When it comes to marketing, KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are important.
Without KPIs, it’s difficult to know if our marketing methods are working. Are they actually yielding the desired results?
Without KPIs, everything becomes a guessing game.
One essential KPI for conversion copywriters is Click Thru Rate (CTR).
When marketers use the term Click Thru Rate (CTR), they’re often talking about CTR for PPC (pay-per-click) ads.
In this post, we’ll be focusing on CTR for ads.
You can read this post if you want to learn more about email CTR.
Click Thru Rate is usually written as a percentage.
There’s an easy way to calculate the Click Thru Rate for an ad or web page.
The CTR is calculated by taking the total number of clicks on an ad, dividing it by the total number of impressions of the ad, then multiplying that number by 100.
Here’s an example for you.
Let’s say an ad gets 1,200 views (impressions), and 100 people click the CTA in the ad.
To calculate the CTR for that ad, we would divide 20 by 1,200, then multiply by 100.
(100 clicks / 1,200 impressions ) x 100 = 8.3%
8.3% would be a ridiculously impressive CTR, by the way! But we’ll talk more about average CTR and normal CTRs later.
As I mentioned earlier, the CTR is an important KPI when assessing the effectiveness of an ad.
The goal of an ad is to get the viewer to click, so if you have a low CTR, your ad is not achieving its objective.
But, Anna, how do we determine if a CTR is low?
That’s a great question. And the answer is ‘averages.’
While averages don’t apply to everyone, they often give us an idea of what is standard or acceptable.
For comparison, it’s good to know what the CTR averages are by ad type and industry.
So let’s dive in.
There’s no such thing as a single average CTR.
The number will vary by ad type and by industry.
Here’s some insight into CTR averages based on a few popular PPC ad types.
When it comes to Google ads, search ads consistently have higher CTR averages than Google Display Network (GDN) ads.
“Across all industries, the average CTR for a [Google] search ad is 1.91% and 0.35% for a [Google] display ad.”
Hubspot blog
The Dating and Personals category enjoys the highest average CTR for Google search ads — 3.40% — while Industrial Services has the lowest at 1.40%.
The Pets and Animals category enjoys the highest CTR average for Facebook ads — 1.68%, while Science has the lowest at 0.45%. The overall average CTR across industries for Facebook ads is 0.89%.
Amazon is an eCommerce marketplace, so the CTR data available for the platform is specific to that industry.
Based on data from AdBadger, an Amazon PPC ad management software company, Amazon’s CTR average is 0.41%.
There may be several reasons why an ad performs poorly and has a low CTR. And it’s not always about the copy.
Three of the most common reasons for a low CTR are:
Since we’re copywriters, the advice we share in this post will focus on improving your ad copy to improve your CTR.
Effective conversion copywriting can go a long way in improving the CTR of your PPC ad campaign.
This is rule number one for conversion copywriting. And it’s critical for creating ads that convert.
Knowing your target audience — their challenges, desires, fears, and wants — makes it easier to write copy that connects. And the best way to do this is to do your research before you start writing.
Clarity is important, especially with PPC ad copy.
You only have a limited time to grab your prospects’ attention and convince them to click your ad. So aim for clarity.
Here are a few tips from Joanna Wiebe on how to improve clarity:
This Tutorial Tuesday training gives some easy-to-action tips. Implement them to improve your ad copy and increase your CTR.
Armed with these 2 tips, you’re ready to work on improving your ad copy.
And better ad copy can go a long way in improving your CTR.
The Conversion Copywriting 101 course from Copyhackers is a solid introduction to conversion copywriting. There’s also a lesson on writing ads, so it’s a great resource to help improve your ad copy.
Sign up here to get started for free.
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