Excel help – countif cell reference

I can get my countif formula to work if I reference a number. However, I can’t get it to work if I reference a cell. I want to count the number of values in cells D16:D2045 that are greater than the value in cell c11. I entered this formula =COUNTIF(D16:D2045,">c11") However, the answer given was zero, which is wrong. When I enter the value of cell c11 (2500) into the formula like this =COUNTIF(D16:D2045,">2500") I get the answer. What can I do to get this formula to work with a cell reference? I may have to run this spreadsheet daily. Removing the quotations does not work. Thanks in advance!!

=COUNTIF(D16:D2045,">"&c11)

=COUNTIF(D16:D2045,">"&$C$11)

Yeah!!! Thanks