Free tool

CTR calculator

Find your click-through rate, the clicks an impression count should produce, or the impressions you need to reach a click target. Enter any two of impressions, clicks, and CTR and the third is calculated instantly.

Solve for

Impressions

Times the ad or link was shown

Clicks

Clicks it received

Shorthand works: 250k or 2m for impressions. Compare CTRs only within the same placement; search, feed, and display run on different scales.

CTR

1.5%

1,500 ÷ 100,000 × 100 = 1.5%

Clicks per 1,000 impressions: 15
One click every: 66.67 impressions

The CTR formula

Clicks over impressions, times 100.

Click-through rate is the share of people who saw an ad, listing, or link and clicked it. It is the first conversion in any funnel, and it ties CPM and CPC together: at a fixed CPM, a higher CTR means cheaper clicks.

Solve for CTR

CTR = Clicks ÷ Impressions × 100

The percentage of impressions that turned into a click.

Solve for clicks

Clicks = Impressions × CTR

How many clicks a given number of impressions should produce.

Solve for impressions

Impressions = Clicks ÷ CTR

How many impressions a click target needs at a known CTR.

CTR is the bridge between the two prices you pay for attention: CPC = CPM ÷ (CTR × 1,000). A $20 CPM at a 1% CTR is a $2 CPC; lift the CTR to 2% and the same impressions give you clicks at $1.

Worked examples

What the numbers look like in practice.

Each row holds two of the values fixed and solves for the third (shown in bold). Paste any of them into the calculator above to check the arithmetic.

Scenario	Impressions	Clicks	CTR
100,000 feed impressions, 1,500 clicks	100,000	1,500	1.5%
A 2% CTR on 40,000 impressions	40,000	800	2%
Reaching 500 clicks at a 0.8% CTR	62,500	500	0.8%
A branded search ad: 12,000 impressions, 600 clicks	12,000	600	5%

Beyond the number

What CTR tells you, and what it doesn't.

CTR is relative to the placement

A search ad shown to someone typing your product category will always out-click a display banner on a news site, and a feed ad sits somewhere between. Compare CTRs within one placement and one audience, not across them, or the comparison just measures where the ad ran.

A high CTR can be bought with the wrong promise

Curiosity, discounts, and provocative creative lift CTR and routinely lower the conversion rate of the people who arrive. The pair to watch is CTR together with the conversion rate behind it; an ad that halves CTR but doubles conversions is cheaper per lead.

CTR drives what you pay per click

Auctions reward expected engagement, so a higher CTR lowers your CPC at the same CPM. The CPM and CPC calculatorswork the two prices; Cometly's attribution shows whether the clicks you won became pipeline.

Multiply CTR by the landing page's rate and you have impressions to conversions. The conversion rate calculator handles the second step.

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Other calculators marketers reach for.

FAQ

Click-through rate questions, answered.

The formula, what a good CTR looks like, and how CTR relates to CPC, quality score, and conversions.

Talk to sales

What is CTR?

CTR is click-through rate: the percentage of people who saw an ad, search listing, email, or link and clicked it. It measures how well the creative and the targeting earn a click from the attention they were given.

How do you calculate click-through rate?

Divide clicks by impressions and multiply by 100. CTR = clicks ÷ impressions × 100. An ad shown 100,000 times that received 1,500 clicks has a CTR of 1,500 ÷ 100,000 × 100 = 1.5%.

What is a good CTR?

It depends almost entirely on the placement. Branded search ads can run well into the single digits, non-branded search lower, social feed ads lower still, and display banners lowest of all. The right benchmark is your own history on the same placement and audience, and the right question is whether the clicks convert at an acceptable cost.

What is the difference between CTR and conversion rate?

CTR measures the step from impression to click. Conversion rate measures the step from click (or visit) to the action you want, such as a sign-up or purchase. Multiply the two and you get the share of impressions that became conversions.

How does CTR affect CPC and quality score?

Ad auctions rank bids by expected value, and expected CTR is the biggest part of that estimate. Google Ads folds it into quality score; Meta and others do the equivalent inside their relevance signals. A higher expected CTR wins the same position at a lower bid, so improving CTR usually lowers CPC without touching the budget.

Why is CTR so much lower on display than on search?

Intent. Someone searching is actively looking for something and the ad answers the query, so a meaningful share click. Display and most social ads interrupt someone doing something else, so only a small fraction click. The low display CTR is normal and not by itself a sign the campaign is failing.

Does CTR matter if conversions are what count?

Yes, for two reasons. CTR sets your cost per click, so it determines how much traffic a budget buys. And it is an early signal: a CTR drop usually shows creative fatigue or an audience shift days before conversions move. Just never optimize CTR on its own, because the fastest way to raise it is to attract the wrong clicks.

Does this CTR calculator work for Google Ads, Meta, LinkedIn, and email?

Yes. Clicks divided by impressions is the same everywhere. For email, use delivered emails or opens as the impressions figure and be consistent about which one, since the two give very different rates.

Clicks are a signal.
Revenue is the result.

Cometly follows every click through to pipeline and revenue, so you can see which ads earn clicks that matter and which only earn clicks.

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