What is CTR?

This term designates the rate of clicks made on a page or a site during an advertising campaign. We use it to evaluate the relevance or the result of an advertising campaign carried out by a given site. As a partial performance indicator, it helps companies to improve their services and optimize their promotional actions. Here are some pointers on what CTR is and how to use it for your SEO needs.

Math saves the day

The calculation of the CTR is based on the clicks registered and the pages or displays published. Thus, to obtain it, a simple division operation is performed between the total number of clicks and the number of displays. The result is the overall click rate expressed as a percentage. Therefore, a high percentage indicates the success of an advertising campaign.

CTR is important

There is a correlation between CTR and your search engine ranking: when you have a high CTR (an article that generates a lot of clicks), there is a consequent increase in traffic.  Google uses it to re-rank articles in the SERPs. In combination with the visit duration and the bounce rate, the click-through rate can count as a necessary condition for good traffic on a website. Furthermore, the CTR for a particular keyword should always be seen in a relative way. A click-through rate of 1% per 100,000 views always represents more visitors than a click-through rate of 10% per 1,000 views.

With a high visit duration and a low bounce rate, the CTR can therefore be an indicator of the likelihood of a conversion.

Measure yourself

Calculating the CTR is not enough to know if it is good or bad. You must compare the statistical data to other CTRs or over a specific period to know if it’s any good. Depending on the campaign, the medium, the channel and the subject of the ad/result, it varies. It is not wise to compare a click-through rate on an ATS campaign with an email campaign. Optimizing your click-through rate will boost your traffic and your return on investment.

If you want to remember what is CTR, try to memorize this formula:

CTR (click-through rate) = (Number of clicks / Number of impressions) x 100