Google AdWords is deemed to be one of the most important implements in the digital marketing toolshed.  The metrics that it provides can give you an immense understanding of the performance of your ads, target market as well as website. Moreover, Google tends to charge you a lesser amount per click if you have a higher Click-Through-Rate (CTR). CTR, which happens to be one of the metrics is expressed as a percentage of ad’s clicks divided by its impressions. A higher CTR can also increase your Quality Score and give you a higher Ad Rank, as it tells Google that your Ad is resonating with users. Here are 5 out of the box ways to improve your AdWords CTR:

1.) Make sure your Keywords are Narrowed-Down and Relevant:

 Sifting out your keywords will improve your CTR will, in turn, reduce your Cost Per Conversion (CPC). The following mentions a few steps you can take to do this:

Reduce & Group Similar Keywords:

Your ad copy should match its keyword and this can be done by targeting your ads to specific keywords and grouping them accordingly.  For instance, if you’re writing ads for dresses, you can break up your ads into different keywords such as ‘cocktail dresses’, ‘summer dresses’, ‘gowns’ etc. in different ad groups rather than targeting those keywords under one generic dress ad. You should make separate ad groups for each of these dress categories and make varying ad copies for each one of them.  By doing this, you are being more relevant and attempting to sub-group your keywords.

Make use of Negative Keywords:

The negative keywords feature becomes useful when you do not want your ad to show up at certain google searches. This is done to stop your ad from showing to an audience that does not need your product at that moment in time. You can use the Keyword Planner to help you find negative keywords for your list so that your ads are more filtered. From them, you can get ideas about which words are not in line with your product offering and put them in your negative keyword list so that your ad does not show up in instances where it is not actually being searched for. So if we take the example of ‘dresses’, type it on google keyword planner, we will get relevant keyword search results. We might get results such as, “prom dresses’ or ‘dresses for rent’ etc. if you are a company selling casual dresses for sale, you would not want your ad to show up when people are searching for dresses for rent or even prom dresses. Hence you would put ‘rent’ and ‘prom’ as part of your negative keyword list.

Include target keywords in the Ad Copy you create:

It sounds pretty straightforward. Make sure the keywords you are bidding for are present in your ad heading, copy or in the display URL, or your CTR will plummet and you would end up paying more than you actually need to.

2.)  Title Case and Symbols improves CTR.

To improve your CTR, incorporate the use of title case in your ad copy. Make sure you use uppercase letters when you need to, along with symbols such as exclamation marks, currency signs or even the discount symbol if required. According to Acquisio, such symbols may appeal more to your target audience and thus increase clicks.

Photo Credits: Acquisio

Acquisio also gives the example demonstrated in the picture above. They stated that advertisement four or five would attain more clicks as it involves symbols such as % and ® which could potentially appeal to searchers.

3.) Use ad extensions to their full potential

 Never underestimate the power of ad extensions such as Sitelinks, Callouts, location, affiliate, price and more, as they allow you to reveal more information on your ads. With ad extensions, CTR may increase because you can input information such as a direct phone number for searchers to call, a map with your business’ location and buttons that link to different pages in your site, to name a few. This serves to be very appealing to potential leads as it provides them with a sense of direction. Not only this, ad extensions allow your ad to take up a greater space on the search results which entails that there is a higher chance of your ad being sought after.

Photo Credit: Clicteq

4.) Add Call to Actions (CTAs)

Right now you might be thinking that CTAs refer to phrases such as ‘Buy Now!’, ‘50% off, Only Today’ or ‘Check out our offers, Save big now!’

Although this might be true, CTA does not always have to be a sales push, unless you have tested it and it works for you. Instead, you can be creative and try something different. For instance, Wordstream exposed an example of a wedding planning company’s ad in Boston and their unusual approach to using CTA. In the ad copy, the company uses “Imagine the spectacular setting of the Boston Public Library…”’: a story-telling, unique and eye-catching phrase instead of the banal ‘buy now/save now’.

 5.) Review your bids to maintain/boost CTR

To ensure that you remain on the first page of relevant Google Searches, keep on reviewing on how much you have bid. Do not bid too less on keywords as it can reduce your ad’s CTR. Take into account and research on other factors, such as, time of day/week whereby your target audience is more engaged, geographic locations which would relate to your offering and many more. Moreover, be wary of your competitors and review the way in which they write their ad copies.

Nikita Nathani