How To Increase Your Clickthrough Rate (CTR) For PPC

It’s a brand new year and if one of your New Year’s resolutions is to whip your online advertising presence into buns of steel-like shape, you’ve come to the right place. Wpromote will be here all year long dishing out valuable, free tips of the trade to help you get your online marketing strategy ripped.

2012 is already ticking by, so let’s get started. In this article, we’ll talk about different ways to improve your PPC Clickthrough Rate (CTR). CTR refers to the number of people who click on your ad out of the overall number of people who view your ad (CTR = Clicks/Impressions x 100). This rate gives advertisers an idea of the effectiveness of a particular ad.

So, What Is A Good CTR Score?
What is considered a “good” CTR will vary widely across industries, keywords and campaigns. This question does not have a simple nor exact number. We’ve seen CTR’s range from below 1% up to 30% and higher. Rather than fixating on finding this “good” CTR score, it is more important to find out what CTR you need in order to have a profitable campaign. If you determine the ROI you can earn from each click, then you can work backwards to find what CTR’s you will need in order to achieve profitability.

What Affects Your CTR?
Before getting to the tips, let’s talk about some of the factors that affect CTR. There are several factors that can contribute to your CTR; things like how well your ad is written, how targeted your keywords are, and where your ad is placed.

Competition is also one of the biggies. If you are selling iPhone cases and you use the keyword iPhone Cases, you’re going to have a lot of competition. You may get a lot of impressions, but there will be so much competition that you aren’t likely to get very many clicks. And, if you focus on common words, it’s more than likely that you will have to pay much higher bids to have your ad placed somewhere it will be seen, like the first page of search results. Focusing on your keyword strategy is a good way to start improving your CTR.

What Are The Benefits Of A Good CTR?
Having a good CTR has a number of advantages, the main one being that when you have a high CTR, your cost per click will be reduced. When your CTR is high, search engine ad platforms recognize this and will rank your ad higher at a lower cost per click to reward you for a quality ad. And if your CTR is high, there is more likelihood that those clicks will turn into conversions.

How To Improve Your CTR:
Here are some good ways to improve your CTR:

• Focus On Your Keywords – As we mentioned above, one way to improve your CTR is by avoiding common keywords that are highly competitive. Instead, use targeted keywords that actively describe your product or service. For the iPhone case example you could try something like, Pink Sparkly iPhone Case. You may get fewer impressions, but your CTR will be higher because you are targeting people looking for a specific product. And, your bid for more specific keywords will be less, which means cost savings. Creating your ads around highly targeted keywords is a good way to start improving your CTR rate.
• Rewrite Your Ad – Make sure your ad is written clearly and includes a strong call to action. This can be done by using words and phrases like: Save Today, Buy, Sign Up, Order Now or Book Now, depending on what you are wanting your customers to do. Using incentive-based words helps encourage people to go from passive viewers of an ad to active clickers.
• Know Your Goals – Just like getting in shape, getting a higher CTR is easier if you keep your goals in sight. Take the time at the outset to define your PPC goals, evaluate the clarity of your landing pages, know your keyword strategies and then be ready to track and test different variations of your ad.

Happy New Year, here’s to keeping those resolutions!