Whether you use paid advertising strategies or organic SEO, you’d want to know how many of those who have seen your ads actually click on them. The percentage of ad viewers that click on your link is known as CTR or click-through rate. But what is CTR precisely, and why is it important?
Why Should You Care About CTR?
According to Google, click-through rate is an important metric in understanding how effective your current keywords and present ads are.
By knowing your click-through rate, you will know whether your ads are actually doing their job in leading search, social, and email users into your site.
What you want, of course, is for your advertising money to be put to good use. The higher the CTR, the higher is the probability of your ads’ relevance and usefulness.
So, how do you calculate for an ad’s click-through rate?
To calculate CTR, you need to divide the number of ad clicks to the number of your ad’s impressions (the number of times your ad is seen by your target audience). For example, your ad generated 10 clicks and had 200 impressions:
10 (clicks)/ 200 (impressions) = 5% CTR
Take note, however, that click-through rate is different from conversion rate. Click-through rate or CTR measures the number of clicks for a number of impressions. Conversion rate refers to the percentage of actual sales from ad clicks.
What is an Ideal CTR?
To get to an ideal number of your click-through rates, it will be helpful first to know the average rates across ad formats and placements.
According to Smart Insights, display ad click-through rate on average is 0.05%, across various ad formats and placements in 2020.
Typical Facebook news feed CTR is at 1.11% in 2020, marking a decrease from the 2019 rate of 1.48%. The clicthrough rate on average for Facebook stories stands at 0.79%. Instagram feed CTR, on the other hand, is at 0.22%.
Factors That Affect Click-Through Rates
But how does one ensure an effective CTR? What are some of the factors that affect click-through rates?
One factor is enticing ad copy. Whether you’re measuring the click-through rate of your advertisement or an email marketing strategy, these will require teaser texts by way of descriptions, calls-to-action, or email subject headlines. Lackluster copy may not only turn customers away but also deter them for good.
According to Sprout Social, click-through rates are also affected by imagery, keyword use, and unique ad positioning. Just by tweaking the images that you use for visual advertisement or the keywords that appeal to certain types of audiences, it’s possible to see an improvement in CTR over time.
Ways to Improve CTR
If you don’t see any improvement in your click-through rates just yet, don’t fret. There are a few ways you can increase and improve CTR the organic way —- naturally and ethically.
As already mentioned above, writing appealing ad copy is one. Not only will you need to focus on actual ad copy but on meta descriptions as well. Well-written description tags, or the text search users see on the SERP (Search Engine Results Pages) before they click on your website link, can lure visitors in, thus increasing your CTRs.
Specific calls-to-action, as opposed to the more generic ones, also play a role. You can go for CTAs that highlight a certain benefit or return to your customers. An example is this: “Click here for a free download”. When search users see that they are not being demanded to click on something, but that they also get something in exchange, then click-through rates could significantly improve.
Adjusting keyword usage is also crucial in seeing improvement on your CTRs. Even though single-word keywords are still important, long-tail keywords do have their opportunities.
Engaged users will most likely use specific, more localized keywords as opposed to generic, single keywords. And for users who are ready to buy, it’s common for them to mostly use keyword phrases.
When you target these long-tail keywords as well, you are making your links and texts more enticing to your prospects, thereby potentially increasing click-through rates. There are many other ways to improve click-through rates, and this will depend on which types of ads you want to position, the audience you are speaking to, and the channels you plan to use for marketing or advertising.
To Wrap It Up
CTR or click-through rate is an important digital marketing tool in understanding whether or not your ads are working to your advantage. However, it does not actually measure the sales or conversions you have had through ad clicks.
It’s always helpful to check from time to time the CTR of your ads, social media posts, or even emails. This will allow you to get an insight of what your audience wants, what entices them, and, ultimately, how to serve them better.