How to improve your click-through rate or CTR?
The percentage of clicks or CTR, for its acronym in English (Click Through Rate), is the number of clicks achieved by a link or publication, with respect to the number of impressions or times it was shown to users. Next I will show you 3 variables to improve the impact of the click-through rate in your paid search campaigns:
- Choice of keywords and match type
Keywords and their respective match types are the variables that most influence CTR. Once the piece is published in a search engine, the copy or ad copy, contributes substantially to the performance of your campaigns.
At this point it is important to keep in mind that if your ad groups have a lot of broad match keywords, it is quite likely that you will receive queries that are not related to your bid.
Google's keyword suggestion tool is very useful for getting term matches, however I recommend that you avoid using the automatic configuration.
When using the tool, be sure to click the key at the top to apply the correct match type. As a reminder, the signals for each type of match are as follows:
- Wide modified: +
- Sentence: "
- Exactly: [
Choice of keywords and their respective variants
To begin with, it is important to determine if the product or service being offered can be described in a way that generates inquiries from unrelated industries.
For example, a mountain tourism company that offers Guide service in the Sierra would hardly be interested in receiving traffic from people looking for Saws to cut wood. For this reason, this advertiser would like to obtain an exact match for this term.
Use "negative" keywords to block queries that could be generated due to less restrictive match types, as well as words with other meanings. Depending on your budget, you can decide if you include those terms that can bring you clicks from other categories.
If the volume of interactions is your main objective, I recommend that you choose your terms with certain precautions. Keep in mind that the keywords that make up your ad groups should have a high probability of generating queries.
Similarly, I recommend using keywords of more than three words. Keep in mind that if your industry has a low search volume, you can use broader terms, always taking into account a list of "negative" keywords to exclude irrelevant results.
- Ad copy
The text of an advertising piece, also known as the copy, is one of the most important resources when communicating a message.
Three types of headlines, two descriptions, and a growing arsenal of extensions are available from Google on this resource to inspire our prospects to engage with our brand.
However, sometimes we find texts that ignore the good use of this resource and the tools that are available to improve it.
There are two reasons why the copy is sometimes more important than the headline in a Google ad:
- On mobile devices, only 2 of the 3 headlines allowed by the platform are shown. However, the 2 descriptions do not suffer any reduction.
- The descriptions reinforce the message of the ads and it is estimated that a larger piece generates a higher CTR.
On top of everything, and although it may seem obvious, ads that include all the headings and descriptions get a higher CTR.
The importance of copy in the image
The call to action or CTA (Call To Action), is one of the most important attributes of a good ad. Depending on the objective that your ad wants to achieve, the messages can be the following:
- To call
- Learn more
- Try
- Talk to an advisor
- to subscribe
- Pay in
- Get a demo
Search ads are designed to get users to take action. For this reason, it is recommended that in your Google ads, you use the second title to add your call to action.
Keep in mind that you can also start your ad with the call to action message, however I recommend that you try both options to find the right message for your audience.
Keep in mind that overly repetitive language can damage your CTR, so using the same word multiple times can sound unnatural. Remember to adapt your message so that your audience finds it as human as possible.
- Audience targeting and targeting
Defining who sees your ad, on what devices, their physical location, reception hours and many other variables are essential to obtain a good CTR.
For example, if you create an ad for two different cities, it is very likely that the customs of both audiences will be different. If this happens, it is very likely that your ad does not fulfill the desired action and you have low CTR.
To avoid this situation, Google allows location targeting to be determined at the campaign level, so you may need to limit your campaigns based on your top markets.
Once you have data on which structures serve you best, you can expand to other markets, modify your ads and keywords based on local search parameters.
This criterion can also be applied to the time slot in which your ads are displayed. At this particular point, I recommend that when your business is out of service hours, you change the call to action of your ads, so that your potential customers are not asked to take an action that they cannot complete.
In conclusion, there are multiple ways to improve the interaction of your audience with your publications. Keep in mind that both in the choice of your keywords, as in the correct use of copy and even in the segmentation of your audience, there are tools with which you can attract the attention of your audience and thus improve your CTR.
