The percentage of people who see an ad, email, or link and click it, calculated as clicks divided by impressions (or opens, for email).
Why it matters
CTR is a quick signal of how compelling creative or subject-line copy is at capturing attention — though a high CTR doesn't guarantee the traffic converts once it arrives, which is why CTR is usually read alongside conversion rate, not instead of it.
In a sentence
"The subject line with a question mark had a noticeably higher CTR than the declarative version."
Related terms
- Often confused with: CVR (CTR measures how many people clicked; CVR measures how many of those people then completed a desired action).
- Synonyms: Click rate.