What is a CTR/Click-Through Rate?
A click-through rate (CTR) is defined as the ratio of clicks to impressions on a mobile advertising campaign.
CTRs are calculated by taking the number of clicks on a mobile advertising campaign, dividing it by the overall impressions and then expressing the resultant figure in percentage terms.
For example, a company runs a mobile advertising campaign that generates 10,000 impressions and 500 clicks through to the App Store. The CTR of that campaign would be 5 percent.
Why Are Click-Through Rates Important?
CTRs are a valuable way of understanding mobile advertising performance. By placing the CTR of one campaign in the context of other campaigns, it becomes possible to benchmark campaign performance.
This can be done in a number of ways. CTR can be used to compare like-for-like performance of advertising creative in A/B testing, helping to identify whether certain creative features increase interactions.
CTRs can be used to compare the performance of different advertising channels. Comparing CTRs for banners, interstitials, video and other campaign types allows an advertiser to determine their effectiveness, helping to determine where to invest the bulk of a mobile advertising performance.
CTRs can also be used to some effect within the broader attribution funnel to vet user quality. By tying campaign performance to in-app behaviour, an advertiser can discover whether a high CTR necessarily corresponds to increased user value.
This can help advertisers tempted by channels offering high CTRs to identify whether they will offer high quality traffic – or simply a high volume of users – and to adjust advertising investment accordingly.
Reference: “Adjust,” Retrieved – 23 April 2018