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Metrics
Click-through rate is clicks divided by impressions, expressed as a percentage, showing how often people who saw an ad chose to click it.
CTR measures the match between the query, the ad, and the searcher's expectation. A search ad with a high CTR is telling Google the ad is what people wanted, which feeds expected CTR in Quality Score and lowers cost per click over time. On Shopping, CTR reflects image, price, and title competitiveness; on Meta and YouTube, it is primarily a creative signal.
CTR is a diagnostic, not a goal. A campaign can raise CTR by promising things it cannot deliver and then watch conversion rate collapse. Brand campaigns run very high CTRs because the searcher already wanted you; generic category campaigns run lower CTRs and that is normal. Compare CTR within a campaign over time and between ads in the same ad group, not across campaigns with different intent.
When CTR drops without a change on your side, check auction insights for a new competitor and the search terms report for query drift.
Why it matters
It is the earliest signal that an ad matches intent, and it feeds Quality Score.
RELATED TERMS
Quality Score
Quality Score is Google's 1 to 10 diagnostic rating of a keyword based on expected click-through rate, ad relevance, and landing page experience, indicating how well the ad and page match the searcher's intent.
CPC (Cost Per Click)
Cost per click is the amount paid for a single click on an ad, reported as an average across a keyword, ad group, or campaign.
Auction Insights
Auction insights is a Google Ads report that shows which other advertisers competed in the same auctions as you, with their impression share, overlap rate, outranking share, and top-of-page rate.
Written by Ilya Bulychev, Founder, Live PPC Ads. Part of the PPC Glossary.
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