CTR calculator
Work out your click-through rate, or the clicks and impressions you need to hit a target. The answer updates as you type.
Your CTR
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Enter your clicks and impressions.
Average across all industries, Google and Microsoft Ads. Source: LocaliQ, 2025.
What CTR tells you
Click-through rate (CTR) is the share of people who saw your ad or search result and clicked it. It answers one question: when people see this, how often do they choose it?
Raw clicks can’t answer that, because clicks grow with exposure. Take two ads:
| Ad | Impressions | Clicks | CTR |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ad A | 1,000 | 40 | 4.0% |
| Ad B | 12,000 | 180 | 1.5% |
Ad B won more clicks, but it was shown twelve times as often. Ad A persuaded a bigger share of the people who saw it. That share is what CTR measures.
CTR works best for comparing like with like: two ads in the same ad group, two titles for the same page, or one page before and after a change. Comparing it across channels, or across very different search positions, tells you little.
The CTR formula
CTR = clicks ÷ impressions × 100
120 clicks ÷ 4,000 impressions × 100 = 3%
Turn the formula around and you get the calculator’s other two answers:
- Clicks you need = impressions × target CTR ÷ 100. For example, 4,000 impressions at a 5% CTR bring 200 clicks.
- Impressions you need = clicks wanted × 100 ÷ expected CTR. For example, 500 clicks at a 2.5% CTR need 20,000 impressions.
The second one is the planning number. If you know a campaign’s usual CTR, it tells you how much reach you have to buy to hit a click goal.
What’s a good CTR?
It depends on where the click happens. A 2% CTR is strong for a display banner and weak for a search ad. Treat the averages below as a rough starting point. Your own past results are the better benchmark.
| Where it shows | Average CTR | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Search ads (Google, Microsoft) | 6.66% | LocaliQ, 2025 |
| Facebook ads (traffic campaigns) | 1.71% | LocaliQ / WordStream, 2025 |
| Display ads | about 0.46% | 2025 industry roundups |
| Organic search, position 1 | 39.8% | First Page Sage, 2025 data |
| Organic search, position 3 | 10.2% | First Page Sage, 2025 data |
| Organic search, position 10 | 1.6% | First Page Sage, 2025 data |
Averages also hide big gaps between industries. In LocaliQ’s 2025 data, search ads for arts and entertainment averaged 13.1%, about twice the all-industry figure.
AI Overviews
Organic CTR drops where AI answers show
When Google shows an AI Overview, fewer people click the results under it. Ahrefs measured a 58% lower CTR for the top organic result on those searches (December 2025), and Seer Interactive found a similar drop across more than 3,100 queries. If your organic CTR fell while your rankings held, check whether an AI Overview now appears for those queries.
Where to find your numbers
- Google Search Console: open Performance, then Search results, and turn on Average CTR. You get clicks, impressions and CTR by query, page or country.
- Bing Webmaster Tools: Search Performance shows the same for Bing.
- Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising: the CTR column, for campaigns, ad groups, ads and keywords.
- Meta Ads Manager: use “CTR (link click-through rate)”. “CTR (all)” also counts likes, comments and clicks to expand the post, so it runs higher.
- Google Analytics 4: doesn’t record search impressions by itself. Link Search Console to see them there.
How to raise a low CTR
Search ads
- Mirror the search in the headline. People click ads that repeat what they typed.
- Add sitelinks, callouts and structured snippets. A bigger ad gets noticed more.
- Split broad ad groups so each ad answers a narrower set of searches.
- Add negative keywords. Impressions on searches you don’t want drag CTR down.
Organic results
- Start with pages in positions 2 to 5 whose CTR trails the pages around them in Search Console. Gains there add up fastest.
- Rewrite the title so it promises exactly what the search asks for, with the key words first.
- Write a meta description that answers the query. Google may show it when it fits the search better than text from the page.
- Add structured data where your pages qualify for rich results, such as products, reviews or events.
Display and social ads
- Refresh creative often. CTR drops as the same people see the same ad again and again.
- Fix the targeting before the creative. The wrong audience won’t click a great ad.
Questions people ask
Can CTR be over 100%?
No. Every click needs an impression first. A result above 100% usually means the two numbers come from different reports or date ranges, or the click count includes clicks that aren’t link clicks, as Meta’s “Clicks (all)” does.
Why is my Search Console CTR so low?
Search Console counts an impression whenever your link appears on a results page someone loads, even if they never scroll down to it. Queries where you rank far down still collect impressions with almost no clicks, and they pull the average down. Look at queries one by one, or sort by position, for a truer picture.
Does CTR affect Google rankings?
Google has long said it doesn’t use clicks as a simple ranking signal. But testimony in the 2023 US antitrust trial described NavBoost, a Google system that uses click data to refine results. Either way, a title that earns genuine clicks helps, and tricks to inflate clicks don’t.
Is a higher CTR always better?
No. CTR measures attention, not results. An ad that over-promises can raise your CTR and your cost per sale at the same time, so judge changes on conversions too. In Google Ads, though, expected CTR is one of the three parts of Quality Score, so a better CTR can help lower what you pay per click.
What’s the difference between CTR and conversion rate?
CTR is the share of people who saw your ad or result and clicked. Conversion rate is the share of those clickers who then did what you wanted, like buying or signing up. A high CTR with a low conversion rate usually means the page doesn’t deliver what the ad promised.