Are Your Google Ads Click Through Rates Too Low?
If you’re looking to create a successful online marketing strategy, budget for Google Ads. They reach about 246 million unique visitors, a projected 700% ROI and 3.5 billion interactions every day. Google launched the Ads feature 2 years after it became the leading search engine worldwide. Dubbed “Google AdWords” in 2002, the platform rebranded in 2018 and became “Google Ads.”
Google Ads is one of the most efficient ways to drive more traffic to your website, generate more leads and increase sales. Although free organic Google search traffic is great, paid traffic helps you convert 50% more leads than free traffic. What’s more, Google Ads helps businesses achieve a 200% ROI on their ad spend. In fact, it’s one of the most efficient channels for advertising. In fact, because Google has a 71% share of the search engine market, if you want your brand to be found online, you want it to be discovered through Google searches.
So, it’s common sense that Google Ads should be on the top of your online advertising strategies. To help you get the best results from Google Ads and increase your click-through rates (CTR), here’s a brief explaining Google Ads CTR rates, what levels you should expect and tested ways to achieve high CTRs.
What’s a Reasonable CTR Rate for Google Ads?
In Google Ads, you’ll find two platforms, which will place ads via a Search Network or a Display Network.
The Search Network targets prospects who’re looking for something on Google. And because your ad fits their search query, CTRs on this network reach a higher average. Most agencies and online marketers use a 2% benchmark for a targeted ad, but accounts can reach CTRs from 1% to 25%. Despite common belief, low CTRs aren’t always a problem. If you want your ads to show up when someone’s searching a similar or related product or service and drive the prospect to your website, you can expect a lower CTR. Picture, for example, a person searching for an airport pick-up seeing an ad for a luxury concierge transportation service. But, if you want to provide an exact solution for a query, such as a luxury vehicle for a query on premium transportation, then 2% is too low for what you can reach.
On the flip side, the Display Network places ads on websites and mobile apps, which sell ad inventory and other properties that aren’t related to Google search. People who see your ad banners or videos are not always searching for your products or services. They might be seeing your ads because they’re visiting a website which is contextually connected to your keywords. Or you may be just targeting them because they fit your buyer persona’s demographics. In fact, because of the underlying process of display targeting, you should expect CTRs to be lower than on the Search Network. CTRs typically range between 0.1% and 1%.
The Overall Average CTR to Expect from Google Ads
The average CTR you should expect depends on a variety of factors such as the nature of your business, the structure of your Google Ads account and whether you’re performing a branded or unbranded campaign.
Ways to Improve Your CTR Levels
What’s best about CTR rates is that you can easily improve them by implementing a few specific techniques. Although most online marketers worry more about bigger factors, they forget about the basic rules, which are a proven way to improve CTR in Google Ads. So, here are the best practices, which will improve your CTR on your Google Ads campaigns in no time.
Title Capitalization
Although it’s a basic technique, title capitalization in copy guarantees an attractive aesthetic of your ad. The truth is, a headline should really look like a headline, otherwise your ad will give a poor impression to your prospects. If an ad is appealing a use will read it and click if it’s relevant. However, if it’s not properly formatted, it’ll be ignored.
Ad Positioning
Your ad’s position influences its CTR performance. For example, if your ad shows up at the bottom of the third page, your copy could be the best and you’ll still get low CTR. But, if your ad appears on a prime position it’ll reach more than 36% CTR. On the second page, it’ll only reach a 1.50% CTR. So, try to bid for the 1st page. Once you give your ads a chance to be noticed, you can determine the performance of your CTR and how to improve it.
Bidding on Your Own Brand
If you raise the bid and push your ads onto the 1st page, you’re competing with authority brands. Instead, bid on your brand to appear on the 1st page. But this practice will work exclusively for famous brands, which people are familiar with and specifically search for.
Use a Call-to-Action in Your Ad Copy
Encourage your prospects to take a specific action when they read your ad copy. You can add different calls-to-action (CTA) such as “Learn More”, “Buy Now” or “Download” to make your prospects perform an action by clicking on your ad and reaching your website or landing page. CTAs are more attractive and enticing than simple descriptions of your product.
Optimize Your Ad Copy
You should include keywords in your ad copy to help users understand what they’ll find on your website or landing page. Also, because each industry has its specific lingo, include the terminology, which your prospects want to read or are searching for. What’s more, you should use attention-grabbing text, which creates a sense of urgency in your ad copy. Try phrases such as “Only 5 Left” or “For a Limited Period.” And negative keywords can also improve your CTRs and overall ROI of your Google Ads campaigns. If you don’t add negative keywords, your ads will appear on irrelevant queries. For example, use negative keywords such as “cheap” or “free.” Find the search terms, which make your ads show up and add contextual keywords to negative ones.
Organizing Your Ad Campaigns
You can classify your ad campaigns based on different topics. Of course, it’s easy to have an ad group about baseball and include all baseball equipment you offer in that specific ad group. But what if you have New York Yankees and Chicago Cubs apparel? You’d include all of them in one ad group and could mistakenly serve an ad for the Chicago Cubs to a New York Yankees fan. So, carefully optimize for each team, and your CTRs will grow naturally.
Wrapping It Up
Once you notice a strong improvement of your Google Ads’ CTRs and reach a reasonable ROI, you should adjust and test your ad campaign for further improvements. Always be open to new techniques and be persistent with implementing the methods indicated above. By increasing your Google Ads’ CTR, you’ll boost your sales, brand awareness and attract new prospects. In a nutshell, your business’ online presence will become more successful and profitable.
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