How to Measure Click-Through Rate on a Link (+ Benchmarks)

Click-through rate is clicks divided by impressions, times 100: CTR = clicks ÷ impressions × 100. A link shown 4,000 times and clicked 92 times has a CTR of 2.3%. Google Ads defines it the same way, as "clicks ÷ impressions" (Google Ads Help).

The clicks are the easy half: a short link counts them for you. The hard half is the denominator, which comes from wherever the link was shown.

Which number to divide by

Two rules make the result mean something. Use one denominator per comparison: CTR on impressions and CTR on reach are different numbers. And use one short link per placement, so the clicks you divide match the impressions you divide by. The CTR calculator does the division and picks the right denominator for each channel in the table.

Measure it with short links, step by step

1. 1.
   Make one short link per placement: snu.to/oct-news-email, snu.to/oct-news-li, snu.to/oct-news-poster.
2. 2.
   Share each one only in its placement.
3. 3.
   After the same interval for each (48 hours is a common choice), read the clicks per link in the console.
4. 4.
   Read the matching denominator from each platform.
5. 5.
   Divide, and record the date range next to the result.

To pull the click totals instead of copying them, GET /links/:id returns totalClicks (and qrScans for QR codes):

curl https://api.sendurl.to/api/v1/links/LINK_ID \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SENDURL_API_KEY"

In a spreadsheet with clicks in column B and impressions in column C, the CTR per row is:

=IF(C2>0, B2/C2, "")

Format the column as a percentage. The API reference lists the other fields.

Total clicks, unique clicks, and bots

SendURL counts total clicks: every successful redirect, including repeat clicks by the same person. It has no unique-click count and no bot filtering, so link previews in Slack or iMessage and email security scanners that follow the link are counted too. Many email tools report unique clicks and try to filter bots, so their number is usually lower than the short link's.

That's why a CTR from short-link clicks can run higher than the email tool's. Check the clicks list for preview user agents before you compare; bot clicks and link previews explains what to look for.

Email: CTR, CTOR and Apple Mail

Email CTR is clicks divided by emails delivered. Click-to-open rate (CTOR) divides by opens instead. Opens have been unreliable since Apple Mail Privacy Protection, which downloads remote content in the background "regardless of whether you engage with the email" (Apple). More recorded opens means a lower CTOR, so prefer CTR on delivered.

Benchmarks, with their definitions

Benchmarks are only comparable when the definition matches. These are published, dated figures:

We found no published benchmark for Instagram link-sticker taps or for LinkedIn organic link CTR, so we don't quote one. Your own history is the better baseline: compare this month's CTR on a placement with last month's, measured the same way.

Reconcile platform clicks, short-link clicks and GA4

Link analytics vs Google Analytics covers that gap in detail. For setting up tracking across placements, see how to track link clicks. To tell whether a CTR difference between two versions is real or noise, see A/B testing with short links, or compare two click-through rates in the A/B test calculator.

Checklist: measuring CTR on a link

• One short link per placement
• Denominator chosen per channel (table above) and written next to the result
• Same time window for every placement
• Preview and scanner clicks checked before comparing
• Benchmarks compared only when the definition matches