The Basics of Click Through Rate (CTR)
Understanding The Basics of Click Through Rate (CTR)
When marketing online there are a ton of different metrics or data points a marketer can look at to define success of a campaign or advertisement. Click through rate is a standard metric looked at by all marketers who advertise online. Click through rate, also known as CTR, signifies the rate at which a user clicks when presented an advertisement.
HOW TO CALCULATE CLICK THROUGH RATE (CTR)
The calculation for CTR is quite simple in nature for this metric. Simply divide the amount of clicks from the amount of impressions based on the dimension of analysis.
CTR = Clicks / Impressions
WHAT IS A CLICK
When advertising online a click is typically defined as an interaction with your advertisement. The interaction can be defined differently based on the platform of which you’re advertising on but for search advertisers on Google Ads or Microsoft Ads a click interaction drives a user from the search engine results page (SERP) to your website.
WHAT IS AN IMPRESSION
An impression is the amount of times your advertisement was shown on the platform you’re advertising on. This metric allows an advertiser to confirm how many times an advertisement was shown over a certain time period. If you’re advertising on Google search via Google Ads, an impression is the amount of times your text or shopping ad showed in the SERP based on the targeting in your account.
WHAT IS A DIMENSION
Dimensions are defined as the parameter of which you are either viewing data or targeting advertising against. When in Google Ads or Microsoft Ads for your search or shopping campaigns, a dimension for your campaign setup can any of the following: campaign, ad group, keyword, ad, device, age, gender, audience, location, or time.
WHAT IS CLICK THROUGH RATE (CTR) WORTH AS A METRIC
Click through rate (CTR) is a guiding metric that determines the relevancy of your advertisement to your audience. In search advertising your audience correlates to the keywords or products in which you are advertising on Google or Bing. CTR is not widely viewed as a success metric in search advertising but only as what is called a soft metric.
CTR is a soft metric, NOT a success metric.
WHAT IS A SOFT METRIC
A soft metric is a data point of which has little to no bearing on success of an advertisement or campaign. For search advertisers click through rate (CTR) has an affect on cost associated with advertising which gives importance to the metric but for advertisers choose to focus on metrics such as conversions to determine the success of campaigns.
HOW OFTEN SHOULD YOU REVIEW CLICK THROUGH RATE (CTR)
Click trough rate (CTR) is a metric that should be checked on daily to ensure your advertisement continues to be relevant to your audience. An advertiser who manages search campaigns should never let this metric go unchecked for more than a day. The world of digital advertising moves so quickly and is an ever changing landscape which demands attention to achieve the best results.
IS THERE AN EASY WAY TO CHECK CLICK THROUGH RATE (CTR) DAILY
To make it easier to check on click through rate create a dashboard view to see this metric daily. You can use the Google Ads and Microsoft Ads UI’s to visualize this metric in their respective platforms or use free to use tools such as Google DataStudio to pull CTR from both platforms into a singular view.
Don’t let your CTR slide.
To have your account reviewed and click through rate analyzed contact us today for a free, zero-commitment Google Ads audit and analysis.
