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Clickthrough Rate (CTR): What Is It & Why It Matters?

PPC & Google Ads
April 23, 2024

What is “Clickthrough Rate” Exactly?

Clickthrough Rate (CTR) is an internet marketing metric that measures the percentage of impressions that ended up in a click. 

In other words, if you’re running any form of pay-per-click ad campaigns (be it Facebook Ads, YouTube Ads, TikTok Ads, or Google Ads), click-through rate is the percentage of people who clicked on your ad (clicks) out of people who saw your ad (impressions).

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Here’s the clickthrough rate formula:

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Click-Through Rate = (Clicks on Ad / Impressions) x 100

CTR Example Calculation:

Let’s say your ad has 80 clicks and 10,000 impressions.

Using the CTR formula: CTR =  (80/10,000) x 100 = 8%

That's an 8% CTR for this campaign.

Read on to learn the importance of CTR in determining the performance of your ads, and best practices to boost the CTR of your ad campaigns. 

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Why Does Clickthrough-Rate Matter?

Since the main goal of any ad is to drive qualified leads to your offer and get prospects to take the desired action… 

CTR is the initial touchpoint that helps you estimate the amount of interest your market is showing on your offer. And this is why CTR is critical.

What a high or low CTR means:

High CTR: It means that your audience is finding your ad highly relevant. Your ad is resonating with your audience, and enticing them to take action. 

Low CTR:  A low CTR signifies that something in your ad — be it your targeting, messaging, or offer — isn’t speaking strongly enough (or relevant enough) to your audience to convince them to take the next step.

So in summary: CTR is the main indicator that allows you to gauge how effective your ad truly is at bringing in prospects.

Now, now that you’re well aware of the significance of CTR in your advertising efforts… It is time to determine what a “good” click-through looks like.

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What Is a Good CTR?

The subject of “what is good CTR” has been a hotly debated topic amongst marketers, but the honest conclusion is always the same: it… depends.

A good click-through rate can vary based on the following factors:

  • The industry you are in
  • Your targeting options (keywords, interests, demographics, etc)
  • The ad platform you are advertising on

So while it is true that you want to keep your CTR on the high side, there is no clear point-blank answer. If you’d like to discover what a good click-through rate would look like for your business, researching your specific industry’s average CTRs as a baseline, and then aim for an above-average CTR for your ad campaigns.

In the next section, we reveal what the average CTR is for Google Search, Facebook Ads, YouTube Ads, and TikTok Ads. It is important to note that the average CTR varies drastically from platform to platform. And the main reason boils down to user intent. People on Facebook and Instagram use the platform to browse for the most part, and therefore have low intent. 

On the other hand, Google Search has the highest average CTR compared to other PPC platforms due to its high search intent.  

Since YouTube is part of the Google network, YouTube advertisers can target people based on their Google keyword searches. 

Like YouTube, TikTok platform users are also looking to learn or be entertained.  Therefore, YouTube and TikTok audiences are also high-intent users. 

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What is a good CTR for Google Search Ads?

Average CTR for Google Search Ads by Industry - Source 

According to Wordstream, a good (above average) CTR for Google Search Ads is 6-7% or more. 

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What is a good CTR for Facebook Ads? 

According to Wordstream, who surveyed 8,287 US-Based Facebook ad accounts from 2016-2019, the average CTR across all industries is 0.89%. 

Average clickthrough rate for Facebook Ads by industry - Source


What is a good CTR for YouTube Advertising?

For YouTube Ads, our 5+ years of video ad experience across multiple industries has shown us that anything below 1% CTR is grim — if this is your case here, we would suggest you go back to the drawing board and work on re-doing your ad creative. 

Between 1-1.5% is a good CTR for YouTube Ads.

And anything above 2% is fantastic territory to be on (though this is generally hard to achieve — especially in tougher markets.)

Watch our video below to learn what an average, and good CTR looks like for YouTube Ads, and how to improve your YouTube ads CTR.

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What is a good CTR for TikTok Advertising?

Tiktok advertising is the newest kid on the block, having launched only in June of 2020. 

There is no average CTR report currently published for TikTok ads. However, what we do know is that 92% of TikTok users take action after watching a TikTok (according to a 2021 TikTok study on 7000+ global participants).  Clearly, TikTok’s users are highly engaged. 

Here at Linx Digital, we started running TikTok ads for our clients who were previously relying on Google, Facebook, and YouTube Ads. 

What we found (based on a sample size of our existing client campaigns) is that a good clickthrough rate for TikTok ads is above 1%.   

