Easy Guide to Increase CTR in Google Ads

Anyone who’s analyzed the performance of PPC campaigns knows that CTR is a metric to keep track of. Experienced Google Ads management professionals know that CTR is more than just a metric – it affects the profits of both advertisers and publishers. Read on to know why CTR is important and how you can increase CTR in Google Ads.

Determining Click through Rate

CTR or click through rate is derived by dividing number of ad clicks by number of impressions. In Google Ads management, higher CTR indicates that an ad is attractive and appealing. If people are clicking on an ad, it’s probably because there’s something engaging and interesting about it that appeals to them.

Cascading Effect on Campaign

Good CTR has a cascading positive impact on several aspects of an Google Ads campaign. If more people click on an ad, it leads to better engagement rates, higher impressions share, improved Quality Score and hence lower cost per click, with the possibility of higher ad ranking. In well-planned campaigns, Google Ads PPC management professionals find that higher CTR usually co-relates to higher conversion rates.

Vital Insights When Considered with Other KPIs

Sometimes, higher CTR correlates to low conversion rates – this could be because the audience is too broad or landing page is not aligned with ad copy. To get a complete picture, Google Ads management professionals consider CTR in combination with the performance of other KPIs. A deeper analysis of important KPIs provides vital insights and helps identify steps to optimize a campaign.

What’s A Good CTR?

Generally speaking, Google Ads agencies consider 2% CTR to be average and anything above to be good. It also depends on the type of industry being served – it has been observed that companies in B2B, dating/personals and finance/insurance sectors see better CTR performances in their Google Ads campaigns. A good strategy is to focus on improving your own CTR figures in current or future campaigns.

CTR Impacts SEO

It is no secret that search engine ranking is partly based on how popular your website is. Popularity is measured by the number of page views your website receives. Higher CTR increases the number of times a page on your site gets visited, hence results in higher ranking and better SEO. Of course, the quality and relevance of the page in relation to a search query also come into play. So, focus on those areas as well to boost SEO.

Improve Ad Quality

One way to increase CTR is by working on improving the ad. Make the design attractive and appealing. Use appropriate words and phrases that are relevant to the search query. Make sure content is interesting and compelling enough to encourage users to click through. Include a prominent call-to-action so users clearly understand what step they should take next.

Choose Targeting Keywords

Use specific and targeted keywords to attract qualified traffic. Instead of going crazy with multiple short-tail keywords, focus on one long-tail keyword. For example, if you’re a baker and offering cake catering services to interested customers, use ‘cakes catering’ instead of ‘cakes’ or ‘catering’ – it will help you reach a more targeted audience.

Understand Ideal Customer Persona

Step out of your PPC marketer shoes and get into users’ minds to understand what they are looking for and how they would describe it. A good Google Ads agency spends considerable time researching and trying to understand ideal customer profile. This information is leveraged at every opportunity to give the customer exactly what he or she is looking for.

Perform A/B Testing

Conduct rigorous A/B testing on ads to identify ways to improve CTR. This requires effort and perseverance because even something small such as a punctuation mark or using numbers instead of words can drastically improve CTR.  If you don’t have in-house expertise, outsource Google Ads to a professional PPC agency. The agency will have experienced professionals who can perform extensive testing on various elements such as ad headline and ad copy to figure out best-performing variants.

Final tip – outsource Google Ads to an experienced Australian PPC agency for next level CTRs!