Click Through Rate is a good indicator of the performance of a campaign, but you should be prudent: when the volume of impressions and clicks are too low, your CTR might skyrocket, but this doesn't necessarily mean your ads were great. On the contrary, a very high CTR might highlight volume problems.
If you want to improve the quality of your Google Ads campaigns there are a number of elements that you have to take into consideration. We've put together a list of 6 ways to increase your Click Through Rate, that surely will help you to increase traffic and save money.
What is Click Through Rate?
There are many complicated concepts and terms to understand in Google Ads, fortunately, Click Through Rate (CTR) is not one of them.
So what is CTR in Google Ads?
Essentially, it represents the ratio between ad clicks and impressions.
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Click Through Rate = Total Clicks on Ads /Total Impressions |
It’s expressed as a percentage. For example, a CTR of 10% means that 10% of your ad impressions resulted in an ad click.
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10 clicks / 100 impressions = 10% CTR |
This metric may be extremely valuable for measuring the relevance and quality of your ads. The more of your impressions that get clicks the more your ad is relevant to a user's search query.
For example, if a user searches for “New Balance Shoes” and you are bidding on the term “shoes”, your ad might still show, generating an impression. But, if a competitor’s ad also appears and it actually contains the term “New Balance Shoes”, they will likely get the click instead of you.
You will have learned that your ad is not relevant for the term “New Balance Shoes” so you will need to refine your keywords and adapt your ad copy to include "New Balance Shoes". Next time there is a query for “New Balance Shoes” the ad that you show will be more relevant and you are more likely to get the click.
Google rewards advertisers that show relevant ads to its users, so by refining your campaign to increase your CTR, you will also increase your quality score.
A good quality score usually helps to lower the cost-per-click and helps to achieve a better ROI.
What is the average CTR?
You may be wondering, what is a “good” click through rate?
There are many reports, but unfortunately, there is not one unique answer. You can check several reports for your industry, but you will still get a partial answer. The average CTR for your industry is only a guide and may not be reflective for your campaign.
For example, let's assume that you're the owner of a travel agency. The standard click through rate for a Travel&Tourism in search campaign is 7,83%. That's high, isn't it? But does it mean that this is a good CTR? Not necessarily. This is a good guideline, but it really depends on all the other elements of a PPC campaign. Like for example:
- Which geo locations are you targeting?
- Which keywords are you bidding on, generic, long-tail, branded?
- Which audience are you targeting, new or returning users?
Therefore, there is no such thing as a good CTR in itself. It always needs to be used as a comparison metric, rather than an absolute one.
You can say that a certain ad has a higher CTR than another one. But this doesn't necessarily mean that one CTR is good and the other is bad. They're just different.
You need to use this insight to optimize your ads and campaigns, potentially improving the one with the lower CTR or even pausing it if necessary.
The ads and campaigns with the highest CTR in the account can also serve as inspirations for new ads. But be careful about CTR that is too high.
When the volume of impressions and clicks are too low, your CTR might skyrocket, but this doesn't necessarily mean your ads were great. On the contrary, a very high CTR might highlight volume problems. So don't be focused on the heigh of this metric, try to understand it better, both its components and the overall result.
6 Ways to Improve Your Google Ads Click-Through Rates
A high CTR is a good sign that people are drawn to your ads and that they find them relevant to their search. A good CTR will also help to improve your Google Quality Score.
The quality score is a grade given from 1-10 and takes in 3 factors when evaluating keywords, ad, and landing pages.
- Expected CTR
- Ad Relevance
- Landing Page Experience
How to improve your CTR, and get better quality and relevance of your campaigns? Have a look:
1. Write Compelling Ad Copy
The key to a great CTR is to write good ad copy. Your ad copy should be very relevant to each specific search query.
So how do you write a good ad copy?
Here are 4 tips for creating compelling ad copy:
- Use the Headlines for the most important pieces of information
- Keep your ad copy very relevant to your specific search query.
For example, if the user's search query is “New Balance 574 Trainers for Men '' ensure this wording is in the ad instead of putting only “New Balance Trainers”. This can be achieved through a granular campaign structure, where every keyword triggers a specific search ad.
Keyword Insertion, Ad Customisers or DataFeedWatch’s Feed-Driven Search Ad Solutions may be hugely helpful in this process.
- Showcase your unique selling point and what makes you stand out.
Be sure to include all relevant business information in your ad copy.
Highlight any discounts and free shipping options Also, bear in mind that your ads should match your landing page. Ensure that any claims, promotions, or products you have mentioned in your ad are visible on the page you are linking to.
- Always include a clear Call To Action (CTA) and utilize countdown timers to trigger loss aversions and FOMO (fear of missing out).
