Getting a Good Click-Through Rate on YouTube: 6 Proven Tips

Summary: Wondering what is a good click through rate YouTube creators should aim for? Here’s how impressions click-through rate works, what counts as a “good” number in 2025, and six proven ways to boost your CTR in YouTube.
This post was originally written June 15, 2021 and has been updated with newer information.

Getting a good click-through rate (CTR) on YouTube is a big deal. That helps you solve a major problem, which is getting YouTube to recommend your videos to viewers.

If you’ve been on YouTube for a while, you know the algorithm won’t suggest any old video. It serves valuable content with proven success. Creators who supply such content are likely to get more views and grow their channels.

Why CTR Still Matters in 2025

Click-through rate is still one of the most important signals on YouTube. It tells the algorithm: viewers actually want this content. The higher your CTR, the more likely YouTube is to recommend your video to new audiences.

But here’s the nuance: CTR alone won’t get you growth. YouTube weighs CTR alongside watch time, retention, and satisfaction metrics. In other words, getting the click is step one, keeping the viewer matters even more.

What Is Click-Through Rate on YouTube?

CTR is defined as “how often viewers watch video after seeing its thumbnail.”

Here’s the click-through rate formula:

Number of clicks / Number of impressions x 100 = CTR.

So if 1,000 people saw the thumbnail but only 30 people clicked on the video, you’d have a click-through rate of 30%.

30 clicks from 1,000 impressions = 3% CTR.

How to See Your Click-Through Rate In the YouTube Studio

Before you try to increase your CTR, figure out what your current percentage is.

Here’s how to find that number:

  • Go to YouTube Studio.
  • Click Analytics in the left navigation menu.
  • Click the Reach tab.
  • Next, you’ll see a graph showing impressions, impressions click-through rate, views, and unique viewers. Select impressions click-through rate.
  • Adjust the period selector (seven days, one month, three months, one year, or the lifetime of your channel).

Here’s what the CTR graph looks like. It shows your rate over time, and you can hover over the play buttons to see which videos produced certain rates:

Analytics dashboard showing impressions, click-through rate, views, and unique viewers stats.

The graph above is from the vidIQ channel. As you can see, our CTR is 5.1% for the last 28 days.

Scrolling down further reveals a chart showing how many impressions we received in that period.

YouTube funnel showing 19.4M impressions and resulting 45.5K hours watch time data.

What Is a Good Click-Through Rate?

At one point, YouTube stated that “half of all channels and videos on YouTube have an impressions CTR that can range between 2% and 10%.”

Screenshot of Google search snippet about YouTube impressions CTR ranging between 2% and 10%

Is your CTR within this range? If so, don't set wild expectations for yourself. YouTube's general range for CTR is just extra information; if you're at 2%, don't fall in love with the idea of reaching 10% anytime soon. Slow and steady improvements will take you where you need to be.

Also, be careful about how you interpret YouTube's general CTR range. If you’re a small creator getting 100 impressions per video, it only takes a consistent 20 viewers for a 20% click-through rate. Compare that to a large channel with 150,000 impressions and 10,000 views. That’s a 6.6% click-through rate.

No matter what the numbers say, put your CTR into perspective:

  • Is your click-through rate high because you don’t have many videos?
  • Or is it decreasing because YouTube is showing your content to more viewers? That could mean you have more impressions but fewer clicks as you reach a new audience. New viewers will need more convincing before they click.

How to Get a Good Click-Through Rate

Ready to get more video clicks? Here are six ways to boost your CTR on YouTube:

  1. Make sure your channel has enough videos (so YouTube can give you a realistic CTR).
  2. Give yourself a “benchmark” based on your current or all-time CTR. This is your starting point from which you'll slowly increase over time.
  3. Create thumbnails people want to click. YouTube is counting thumbnail views as impressions, but getting an actual “click” is important for your CTR. Make the thumbnail simple but interesting, with text that quickly explains the video’s value. Test with vidIQ’s Thumbnail Maker.
  4. Create juicy but relevant titles. Your video’s title is right next to the thumbnail, which gives you another chance to elicit a click. Do some keyword research to add relevant or trending phrases to your title. vidIQ’s Title Generator makes suggestions for you based on what is relevant and trending.
  5. Write a good video description. Make sure it’s relevant and reinforces the title for search pages; descriptions are highly visible in this area.
  6. Make concise videos. In some areas of YouTube, viewers can see the length of a video overlaid on its thumbnail. Imagine a viewer coming to YouTube for a quick answer to one question. Will they click your video if it's an hour long?

Read More: What Every YouTube Creator Needs to Know About Custom Thumbnails and Click Through Rate

A “good” CTR depends on your niche, audience size, and video type. The real growth lever in 2025 is CTR plus retention. If you can consistently get people to click and then stick, YouTube will do the heavy lifting of recommending your videos

A good click-through rate is ideal, but it’s not the only signal YouTube uses to grade your videos. Here’s a handy guide on how YouTube recommends your content to viewers.