CTR in Search Console

Source: Search Console Help, Performance report (Search results): About the data.

An impression counts when a link to your site appears in the results someone loads, even if they never scroll down to it. A click counts when it takes the person out of Google to your site. Links in AI Overviews and AI Mode follow the same rules. Several links of yours in one search count as one impression for the site.

For a period, the rate comes from the period's clicks and impressions, not an average of daily rates. It also leans heavily on position: a result at the bottom of page one gets far fewer clicks than the first result.

Versus ad CTR

Google Ads CTR is ad clicks divided by ad impressions, explained in click-through rate. The ad is shown because you bid, often above the organic results. Organic CTR depends on rank, the title and snippet, and what else is on the page.

The two also pull on each other. When your ad sits above your own organic result, some people click the ad instead. Read paid and organic clicks together on those searches, as the paid and organic search guide shows.

Worked example

A roofing firm's name is searched about 2,000 times a month. Its own result, first on the page, gets 1,100 clicks: a 55% CTR on the brand. In June it starts a brand campaign, and its ad now shows above that result.

In July, organic clicks on the brand fall to 700, a 35% CTR, while the ad takes 450 clicks. Together that is 1,150 clicks, 50 more than before, and the firm now pays for 450 of them. The result did not get worse: the ad took its clicks. Whether 50 extra visits are worth that spend is the question to ask.

1. In Search Console, open Performance, then Search results.
2. Click the Average CTR box above the chart to draw it.
3. Open the Queries tab to see CTR per search, beside its position.
4. Filter Query on your brand name, then exclude it, to read branded and unbranded CTR apart.

Organic CTR is in the Organic search group of Add a metric, with Organic clicks, Organic impressions and Average position.

Optizads stores each day's organic clicks and impressions, then divides the period's clicks by the period's impressions. The figure matches the totals at the top of Search Console's report, which include searches Google keeps anonymous. It will not match a sum of the Queries table, which leaves those searches out.

Search Console keeps 16 months, so a card can compare a month with the same month last year. Put Organic CTR beside the Google Ads CTR card and both rates read from one screen.

• Comparing organic CTR with ad CTR as if they measured the same thing.
• Reading a lower CTR as worse titles when impressions grew at low positions.
• Adding up the Queries table and expecting the report's total. Anonymous searches are left out of the table.
• Judging brand and non-brand searches together. Brand searches click far more.

• Click-through rate (CTR): Clicks divided by impressions: the share of people who saw an ad and clicked it.
• Impression: One showing of an ad.
• Search term: What someone actually typed when your ad showed.
• Brand campaign: A campaign that bids on your own business name.

• Average position (Search Console): Average position in Search Console is where your site's highest link appeared in Google's organic results, averaged over all its impressions.
• Sessions (GA4): A session in Google Analytics 4 is one visit to your site or app, opened by the session_start event.
• Sessions from Google Ads (GA4): Sessions from Google Ads are the GA4 sessions whose source and medium are google / cpc, which is how auto-tagged Google Ads clicks arrive.
• Interaction rate: Interaction rate is how often people interact with your ad once it is shown: interactions divided by impressions.