How Often Do You Click? What Is CTR: Massive Tutorial [+ Calculator Inside]

Ad tech is quite a complex industry. DSPs, SSPs, RTB – all of these sound like ancient Sumerians for someone who’s not into digital advertising. But some terms in advertising are true rockstars that even your granny knows about, and one of them is today’s subject – CTR.

The click-through rate is the percentage of people who click on an ad out of the total number of people who see it. You probably already know that. This time, let’s dig a little deeper. We’ll analyze what a good CTR is, how CTR affects your campaign budget, and how it fluctuates with time.

Also, we’re fitting this article with an online CTR calculator; check it out in the end!

What is CTR: Definition and Formula

For the protocol, we’ll make a nice definition.

Click-through rate, or CTR, is a metric that measures the effectiveness of an ad by showing how often people click on it compared to how many times it is displayed.

It’s not that difficult to calculate CTR:

CTR = (number of ad clicks / number of impressions) * 100

The point of CTR is to be a measurable way of tracking ad engagement. The higher the CTR – the better ad relevancy. Surely, these days, there are many more ad metrics to see how well the ad resonates with the user, but click-through rates seemed to be the most natural when it first arrived at the party.

Yes, dear reader, this metric is older than me. The history of click-through rates spreads its roots back to 1994. At that time, as most ad geeks would know, the first online display ad (for AT&T) was placed on the HotWire website.

Technically, nobody has called it “CTR” yet, but since it’s literally the rate at which users click, it wasn’t hard to come up with a good name.

What Is Good CTR

44% – that’s how high the CTR was for the first online ad. In 2025, this number is simply insane, and any advertiser would do horrible things to at least get a comparable result.

CTR: Search vs Display Ads

Nowadays, your average CTR isn’t nearly as high and varies a lot per industry. For example, in Google Ad Sense, the average CTR for search ads is 3.1%, while it’s 0.46% for display ad placements.

Now, you might be wondering why the hell there is such a stark difference between search and display ad click-through rates. Let us explain:

Intent

In search, users are actively searching(hehe) for specific products or services, and as a result, they are receptive to relevant ads. Display ad placements, on the other hand, appear on irrelevant websites, so the ad’s message isn’t really aligned with the user’s intent.

Targeting

This depends, but usually, display ad placements have a broader targeting range. Such an approach increases impressions but also leads to fewer clicks.

Price

On average, search traffic is more expensive than display ads. If we deal with cost-per-click, a typical display ad costs around $0.6 per click, while the price reaches $2.7 with search. Surely, the pricing will differ from CPC to CPA and CPM, but the general picture is as is.

CTR per Industry: Highest and Lowest

Now, let’s move to the part that you’re mostly here for. Is your CTR good? We’ll answer the nuance behind the question later, but now, let’s have a look at the industry’s average numbers.

The results are quite logical. Dating ads have the clearest call-to-action, deep personal appeal, and targeted messaging. All these factors contribute to an environment where users are primed to click, driving up the CTR up to 6.05% for the category.

At the same time, technology is one of the most competitive markets with ads all over the place, so the audience is more fatigued and clicks on the ads less than 2.1%.

As for display ads, there’s not much surprising as well. Real estate takes the spot because of location relevance and personalized re-targeting, which works especially well for people interested in property. Plus, add investment motivation to the list, and you get 1.08%.

Technology gets the lowest click-through rate of 0.39%, yet again for the same reasons.

What Does Your CTR Stand for: Pros & Cons

Congratulations to those who’ve outperformed the industry’s average score. It is an invaluable indicator that makes sense for many occasions. But for those readers who didn’t, trust us, it’s not that bad.

The Weaknesses of CTR

You see, as groundbreaking as it was in 1994, CTR is not the panacea in modern marketing. And while you should keep an eye on click-through rate, it’s not worth your tears.

CTR meaning lacks in many departments and is rarely the most defining metric in the ad campaign. Let’s see why and discover how to improve these shortcomings with other ad metrics.

Clicks over conversions

A high CTR doesn’t ultimately equal great success. Users often click out of curiosity but do not follow through with actions, leading to high CTR and low conversion rates. Combining conversion rate (CR) to CTR will provide you with much deeper insight.

Quantity over quality

Once again, CTR measures the quantity of clicks, but not its quality. A clickbaitish headline or pretty e-girl will attract clicks, but will it reach the right audience? Better combine CTR with metrics like time spent on the page or bounce rate.

Misalignment with brand goals

Not every campaign needs high CTRs. The readers who’ve checked out our brand vs performance advertising comparison know why already. Brand campaigns better align with the number of impressions to boost awareness, while clicks play a secondary role.

To get the complete picture, pay attention to reach and ad frequency metrics; CTR meaning and usefulness grow significantly with them taken into account.

