Marketing
How do you calculate CTR and CPC?
Click-through rate and cost per click from clicks, impressions and spend.
Quick answer
CTR = (clicks ÷ impressions) × 100. 850 clicks on 45,000 impressions: (850 ÷ 45,000) × 100 = 1.89%. CPC = spend ÷ clicks: €300 ÷ 850 = €0.35 per click.
CTR (click-through rate)
1.89 %
- CPC (cost per click)
- $0.35
How it works
CTR measures ad relevance; CPC measures cost per visit. CPC = CPM ÷ (CTR × 10). Improve CTR with stronger headlines and match types; CPC falls when CTR rises at fixed CPM without bidding changes.
Audit search terms weekly — irrelevant clicks inflate CPC without conversions. A monitor 27 inch beside your laptop keeps Ads Manager and Analytics visible while editing copy. Long bid sessions are easier with a vertical ergonomic mouse; structure and match-type rules from a google ads book beat guessing why Quality Score dropped.
A single account-level CTR hides more than it shows. Placement changes the number by an order of magnitude — a search ad on an exact-match query and the same offer in a scrolling feed are not on the same scale at all — so a blended figure can contain one campaign doing very well and another doing nothing. Split before you judge. And read CTR next to conversion rate rather than alone: when clicks rise while conversions do not, the usual cause is an ad promising something the landing page does not deliver, which is a more expensive problem than a low CTR because you are now paying for every disappointment.
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Frequently asked questions
Good CTR for Google Search?+
Search averages 3–5%; brand terms exceed 10%. Display and social are lower (0.5–2%). Compare against your own ad group averages — a 2% CTR can be excellent on broad match prospecting.
High CTR but low conversions?+
Clickbait creative, wrong audience, or landing page mismatch. Fix the page speed and message match before chasing more clicks — a 0.8% CTR with 5% CVR often beats 3% CTR with 0.5% CVR.
How to lower CPC?+
Raise Quality Score: better keyword match, higher CTR, faster landing page. Narrow to high-intent audiences and add negatives. Lowering bids without fixing relevance just reduces impression share.
CTR on reach vs impressions?+
Standard CTR uses impressions. Reach-based divides by unique users and reads higher on small audiences. Platform dashboards mix definitions — this calculator uses impressions for consistency.
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