7 Ways to Increase the CTR of Your Google Ads
The click-through rate will help you find out how effective internet advertising attracts potential customers. A low CTR indicates that the ads are not compelling or relevant enough for users. In this article, we will define what a click-through rate is, and what is considered the optimal click-through rate, and share tips that will help increase CTR.
What is CTR?
CTR (click-through rate)is a metric that determines the ratio of the number of clicks to the number of impressions, measured as a percentage.
To calculate CTR, a simple formula is used:
The Click-through rate is calculated using a simple formula: we divide the number of clicks on an ad by the number of its impressions.
clicks ÷ impressions = CTR
What is the optimal CTR?
Determining what percentage of CTR is considered good is quite difficult. Since it largely depends on the niche and competition. However, if you rely on averages in Google Ads, then 1.91% for search and 0.35% for display ads will be considered normal. Typically, a good click-through rate on Google is 4-5%+ on search or 0.5-1%+ on the Display Network.
How to increase the click-through rate of ads in Google Ads
1. Improve Quality Score
quality score (level of quality) is a Google Ads metric that gives each ad a score from 0 to 10.
This is an indicator of the relevance and quality of advertising, it is closely related to CTR. The higher the QS, the more likely the ad is to rank high in the search results. Accordingly, the more noticeable your ad is for users, the higher the CTR.
The quality score is affected by:
- Expected CTR – The likelihood that the user will click on the ad when it is shown.
- Ad Relevance – How well the ad matches the user’s intent.
- Landing page quality – how relevant the landing page is to users who clicked on the ad.
An analysis of these factors will help determine what needs to be worked on and what can be improved to increase CTR. This can be promotional text, individual keywords, or landing page content.
2. Use extensions
Extensions supplement advertisements with the necessary information and make them relevant to the user. In addition, the use of extensions makes it possible to take up more space in the search results, as the advertisement becomes longer. This will help increase click-through rates, especially on mobile devices where ad space is limited.
Google Ads offers several types of extensions:
- Locations
- Additional phone numbers
- Additional links
- Footnotes
- Structured Description
- Price
- Promotions
- Application link
- Image
- Lead form
We recommend using as many available extensions as possible. However, it is important to keep in mind that not all of them will be relevant for your business, you should indicate only relevant ones.
By Google data the use of extensions in advertisements on average increases CTR by 10-15% .
3. Test different types of ads
For the last few years, Google introduced many tools that make it possible to use machine learning to improve the results of advertising campaigns. Using responsive ads will also help improve CTR. You can add up to 15 titles and 4 descriptions. Google will choose the option that is most relevant to the search query. Thus, it increases the chance that the user will go to the landing page.
4. Write a sales copy
Attractive advertising text will help increase CTR. Think about why users should click on your ad and highlight your benefits. Analyze your competitors’ ads and try to stand out from them. For example, discounts, free shipping, and a guarantee for use. Don’t forget that your USP should match the content of the landing page. The information you provide must be available to the user even after going to the site. We recommend testing different variations of the text, this will help determine the headings and descriptions that your audience responds to best.
5. Add a CTA
To encourage users to click on your ad, add to the textCTA (call to action). For example, “Buy Now”. You can test different CTA variations and track their performance.
6. Use Keywords
Determine what queries users are searching for your product or service, then insert keywords into links, descriptions,s, and images. Try to select phrases exactly according to the search query, for this you can use a keyword planner. For example, “Buy a Lenovo laptop”.
7. Use A/B tests
A/B testing helps to determine the most effective ads. This will give you an idea of which options to focus on and which ones to put on hold. This contributes not only to increasing the click-through rate but also to optimize the budget. Of course, CTR should be one of the indicators that you should pay attention to when choosing the most effective ads. But do not forget to compare CTR with the number of impressions and clicks. For example, if you have a 100% CTR from one impression, this result can hardly be called successful.
conclusions
The CTR helps the search engine understand how interesting and useful your landing page, ads, and content are for users. In order to increase the CTR, you need to optimize the text, add extensions, and work on the quality score. In addition, it is very important to create different variations of advertising texts and ad types so that you can determine the most effective ones.