Click-through rate (CTR) is the percentage of ad impressions that led to a click: clicks divided by impressions, times 100.
CTR = Clicks ÷ Impressions × 100
On the sample data below, six months come to 1.22%.
Why it matters
CTR measures whether an ad interests the people who see it. Platforms reward higher CTR with cheaper delivery, so it affects cost as well as traffic.
Worked example
The table shows the columns this metric needs from six months of a made-up subscription brand. Add each column up over the six months, then put the totals into the formula:
| Month | Ad impressions | Ad clicks |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-01 | 8,20,000 | 9,840 |
| 2026-02 | 8,65,000 | 10,380 |
| 2026-03 | 9,40,000 | 11,750 |
| 2026-04 | 8,80,000 | 10,120 |
| 2026-05 | 9,90,000 | 12,380 |
| 2026-06 | 10,50,000 | 13,340 |
| Total | 55,45,000 | 67,810 |
67,810 ÷ 55,45,000 × 100 = 1.22%
Add up first, then divide. Averaging the six monthly figures gives a slightly different answer, because it counts a small month the same as a large one.
Month by month
| Month | Click-through rate |
|---|---|
| 2026-01 | 1.20% |
| 2026-02 | 1.20% |
| 2026-03 | 1.25% |
| 2026-04 | 1.15% |
| 2026-05 | 1.25% |
| 2026-06 | 1.27% |
CTR calculator
How to read it
A rising CTR with falling conversion often means the ad promises something the landing page does not deliver.
Common mistakes
- Accidental clicks on mobile placements inflate CTR. Check time on site for those clicks.
- CTR for search ads and for social ads are not comparable.
- Small campaigns give noisy rates. A difference of a few clicks is not a result.
Calculate click-through rate in Excel, SQL or Python
The quickest version, for the sample sheet laid out as in the CSV (headers in row 1, months in rows 2 to 7):
=SUM(J2:J7) / SUM(I2:I7)- Click-through rate in Excel and Google Sheets — per-month formula and zero-safe version
- Click-through rate in SQL — query by month and for the period
- Click-through rate in Python (pandas) — pandas script with expected output
Related metrics
See all business metrics, or the statistics methods that sit behind them.
Questions people ask
- What is click-through rate?
- Click-through rate (CTR) is the percentage of ad impressions that led to a click: clicks divided by impressions, times 100.
- How do you calculate click-through rate?
- CTR = Clicks ÷ Impressions × 100. For example, with six months of sample data: 67,810 ÷ 55,45,000 × 100 = 1.22%.
- What is the CTR formula in Excel?
- With the sample data laid out as in the downloadable CSV, =SUM(J2:J7) / SUM(I2:I7) gives the figure for the whole period (format the cell as a percentage). For one month, use =J2 / I2 and fill it down.
- What is a good click-through rate?
- There is no figure that is right for every business: it depends on your products, prices and channels. A rising CTR with falling conversion often means the ad promises something the landing page does not deliver.
Check how stable it is
A metric moves for ordinary reasons as well as real ones. These methods separate the two: the spread shows what a normal month looks like, the moving average smooths it, the z-score flags a month that is out of line and the trend line shows the direction.
Guides
About the data on this page
The figures come from a small made-up dataset, printed above in full so you can check every number by hand. Download it as monthly.csv. The results are computed from those rows when the page is built, and the Excel formulas, SQL and Python on these pages are run against the same rows before publishing, so the code and the answers agree.
To get these numbers from your own data without writing formulas, try AnalyzeIt: ask in plain words and it shows the working behind every figure.
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