How to improve your CTR? 7 things you should know.

When it comes to CTR, anyone who has some knowledge about digital marketing will be familiar with it. CTR means Click-Through Rate. The function of CTR is to calculate the ratio of users who click on a specific link to the number of total users who view it.

CTR is an important metric of Performance marketing because advertisers will pay the fee for every ad click to the publishers, CTR plays a key role in the bottom line for both sides. In this article, you will find 7 things you should know about CTR, which can help you understand the working principle of CTR and how to improve your CTR?

1. Why CTR is an important metric?

In general,  high CTR has a significate correlation with higher conversion rates. If someone is clicking on your ad there must be something appealing about it. In turn, they are probably excited by your ads and willing to follow through with the Call to Action. In addition, if the number of clicks increased then the engagement rate will be higher. Furthermore, Quality Score enhances, the cost per click is lower, and impression increases. The chain reaction of a good CTR can lead to a series of positive results.

Please remember, CTR can measure how many people clicked on your ad. However, it cannot reflect the conversion rate on your landing page, such as people just viewed and completed a form, or contacted your customer service staff online. CTR can tell you how attractive your ad for clicking but if your purpose is conversion rather than views, then CTR cannot tell you a lot.

Let’s suppose an ad has a very high CTR but low conversion rate. The reasons should be that the audience you’re reaching is too broad, or your ad message is not relevant to the landing page. You will obtain a completed picture if you take CTR with other metrics together.

• What is a ‘good’ CTR？

A ‘good’ CTR is affected by many variables and depends on different platforms. For example, 2% CTR is average of AdWords paid search. Anything above it is considered good. Whereas 0.9% CTR is average of Facebook ads. On the other hand, the average CTR will be different in various industries. You need to keep track of the average for the industry you are serving. Meanwhile, the biggest competitor you face is yourself. Try to achieve a higher CTR in your next campaign and break your record.

• Does CTR affect SEO?

Your ranking on search engines depends on the popularity of your website. The page views can reflect how popular your website is. In other words, the higher CTR you get, the more valuable search engines consider it is. As the result, your ranking is higher than others. Search engines also test the engagement of your website, which is about quality and relevance, to determine whether your pages are best suited to the search query. Thus, try to make your website attractive to everyone and enhance your CTR to boost your SEO.

• Better content can dramatically improve your CTR

 

People click on your ads because they think it engaging and interesting, except for the 50% of accidental clicks. High CTR shows they successfully “talked” with the target audience. However, if your CTR is lower, you should improve the phrase, message, or design of your ads, to make them more attractive for your target audience.  Review your higher-performing ads, what kinds of words or slogans do you use? What is the style of your design? Try to repeat and imitate the elements that make your ads work and you may get some better results.

• Keywords, important!

Replicating is not enough, you need to work on keywords, which must be specific. Here is an example, assuming you have a bakery in Auckland, Melbourne and Brisbane, and your target audience is the people who are searching for cupcake service for the special events. The keyword ‘cupcake’ is very broad, but if you use the keyword such as ‘special cupcakes in Brisbane’ or ‘cupcakes service in Auckland’, you will reach the more accurate target audience. By choosing a specific keyword, you may lose some impressions and clicks, but you should achieve a higher CTR because your ad is attracting more qualified traffic at the beginning. In short, try to focus on one strong primary keyword or long-tail keyword but do not go keywords crazy.

• Testing, the way to success

A function of PPC is to test what works and what does not. It is significant to use A/B testing on your ads to figure out how to enhance your CTR. It could be something that seems small, such as adjusting punctuation, using words instead of numbers, or the way of phrasing. Or maybe you need an image that can arouse emotional resonance. Whatever it is, as soon as your test results are certain, make sure to modify your ads.  Then you implement the cycle of publishing and testing them again and again. You can optimize your campaigns and dramatically improve your CTR if you are willing to work hard with a bit of sweat and lots of perseverance.

• Know your target audience

If you want to improve your CTR, you need to start by understanding your audience. Try to stand in their point of view. Imagine how they would describe the product or service they want. Learn their language and use their jargon. Try to dismiss the things that are important for you, but just are not to them. This is not easy, because it means you must sacrifice some of your deep understanding of your business, such as complex number crunching and analysis. Every interaction with customers is an opportunity to learn more about them. Get to know what your ideal customer profile looks like and make sure you take advantage of it at every opportunity.