CTR — Click-Through Rate

Click-Through Rate — clicks ÷ impressions. How often people click when they see you.

What it means

CTR stands for Click-Through Rate. It tells you how often people click on your ad, search result or email link after they see it. If many people see you but few click, your CTR is low. If a good share of them click, your CTR is high.

How it works

Every time your ad or listing is shown, that counts as one impression. Every time someone clicks it, that counts as one click. CTR compares the two.

CTR = clicks ÷ impressions × 100

You can see CTR in Google Search Console, Google Ads and Meta Ads Manager.

A simple example

Priya runs a small café in Pune and shows a Google ad for "best cold coffee near me". In one week the ad is shown 2,000 times and gets 60 clicks.

CTR = 60 ÷ 2,000 × 100 = 3%

Next week she changes the headline to "Cold Coffee at ₹99, 5 Minutes from FC Road". The ad gets 2,000 impressions again but 100 clicks. Her CTR rises to 5%, so the new headline works better.

Why it matters

A good CTR means your message matches what people are looking for. In search, more clicks from the same ranking means more free visitors. In paid ads, platforms like Google Ads also consider expected CTR when judging ad quality, which can affect how much you pay per click.

But a click is not a sale, so also check what happens after it.

Beginner tips

• Compare CTR only within the same channel. A search ad and a display banner behave very differently.
• Write titles and headlines that match the exact words people search for.
• Test one change at a time, such as the headline or the image, so you know what made the difference.
• Common mistake: chasing clicks with misleading headlines. People bounce straight back, and you waste money.

Related: Impressions, SERP, CPC