What is a Good Click-Through Rate (CTR)?

A high click-through rate (CTR) on your PPC campaigns is essential for success. A good CTR can help you get more leads, increase conversions and boost sales.

But what exactly constitutes a "good" click-through rate?

In this blog post, I will explore the factors that affect CTR and provide some benchmarks to help you determine if your campaigns concerning CTR are performing well or need improvement.

I'll also discuss ways to improve your CTR so that you can maximise the return on investment of your digital marketing efforts and help you better understand how to measure and optimise your campaigns for improved performance.

1. What is the Definition of Click-Through Rate (CTR)

Click-through rate (or CTR for short) is a key metric used in digital marketing, like online advertising. It measures the percentage of users who click on your ad to the total number of views (impressions) it generates.

This allows you to track the percentage of people taking action after seeing your ad.

For a more detailed example, check out my other blog: What's Click Through Rate and Why Should You Pay Attention to It?

2. Some Common Factors that Impact an Ad CTR

Quality of the Ad Copy

The quality of the ad copy a person sees is a crucial factor in how your click-through rate will perform. If your ad copy is unappealing or irrelevant to the search that person has just conducted, it's unlikely your ad will be clicked on. This means the rate you accumulate clicks will be low, equalling a low CTR.

Relevance of the Content

I mentioned it above, but it needs its own point because it's so important! The relevancy of your ad copy to the search that the person typed into the search engine is everything here.

For example, imagine you typed into Google "car repair service", and within the first ad, all the ad copy referenced buying a new car and does not mention anything about repairs. Although the advertisement may offer car repairs, they are let down by the ad not being specific enough for the person searching.

Then imagine there is another ad covering repairs – which one will the searcher click on?  

Placement and Targeting of Ads

This can be related to ad rank, in that you may not be bidding high enough to get your ad displayed within the top results, so you are not likely to get that many clicks.

Typically display ads are passive ads that are displayed alongside (hopefully) relevant content. It can also refer to the placements your display ads are being shown. However, if you have chosen to display your ads within irrelevant blogs or websites, then you may be targeting the wrong people and will get a low CTR.

3. Calculating CTR

The formula for calculating the click-through rate is as follows:

CTR = (Total Clicks / Total Impressions) x 100

This formula provides a metric that compares click-through rates between campaigns, channels, and even different ads within the same campaign.

This helps you better understand which techniques are working effectively.

4. Benchmarks: What is a Good Click-Through Rate (CTR)?

It's challenging to provide an exact number of the specific CTR you should be achieving as all businesses that are advertising are very different.

You may think the higher the CTR the better - well, yes and no.

It's also important to consider that a really high CTR with a low conversion rate could indicate poor traffic.

But as a rule of thumb, you want to aim for at least 4% CTR as a minimum.

5. What are the Benefits of Having a High CTR?

A good click-through rate (CTR) can benefit your business in numerous ways.

Firstly, it can help you increase leads and conversions as more people click on your advertisement, increasing the chances of them taking the desired action.

Secondly, a higher click-through rate can boost brand awareness and visibility as more users are exposed to your ads.

Thirdly, CTR helps you distinguish between successful and unsuccessful campaigns so you know what works best for you in terms of your overall marketing strategy. 

Moreover, having a high click-through rate will give you insights into what resonates with your target audience and allow you better to optimise the content and display of your ads.

This will ultimately drive down costs and ensure your budget is spent where it should.

Furthermore, this rate gives you an idea of how effective different types of content are when used in an ad campaign, such as images versus text-based content or videos instead of static images.

6. Tips for Improving CTR

• Use clear and brief copy: Keep your ad copy short and sweet so that users know exactly what they get when clicking on an ad.

• Relevancy, relevancy, relevancy: This is so important. Check your keywords in your ad group. Are they present in your ad copy? If not, try redoing your ad copy to include them and increase the relevancy.

• Ensure your ads are optimised for mobile: More and more people are using mobile devices to search, so it's essential to ensure your ads are optimised for these platforms.

• Utilise targeting options: With modern ad platforms, you can target specific audiences based on their interests, behaviours, or other factors. Utilise this to ensure your ads are being displayed to the right people.

• Test different variations: Create multiple versions of your ad and test them against each other to see which one performs better. This will give you a better understanding of the best click-through rate for your campaigns.

Overall, click-through rate (CTR) is a great metric to track to understand how successful your ad campaigns are. It helps you measure the effectiveness of different types of content and targeting options to optimise for better results.

With these tips in mind, hopefully, you'll be able to improve your CTR and drive more leads and conversions from your ads. Keep testing out new variations of your ads to see what works best for each campaign – this will help you get the most bang for your buck!

If you would like help understanding your click-through rate or other aspects of PPC advertising, then why not contact me?

Call me on 01392 927 520 or complete this form to learn how I can help you use PPC to grow your business.