When you have a limited-time sale going on, you can set a Google Countdown Timer within your text ads by entering {= inside the headline, and a popup will appear. This massively helps increase CTR as users rush to your website to take advantage of the discount.
Don’t forget to experiment! Run multiple ads with different copies to see which ones perform best. Google will automatically rotate your ads and then show the best performing ads more often. This will help to improve your CTR.
Our Feed-Driven Google Search Ads can help you to create engaging search campaigns automatically.
As we’ve mentioned, it’s important to ensure your ads relate as closely as possible to the search query, our tool allows you to turn your product feed directly into compelling search ads for each item in your catalog, whether that is a few hundred or over a million products
If you want to find out about the best practices on How to Improve Your Ad Copy to Increase Sales visit this article.
2. Test Different Ad Types
In addition to testing ad copy, you can also test different types of ads to discover which ones perform best.
For each ad you create, try to use a different copy so you have more chances to meet each specific user query. The three you have created will be tested against each other by the Google rotation system.
Responsive ads in particular will help to improve CTR and Google’s system will choose the wording that best fits the search query.
3. Use the Best Ad Extensions
Ad Extensions expand your ads with additional information. They can be either clickable or non-clickable.
In the former case, they increase the chances of a click-through, simply because they give users more options to click on. In the latter case, they don't directly increase the chances of a click, but because they add text to the ad copy they help the ads be more relevant for the user.
Also, they make the ads look bigger on the SERP, therefore more eye-catching. This helps get more clicks. Especially on mobile where the ad real estate is very limited, the size matters :)
Google Ads offers several types of Ad Extensions. Not all of them will be relevant for your business, but we highly encourage you to use as many as possible.
Google generally rewards those who take full advantage of its features with lower CPC and higher ranking. But of course, make sure they are relevant for your ads, don't just add extensions for the sake of it.
There are 9 Google Ad Extensions that can be used to improve CTR:
- Location Extensions
- Call Extensions
- Sitelink Extensions
- Callout Extensions
- Structured Snippet Extensions
- Price Extensions
- App Extensions
- Image Extensions
Not all Ad Extensions will be relevant to your business, but you should try to use as many as possible to maximize the opportunities people have to click on your ad.
Google generally rewards advertisers who take full advantage of its features with a lower cost per click and higher tanking.
4. Highlight Pricing in Ad Copy
This will be most relevant for eCommerce, although it could also apply to services.
Depending on if you are B2C or B2B you may have a different approach to sharing your prices, however, in general showcasing the price of your products in your ad copy is a good idea. Especially if your prices are competitive. The more detail you can show in your ads, the better.
Giving the viewer of your ad additional information before they need to click, makes it simpler for people to see what you offer and increases the likelihood that they will click.
If you are a retailer, our Feed-Driven Search Ads solutions help you dynamically include your product prices in the ad copy, ensuring they are always up to date.
5. A/B Test Google Ads Variations
On top of creating 3 ads per ad group and leaving the system to optimize, you can also actively A/B test different ad copies, so you know which ads to focus on and which to possibly pause.
Google Ads campaign experiments are available for search and display network campaigns only. You are able to schedule 5 experiments, but you can only run one at a time.
Certainly, CTR should be one of the metrics to look at when considering which ads performed best. But don't forget to weigh the CTR with the impressions and clicks volume. Once again, a CTR of 100% out of 1 impression, doesn't make that ad the best :)
Explore the Ad Variations section Google Ads for testing different ad copies.
6. Utilise Smart Bidding Strategies
In recent years, Google has added many tools which allow users to take advantage of its machine learning to improve their results. Google Ads Smart Bidding is one of these features.
Smart Bidding Strategies automatically place bids for you using a machine learning algorithm. This technology has improved very significantly over the years to the point of outperforming what a human can do.
This means that when it comes to campaign optimization and CTR, smart bidding is without a doubt an excellent idea. The system knows what is the best ad to show at any given time and at what cost. This obviously improves your chances of getting clicks and increases CTR.
Next related reads:
- Automated Bidding Strategies for Google Ads - When & How to Use Them
- 2021 All-in-One Guide to Google Smart Shopping Campaigns
Wrapping Up
If you want to improve the quality of your Google Ads campaigns there are a number of elements that you have to take into consideration.
CTR can be improved by writing good ads, with compelling ad copy. It’s essential to create variations of ad copy and ad types to allow you to test the best performing ads and turn off those that are underperforming. Google Ad Variations can be utilized to perform more scientific comparison testing. And don’t forget to turn off any underperforming ads.
It’s always a good idea to make your ads as close to the search query as possible and to give the most amount of relevant details. Ensure you use site extensions and include as many details as possible, including product prices.
