How can you tell if your PPC campaigns are reaching their full potential on Google? You may be getting clicks and conversions but if you truly want to measure the success of your ads, the click-through rate is one of the key metrics you should be looking at.
An account’s CTR is a percentage based on the number of clicks an ad gets compared to the total number of impressions it received. A low click-through rate is not a definitive sign that your account is failing as the click-through rate varies based on the industry, but it can be a good indication that there is room for growth. However, it is also important to note that a high click-through rate is also not a definitive sign of a strong performance especially if the conversion rate doesn’t match up or if your bounce rate is high.
So without further ado, here are 5 things you should be doing to improve your click-through rate.
1. Know your target audience
The first thing you need to think about if your click-through rate is especially low is the audience. Are you targeting the right audience? Are the keywords you have chosen the ones those people would use? Does your copy focus on the things those people actually care about? In order to target the right audience and prove your ad is relevant to them you should:
– Spend time researching the customer and create an ideal customer profile so you can understand what they want when they see an ad.
– Research keywords, don’t just target high-performing keywords with some tangible relevance to your business, find the terms that will actually perform for you
– Don’t add all your keywords into one ad group, instead segment them and create several ad groups that target different sets of keywords/audiences so you can increase the relevance of the individual ads
2. Write relevant and compelling ad copy
Following on from finding your audience and keywords, now you need to make sure your ads are up to scratch. This includes using the idea of your customer to form the best possibly crafted ad for them, including the keywords in the ad headlines and descriptions, checking for any errors in spelling and punctuation that might push customers away and use call to action to pull them in. Most importantly try to be as relevant and engaging as possible, and appeal to the audience with how your product/service will solve their problems but don’t be overly flashy.
3. Make full use of Extensions
CTR and Extensions go hand in hand. The ads that get the most clicks and more importantly the most quality clicks are those that prove to the consumer that they are what the customer is looking for before they even reach the landing page. This can be done through ad copy and should be, but extensions provide the space to include even more relevant information about your business/product. Furthermore, extensions bulk up your ad when they appear making it more prominent on the search engine. So don’t neglect to use them.
4. Test and improve
Last and definitely not least you MUST continuously test ads and strategy. As in all aspects of PPC, testing is essential if you don’t want your campaigns to stagnate. But especially in regard to CTR, small tweaks can produce much higher results than you might expect. This includes testing different bid strategies and ad group structures, A/B testing your ad copy and adding and removing keywords that work or drag your performance down. Learning what works for your ads and customers through continuous trial and error is an important part of this 4 step recipe for CTR success.