Inconsistency

Calculate CTR today – you’ll get one result; calculate it tomorrow – the result will probably differ. The difference in platforms, the changes in audience, seasonality, and even time of day result in click-through rates that are always fluctuating. Back up your understanding of CTR with somewhat more stable metrics like viewability and completion rates (for video).

Where Does CTR Shine?

Surely, there are reasons why popular is so thought-after. Here are they:

Understanding ad relevance

Despite the shortcomings, click-through rates remain the main metric for analyzing what works in your campaigns and what doesn’t. Low CTR is the first and most obvious sign that your ad doesn’t reach the audience the way it should.

Testing

Once you identify the issue, another click-through rate benefit comes up. It is one of the most versatile ad metrics for A/B testing. Being a fast and straightforward measure of user interest, it quickly shows which ad version attracts more clicks.

Optimizing budgets

CTR has a great impact on how you allocate your budgets; the good news is that its simplicity and transparency don’t imply second-guessing. CTR clearly shows where to allocate more of the budget.

Quality score for PPC campaigns

“Wait a minute, wasn’t Quantity over Quality a bullet point in your disadvantages list?”

Yes, dear reader, but the meanings are a bit different. You see, quality score is a literal metric from Google that defines the relevance of your keywords and PPC ads. The better the CTR – the better the quality score is, and more importantly – the better your PPC campaigns work.

How to Improve CTR for Search Ads

By now, you should understand what CTR actually means and how to use it to the fullest. But what if you calculate CTR and it’s still below expectations? Let us give a few tips that could help you out. (We’ll take search ads as a primary example, but most of these can be applied)

1. Grab attention with a strong headline

The headline is your hook – don’t screw it up! You’d be shocked to know how many ads don’t include even a basic CTA, disregard creating a sense of urgency/interest or highlighting the product’s main features.

2. Use clear meta descriptions and friendly URLs

Meta descriptions not only impact your ranking but can also engage, grab users’ attention, and tell what your page is about. Write brief descriptions that tell the user exactly what they’ll get, and use clean, easy-to-read URLs with keywords. Make the user feel like they’re clicking on something trustworthy.

Don’t overdo it. Remember, the ideal length for a title is from 50 to 60 characters, and from 150-170 is good for descriptions.

3. Use negative keywords

This is more pure SEO advice, but it will help nevertheless. Set negative keywords and ensure that your ad won’t show up for the wrong crowd. For example, if you provide a white-label ad server, then you could set “free, open-source ad server” as a negative keyword.

4. Use emotional triggers

The emotional approach isn’t the universal solution for all verticals, but if your industry allows for it, then why not? Incorporate emotional triggers with the audience and prompt them to take action. “Discover,” “Find Yours,” “Special Offer,” “Best Price,” “Discount” – you know all of these if you’ve been to Amazon once in your life, but these words work nevertheless.

5. Add schema markup

This is an all-time SEO classic. Add schema markup to your webpage and display additional information like the pricing, guides, or reviews. Additional information attracts potential buyers and will most likely improve your CTR.

6. Use numbers

Last but not least, use more numbers. Readers just adore lists and numeric values. It creates a sense of organization and makes your ad offerings easier to follow.

How to Improve CTR for Display Ads

Honestly, the tactics for display ads aren’t that much different. That’s why we’ll be brief:

1. Use bold and relevant pictures

Obviously enough, users click more on the ads that have appealing, eye-catching, and high-quality images. Of course, they should align with your brand offering otherwise this will only result in high CTR and low conversion rates.

2. Keep text minimal

Your average audience doesn’t like reading too much (except for you, dear visitor). Make the text communicative, sticky, and easy to understand. Put the benefits up as the main focus.

3. Use strong CTAs

Once again, it’s quite obvious: use a good call to action! The display ad audience is even more passive than in search, so that could be your lifebuoy.

4. Add rich media

We’re used to 100 TikToks and Reels a day; the images have to move to generate at least a drop of our interest. Use HTML5 ads to create animated and interactive elements.

5. Use re-marketing

The main reason why display ads lose to search ones is that you show the ads to people who had no prior interest in them. But what if they did? Re-marketing/re-targeting allows targeting users who are at least curious about your brand. Design ads specifically for this audience, and you’ll see the CTR grow.

6. Practice makes perfect

This tip is applicable both to display and search ads. Click-through rates are always changing, so to keep your performance consistent, you have to change your ads as well. Whether it’s A/B testing or simply experimenting with placement sizes, you can reach maximum visibility and see what the audience likes.

How to Calculate CTR: Real-Time CTR Calculator

Let’s be real, in 2024, calculating anything manually is too much of a hassle. That’s why we are presenting our very own CTR calculator to you.

Click-Through Rate: Behind the Scenes of Advertising

As you can see, even a small metric like CTR may have dozens of layers behind it. Despite shortcomings, marketers were, are, and will continue to use click-through rates to measure the success of their ad campaigns.

Join them in the quest! Epom ad server not only shows you CTR in real time, but allows you to change your ad creatives with ease for better results.