CTR

What CTR means

CTR, short for click through rate, is the share of impressions that leads to a click. The formula is clicks divided by impressions, multiplied by 100. If an ad is shown 10,000 times and clicked 200 times, the CTR is two percent.

The figure therefore measures the pull of an ad. It says how well an impression is turned into a visit. It says nothing about whether the visit leads to a sale or what the sale is worth.

Why a high CTR can be expensive

Anyone optimising CTR alone gets ads that make people curious. Curiosity is cheap to produce and rarely leads to a purchase. An ad with a hint, a riddle or an exaggerated promise reaches a high click rate and brings visitors who do not want to buy. The result is high click cost, plenty of traffic and a falling ROAS.

Conversely, a low CTR can be a sign of precise targeting. Anyone addressing a small, matching audience with a factual offer gets fewer clicks and more purchases.

Which values are common per channel

A rough orientation is one to two percent for display advertising, one to three percent for paid search and higher values for email and organic search. These figures swing widely by industry, audience, device and ad position. A comparison between your shop and a published average therefore says little; a comparison inside the same channel over time says much more.

What should decide instead

• Conversion rate of the traffic: which share of visitors who arrived buys. It shows whether the click led to the right place.
• Cost per order: the figure connects click cost and buying behaviour and is therefore closer to the result than the click rate.
• ROAS and contribution margin: they say whether the campaign earns money or burns it.
• Quality of the landing page: when CTR is high and conversion low, the problem usually sits there.

How CTR stays useful

Two uses remain sensible. First when testing ad copy: with the same audience and the same budget, CTR shows which text lands better. Second as an early warning. If the click rate suddenly drops sharply, something is wrong with delivery, such as a wrong audience, a rejected ad or a fault on the landing page. The figure is enough for both purposes, because there it appears in a comparison rather than as a target.

Frequent questions

• Is a higher CTR always better? No. It is only better when the quality of the traffic stays the same.
• Why does CTR fall over time? Because the same audience sees an ad several times and eventually skips it.
• Does a click on the banner count? That depends on the tool. Brand campaigns often use their own click definitions.