How to Calculate Click-Through Rate (CTR): Formula, Examples and a Free Calculator

To calculate click-through rate (CTR), divide clicks by impressions and multiply the result by 100. If your link was seen 1,500 times and clicked 45 times, your CTR is 45 ÷ 1,500 × 100 = 3%. The same formula works for Google results, for ads and for emails.

CTR tells you how often people who see a link decide to click it. It does not tell you whether those clicks were worth anything, which is a different number that we cover further down.

The click-through rate formula

CTR = clicks ÷ impressions × 100

• Clicks are the number of times people clicked your link, ad or button.
• Impressions are the number of times your link was shown to someone.
• × 100 turns the small decimal answer into a percent that is easy to read.

Google uses this exact formula in its own tools. Search Console defines CTR as clicks divided by impressions. The Google Ads help page uses the same math, with this example: 5 clicks from 100 impressions is a 5% CTR.

Worked examples

Here are four made-up cases. They show how the math works, not what a good result looks like.

Look closely at the email row. The bottom number there is the count of emails delivered, not impressions, and we explain why that matters below.

Turn the formula around

The same three numbers can answer two more questions when you move them around.

• Clicks you need = target CTR × impressions ÷ 100. To reach a 5% CTR on 1,500 impressions, you need 75 clicks.
• Impressions you need = clicks ÷ CTR × 100. To get 300 clicks at a 2% CTR, you need 15,000 impressions.

The first version is handy when you set goals. If a page gets 45 clicks today at a 3% CTR, a 5% CTR would mean 30 more clicks from the same impressions.

Free CTR calculator

Type your own numbers into the boxes below. Commas are fine, and the answer updates as you type.

The first part finds your CTR from clicks and impressions. The second part finds how many clicks a target CTR takes, and it rounds up because you cannot get half a click.

Where to find your clicks and impressions

Each tool counts a little differently. Always take both numbers from the same tool and for the same dates.

Google Search Console (organic search)

1. Open Performance, then Search results.
2. Turn on Total clicks, Total impressions and Average CTR at the top of the chart.
3. Pick the date range you want to measure.
4. Click the Queries or Pages tab to see the CTR for each row.

Google counts an impression when your link is on the results page, even if the searcher never scrolled down far enough to see it. Carousels work differently, because there an item must be scrolled into view before it counts. That is one reason a result far down the page often has a low CTR: many people never saw it.

The web report is fine for a quick look. To pull your queries into a sheet in bulk, use the Search Console API.

Google Ads

Open Campaigns, Ads or Keywords and read the Clicks, Impr. and CTR columns. If one is missing, add it from the columns menu. Each ad, keyword and free product listing gets its own CTR, so you can compare them side by side.

Email tools

Email CTR usually divides clicks by the number of delivered emails. Campaign Monitor describes it as clicks divided by emails sent minus bounces. Some tools count each person only once (unique clicks), while others count every single click.

Some tools also show clicks per open, which divides by opens instead of deliveries. Opens can never be more than deliveries, so that rate is never lower than the CTR. Do not compare it with a CTR from another tool.

What a CTR number tells you

CTR shows how well your link wins the click from the people who saw it. Whether a number is good depends on where it showed up and what sat around it.

For Google search, your position is the biggest factor. A 3% CTR is weak for the first result but strong near the bottom of page one. Our CTR benchmarks by Google position show what to expect at each spot. For ads, Google’s own help page says a good CTR depends on what you advertise and on which network.

Clicks vs CTR

Clicks are a count, while CTR is a share of the times you were seen. The two can move in opposite directions.

April brought more clicks but a lower CTR. That often happens when a page starts to show up for new searches lower on the page, and it is not a problem by itself.

CTR vs conversion rate (CVR)

CTR measures the click. Conversion rate measures what people do after they click.

CVR = conversions ÷ clicks × 100

Say an ad gets 1,000 impressions and 40 clicks, which is a 4% CTR. If 2 of those 40 people sign up, the CVR is 2 ÷ 40 × 100 = 5%. A high CTR with a low CVR often means the ad promised something that the page did not deliver.

How to find your average CTR

Add up all the clicks, add up all the impressions, and then divide. Do not take the average of the percentages.

The simple average of 10% and 1% is 5.5%. The real CTR across both pages is 1.01%, so the tiny page pushed the simple average up more than five times.

Common mistakes when calculating CTR

1. Averaging percentages. Use the totals instead, as shown above.
2. Mixing date ranges. Clicks from one week and impressions from a whole month give a number that means nothing.
3. Mixing bottom numbers. Sent, delivered and opened emails give three different rates for the same campaign.
4. Trusting tiny samples. With 10 impressions, one extra click moves your CTR by 10 points. With 1,000 impressions, it moves it by only 0.1 points.
5. Ignoring position. A drop in CTR is often a drop in ranking. Check your Google ranking for the query before you rewrite a title.
6. Forgetting to multiply by 100. 45 ÷ 1,500 is 0.03, which is 3% and not 0.03%.
7. Dividing the wrong way. Impressions ÷ clicks gives 33.3, and that is not a CTR at all.

Testing whether CTR changes rankings

Some people want to know if a higher CTR moves a page up in Google. It is a debated question, and the only fair way to answer it is a test with a control group. Our post on whether CTR affects rankings covers the evidence and how to set up that kind of test.

If you run one, Serplify’s SEO traffic tool can send the test clicks. Each one is an automated session in a real Chrome browser that searches Google, finds your result and clicks it. The tool records the positions it sees along the way, and it does not promise a ranking change.