Understand, calculate, compare click-through rate (CTR)

What is the click-through rate?

The click-through rate (CTR) shows how many people clicked on a link or ad. It is set in relation to the number of impressions and given as a percentage.

example:
You're posting an ad on Facebook. This is played out 1,000 times to users. If a total of 50 people actually click on your ad, the click rate is 5%.

Click-through rate is a metric that allows you to measure how attractive or interesting a post, ad, or search result is for users. The higher the click rate, the better people seem to like the content, at least enough to make them curious enough to click.

How is the click rate calculated?

Click-through rate (CTR) is calculated by dividing the number of clicks by the number of impressions. This result is then multiplied by 100 to get a percentage

The click-through rate formula is:
Click-through rate (%) = (number of clicks ÷ number of impressions) × 100

• clicks: How often someone actually clicked on the link, ad, or search result.
• Impressions: How often the content was displayed, i.e. how often it was visible, regardless of whether someone clicked or not.

You can use our online calculator to calculate your click rate

What is a good click-through rate?

What a good click-through rate is depends on the platform, the type of content, and the region. A good click rate for organic Google search in the DACH region is between 23 and 32% in the top position, but on average around 40% in the USA. For LinkedIn ads, the click rate is 0.5%.

Notes on the click rates table: With Google Search, the click rate relates to position 1 globally (~ 40% click rate); in the DACH region, the figures are lower, especially when there are ads.

The YouTube search click-through rate refers to the click-through rate of video thumbnails (YouTube impressions), with ~4 to 5% being average here.

For YouTube video ads, watchtime is also often viewed (on average ~ 30% of viewers watch an ad for at least 30 seconds).

What influences the click rate?

These factors influence click-through rate:

• How visible your link or ad is (e.g. in 1st place on Google vs. poor ranking)
• How well the headline or ad copy is done
• Whether the image or creative is appealing (for ads)
• How relevant the offer is for the target group (targeting)
• Whether there is a clear call-to-action (e.g. “buy now,” “learn more,” etc.)

To increase content click-through rates, you can use A/B testing work. In this case, two versions (e.g. shorter and longer text) of basically the same content are played out to users in parallel in order to determine which variant is better clicked.

How is the click-through rate changing due to AI?

The impact of AI is currently most obvious in Google search. Google has started using so-called AI Overviews (German: “AI overviews”). These are AI-generated summaries or direct answers above normal search results. These direct AI answers mean that significantly fewer users click on organic results.

Studies showthat the click share of the first search result has fallen from around 28% to just around 19% since the AI overviews were widely rolled out. This represents a decline of around 32% for the top result. Position 2 even saw a decline of around 39% (from 20.8% to 12.6% CTR)

The majority of users deal with the AI answer as a final solution and refrain from visiting further pages, in other words, “zero-click” searches occur much more frequently without any external click.

This effect can also be observed in German-speaking countries. Since the launch of the “Google AI overview” at the end of March 2025, websites in Germany, Austria and Switzerland have had an average 17.8% fewer clicks via Google.

In email marketing, the picture is different: Here, AI is primarily used to personalize and optimize content, which can have more positive effects on opening and click rates. For example, AI tools are used to generate better subject lines, delivery times or individualized newsletter texts, which sometimes increases the opening rate by 10%.

On classic social networks such as Facebook and Instagram There are no such abrupt CTR changes as a result of AI search as with Google. Here, AI is primarily used to control ads and content. Meta uses AI algorithms (e.g. in the Advantage+ system) to address target groups even more precisely and automatically optimize creatives. The consequences tend to be consistent or slightly better performance values.

Conclusion: The impact of AI on the click rate depends heavily on the platform and initially has the biggest negative effect when AI provides a direct response or preview.

How can I optimize the click rate?

Increasing the click rate basically means generating more interest and attracting attention, making users more curious and hitting the mark by addressing them.

1. Use strong headlines and titles

The headline is the first thing people see and also the last thing when it doesn't appeal to them.

tips:

• Clear And specifically (“5 tips on how to do XY” instead of “Learn more”)
• Emotional (“These 3 mistakes cost you customers”)
• curious Do, but not mislead (“What 90% of shops do wrong...”)

2. Appealing text (snippet/ teaser/ description)

What's under the headline also determines whether someone really clicks.

tips:

• value proposition show (“How to save 30%”)
• questions Ask (“Do you want more revenue without more budget? “)
• Call to action install (“Discover now”, “Learn more”)

3. Optimize visuals (for ads & social media)

Pictures and videos attract immediate attention.

tips:

• High-quality, clear images (no replaceable stock material)
• Faces, emotions, strong contrasts work well
• Always optimize for mobile devices (“mobile first”)

4. Improve target group targeting

The better you know who your target audience is and how they think and act, the more likely they'll click.

tips:

• Tailor content or offers precisely and never allow interchangeability
• Adjust the response and sound accordingly
• Perform A/B testing

5. Optimize technically & content (SEO & structure)

With Google and YouTube in particular, it makes a big difference how you structure content.

tips:

• Keyword optimization (so you can be found)
• Maintain meta titles & meta descriptions cleanly
• Optimize for rich snippets
• Make content directly citable so that there is a chance of inclusion in the AI overview

How does conversion optimization help with falling click rates?

One Conversion rate optimization (CRO) means getting visitors to your website or store more to do what they want, such as buying, requesting, or signing up.

The CRO therefore ensures that more is extracted from existing traffic. This increases the value of every single click. CRO means that your content then communicates more clearly: What do you offer? Who is it for? Why is it worth it?

If your pages perform better thanks to a CRO, search engines like Google reward this with a higher quality rating, which can lead to more visibility and thus lower click costs again.

Are you stuck with your conversion rate optimization?

We at Axisbits know from the experience of numerous website and shop projects that conversion rate optimization can be very detailed and time-consuming, but also lucrative.

If the performance of your sites consistently falls below your expectations and you are certain that more needs to be done there, a neutral view from outside will help you.

Your shop should implement more, your landing page deliver more leads and is there still too much room in your pipeline?
Maybe it's time for a neutral look at your content, landing pages, and the entire website. Together, we can develop a roadmap that allows your sales to rise again. Get in touch with us and we'll show you how we approach optimizing your site's conversion rate.

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