Definition: what is the click-through rate?
By definition, the “ Click-Through-Rate”, “Click-Through-Ratio” or click rate of a website (short: CTR) is a key figure that shows the ratio of the number of clicks on a digital advertisement to the ad impressions in Expresses percent.
The number of ad impressions in turn shows how often a user has seen the advertising material in a certain period of time. In relation to the actual clicks on the respective affiliate funds in this period of time, these two key figures result in the CTR, i.e. the advertising click rate. The click-through rate plays a particularly important role in the advertising sector and is therefore the focus of the following.
Calculation of the click-through rate
Various tools can evaluate the CTR. You can manually calculate the CTR as follows: (number of clicks / number of impressions) x 100.
Example: If an advertising banner is displayed 100 times and clicked once, the result is a CTR of 1%.
CTR’s can be very different depending on the type of impressions. First place on Google has an average CTR of 18-27%, depending on the study. For example, for banner advertising, the CTR is between 0.09 and 3%. However, this is only a rough guide, as the average values vary greatly depending on the type of display.
The importance of the CTR in online marketing
According to electronicsencyclopedia, the click-through rate is an important KPI (Keyword Performance Indicator), i.e. an indicator that uses a CTR to determine how well the performance of a digital advertisement is tailored to the visitor. Has the generated keyword been adapted to user behavior? Was the affiliate banner placed in a target group-oriented manner?
This parameter is of great relevance for online marketing, especially affiliate marketing, since the efficiency of the advertising material used can be measured in numbers. This can be used, for example, to calculate the cost-per-click, which is crucial for companies because it determines the advertising costs per click.
In the SERP area, too, the CTR is an important factor in search engine optimization with regard to the consideration of the effect of snippets. A high SERP CTR can indicate whether a snippet encourages the user to click on a link on Google.
In order to be able to place digital advertising on Google, you can use Google Google Ads, a payment program for banner advertising on Google.
SEA optimization of the click-through rate
In order to be able to optimize search engine advertising by means of a higher CTR, the following adjusting screws can be turned:
- Place the ad impression on pages that are matched to the content of the ad in order to be able to address focused user groups.
- Changing the design, i.e. adapting size, format or content.
- The use of retargeting, which, however, is often criticized with regard to data protection because of the enormous storage of user data.
A high CTR does not automatically lead to advertising success
However, although the click rate says whether the user considers the advertised promises useful or interesting once they have clicked on them, it can only say something about the success of the ad impression to a limited extent. An increase in the CTR cannot be equated with the success of an advertisement. Only the number of conversions shows whether a visitor was actually encouraged to, for example, make a purchase, start a download or something similar, which describes a conversion.
The aim of an advertising campaign should therefore not be to want to increase the CTR. The CTR only provides clues as to whether the ad impression is effective or not and, if necessary, needs to be optimized.
