A beginner’s guide to click-through rates

You might hear click-through rates being discussed fairly often in the world of marketing. Typically you’ll hear the term being thrown around when people are looking at the performance of digital advertising, but if you’re not too sure what it means or the significance of a click-through rate, don’t fear!

This brief beginner’s guide will go into what a click-through rate is and what it means in relation to your marketing needs.

What is a click-through rate?

A click-through rate (CTR) is a figure that is determined by looking at the ratio of users who engage with a piece of collateral by clicking on it. This is a handy indicator when it comes to assessing whether a particular piece of advertising is efficient, and be determined for Google AdWords, social media ads and email campaigns.

How do you come up with a CTR?

Looking solely at Google AdWords as an example, if your ad appears on Google 1,000 times (this is referred to as the number of impressions), and it gets clicked on 200 times, that ad’s CTR would be 20%.

Calculating a CTR is done through the following formula:  CTR = Clicks / Impressions x 100 

The CTR for your ads can be found through an AdWords account or on Facebook ads manager.

Why does it matter?

Looking at the click-through rate helps you determine the effectiveness of your ad. A poor click-through rate suggests that there’s a problem with your advertising that needs fixing, whether it’s the copy, imagery, targeting, or platform.

The CTR doesn’t tell the whole story though. Your ad may have a high CTR, but it’s not an effective ad if those clicks don’t lead to conversions for your business. If you feel you’re not properly running your adverts or that they could use optimisation, it’s probably best to speak to a professional and make sure you’re not wasting your advertising revenue needlessly.

How can I get my CTR up?

Now comes the fun part, you’ve seen what a click-through rate is, so let’s talk about how to improve yours. Emote Digital has a team of in-house experts who can create effective ads for you and optimise your existing campaigns.

If you want to learn more about how Emote Digital can help increase your click-through rates, get in touch with us today.