Talk:Click-through rate/Archives/2012

CTR definition in first paragraph corrected

Corrected the the definition of CTR in the first paragraph, which has been incorrect since the first version of the article, which misstated the numerator of the calculation as

the "number of users who clicked on an ad" on a web page

whereas the numerator is actually simply "the number of clicks on an ad".

It's easy to find hundreds of copies of the mistaken definition on the web from general dictionaries, thesauruses and blogs which are merely an echo-chamber of misstatement. This perhaps accounts for the fact that the Wikipedia entry, which is usually number one on search results for this term, echoed the same error (or maybe it's the other way round).

In any case, a check of web sites who actually know something about this topic, such as the Interactive Advertising Bureau (which sets standards for online advertising) or companies actually engaged in online advertising (such as Google AdWords, Yahoo Marketing, and so on) show the correct definition.

I don't take credit for supplying the correct definition, which was actually given by User:Supratim in in rev 52725017 of 13:12, 11 May 2006 not so long after the article was initially created, by adding a paragraph further down the page taking issue with and correcting the opening statement. If anything, s/he wasn't bold enough. as this actually led to the confusing situation of having two conflicting definitions on the page, with the incorrect one front and center.

This has now been corrected, with a single, correct definition at the top, along with multiple, authoritative references.

The former definition is sometimes seen as "CTRu", but this is neither well-defined nor widely supported, although it sometimes comes up in analytics reports. If someone wants to add back that definition, make sure you find confirming evidence and cite it, and name it something different, such as unique visitor CTR, or CTRu, or whatever.
Mathglot (talk) 18:53, 18 July 2011 (UTC)