CTR (click-through rate)
CTR is clicks divided by impressions — the share of people who saw an ad and clicked it. It measures message-audience fit, not business results.
CTR is an input metric: it tells you whether the ad earned attention, and on Google it feeds Quality Score, which discounts your CPCs. But a high CTR with a weak landing page or wrong audience produces expensive traffic that does not convert — CTR optimizations must always be read alongside conversion rate.
Benchmarks vary so much by placement, intent, and industry that cross-account CTR comparisons are mostly noise. Compare an ad against its own history and its siblings in the same auction context.
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