The best part about TikTok ads is that we have noticed a much lower cost-per-click and cost-per-acquisition compared to PPC giants of Google, YouTube, and Facebook. This means that we are able to exceed our client’s business KPIs, which is to acquire new customers at an acceptable cost-per-acquisition.

In the TikTok Ads case studies below, we reveal the CTR, CPC, and more metrics we have experienced with TikTok:

TikTok Ads Case Study 1: Make Money Online Niche

TikTok Ads Case Study 2: Online Education Provider‍

5 Tips To Boost Your CTR

Note that there are different factors you want to consider when it comes time to improve your CTR across multiple marketing channels. Don’t expect the same tip you applied on your Facebook ads channel to work just as well on your YouTube Ads. Different problems require different solutions. 

That being said… here are the 5 proven tips to boost your click-through rate:

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1. Nail your headline and copy on the head

We can’t stress this enough: A weak headline and copy are almost always the main culprits for poor CTR across ALL marketing channels — and especially in Facebook Ads and Google Search Ads. Your goal here is to appeal to your customer’s pain points and leave it clear that your solution can offer a convincing answer to that customer’s problem.

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2. Include a crystal clear call to action

Make a direct and captivating call to action that entices your prospect to click. If your CTA is not clear, your prospect simply will not know what to do next, and will just leave your marketing funnel.

If you are running video ad campaigns (whether that is on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok), make sure to have a verbal CTA as well. 

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3. Relevant Targeting

We touched upon earlier that a low CTR means that your users are not finding your ad relevant enough. This could mean that your messaging needs work (see Tip #1 about nailing your headline and copy), or you are targeting irrelevant audiences.

So how do you increase your ad relevance?

You need to make sure that your ad targeting is on point. 

Present your ad to your ideal customers. This is where you take a deep dive into the minds of your ideal customers: What are their interests, behaviors, age, and demographics? What keywords are they most likely to search for when it comes to your offer? 

Determine whether you should exclude certain keywords, audiences, and placements. 

Targeting the right audiences (and keywords, hashtags if applicable) means that you are showing your ad to relevant users, who are more likely to click on your ad (and convert).  

When you are paying for every click, you certainly don’t want just anyone to click on your ad, do you?

See the following example comparing 2 ad campaigns to understand why click-through rate and conversion rate go hand-in-hand for a successful ad campaign. 

If Ad 1 had a 40% clickthrough rate but 0 conversions, and Ad 2 has a 10% clickthrough rate but converted into 2 sales, then (all other variables equal), Ad 2 is the most successful campaign. 

Evidently, a high CTR is costly if these clicks are not converting into customers. 

The main takeaway here is that you should be aiming to target relevant audiences that are most likely to convert. 

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4. Test Your Ad Creatives

For image-based (static) ads: Play around with different colors, designs, and layouts. Create various design variations, and test your creatives to find the best version for your ad campaign. 

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5. Use Video Ads for better engagement

The verdict is in: Video ads simply drive more engagement than static image ads. 

Want people to “stop the scroll”, and pay attention to your ad? Then video is the way to go. Users love seeing video content on social media, with 54% of consumers stating they want to see more video content from brands. People are also more likely to recall a video ad they’ve seen compared to a static image ad. 

Video marketing is clearly a  powerful marketing tool for driving brand awareness, lead generation, traffic, and sales, and is used by 86% of businesses according to Wyzowl.

Bitable conducted a test to see how Facebook Video Ads compare to Facebook Image Ads. The outcome is that the video ad resulted in a better ROI (480% more clicks,497% cheaper CPC, and 290% less cost-per-lead). 

Here at Linx Digital, we have over 5+ of video ad experience and consistently helped our clients profitably scale ad campaigns across Google and paid social platforms. In cases where we managed simultaneous ad campaigns across various ad platforms (Google Search, Display, Facebook Ads, YouTube Ads, TikTok Ads, and Facebook Ads), we have found that compared to static ads, video ads convert better.  Read our video ads case studies to see how we helped our clients profitably generate sales, leads, and increase ROI with video ads. 

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We Can Help You

At Linx Digital, we set ourselves apart by delivering data-driven results through our team of experienced professionals who are knowledgeable in the latest social media advertising best practices. 

Our end-to-end management of campaigns, including thorough target audience research, creative ad creation, unique optimization approaches, and comprehensive reporting, sets us apart from the competition. We customise our media purchasing and advertisement creative approach to fit your objectives, guaranteeing that you receive precisely what is required to scale your brand.

Our commitment to transparency and collaboration has helped us build a strong track record of delivering exceptional results for clients across various industries. We take pride in our approach and invite you to browse our portfolio of successful campaigns.

Choose US for your growth marketing needs and experience the difference that data-driven strategy and expert execution can make; jump on a free strategy call with us!

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