How to Improve CTR

A specific keyword like "online house search" will yield a higher CTR than "house."

CTR, which stands for click through rate, is a term used by people in the Internet marketing or search engine optimization world to describe the number of times someone actually clicks on a link that is displayed to them. The goal of Internet marketers and website owners is always to increase traffic. Improving the click through rate is an important part of traffic generation, as it helps advertisers to get the most value for advertising effort and money. In the context of Google's AdWords program, a higher CTR also improves your ad rank, providing increasingly better results.

Instructions

1. Avoid targeting ads at generic keywords, such as "cars" or "houses." These have too much competition to make a high CTR easy to attain.

2. Increase the amount that you bid on a given keyword. Bid higher to get your ads to rank higher in the displayed ads, as higher placed ads almost always enjoy more clicks.

3. Include an offer of some kind in the copy of your ad. If people see you are having a sale or special offer, they may be prompted to click through when they normally would not.

4. Target your ads to customers in the right geographic region. If you don't sell products to people in Canada, you certainly don't want your ads displayed to them because each display without a click will lower your overall CTR.

5. Put a strong call to action in each ad that you post. Words like "buy" and "join now" help customers know what you want from them, and prompt them to take action.

Tips & Warnings

• If you are trying to improve clicks on AdSense ads on your own site, make sure you place ads above the fold. Users on the web have a short attention span, so you need them to see your ad right away.

References

• Red Flay: How to Improve Your Click Through Rate (CTR)
• Earners Blog; 13 Smokin' Tips to Increase AdWords CTR; 2008
• Word Stream; Ten Ways to Improve Your AdWords Click-Through Rate
• Search Engine Journal: How to Improve Your CTR on Google AdWords
• Google: AdWords Help
• Quick Online Tips; 15 Effective Tips to Increase Google AdSense CTR; 2005

Resources

• Site-Reference: AdWords: More Than Just an Ad Platform