What is the click through rate?

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What is the click through rate?

The click-through rate, abbreviated to CTR, describes the relationship between impressions of an ad or a search result and its clicks. The CTR is measured in percent, for example, if a link in an advertisement is displayed 1000 times and clicked 25 times, the CTR is 2.5%. The click rate is therefore an important KPI in online marketing and describes the success or failure of changes to the ads/ snippets or advertising material.

How to Calculate CTR (Click Through Rate)

To calculate the CTR (Click-Through-Rate), use the following formula:

number of clicks / number of impressions x 100

For example, if a banner ad is displayed 100 times and there are 5 clicks, the CTR is 5%.

What does click through rate (CTR) depend on?

In addition to the ad or your Google snippet itself and its optimization, it is important at which position it is displayed. With Google ADs, the click price is calculated from various factors that represent the quality factor, including the click rate of your advertisement. The more clicks you get, the cheaper the ad can be. In the organic hits there are numerous clicks with a good length of stay/interaction of your users on your website, again a positive signal for increasing the rankings.

How can I improve my click through rate?

In advertisements (Google or Bing ADs) as well as in the SEO of your title tag or meta description , the CTR can be improved by the fact that the searched term at least appears in the ad and your URL. A meaningful description and optimization of these arouses the interest of a user to click on them. Work here according to the AIDA principle. Rich snippets or symbols in the description create added value for the "ad" and thus improve the CTR. A great example as follows:

Where can I see the click through rate (CTR)?

Checking the CTR in the Google Search Console:

Under "Performance" you get information about the CTR from the organic hits. Here the search types can be divided into web, images or video and different time periods can be created. Other filters such as country, devices or specific search queries are also possible here.

The data from the Google Search Console can also be exported and processed accordingly. Search terms with high impressions and a poor click rate can thus be optimized.

Display the CTR in Google ADs (Adwords).

The click rate can also be evaluated according to the respective ad group, campaign or search term in Google ADs:

Which position gets how many clicks?

The click probability within the organic hits was determined by Johannes Beus from Sistrix in 2015. Changes in the display of Google search results can lead to different insights. Accordingly, the following click rates occurred on the Google Top 11 (organic hits):

  • Position 1 = 59.59%
  • Position 2 = 15.82%
  • Position 3 = 7.92%
  • Position 4 = 5.11%
  • Position 5 = 3.41%
  • Position 6 = 2.39%
  • Position 7 = 1.75%
  • Position 8 = 1.33%
  • Position 9 = 1.03%
  • Position 10 = 0.73%
  • Position 11 = 0.17%

For a detailed analysis, you can find the reference under the further links .

What is a good or bad click through rate?

There is no direct comparison of the CTR! This depends on the playing platform (the medium), Facebook ads, for example, achieve a higher CTR than classic advertising banners. A study showed that on average in Europe just 0.12% of users click on display advertising – 1 person for 1000 impressions!

In addition to the CTR, the conversion is much more important for measuring the success of an advertising campaign ! Even if you are above the average of others with a CTR of 5%, it is important that these users in turn achieve your goal (enquiries, registrations, calls). The evaluation is therefore more likely to be carried out using ROI or ROAS.

Click Through Rate in connection with search engine optimization

In SEO, the CTR of your snippets in the search engine results ( serps ) is an important indicator for optimization. The SEO recognizes how well the snippets are performing and can further optimize them accordingly. Search engines also use this as the relevance of your ad to the search term you are looking for. An adjustment of the snippet as well as an extension with rich snippets or HTML elements is an important part of SEO to gain more attention.

Conclusion

The click-through rate is an important indicator of your ads/snippets performance, but the conversion rate is much more important, as this is decisive for the success of the campaigns. Therefore, pay attention to the ROI or ROAS of your online marketing activities.

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