Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Click-through rate is the percentage of people who clicked a link or ad out of everyone who saw it.
Click-through rate (CTR) is the percentage of viewers who clicked a link, ad, or call-to-action divided by the number of times it was shown. The formula is clicks / impressions x 100. CTR measures how compelling your creative, headline, and offer are at driving action, not just attention. It is the core efficiency metric for paid ads, organic link posts, email, and bio links. A higher CTR usually lowers your cost-per-click and signals to the platform algorithm that your content is relevant, which can expand reach. Benchmarks vary by channel: social feed ads often sit near 1 percent, search ads run higher. Track CTR alongside conversion rate, because clicks that never convert waste spend.
Examples
- An Instagram ad shown 10,000 times with 200 link clicks has a 2 percent CTR.
- Swapping a vague headline for a benefit-led one lifts email CTR from 1.8 percent to 3.1 percent.
- A LinkedIn post with 50 clicks on 5,000 impressions scores a 1 percent CTR.