Click-through rate (CTR)

Definition

The percentage of people who see your ad and actually click it—a vanity metric that makes marketers feel important until they check conversion rates.

Example Usage

We got a 5% CTR on that campaign, which sounds amazing until you realize only 0.3% actually converted.

Origin

Emerged with early online advertising in the 1990s

Fun Fact

Average display ad CTR is around 0.05%, so congratulations if you beat that—you're beating expectation by accident

Source: Digital advertising and analytics

Related Terms

Advanced

Lookalike Audience

A group of strangers that Facebook's algorithm thinks are similar to your existing customers, based on the terrifying amount of data it has on everyone. It's digital matchmaking, except instead of finding you a date, it finds people equally likely to buy your yoga mat.

📣 Marketing / Advertising

Intermediate

repositioning

The corporate art of pretending your product has always been something else when the original marketing plan fails spectacularly. It's like watching a failed actor reinvent themselves as a lifestyle guru, complete with new messaging and a suspiciously enthusiastic press release. Brands do this when they realize people actually hate what they thought they were selling.

📣 Marketing / Advertising

Beginner

drop-off

A sudden decrease in quantity, participation, or performance, or the place where you abandon your kids/packages/passengers for someone else to deal with. In business metrics, it's that terrifying moment when your chart takes a nosedive and you need to explain to your boss why engagement fell off a cliff. Also conveniently describes what happens to New Year's gym memberships by February.

📣 Marketing / Advertising

Intermediate

UGC

User Generated Content, which is a polite way of saying you're using your customers' photos and videos instead of paying for a professional shoot. It's the marketing equivalent of asking someone to bring a dish to a dinner party you're hosting.

📣 Marketing / Advertising

Intermediate

newsjacking

The practice of inserting your brand into breaking news or trending topics to hijack attention for marketing purposes. Opportunism disguised as timely relevance.

📣 Marketing / Advertising

Beginner

tear sheet

A physical page torn from a publication proving an ad ran as purchased, or its digital equivalent screenshot. The receipts that media buyers clutch when things go wrong.

📣 Marketing / Advertising

Translate This Term

See “Click-through rate (CTR)” in Corporate Speak, Gen-Z Slang, Pirate Speak, and more.

Try the Translator

Share This Term

Post on X Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn

Discover a Term

Beginner

gilf

Grandma I'd like to f**k...