Where clicks come from in live-stream ads: chat, QR, screen

On a web page, a click means someone pressed a banner. In a live stream, the viewer is watching rather than scrolling, the ad runs inside a broadcast they chose, and the action mostly happens next to the video, in chat. That is why the CTR of one on-screen element understates what an in-stream campaign does.

Three sources of clicks and the 80/10/10 split

Every APIQ placement, in every format, has three clickable slots. On average across campaigns, clicks split like this:

• Link in chat, about 80%. It appears in chat while the ad is on air.
• QR code, about 10%. Generated and added automatically by the platform.
• Click on the screen, about 10%. Viewers click the ad right in the stream.

The split is an average, not a rule. In a 30-day fintech campaign on Twitch, 96.5% of clicks came from native links in the chat, not from clicks on the screen.

One likely reason: a live audience is already active in chat. Kick says the same about its viewers: in a NetInfluencer report of 5 August 2026, Ryan Webb, Kick's Head of Growth & Revenue, said: “They're not watching in the background; they're in the chat, part of the stream.” That is the platform's own claim, not a measurement, but it matches where clicks land (more in Advertising on Kick). There is a mechanical reason too: a full-screen video lasts up to 30 seconds, while the link stays in chat after it ends.

How the chat link works and what it means for planning

At APIQ the chat link is part of the media buy:

• Posted, pinned and checked. On Twitch and Kick, the system checks that the link has been posted and pinned.
• Written to be clicked. To get more clicks, APIQ adjusts the link text and uses Twitch features such as Announcements.
• One link per channel. By default every channel gets its own link, so the report shows each streamer's result, not a blended total.
• It stays. After Stream Takeover or full-screen video, the stream returns to full screen and the link remains in chat.

So plan the chat link as the main response channel and put the landing page and per-channel tracking (AppsFlyer or Adjust links, tracking links or UTM tags) into the brief. Agree the CTR threshold up front, because a streamer below it is switched off automatically.

QR code and on-screen click: where they earn their place

Together they bring about a fifth of clicks. The QR code reaches viewers who can't click: on a Smart TV there is nothing to press, but a phone can scan the code. The platform generates and inserts it, so you don't prepare separate versions of the creative.

It also helps mobile apps: from a computer, a direct jump to the App Store or Google Play works poorly, so APIQ shows a branded landing page with a large QR code. By APIQ's estimate, this lifts installs by at least 20%.

The on-screen click is the familiar mechanic: viewers click the ad right in the stream. Computer vision checks during the campaign that clickable elements work, so a broken one shows up in verification.

What real campaigns show

The figures come from client reports on Twitch campaigns in Turkey. CTR is clicks divided by verified views.

What the table suggests, and where it stops:

• The two highest CTRs belong to campaigns whose case descriptions name a chat-link cadence. That fits the 80/10/10 split but doesn't prove cause: product, audience, season and creative differed too.
• Format alone doesn't predict CTR: the two side-banner campaigns landed at 1.89% and 1.04%, the two video campaigns at 2.01% and 1.61%.

Platforms differ as well: Mion ran a bottom banner on Twitch and Kick at once in February 2025 (182,927 views, 80 streamers, 779 clicks); Kick brought more views, Twitch a higher CTR. Larger anonymous campaigns differ again: the fintech campaign delivered 9.86M views on 59 streamers at a CTR of 0.84%, and an 11-day retail and electronics campaign 1.86M+ views at 0.78%, with chat as the main source of clicks. A CTR from one case is not a benchmark for another. All the numbers are on the case studies page.

How to read CTR in the report

An APIQ report shows chat-link clicks, QR scans, CTR by creative, analytics by streamer, poll answers and a screenshot of every view. CTR is tracked online on every clickable element, so the plan can change mid-campaign.

Start with the total, then split it. A hypothetical example: 100,000 verified views and 1,000 clicks, a CTR of 1%. With the average split, 800 clicks come from chat, 100 from QR scans and 100 from the screen. Count only on-screen clicks and CTR reads 0.1%: ten times lower for the same campaign.

• By creative and by streamer. A weak version or channel is visible on its own.
• Post-click and post-view. Pixels on views and on clicks give both; on Twitch, conversions count after a view as well as after a click.
• Your own attribution. AppsFlyer, Adjust, UTM tags, tracking links and Google Analytics data, so results don't rest on the seller's numbers alone. Audience demographics are available for Twitch and desktop only, from a Google Analytics pixel fired on every impression.

How to prepare the creative and the campaign

• Build the response around the chat link. Discuss cadence in the brief: Migros Hemen used a link every 15 minutes, adidas three impressions per channel.
• Set frequency, timing and order. For each streamer you can set how often the ad runs (for example every 15, 20 or 30 minutes), the time of day and the order of creatives; in the fintech campaign, morning hours beat the average CTR. Different creatives on different streamers give an A/B comparison in the report.
• Leave the lead-in to the streamer. A streamer may briefly introduce the ad if they wish; it is not a campaign requirement. By APIQ's estimate, such lead-ins lift the CTR of the clickable elements by more than 50%, in some cases several times over.
• Start with a pilot to get your own numbers. The media plan arrives within 24 hours, and launch follows 1–2 days after the streamer and creative list is approved.

What to ask the seller

1. Which clickable elements does a placement have, and how do clicks split between them?
2. Is the chat link pinned, and who checks that it was posted on every channel?
3. Will I see CTR by element, creative and streamer?
4. What CTR threshold switches a streamer off, and who sets it?
5. Can my own attribution count post-view as well as post-click conversions?

If the answer to the first question is just “a banner,” you are looking at about a tenth of where clicks come from. How verified views are counted and billed: CPV, CPM or flat fee.