Click-through rate (CTR)

Click-through rate (CTR) is the percentage of times people click an ad, a link or a search result out of the total number of times that content was shown. CTR tells you how many clicks you got for every 100 times the ad appeared.

CTR formula

CTR = Clicks / Impressions × 100%

Google Ads uses this example: 5 clicks from 100 impressions gives a CTR of 5% (Google Ads Help, Clickthrough rate (CTR), accessed October 2026). Applied to a campaign in Vietnam: an ad shown 80,000 times that gets 960 clicks has a CTR of 960 / 80,000 × 100% = 1.2%.

Google also notes that CTR feeds into a keyword’s expected CTR, which is one component of Ad Rank, and that whether a CTR is good depends on what you advertise and on which network. Comparing the CTR of a search ad with the CTR of a display banner means comparing two different things.

Each platform counts “clicks” differently

This is the most common source of confusion when reading reports. Meta Ads Manager has two metrics:

• CTR (link click-through rate): link clicks divided by impressions. A link click is a click that leads to the destination the advertiser chose, such as a website, an app store or a lead form (Meta Business Help Center, CTR (link click-through rate), accessed October 2026).
• CTR (all): also counts likes, comments, shares, clicks on the Page name or profile, and clicks to expand a photo or video. Because clicks (all) include link clicks, this number is always greater than or equal to the link CTR (Meta Business Help Center, Clicks (all) and Link clicks, accessed October 2026).

Take the same example. If the ad also gets 1,440 likes, comments and photo clicks, clicks (all) come to 2,400 and CTR (all) is 3%, while link CTR stays at 1.2%. For traffic campaigns, read link CTR.

How does CTR connect to CPM and CPC?

If you buy on impressions, CTR sets your cost per click:

CPC = CPM / (CTR × 1,000)

With a CPM of 30,000 VND and a CTR of 1.2%, CPC is 30,000 / 12 = 2,500 VND. Raise CTR to 2% at the same CPM and CPC drops to 1,500 VND.

A high CTR isn’t always good

An illustrative (hypothetical) example: two ads, each with 100,000 impressions and the same spend.

Ad A sparks curiosity but promises something the landing page doesn’t deliver, so people leave. Fewer people click Ad B, but the ones who do already intend to buy. Judging a creative means putting CTR next to CVR and cost per order. For video, also look at hook rate to see whether viewers stop in the first few seconds.

If the CTR of the same ad keeps falling week after week while the audience and budget stay the same, check frequency and the possibility of creative fatigue.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good CTR?

There’s no universal number. CTR varies by platform, format, industry and campaign objective. The most reliable benchmark is your own account’s CTR, compared month by month within the same campaign type.

Why is CTR high but website traffic low?

You may be reading CTR (all) instead of link CTR, or people may click and leave before the page finishes loading. Compare link clicks in Ads Manager with sessions in your web analytics tool to find where the gap is.

How is CTR calculated for email?

Usually as the number of people who clicked divided by the number of emails successfully delivered. Some tools use emails opened as the denominator. In that case, call it click-to-open rate to avoid confusion.

If you want to review the CTR, CVR and cost per order of the ads you’re running now, the Adtek team can go through them with you via our contact page.