Click-through rate (CTR) can be measured for most digital marketing channels; however, it is most typically used to track PPC, SEO, paid social, and email campaigns. Since the common goal of all these efforts is to send a person to a certain webpage, CTR works best for them.
Suppose you have a PPC campaign running. You can easily track how many users saw your ad and how many clicked on it. The CTR measure is useful in this case since it allows you to see how well your ad is performing.
However, it’s important to remember that your CTR is not a one-dimensional metric that can be measured in isolation. Other indicators of importance include conversion rate and bounce rate.
HOW IS CTR DETERMINED?
Although most marketing tools calculate your click-through rate, Google Analytics makes it quite simple for you to do on your own. You can calculate your CTR by dividing the number of clicks on your ad by the total number of impressions it received. Your CTR % will be equal to 100 multiplied by your outcome.
Here’s a basic formula for calculating click-through rates:
CTR = (click-throughs / impressions) multiplied by 100.
For instance, if 100 individuals see an online ad and 5 of them click to learn more about the product, the ad has a CTR of 5%.
CTR may be used to assess the effectiveness of pay-per-click (PPC) search results (such as those generated by Google AdWords or other search engines), CTAs on a landing page, or hyperlinks in blog posts and email campaigns.
WHAT INFLUENCES THE CLICK-THROUGH RATE?
RELEVANCE
Make certain that your material is appropriate for the channel and landing page to which it is being posted. A campaign’s landing page should contain the same message as any ads, emails, or other forms of communication associated with it. This is vital not only for your CTRs, but also for your bounce rate and, ultimately, conversions.
ADVERTISEMENT RANK
PPC CTR is also affected by where your ad appears on a page (ad rank). Ad rank is determined by the quality of your ad, its relevance, and the amount you are ready to bid (CPC budget).
DEVICE
Even though you may have little influence over it, the device utilized by a particular user may influence your click-through rate across all channels. Mobile CTRs are generally higher than desktop CTRs. If you are working with a limited budget, you may be able to take advantage of this by narrowing your target audience by device. Although this is not always the case, bear in mind that by limiting your audience depending on device, you may end up missing out on hits and customers.
WHAT IS THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN CTR FOR PPC AND CTR FOR ORGANIC SEARCH?
When using any digital marketing channel, your CTR is measured in the same manner. The way you interpret your CTR statistics, however, may vary based on the channel you are using. Organic CTR, for example, is the proportion of searchers who click on your website from the search engine results page (SERP). Since your clicks are largely affected by where your page ranks on the SERP, an organic CTR may provide you with additional information about where your page ranks.
However, the CTR of a PPC campaign is influenced by other factors such as the message of your ad, the channel via which you distribute your ad, and the audience that your ad is intended for.
WHAT IS A CTR?
When it comes to CTR, there is no magic number. An organic click-through rate in position 1 averages around 30% CTR while the average click-through rate for an email is about 2.50%.
The click-through rate of any marketing channel may be affected by a multitude of variables. By analyzing your click-through rate, you can figure out which content is most appealing to your visitors.
The CTR varies by industry. To figure out what a decent click-through rate would be for your company, check the typical click-through rates in your industry. Once you understand current standards and industry norms, you can start taking measures to increase your CTR and achieve your business’s objectives.
HOW TO INCREASE YOUR CTR
If you are concerned about your CTRs, you can try a variety of strategies to enhance them, including:
1. MAKING USE OF AD EXTENSIONS
According to Google, using ad extensions in PPC campaigns may result in an increase in click-through rate (CTR). Ad extensions provide features such as reviews, locations, site links, and call buttons, to name a few. Since ad extensions take up more real estate on the search engine results page, you’ll be able to capture more of the user’s attention.
2. OPTIMIZE YOUR HEADLINE AND COPY
Use one or two focus keyword(s) in your headline and copy. Appeal to your audience’s emotions and needs; solve a problem for them.
3. MAKE USE OF SYMBOLS AND IMAGES
To capture users’ attention, use symbols or emojis in the ad title or email subject line. Including unusual characters in your content may help draw readers’ attention to your copy. Using graphics to boost CTR is also a fantastic way to do this. Different kinds of pictures may work better than others depending on the marketing medium. Conduct A/B testing with various kinds of images to see what works best for your business.
4. MAKE USE OF CTAS
CTAs are used to inform consumers of what you want them to do. Your call to action should contain action verbs (such as “Buy,” “Call,” “Shop,” and so on) as well as a feeling of urgency (such as “Buy Now.”). Create a landing page that utilizes the same language as your call-to-action in your advertisement.
5. FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH YOUR AUDIENCE
Ensure that your advertisement is viewed by people who are most likely to be interested in your offer so that you may earn more clicks with fewer views in the future. The more you know about your target audience, the more precise your ad targeting can be.
Furthermore, the Organic Traffic Insights feature enables you to view the most important data from Google Search Console and Google Analytics on a single dashboard, which can be very handy. Insights about how your existing audience discovers and interacts with your website may be gleaned from your organic traffic, and this information may be utilized to help you create more successful advertising campaigns in the future.
6. A/B TEST
Although testing may seem obvious, it is critical to ensure that you have considered all of the variables that may lead to poor conversion rates. Testing should be conducted at every stage of the user experience, including the text and landing pages that you employ.
Try using an A/B testing tool to make A/B testing more convenient. Such tools have been created especially for SEO experts and allow you to rapidly identify which improvements result in increased organic growth.
7. DO YOUR KEYWORD RESEARCH
The first step in preparing to launch a PPC or sponsored social campaign is to do keyword research and analysis. Knowing which keywords to target may enable you to save time and money that would have been wasted otherwise due to bad keyword selection.
Utilize a keyword planner when running PPC advertisements to arrange your target keywords for Google Ads and PPC campaigns. Configure ad groups, automatically create cross-group negative keywords for your campaigns and save the plan to a file for future Google Ads integration. If you’re targeting a highly competitive keyword, it’ll be more difficult to get a position with a high click-through rate. Similarly, if you pick a keyword with low search traffic, it will be more difficult to get sufficient clicks.
8. MARKET TO YOUR IDEAL CUSTOMERS FOR BETTER CONVERSIONS (NOT JUST A HIGH CTR)
Click-throughs and conversions are not the same things: CTR tells you the percentage of people who click, but not the total number of people who convert (e.g., made a purchase or signed up for your newsletter). In other words, an online ad can have a high CTR with a very low conversion rate, leaving you with a high cost per conversion (CPC).
So, how can you ensure that individuals who click on your adverts continue their customer journey until they convert? The answer involves concentrating on your ideal customers.
Ideal customers are individuals who will get the most out of what you have to offer. If you treat them well, they are likely to return repeatedly, creating the core of your customer base. Therefore, you’ll obviously want to target them with your advertising. You can find out who these individuals are and what they want from your business by doing some research and creating user personas.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Numerous factors may affect the probability of someone clicking on your content or advertising, and therefore your CTR. While CTR is a valuable statistic, it should not be used in isolation as the only performance metric. The number of times your campaign is displayed to someone (impressions), the number of times they click (CTR), the amount of time that they stay on the page (bounce rate), and the number of times they complete a purchase (CVR) are four metrics you can track on a regular basis to determine the success of your campaign.