Interaction rate is the number of interactions your Google ads received divided by the number of times they were shown. An interaction is whatever main action a given ad format invites: a click on a text or Shopping ad, an engaged view on a video ad, a call from a call ad. If an ad was shown 2,000 times and drew 60 interactions, its interaction rate is 3%.
How interaction rate works
Google Ads counts impressions for every ad format, but the action that matters differs from format to format. Interaction rate puts those different actions on one scale so that a campaign mixing formats still has a single engagement figure. You find it as the “Interaction rate” column at campaign, ad group and ad level, next to a matching “Interactions” column and “Avg. cost”, which is cost divided by interactions.
For a campaign that only runs text ads on Google Search, interaction rate and click-through rate (CTR) come out the same, because the only interaction is a click. The two figures part company once video, call or certain Demand Gen formats are involved. A YouTube ad might have a low CTR, because few people click through to the website, but a healthy interaction rate, because many people watched long enough to count as an engaged view.
The formula itself is simple: interactions ÷ impressions × 100. What changes the number is the mix of formats in the account, the placements the ads appear on and how closely the ad matches what the viewer was doing at the time.
Why it matters
For a UK business running Search alongside YouTube or Performance Max, interaction rate is often the quickest way to see whether an ad is catching attention at all. A low rate tells you the ad is being shown to people who do not care, or that the creative does not earn a response, before you spend time on conversion analysis.
On Search campaigns, where the rate is effectively CTR, a falling figure on a steady keyword set is often the first sign that a competitor has sharpened its ads or that your copy no longer matches what people are searching for. Because the rate is a ratio, it also stays comparable when budgets change, which raw interaction counts do not.
Common mistakes
- Comparing interaction rate across campaign types as if every interaction were a click.
- Reporting a rising interaction rate as success when conversions and enquiries are flat.
- Reading the account-level total, which blends formats, instead of looking at each campaign separately.
- Assuming Avg. cost is the same as average cost per click on a campaign that includes video or calls.
- Judging a new video ad on its first few hundred impressions, before the rate has settled.
How to act on it
Segment your reports by campaign type before you read interaction rate, and add the Clicks and CTR columns next to it so you can see how much of the engagement actually reached your website. If interaction rate is high but clicks are low on a video campaign, the ad is being watched but not acted on: look at the call to action and the landing page offer.
If the rate is low across the board, check targeting before rewriting ads. Broad placements, loose audiences or ads running on low-quality apps often drag the figure down. Then test new creative one change at a time. Finally, judge every campaign on cost per enquiry or sale, using interaction rate as an early signal rather than the goal. Reading these signals together each week is part of routine Google Ads account management.