Click-through rate

Click-through rate is the percentage of ad impressions that lead to a click. As an operational measure CTR is useful: it signals whether an execution technically works and draws attention among the bought audience. As an effect measure it is notoriously misleading: the percentages are minuscule, clickers are rarely buyers, and the vast majority of advertising effect, brand building above all, happens without any click. Steering on CTR moreover selects for sensation and clickable audiences rather than commercial results, the textbook case of a metric replacing the goal. Use it as a technical indicator light, never as the definition of success.

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