What Is a Good CTR and How to Improve It?

Nicole Symon
September 4, 2025

Creating successful ad campaigns comes down to monitoring and optimizing your key performance indicators (KPIs). The better you understand these metrics, the better equipped you are to design campaigns that drive the results you want.


Click-through rate (CTR) is one of the most important KPIs for a variety of digital marketing campaigns. If it's low, you're probably not maximizing the value you get out of your marketing investment. If it's strong compared to industry benchmarks, you know something's working. You're creating more opportunities for conversions. 


But what is a good CTR? How do you know if yours is good or needs improvement? Look no further. In this guide, explore the average CTR benchmark across campaign types, plus tips on how to improve your CTR. 


What Is Click-Through-Rate (CTR)?


The click-through rate on a campaign measures the rate at which users are interacting with your digital content by clicking on it. Some people might argue that clicks don't actually mean much — they don't earn your business any money — so a campaign's CTR is just a vanity metric. That's not the case, though. 


Your click-through rates provide vital insights into your ad campaign performance. When analyzed alongside metrics like conversion rate, you gain a more comprehensive picture of where your campaigns are succeeding or struggling. From there, you can optimize them for better performance.



Why Is It Important?

A high CTR tells you that your content is relevant and engaging to your target audience. You've successfully created ad campaigns that catch users' attention and prompt them to take action — clicking on the link. Improving your click-through rate can also positively impact ad quality scores and organic search rankings, helping your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts.


How To Calculate CTR

Your CTR is the number of clicks you get on an ad or piece of content divided by the times your content was displayed to users (impressions). Click-through rate is always expressed as a percentage, like 2% or 5%. 


CTR = (Clicks / Impressions) × 100%


So if you get 3,000 impressions on an email campaign and 60 clicks, your CTR would be (60 / 3,000) × 100% = 2%.


Generally, you don't need to calculate your CTR manually — most digital marketing platforms automatically calculate it. 


What Is a Good CTR?


A "good" CTR varies by industry, type of marketing campaign, and even business. In general, these are solid CTR benchmarks by channel:


  • Paid social ads: 1% to 2%
  • Paid search ads: Above 3%
  • Email marketing: Between 2% to 5%
  • Organic search results: 1% to 5%, depending on search query and rank


In the automotive industry, the average CTR for Google Ads is 5.56%. For Facebook Ads, it's just 0.8%. So while 1% might be a strong CTR for your PPC advertising on Facebook, it could be less impressive as a Google Ads CTR. 


You probably already know how Google Ads help advance your business, but keep in mind that your CTR impacts your overall results. Make improvements to your campaign if necessary to boost your CTR.

 

Signs Your CTR Needs Improvement


If your CTR is below the industry benchmarks for the types of campaigns you're running, it's time to look closer. Keep an eye out for these other signs that your CTR may be underperforming:


  • Low impressions: The advertising platform isn't showing your content to users very often.
  • Low ad quality score: Your ad may not be relevant for the search query and will likely have a low CTR.
  • High bounce rate: You're getting clicks, but no conversions.


All these indicators suggest that your content may not be relevant to the audience, leading to a lower CTR. Work on understanding your target audience and adjusting your content until it addresses a topic they care about in an engaging way. 


Tips To Improve Organic and Paid CTR


These steps can help you improve your CTR across organic and paid advertising channels:


  • Use tools to identify low or declining CTRs: Figure out which campaigns have struggling CTRs. Try tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console, as well as analytics dashboards on the advertising platforms you use, like Facebook and TikTok. 
  • Optimize your content: Tailor your content to what your target audience wants to see. The more relevant and engaging your content, the higher your CTR.
  • Optimize meta titles and descriptions: Use relevant keywords in your meta titles and descriptions to match search intent and connect with the right users.
  • Implement schema markup: Schema markup is data you add to your website's HTML to make it easier for search engines to understand your content. 
  • Target high-intent keywords: If you understand the importance of a modern website and SEO, you know how crucial it is to target keywords that match search terms that show a user is ready to make a purchase. These users are more likely to click, improving your CTR. 


Raise Your CTR, Raise Your Results


Improving your CTR sets your campaigns up to drive more conversions and sales. It's a vital part of a successful digital marketing strategy. 


However, before you adjust your campaigns to boost your CTR, make sure you understand your broader business objectives. What are you trying to accomplish with your campaigns? Only make changes with those objectives in mind.


For help crafting your marketing campaigns or strategy, reach out to Optimize Digital Marketing.