What is CTR (click-through rate)?

CTR (click-through rate) in Google Ads is the percentage of your ad’s impressions that lead to a click. You calculate it by dividing the number of clicks by the number of impressions. You can view CTR per ad, keyword or campaign. Expected CTR, a component of Quality Score, is an estimate of it.

Why is CTR important?

Signal for relevance: a low CTR often points to an ad that does not match the searcher.
Testing: you compare ad copy on how often it is clicked.
Link to quality: CTR is connected to Quality Score.

Examples of CTR

Ad A has 40 clicks on 2,000 impressions (2 percent), ad B has 70 clicks on 2,000 impressions (3.5 percent).
A brand keyword often has a different CTR than a generic keyword, so only compare similar keywords.
A headline with a concrete offer attracts more clicks than a generic headline.

How do you use CTR?

Compare CTR within one ad group, test headlines and add assets to make your ad more appealing. Always look at conversions too: a high CTR without conversions points to a promise the landing page does not keep. Read more at Google Ads.

CTR (click-through rate)