Click-Through Rate

What Is Click-Through Rate?

Click-Through Rate (CTR) is the percentage of how many people who see your ad or product listing end up clicking on it. Marketing teams use CTR to evaluate the performance of various campaigns and to run A/B tests on specific keywords or ads.

CTR is calculated by dividing the number of clicks a particular link gets by the number of people who view the link. For example, if 100 people see your ad and 10 of them click on it, your CTR would be 10%.

CTRs are helpful because they can encompass an entire online marketing strategy or identify particular aspects that are working well or need to be changed. But marketing teams especially pay attention to CTRs for pay-per-click (PPC) ads on search engines to ensure that the keywords are getting their content in front of the right audience.

Why Is the Click-Through Rate Important?

CTRs are essential because they can help you understand whether your marketing campaign is attracting the intended audience.  A higher CTR indicates that your audience finds your content relevant to your search; a lower CTR suggests that the keywords, ads, or listings aren’t as effective as they could be.

Additionally, having a high CTR increases your link’s ranking on a search engine results page. Whether you’re paying to have your listing boosted through PPC ads or not, the more times customers click on your link for a specific phrase or keyword, the higher the search engine will rank you the next time someone types in that phrase or keyword.

What Is a Good Click-Through Rate?

A good CTR will depend on your industry, the keywords you’re bidding on, and the individual campaigns in a PPC account. Branded keywords usually have CTRs with double digits, but broader keywords typically stay under 10%.

But having a low CTR doesn’t automatically indicate that you’re doing something wrong. If you produce ads with click-bait titles, you’ll increase your CTR but decrease your conversion rate. And at the end of the day, conversion rate is far more important than CTR.

If you’re using vague keywords, your CTR will be lower than it would with highly specific keywords. But there’s still a benefit to using ambiguous keywords because it can introduce you to a broader audience. Striking a balance between specific and unspecific keywords can work towards better lead generation and conversion rates.