Click-Through Rate (CTR) – Calculation, Types, and More
What is Click Through Rate (CTR)?
The click-through rate (CTR, also: click rate) indicates the ratio of clicks on an advertising medium to the impressions that the advertising medium has achieved. The CTR is given in percent. For example, if a link is click exactly 23 times out of 1,000 page views, this corresponds to a CTR of 2.3 percent. The click rate is an important KPI in online marketing. In the SEO area, the CTR in the SERPs plays an important role.
Calculation of the Click-through Rate
• The click-through rate is calculat using a simple formula:
• Number of clicks / number of impressions * 100 = click-through rate
Recording of the Click-through Rate
The internal CTR of your own website should be record using suitable web analysis tools such as Google Analytics. The SERPs-CTR can also be found in the Google Search Console. There, webmasters can follow the development of impressions and clicks using a diagram in the “search queries” area. Various SEO tools and full-fledged SEO suites also provide analyzes of the click-through rate that relates to the SERPs or advertising material.
Types of Click-through Rates
When CTR is mentioned in online marketing, it is always about the ratio of clicks to visual contacts. Basically, however, the CTR in search engine advertising, banner advertising, or search engine optimization refers to different issues.
CTR in search engine marketing: The click-through rate in search engine marketing, such as Google AdWords, relates to the ratio of the frequency of the advertising material displayed to the actual clicks on the ad. This can be a text ad, a shopping ad, or a display banner. The corresponding data can be evaluated using the Google AdWords tool.
CTR for banner advertising: If you place advertising online in an advertising network, you can use the click rate to check how efficient your advertising material is. Simultaneously, the CTR can help put the CPM into perspective.
CTR in search engine optimization: For SEOs, the CTR in the SERPs plays an important role. Based on this key figure, conclusions can be drawn about how appealing the snippet is for the target group.
The counterpart to the CTR in the SERPs would be the return-to-SERP rate. It shows the percentage of users who returned to the search results after clicking on the snippet and visiting the target page.
The Click rate can also play an important role in affiliate marketing. A high click rate for affiliates increases the probability that the user will carry out the conversion and that the affiliate will receive a commission as a result.
Average CTR
The average click-through rate question cannot be answer across the board, as this depends very much on the medium and the type of content conveyed. For example, with Facebook ads, significantly higher click-through rates are possible than with classic advertising banners.
The latter often only bring in a CTR of 0.5 percent or even lower values. A study by MediaMind from 2010 determined an even lower average worldwide CTR of just 0.09 percent for banner ads. In comparison, Germany achieved a value of 0.10 percent, which was slightly below the European average of 0.12 percent. This means that for every 1000 impressions, there is, on average, just one single click by the user.
