What is Click-Through Rate (CTR)?

CTR is the metric marketers watch wherever a link competes for attention: in SEO, in paid ads, and in email campaigns. The denominator changes by channel, though. Search and ad platforms divide clicks by impressions, while email platforms measure click rate against delivered emails, so only compare numbers that were calculated the same way.

How CTR is calculated

In search and advertising, the formula is CTR = (clicks ÷ impressions) × 100. An impression is one time your link, ad, or search listing was shown to someone. Google's worked example: an ad that gets 5 clicks on 100 impressions has a 5% CTR.

CTR in search, advertising, and email

In organic search, position drives CTR far more than CTR drives position: listings near the top of the SERP collect most of the clicks, so a high CTR usually reflects a good ranking rather than causing one. Brand recognition, SERP features (special results that stand out from the standard listings), and a strong title can lift CTR at any position.

In paid advertising, you usually pay per click (CPC) or per 1,000 impressions (CPM), and video campaigns can bid per view (CPV). A high CTR is a good sign that people find your ad relevant, not proof the campaign is making money. In Google Ads, CTR also feeds your keyword's expected CTR, a component of Ad Rank, so a stronger CTR can help your ads earn better positions.

In email marketing, the equivalent metric is usually called click rate, and it isn't measured against impressions. Mailchimp, for example, defines it as the percentage of delivered emails that registered at least 1 click, and other platforms calculate it the same way: recipients who clicked divided by emails delivered. It still grades your content and your call to action, but a delivered email isn't an impression, so don't line email click rates up against search or ad CTRs.

Good CTR benchmarks by channel

There's no universal good CTR. Google's guidance is that a good CTR is relative to what you're advertising and on which network, so judge yours against the right channel and the right denominator:

• Organic search (clicks ÷ impressions): the #1 position averages about 22% CTR, roughly 10 times the rate of position 10, and CTR drops noticeably after position 3 (Semrush, 2023 State of Search study).
• Search ads (clicks ÷ impressions): the average CTR across thousands of Google Ads and Microsoft Ads campaigns in more than 20 industries is 6.64% (WordStream by LocaliQ, 2026 benchmarks).
• Email (clicks ÷ delivered emails): the median click rate across 3.6 million campaigns sent from December 2024 to November 2025 is 2.09% (MailerLite, December 2025 benchmarks).

If those numbers look far apart, check the denominators before you conclude anything. A 5% CTR would be disappointing for a #1 organic ranking and slightly below average for a search ad. The email figure isn't comparable at all: it counts delivered emails, not impressions, so benchmark email campaigns only against other email data.

CTR vs. conversion rate

CTR and conversion rate measure two different steps of the same journey:

• CTR is the percentage of people who saw your link and clicked through to your page.
• Conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who complete a conversion after arriving, such as a purchase or a signup.

The pair is diagnostic. A high CTR with a low conversion rate usually means your title or ad promises something the landing page doesn't deliver. Closing that gap is the work of conversion rate optimization (CRO).

How to raise a low CTR

Work on what people see before the click. In organic search, that's your title tag and meta description: rewrite them to match the intent behind the query, not just the keyword. In paid search, tighten the match between the keyword, the ad copy, and the landing page. In email, test subject lines and where your main link sits in the message.

For the organic side, our guide to improving your website's click-through rate walks through 7 fixes in detail.

Where to find your CTR data

You don't have to calculate CTR yourself. Google Search Console shows organic CTR for every query and page in its Performance report. Google Ads lists a CTR for each ad and keyword in your account, and email platforms report a click rate per campaign. Check the number before and after each change so you know whether the new title or subject line actually worked.