What CTR stands for and how it's calculated
CTR is click-through rate: the share of impressions that turned into a click. The formula is CTR = (clicks / impressions) × 100. If an ad was shown 20,000 times and got 300 clicks, CTR is 300 / 20,000 × 100 = 1.5 percent. It's one of the first numbers a media buyer looks at because it says whether the creative made people want to know more.
Most platforms report more than one version. Link CTR counts only clicks that leave the platform to your site. All-clicks CTR includes taps on the profile, the like button, the comments, and the "see more" text. For judging creator content, link CTR is the one that matters, because it measures intent to buy rather than curiosity about the creator.
What CTR tells you about UGC creative
CTR is a creative signal more than a targeting signal. Two ads on the same audience with different CTRs are telling you something about the hook, the offer, and the person on screen. For UGC, that makes it a quick way to compare creators: brief three people with the same script, run each video on the same audience, and look at which one earns clicks.
It's also a fatigue signal. A video that starts at a healthy CTR and drifts down over two or three weeks is wearing out with the audience. Swap the hook, cut a new version from the creator's B-roll, or rotate in a fresh creator before the cost per result climbs.
Don't read it alone. A high CTR with a poor conversion rate usually means the ad promised something the landing page didn't deliver, or the hook attracted the wrong people. Pair CTR with ROAS or cost per purchase before you decide a creator's content is working.
How to use CTR when testing creators
Keep the test fair. Same audience, same placement, same offer, same spend window. Only the video changes. Then compare link CTR across the creators alongside hook rate and cost per result. The creator who wins two of the three is usually worth briefing again, and the one who loses all three probably isn't a fit for this product regardless of how good the video looked.
Benchmarks vary too much by platform, niche, and placement to quote a single number with confidence. What matters is the relative result inside your own account. Log each creator's CTR per video over time and you'll build a better benchmark than anything you can find online.
How it's used
Link CTR on Jordan's demo video is double the studio version on the same audience, so let's brief him for two more angles.
CTR has been sliding on the unboxing ad for ten days; cut a new hook from the B-roll before we scale it any further.