Your Click-Through Rate (CTR) in Google Ads is very important if you want your potential audience to purchase from you instead of your clients. A high CTR also plays a big part in bringing down your Cost per Click (CPC) and overall spend.
A higher CTR will help improve your Quality Score (QS) which alone will bring down your CPC. A higher CTR also allows you to outrank your competitors even if they are bidding more than you. Google wants to give its users the best results possible so it’s going to favour Ads with the higher CTRs.
Here are six tips you can improve your Google Ads CTR this year:
Write Compelling Ad Copy
I cannot express enough that you need to spend time writing your Ad Copy. It’s not simply a case of writing any ol’ text so that you can set your campaigns live. And it’s not a case of writing them once and letting them run forever.
Including your Ad Group’s keywords in your Ad Copy is vital to improving your click-through rate. Search for a product yourself – aren’t you more inclined to click on the ad(s) that contain what you’re looking for? On top of this, a strong call to action to entice the user into clicking your ad will improve your success.
Whilst you can do a Google Search yourself to see what some of your competitors are using in their ad copy, the SEMRush tool will give you a more compelling lookg at what they are writing for search terms that you enter.
Effective Display Paths
An effective Display Path is one that includes your keyword(s) where possible. Google allows for 30 characters, separated into two parts, each of 15 characters, with a hyphen in between.
Your Display Path is the text that appears after your domain below your descriptions, as if it were the page name. Generally, sticking in your main keyword/product is recommended here, but you should also consider using product category or location in the first Display Path, whilst other USPs may also be considered, such as “free”, “sale” and “shop”.
Create Single Keyword Ad Groups (SKAGs)
One of the easiest methods to allow you to include your search terms in your Ads is to separate your keywords into Single Keyword Ad Groups, or SKAGs as we call them. This is exactly as it sounds – create an ad group for each of your keywords.
Then you can easily include your keywords in both the Headline, Description and Display Path, depending on the length of the term of course, which will draw more eyeballs to your ads.
Title Capitalisation
You can make your Ads stand out by using title case in the Headlines and Descriptions. Your ads will stand out from the competitors who aren’t using this trick.
It’s very common now that everyone uses title case in the headlines, and whilst some prefer to make the descriptions more natural, tests I have previously run suggest title case in the description also improves the click-through rate.
Use Ad Extensions
Google has a number of Ad Extensions to help you make your Text Ad stand out from the competition. Using the full range of options increases the size of your ad. The bigger your ad the more chance it has of being seen.
Here are the Ad Extensions I virtually use for all of my clients where possible:
- Call Extensions
Adding Call Ad Extensions to your Text Ad makes it easier for users to get in touch. This option allows users to click to call on their mobile device.
Calls can be recorded in Google Ads.
- Callout Extensions
Callout Ad Extensions are statements that can be added to your Text Ads. You can add up to four at a time.
- Image Extensions
Show an image of your product or service or simply your brand logo alongside your ad. As you can imagine, this draws great attention from users. I have been seeing higher click-through rates and conversions since I started running these for my clients since Google Ads adopted them in mid-2021.
- Review Extensions
This Ad Extension differs from star ratings as they work by allowing you to enter a snippet of a review from a verified site, such as Trust Pilot.
- Sitelink Extensions
The Sitelink Ad Extension is an extra line of text when your ad appears in the top three results. They look similar to what Google created for brand name organic search results years earlier.
You may use up to four sitelinks at any one time. You can create more than this and Google will rotate between any four at any one time.
- Structured Snippet Extensions
Structured Snippet Extensions can be created to show product data below your Ad Copy.
They can be created for Amenities, Brands, Courses, Degree Programmes, Featured Hotels, Insurance Coverage, Models, Neighbourhoods,Service Catalogue, Shows and Types.
You can add up to 10 values per snippet.
Run Ad Scheduling
Run reports to see what days of the week and times of days your ads convert best, and most importantly, when they don’t covert at all.
Ad Scheduling allows you to choose when you want to show your ads as well as allowing you to increase or decrease your bids at certain times of the day.
For example, if you’re getting lots of converting visitors between 9-5 then you may decide to increase your bid during these hours in order to show more frequently and/or rank higher. Alternatively, if you’re getting lots of impressions but few clicks and no conversions whilst you’re asleep, you may want to pause your ads during these hours.
Need help increasing your Google Ads CTR? Get in touch today and I will be glad to help.