ads: is the difference real?#
Ad A gets 30 clicks from 1,000 impressions, a CTR of 3.0 percent. Ad B gets 45 clicks from 1,000, a CTR of 4.5 percent. B looks 50 percent better, but with so few impressions the gap could be chance. A standard two-sample test gives a z-score of about 1.76, which corresponds to a probability of roughly 8 percent that a gap this large would appear by luck. That is above the usual 5 percent threshold, so you should keep the test running. With 5,000 impressions each and the same rates, the difference would be clearly significant.
| Impressions per ad | Ad A clicks | Ad B clicks | Confidence B is better |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | 30 | 45 | about 92% |
| 2,500 | 75 | 112 | about 99% |
| 5,000 | 150 | 225 | more than 99.9% |
What CTR does not tell you#
A high CTR can be bad news. A misleading headline gets clicks from people who then leave, so the ads are costly and nothing sells. Look at what happens after the click: bounce rate, time on the page, sales. Also note where the ad appeared. An ad at the top of search results gets a much higher CTR than the same ad lower down, so compare like with like. For email, CTR is often calculated on delivered or opened messages, and the base you choose changes the number.
Using CTR in planning#
CTR links impressions to clicks, which links to cost. With a CPM of 8 and a CTR of 2 percent, a thousand impressions bring 20 clicks, so each click costs 0.40. Raise the CTR to 3 percent and it falls to 0.27. The calculator also shows impressions per click, which is 50 at a 2 percent CTR. Use the CPM calculator for the cost side and the Facebook ads cost calculator to carry the numbers through to conversions.
Frequently asked questions#
Divide the number of clicks by the number of impressions, then multiply by 100.
Not always. If the clicks don’t turn into sales or sign-ups, a high CTR can just mean you’re paying for curiosity.
CTR measures how many people clicked. Conversion rate measures how many of those clicks ended in an action, such as a purchase.
Use impressions. CTR is defined per impression, so one person who sees the ad three times counts three times.
No, not with the normal definition. Each click needs an impression, so clicks cannot exceed impressions. If you see a figure above 100 percent, you have probably mixed up the numbers or used a different measure, such as clicks on a page against unique visitors.