CTR Meaning and Why It Matters to Businesses

In the digital age, reaching your target audience through ads on different channels, such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Google, helps build brand awareness, generate sales and grow your business. Therefore, it’s important for business owners and marketers to understand the CTR meaning.

Today, this article will introduce you to a metric used to measure the success of those ads called CTR, or click-through rate, to explain what it has to do with advertising and why it matters to your business.

What Is a CTR?

The click-through rate (CTR) refers to the ratio of ad clicks to the number of times the ad is shown. You can see your CTR on the dashboard of the platform you’re running ads on. A high CTR would suggest your ad is appealing, as it’s enticing users to click to see more details. Here is how to calculate your CTR:

CTR (click-through rate) = (the number of clicks/the number of times the ad is displayed) x 100

For example, if you delivered an ad and it had been displayed (impressions) 200 times with 10 clicks occuring, this mean the CTR of your ad would be (10/200) x 100 = 5%.

However, although it’s often assumed that the higher the CTR, the better; the desired click-through rate actually depends on your individual advertising plan and objectives. Therefore, the optimal average CTR for each business will vary. 

Why Does The CTR Matter?

When producing an advertisement or a piece of content, you need both budget and time for the ad to be seen. But, wouldn’t it be better if you could tell whether it’s worth the money and time you invested?

Understanding the click-through rate or CTR meaning allows you to see how effective your ad is as well as how many clicks it has received so that you can use the data to improve and develop your marketing plan. Not only that, the CTR can also be used to measure email click rates, or the clickable call-to-actions you put on your landing pages, and more.

Understanding the CTR meaning also help you to be able to analyse your target group. For example, if your ad receives a low click-through rate, it might mean your ad isn’t appealing enough or the viewers are not your real target group. 

Examples of CTR Analysis for Advertisements on Different Channels

In this section, we’ll take a look at the analysis of CTR for advertisements on different channels as examples for you to learn how CTR works with the ad rank – the value used to determine your ad position.

CTR for Facebook Ads

For Facebook ads, the CTR allows you to see your ad performance in terms of the click rate it receives, how much it appeals to viewers, and whether it’s served to the target group according to the set goals.

You can check Business Manager to see the average CTR of every ad in action. The ads with below-average CTR are considered not effective enough and needed to be urgently improved. You can review, analyse and fix them by:

• Adjusting copywriting: There are several techniques you can use to create appealing copywriting, depending on the brand image you want to portay and the tone you want to use. For example, you may want to play with a viral trend by using popular phrases people like to use on social media or mentioning the USP of your product or service in the first paragraph to help your target group understand the intention of your ad better and grow your CTR.

• Adjusting the artwork: Take the customer’s point of view. If you were a buyer, what would you like to know about your particular product or service? Use the answers to these questions to inform the direction of your artwork.

• Adjusting call-to-action (CTA): Focus on using words that drive conversions. It’s best to keep your CTAs short, concise, and simple.

CTR for Google Ads

Most users use Google to find solutions to their problems or answers to their questions. Therefore, the way to boost your CTR for Google Ads is by using keywords relevant to what your target group is looking for. For example: 

• If your target group is looking for an SEO company, you might use the phrase: “An SEO service to rank on Google’s first page within 90 days”
• If your target group is searching for a condominium near the sky train, you may use: “A condo near the BTS station in beautiful and convenient location”
• If your target group is seeking a restaurant in Chidlom area, you may choose “Top restaurants with a nice ambience in Chidlom”

According to a recent survey, ads in the first position on Google will have a CTR that is twice as high as the ads that rank second or lower. Therefore, if you want your Google Ads to climb to the first ranking, there are up to 2 factors to consider: CPC Bid or cost-per-click (the price per click) and the quality score (of the on-air advertisement).

Email Marketing CTR For Email Marketing

According to a study by SuperOffice SRM, successful advertising through email marketing needs the most important metric: CTR. An effective email marketing advertisement starts with someone opening or clicking to read your email. The CTR for email marketing is based on the number of emails you sent out. It can be calculated this way:

Email CTR = (the number of clicks/the number of emails sent) x 100

However, if you calculate your email CTR using the above formula and find that the click rate is too low or you want to improve the rate, we recommend you change the subject as well as the description of the particular email. These elements are the first elements that can make receivers feel interested in the email and want to click to read it. Most importantly, don’t forget to design appealing content with concise explanations. Also, provide a clear CTA for the email receivers to click and access your site. Now, you can grow the CTR for your email marketing without paying a penny!

CTR for SEO

Many people aren’t aware that their CTR can boost their SEO ranking. You can check your SEO CTR directly via Google Search Console. This tool will tell you the number of views, searches, and clicks your website receives.

For SEO, a higher CTR indicates your content is interesting and that users who’ve searched with the relevant keywords want to  click to read your content. On the other hand, content with a low CTR can imply that your subject may not be attractive or that your meta description doesn’t provide enough explanation or entric people. And just like the CTR for Google Ads, websites at the top of the ranking will always have higher CTR than the websites below them. Therefore, if your website is in the first ranking, you’re likely to receive more website visitors (traffic), and therefore more data, such as leads, conversions, and other information you can use for your remarketing purposes.

If you find that your website CTR is still low, we recommend you adjust your title tags and meta description to make them more interesting and eye-catching for users to make them want to visit your website and learn more.

Summary

As you can see, understanding the CTR meaning is an essential for every business type. The CTR can give you data to help you optimise your marketing strategy. By keeping a close eye on CTR and utilizing the insights gained, marketers can enhance their advertising strategies, drive more engagement, and achieve their campaign objectives.

If you want to boost the click-through rate on your website or ad on social media but don’t know where to begin, contact Primal Digital Agency, Thailand’s leading digital marketing agency. We can design you a data-driven marketing plan that will help you outperform the competition. Contact us for a consultation today!