The CTR formula
Click-through rate is the share of people who saw something and clicked it:
- CTR % = clicks / impressions x 100
- Clicks needed = impressions x target CTR / 100
It works the same way for search ads, display banners, social posts, email links and your pages in Google search results.
A worked example
A search ad was shown 3,000 times and clicked 45 times. 45 / 3,000 x 100 is a CTR of 1.5%. If you could lift the CTR to 3% with a better headline, the same 3,000 impressions would bring in 90 clicks, twice as many visitors for the same ad spend on most platforms.
Typical click-through rates
| Channel | Typical CTR |
|---|---|
| Google search ads | 3% to 6% |
| Display banners | 0.1% to 0.5% |
| Social feed ads | 0.5% to 1.5% |
| Marketing email (per open) | 10% to 15% |
| First organic result on Google | 25% or more |
These ranges are rough guides. Your own history for the same channel and audience is the better yardstick.
Raising CTR in search results
For organic search, the title and the meta description are your ad. Put the words people searched for near the start of the title, say plainly what the page gives them, and keep the title short enough that Google does not cut it off. Pages that rank between positions 4 and 10 with a low CTR are often the fastest wins.
A rising CTR is good, but check what happens after the click too. Use the conversion rate calculator to see whether the extra visitors do what you want.
