At a top-rated PPC agency, internet marketing professionals consider many metrics in their quest to optimize Google Ads campaigns. One of the most important ad metrics is CTR aka click-through rate. Read on to learn what good CTR looks like, why it’s important and how you can improve it.

 

An Overview of CTR

CTR is the percentage of people who actually click on your ad after viewing it.

• Regular or private label PPC agencies know that CTR is one of the vital factors that Google considers for determining Quality Score.
• Quality Score is Google’s way of assessing your keywords and ads in terms of user experience and relevance.
• If you serve an ad with keywords that are relevant to your business and what users are looking for, there’s more likelihood of users clicking on your ad.
• Google uses Quality Score to determine the cost-per-click of an ad and also ad position.

What Is a Good CTR

Professionals at a PPC agency understand there’s no single magical figure for good CTR.

• CTR is not the same for all businesses.
• It depends on several factors such as your industry, business niche, your chosen keywords, how competitive those keywords are and campaign goals.
• It takes some time, monitoring and analyzing to determine the ideal ad CTR.

Also read: How Agencies Are Making 250+% ROI for Clients with White Label PPC

Benchmark Average CTR

• There are some reputed resources that white label PPC professionals refer to for determining the CTR they should be going after.
• According to one reliable resource, on the Google Ads platform, across all industries, the average CTR for a Google search Ad is 1.9% and 0.35% for a Google Display Network ad.
• Besides this, there are industry-specific benchmarks that you need to consider.

Why Are Search Ad CTRs Higher Than Display Ad CTRs

• Search ads are served when a prospect searches for your product or related product on Google’s search engine. They are more related to intent and located right above organic search results.
• Display ads (for example banner ads) are served on websites that you look at while browsing. They are more often used for brand awareness than immediate conversions.

How to Calculate CTR in Google Ads

• If you’re interested in knowing your current CTRs, look in the dashboard of your Google Ads account.
• PPC professionals also recommend running the free-to-use Google Ads
• Performance Grader for a correct measurement of CTR.

Also read: 7 PPC Campaign Audits to Perform for Best Campaign Performance

Comparison between Average CTR and Good CTR

Once you know your industry’s benchmark average CTR, aim to beat that.

• Start by identifying your target keywords.
• Then create ads and landing pages with these keywords.
• Finally, run your campaign and bid on these keywords.
• It takes a few weeks to get data you can work with. After a few weeks, take a look at your ads’ click-through rates and analyze how close they are to your actual goal.

Tips to Increase CTR

• If your CTRs are underperforming, first review ad text. Make sure your ads are compelling and emotional, with a clear value proposition.
• Make sure you’re including the right keywords for your ads and check whether they’re appealing and easy to understand.
• Review the ad extensions you’re using for your ads because they increase ad space, offer additional useful information and increase click-through rates.

High CTR with Poor Conversion Rates

• If you have high click-through rates but low conversion rates, it means that you’re spending money on clicks but are not achieving effective ROI on ad spend.
• To correct this, make sure your landing pages are optimized for conversions on all device types and you’re putting out a valuable product offer.

Finding That CTR Sweet Spot

Once you’ve made the necessary changes, monitor the CTRs and conversions.

• If you’re receiving income that’s more than your cost per click, aim for higher click through rates.
• You can do this by improving ad content, selecting better keywords and including negative keywords for your campaigns to exclude irrelevant traffic.

There’s a strong correlation between click through rates and Quality Score. If you want to improve your Quality Score and obtain advantages such as higher ad rank and lower cost per click, consult your private label PPC agency and work towards improving the CTRs of your ads.