{"id":41108,"date":"2018-03-21T17:22:54","date_gmt":"2018-03-21T11:52:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vwo.com\/blog\/?p=41108"},"modified":"2025-04-30T14:48:56","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T09:18:56","slug":"conversion-rate-and-click-through-rate-difference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vwo.com\/blog\/conversion-rate-and-click-through-rate-difference\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Click-Through Rate (CTR), How To Calculate It (Formula) and How Does It Compare to Conversion Rate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Note:<\/strong> This is a guest article written by Malaika Nicholas, the content marketing strategist at Ladder. Any and all opinions expressed in the post are Malaika\u2019s.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

What is click-through rate?<\/h2>\n\n\n

Click-through rate <\/a>(CTR)<\/strong> is a metric, shown as a percentage, that measures how many people clicked your ad to visit a website or landing page.<\/p>\n\n\n

Why are click-through rates important?<\/h3>\n\n\n

For paid ads on Facebook, Google AdWords, and other advertising platforms, the click-through rate directly influences an ad\u2019s Quality Score<\/a> or Relevance Score<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Download Free: Conversion Rate Optimization Guide<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

However, note that high click-through rates aren\u2019t always a positive sign. If your ad fails to target the right keywords, or your ad copy, landing page, or offering isn\u2019t helpful or relevant to a visitor, you may end up spending a lot of money on ads that don\u2019t impact your bottom line. The key is to test every element<\/a> intended to bring you conversions.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Quality
Image source: Wordstream<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Therefore, start spending time in conducting keyword research that will ensure every paid ad is relevant to your ideal customer or target audience.<\/p>\n\n\n

What\u2019s the formula for calculating click-through rates?<\/h3>\n\n\n

To calculate the click-through rate on a paid ad, divide the total number of clicks on the ad by the total number of impressions<\/a> (i.e. the total number of people who saw the ad).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, let\u2019s say your ad generated 100 clicks and was seen by 2,000 people during its campaign. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

CTR = 100 (Clicks) \u00f7 2,000 (Impressions) = 0.05  x 100 (percentage) = 5% CTR<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Calculating click-through rates isn\u2019t exclusive to performance marketing channels such as Google Ads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Say, I want to know how many people visit my website\u2019s homepage after reading one of my blog posts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this case, I\u2019ll look at the click-through rate, which will tell me how many people clicked the link to my website from my blog post, out of the total number of visitors to the blog post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People Who Click Website from Blog Post\/Total Number of Blog Post Visitors x 100 = Click-through Rate<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what about conversion rate and how does it compare to click-throughs?<\/p>\n\n\n

What is conversion rate?<\/h2>\n\n\n

Conversion rate is a metric, shown as a percentage<\/strong><\/a> that displays how many website visitors and app visitors complete an action out of the total number of visitors.<\/p>\n\n\n

Why are conversion rates important?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n

For many marketers and entrepreneurs, conversion rates are the most important metric to monitor frequently, because it directly impacts their business\u2019 overall sales and revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chris Keller from Bizible reinforces this idea and goes so far as to outline 3 reasons why website conversions<\/a> are more important than web traffic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Firstly, Keller argues that more traffic doesn\u2019t necessarily mean you\u2019ll see a spike in sales. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This can be the result of several issues:
– Attracting the wrong kind of traffic by targeting wrong keywords
– Having website content which isn\u2019t related to your products and services
– Broken lead gen forms or conversion flows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secondly, Keller argues that it is significantly easier and takes less time to increase web conversions<\/em><\/strong> than it is to increase web traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why it is important to know about the art of conversion marketing<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, Keller\u2019s last point is that prioritizing CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization<\/a>), before optimizing web traffic\u2014instead of the other way around\u2014would have a greater impact on your business\u2019 ROI and profitability.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Table
Image source: Marketo<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Blog<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n

How do you calculate conversion rates?<\/h3>\n\n\n

To calculate Conversion Rate<\/a>, divide the total number of visitors to your website or landing page by the number of goals completed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pro Tip!<\/strong>

You can multiply this result by 100 to save some extra time calculating the percentage.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It is important to note, however, that this formula will change slightly depending on the type of conversions you\u2019re measuring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, if you\u2019re measuring the Conversion Rate of people visiting your website who turn into leads<\/a>, the formula will be:<\/p>\n\n\n\n