CTR Calculator
Enter any two values and the third is calculated. Works for ads, email and organic search alike.
What is CTR?
CTR, or click-through rate, is the share of people who clicked after seeing something: clicks divided by impressions, as a percentage. It measures whether the thing they saw was worth clicking. It says nothing about what happened after the click.
How it works
Click-through rate is clicks divided by impressions, as a percentage: 250 clicks on 50,000 impressions is a CTR of 0.5%.
Because three numbers are tied together, any two give the third. The reverse directions are the planning ones: a CTR and an impression count give the clicks to expect, and a click target with an assumed CTR gives the impressions you need to buy.
CTR measures the ad, not the outcome. It says the creative and the targeting earned attention; whether that attention was worth paying for is a question for CPC, CPA and ROAS.
What is CTR, and the three questions it answers
CTR is the simplest ratio in advertising and the one most often quoted without its denominator, which is where the trouble starts: a CTR with no impression count behind it is a percentage of an unknown.
CTR = clicks ÷ impressions × 100240 clicks on 12,000 impressions is a CTR of 2%.- CTR from clicks and impressions 2,400 clicks on 60,000 impressions is 4.00%. The question you ask when comparing two creatives, two subject lines or two placements.
- Clicks from impressions and CTR 200,000 impressions at 1.5% gives 3,000 clicks. The forecast you run before committing a budget.
- Impressions from clicks and CTR a target of 900 clicks at a 0.3% CTR needs 300,000 impressions. The number to take into a negotiation with a publisher.
What counts as a good CTR
There is no universal benchmark, and anyone quoting one without naming the channel is selling something. CTR depends almost entirely on intent: how close the person already was to wanting the thing.
Branded search sits at the top, often well into double digits, because someone typing your name has already decided. Non-branded search runs a few per cent. Paid social is typically under 1%, because nobody opened the app to buy anything. Display is a fraction of a per cent, and a display CTR that looks unusually good is more often a sign of accidental clicks on mobile or of invalid traffic than of a brilliant banner. Email is measured differently again, clicks against delivered messages, not impressions, and the industry habit of comparing an email CTR with an ad CTR compares two different denominators.
The useful comparison is always against yourself: the same placement, the same audience, last month. A CTR that rose after a creative change is information. A CTR compared against a benchmark from a blog post is not.
CTR against the metrics downstream
CTR is the first link in a chain, and the chain is what matters. Impressions × CTR = clicks; cost ÷ clicks = CPC; clicks × conversion rate = conversions; cost ÷ conversions = CPA. A change in CTR moves every number after it, which is why it is worth improving, and why it is not worth improving on its own.
The trap is a CTR that rises while the business result falls. A more aggressive headline, a discount in the creative, a provocative image: all of them can lift clicks and bring a worse audience, so the conversion rate drops further than the CTR rose. Watch CTR and conversion rate together, and judge the pair by the CPA.
The same arithmetic runs the other way on quality scores. On Google Ads, expected CTR is one of the inputs to Quality Score, and a higher Quality Score lowers the price of the same position, so on search a better CTR does not only buy more clicks, it buys them cheaper.
Checking a set of campaigns at once
A single CTR is rarely the question; the comparison across placements is. Switch to bulk mode and drop in a CSV with one row per line item, a name plus any two of clicks, impressions and CTR, and every row is solved for the missing value in one table you can copy or download.
The delimiter is detected, so a sheet exported from an Italian or German Excel with semicolons works unchanged, and 0,8 is read as 0.8 rather than as eight. Rows with fewer than two values are flagged with the reason instead of being guessed at, which matters on an export where one column came through empty.
What CTR hides
- The denominator a 10% CTR on 200 impressions is twenty clicks and tells you almost nothing. Below a few thousand impressions the number is noise; check the volume before you act on the rate.
- Viewability an impression counted below the fold was never seen, so it dilutes the CTR of an ad that performed perfectly well where it was visible.
- Accidental clicks on mobile display, a share of clicks are fingers missing a close button. They cost money and never convert, which is why a high display CTR with a terrible conversion rate is a known pattern rather than a mystery.
- Invalid traffic bots click too. On open exchanges, ask what share is filtered and whether you are charged for it.
- Position the same ad in the first slot and the fourth has very different CTRs. Comparing creatives across positions compares the positions.
Questions people ask
What is a good CTR?
It depends entirely on the channel and the intent behind it: branded search can be double digits, paid social is usually under 1%, display a fraction of a per cent. Compare against your own previous numbers on the same placement, not against a published benchmark.
How do I calculate CTR?
Divide clicks by impressions and multiply by 100. 250 clicks on 50,000 impressions is 0.5%.
Is a higher CTR always better?
No. A more aggressive creative can lift clicks and bring a worse audience, so the conversion rate falls further than the CTR rose. Judge the pair by cost per acquisition.
What is the difference between CTR and conversion rate?
CTR measures clicks against impressions: whether the ad earned attention. Conversion rate measures conversions against clicks: whether the landing page and the offer delivered.
Does CTR affect what I pay?
On search, yes. Expected CTR feeds Google Ads Quality Score, and a better Quality Score lowers the cost of the same position, so a higher CTR buys cheaper clicks as well as more of them.