Click-Through Rate (CTR)

Click-Through Rate, usually shortened to CTR, is the percentage of people who clicked a link after seeing your content. It is calculated by dividing clicks by impressions, or sometimes by reach. In music marketing, the clicks that matter most are the ones that send fans to a streaming service, a pre-save page, a store or your website.

CTR sits between attention and action. Reach and impressions tell you how many people saw a post. Engagement tells you how many reacted. CTR tells you how many were moved enough to leave the platform and go somewhere you chose. A post with huge reach and a very low CTR usually has a weak call to action, a link that is hard to find, or content that entertains without giving people a reason to click.

For example, a story announcing a new single reaches 8,000 people and gets 240 link taps, a 3% CTR. The next story, with the cover art, a clear "Listen now" sticker and a Smart Link, reaches 7,500 and gets 600 taps, an 8% CTR. Same audience, very different outcome.

melabel's Social Analytics reports clicks and CTR for supported platforms, and pairs them with Smart Links data so you can see not only who clicked, but which streaming service they chose after the click.