What is a Click Through Rate?

Click-Through Rate (CTR) is an essential concept in search engine marketing, pay-per-click ad campaigns or email marketing campaigns that is the percentage of people who upon seeing an ad or viewing an email click on the ad or link.

How is Clickthrough Rate Measured?

CTR (Click-Through Rate) is a metric of performance that is expressed as a percentage measuring the number of times an email, organic search result, or ad gets clicked relative to the number of impressions or times it's been viewed. Most often it is used to gauge the effectiveness of paid search, email and display marketing campaigns. It can also show the performance of meta titles and meta descriptions, subject lines, and ad copy. Typical examples of where CTR gets measured include:

• An element on a website such as a headline, image, button, etc.
• A link in an email or call-to-action button
• A Facebook display ad
• An organic result on a search engine results page (SERP)
• A landing page link
• A pay-per-click (PPC) ad on a SERP page

A CTR gets determined by dividing the number of all the impressions by the amount of total clicks times 100. For example, if an advertisement for a blender generated 100 clicks and 8000 impressions, the Click Through Rate is 0.80 percent: CTR = 8000 : 100 x 100 = 0.8% The CTR is the telltale indicator of marketing campaign success. With the calculation of how many people end up clicking on the ad after viewing it, it shows the weakness or strength and quality of the keywords, imagery, ad copy, and positioning. The quickest way to boost conversions that lead to sales is to improve CTR. To determine if email marketing campaigns, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), or display and paid search advertising are doing a good job, a company can compare their Click Through Rate to their industry averages.