How To Improve Your CTR
What is Click Through Rate or CTR? Your CTR is a measurement statistic used to monitor and understand how your campaigns are performing. Click through rate is the number of clicks your ad received divided by the number of times (or impressions) your ad has been shown.
It may sound easy to get someone to click your ad but it’s not. So many factors can determine how, when and where your ad is displayed. The position of your ad changes depending on your Ad Rank and Quality Score against the landing page it is linked to.
So How Do You Get A Higher Click Through Rate?
Relevant Ads
Your ads are the main factors that will assist in your click through rate, they need to be relevant and engaging. An ad is made up of various sections, being the display URL that will direct customers to a specific landing page, the headline of the ad, sub-headline, the slug and a short description. If your landing page isn’t relevant customers won’t click through and the bounce rate will be high.
Take the time to craft engaging content that will help drive customers to your site. You don’t get a 
lot of characters to play with so it’s important that you create content that will appeal to the user; include calls to action and unique selling points (USP’s).
Competitive Offers
Make sure your ad offers are competitive as you want to be above the competition while participating in ad campaigns. Adding symbols or special characters can help your ad stand out and get you more clicks, however make sure you don’t go overboard as you’ll need to stay within Google’s advertising guidelines.
Special offer or promotion running? The headline text is the first thing that searchers will see so if you want to try and grab their attention and increase your CTR why not include special offers or incentives in there! An interesting headline on an ad can make a huge difference to your click through rate. Use display planner to help figure out how your ad might perform. You can also have a couple of variations of the same ad/offer and see which garners the best results.
Keyword Targeting
Include the target keywords in your ad! It may seem obvious, but If your ads don’t include your chosen keywords and the keywords that you are bidding on you are likely to have a poor CTR. The stronger the keyword and relevance to your landing page the higher position and CTR. So, make sure you know the audience you are targeting.
Do some keyword research to know what your target audience are searching for. Google’s keyword planner tool will give you information on search volume, the potential cost per click and the competition for each term.
Review Keywords
Look at how your keywords are performing and where your budget is being spent. It is important to review your campaign and ad keywords to identify what is and is not working. Lots of keywords with high impressions but low clicks? It could be time to try different variations and see if they perform better. Keywords with low impressions but a high CTR? Adjusting the keyword bid could result in an even better CTR and increase conversions.
You want to make your ad as focussed and targeted as you can so it is shown to the users that will be most likely to engage and click through. Keep the keywords per ad group to a max of 15, it will be dependent on the variations and who you are trying to target though.
Don’t forget about negative keywords! These can be just as important as the keywords we want to be shown for. Adding negative keywords can help keep your ad relevant and ensure that your budget isn’t being wasted on unrelated terms.
Customer Search Terms
Would you click on an ad two pages into the search results or would you click on the first you saw? If you want a high CTR you need to think like a customer. Think about the amount of choice, we as consumers have, why would you click an ad on page 2 or 3 of the search results when you could click the first one you see.
AdWords have a section that shows you the search terms people have used in search engines to come across your ad. Incorporate these into your keyword strategy and remove any poorly performing or unneeded terms to the negative keywords. This will help streamline your ad, as well as ensure that your ads are being displayed to the users most likely to click through.
Ad Extensions
Ad extensions can help your ad stand out from the crowd. There are many different types of ad extensions that you can utilise to try and boost your CTR. We’ll talk about a couple as examples:
- Sitelink extensions allow you to add extra information in your ad, think about your USP and what makes you different from the rest. Do you offer free delivery? Are you certified? You can also include links to sections of your website.
- Call extensions make it easier for people to reach out and get in touch directly from the SERP.
- Callout extension are statements that get added underneath your ad. Family Run Business, Accredited by X, Specialist product or service.
- Location extensions can help you target a more niche audience where your business is located or wants to expand to, also building brand awareness.
- Use trademarks as this builds trust in the business if you are certified and add these to your ad, this will impact your CTR.
Adjust Your Bids
You need to consistently check the bids for your keywords to ensure that you are bidding enough to appear on the first page. It’s a good idea to experiment and test what keywords work best by setting a daily budget that will help you stay in this position and not fall behind competitors. It’s a trial and error method that you need to regularly change to make sure you hold the position you want.
So, if you aren’t getting the results you want from your ad campaigns, try to improve your CTR with these simple steps like targeting the right keywords, bid adjustments, along with making sure you think about the user and user intent when creating content. These will contribute towards an increased click through rate.