Click-through rate

Click-through rate or CTR is a way of measuring the success of an online advertising campaign. A CTR is obtained by dividing the "number of users who clicked on an ad" on a web page by the "number of times the ad was delivered" (impressions). For example, if a banner ad was delivered 100 times (impressions delivered) and one person clicked on it (clicks recorded), then the resulting CTR would be 1 percent.

Banner ad click-through rates have fallen over time, currently averaging much less than 1 percent.^{[citation needed]} In most cases, a 2% click-through rate would be considered very successful.^{[citation needed]} By selecting an appropriate advertising site with high affinity (e.g. a movie magazine for a movie advertisement), the same banner can achieve a substantially higher CTR. Personalized ads, unusual formats, and more obtrusive ads typically have higher click-through rates than standard banner ads.^{[citation needed]}

CTR is most commonly defined as "number of clicks" divided by "number of impressions" and generally not in terms of the "number of persons" who clicked divided by the "number of impressions".^{[citation needed]} This is an important distinction. As a person clicks a single advertisement multiple times, the CTR increases using the former definition, whereas the CTR doesn't change using the latter definition.

See also

• CPM - Cost per thousand
• CPI - Cost Per Impression
• PPC - Pay per click
• CPA - Cost Per Action
• ad serving
• Click fraud
• Cost Per Click
• View-through rate
• Clicktag

References

• Sherman, Lee and John Deighton, (2001), "Banner advertising: Measuring effectiveness and optimizing placement," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Spring, Vol. 15, Iss. 2.
• Ward A. Hanson and Kirthi Kalyanam, (2007), Internet Marketing and eCommerce, Chapter8, Traffic Building, Thomson College Pub, Mason, Ohio.

External links

• Click-through rate analysis based on the AOL disclosure data.
• Test and analysis of CTR depending on url shown in ad