How to Increase Click-Through Rate on Google AdWords?

Want to boost your AdWords click-through rate (CTR)? Everybody does, but the challenge lies in finding the right ways to increase CTR. The process of knowing how to increase click through rate on Google AdWords can be quite frustrating.

A lot of webmasters suggest focusing on ad copy optimization techniques, but that can take you only so far. Eventually, you will need to implement advanced ways to enhance your CTR.

If you want to find surefire ways to improve CTR of your AdWords ads, the following might help. Take a look.


Know your audience

How can you even begin writing an ad copy or boosting it if you don’t know your audience? So, you need to first get to know your audience and know what you are dealing with. The approach need to be different for audience of different demographics. Also, this is important because getting any kind of traffic is not going to help you. You need to only get the right kind of traffic as that is the only thing that will increase your CTR and fetch your business success.

Make use of keywords in Ad text

Ad contents featuring the most important keywords are likely to be clicked more because it makes the copy appear relevant to what the users are looking for. However, this does not mean that you use keywords everywhere in your ad copies. Overusing keywords will negatively affect the CTR and make your ads appear superfluous.

The right approach of making use of keywords would be to use it once in the description text and one in the headline. In case it is impossible to use the exact keyword in both the places, you can use synonyms.

Don’t use broad match keyword

Broad match keywords activate ads for different search terms and you may not be targeting all of them. Due to this, your ad copies’ relevance for the actual search terms of the users might suffer, resulting in negative impact of your CTR.

The smart approach would be to find a balance between the relevance and the targeted keyword. It is thought to be better if you make use of a combination of exact match and phrase or exact match and modified broad types of keywords. This will help you to be relevant, write more targeted ad copies and save from irrelevant clicks. Improved CTR is the immediate result that you will see.

Include keywords in display URL

Your click-through rate will improve dramatically if you can convince users, via your ads the relevancy of your landing pages. The use of the keyword in URL convinces the users that the landing page is exactly what they are looking for and therefore, they are most likely going to click on the ad.

Use countdown timers to create a sense of urgency

Do you know why Snapchat or Instagram stories such a rage? It is because they disappear within a few hours! This leads to creating a sense of urgency and people always refresh their feed to make sure that they did not miss any latest happenings. The same psychology is applied with the countdown timer. You simply have to add a snippet in your description or headline and put a start and end date. Such ad copies are proven to not just increase the CTR, but also conversions from traffic.

Increase visibility by using ad extensions

When you get a high CTR, Google enjoys it too because when a user clicks on your ad, the search giant gets paid. It’s basically a win-win situation. So, it is basically in the best interest of the search giant that your CTR is higher. So, the search engine offers you with some help in the form of ad extensions.

You can make use of ad extensions to enhance your CTR. There are a number of different types of ad extensions, but the most popular one being review extensions. These extensions became available quite recently and recommended by Google to help increase CTR.

When you get a review from a trustworthy, credible source, it will make your users trust your business. As per research, review extensions can boost your CTR for as much as 66%.

Employ device modifiers

Have you ever come across a situation when your ads got more exposure on mobile devices as compared to desktops? The reason for this is quite obvious. Mobile searches are increasingly outperforming desktop searches, and therefore, if you see such a phenomenon happening with your ads, it is quite normal. However, this is not a clear indicator that mobile devices will provide you with better CTR or better performance.

In order to increase CTR, what you can do is make use of device modifiers and adjust your bids on the basis of the performance. This will allow you to maintain control over how your AdWords ads trigger on various devices.

Begin with a question

Your ad has to stand out if you want to increase your CTR. For that, you need to impress the audience. You can do so by starting your ad with a question. Make sure to use a question that will immediately grab the attention of your target audience. This will help to improve your CTR.

Bid higher to improve the position of your ad

You must remember that any technique aiming to enhance your ads’ differential view in the Google’s search results will work better when your competitors are not doing the same thing. In case they are doing the same, it will become a challenge and very difficult for you. So, if you already have everything in place, you might want to consider escalating your bids. This will instantly help to magnify your chances of getting more CTR since the position of your ad will improve. However, you must be prepared to incur more expenses as increasing the bids will cost you.

Analyze performance on search partners

The search partner websites trigger your ads by default unless you have opted out of it. In general, these websites gather a lot more impressions and fewer clicks, and hence, usually have a negative effect on your CTR.

But, that is not always the case. There are instances where search partners have performed better in some of the campaigns. So, it will be better if you were sure of it. Make sure to check this before you opt out of it. In order to check this, you can segment your impression, click, CTR and so on by network type. This will tell you the performance of your search partners.

A thorough analysis will give you a clear idea of what is lacking and what needs to be done in order to get more click-through rate on your AdWords ads.

Consider using negative keywords

You can consider making use of negative keywords proactively so that your actual keywords become much more relevant to your users. Your ads will trigger for the relevant search terms. As you must already know, where your relevance is better, your CTR is bound to be higher.

Put to use number or symbols in your ad headline

Believe it or not, including numbers or symbols in your ad headlines will give you a competitive edge over others. It will help to catch the attention of your targeted market much more quickly and easily, and therefore, help you to boost your click-through rate.

In a sea of text, number or symbols will pop out and that will be the first to grab attention. But, you need to make sure that the symbols or numbers you are using are relevant. After all, you cannot get a click if your ad goes unnoticed. So, give it a try and see how that works out for your ads. 

Implement a call to action

The presence of call to action or CTA is extremely vital in your website’s content, articles, blog posts and even AdWords ads. Research shows that the human mind actually waits for a CTA from your PPC ad. The Internet users expect to be directed towards taking an action after they have gone through an ad. Once a user has viewed your ad, they will want to know the next step.

Simply put, readers are curious and you can tap into that curiosity by using a compelling call to action. Some examples of CTA would be click here, read more, find out more, download the brochure, get yours today and so on. You have full freedom to think-out-of-the-box when it comes to CTA because this should be unique and hard-hitting.

Be very creative with your ad copy

Keeping all the technical aspects aside, creativity is what everything actually comes down to. You need to be creative to stand out from the rest and have the limelight on your ad. Your competitors might all have the same thing to say as you, but what matters is the presentation. You need to come up with distinct, fun and thought-worthy ways to say the same thing to your audience so that they take notice of you and ignore your competitors’ ads. You need to think beyond keyword and get into the psyche of your audience. Brainstorming sessions are particularly useful in this case as it will help you to come out with ingenious ideas.

So, if you were wondering how to increase click through rate on Google AdWords, the above-mentioned CTR optimization tactics should help you. It will help to increase your CTR and eventually, bring the cost of running AdWords ads down. In case you are still unsure, it might be better to discuss the opportunities of your AdWords ads with a professional.


Author bio: Lokesh Aryan is the founder & CEO of Lokesh Aryan Digital. He is a Professional Blogger at lokesharyan.com, Influencer, and Author of On-Page SEO - Everything You Need to Know. He is currently working as Freelance SEO & Content Writer. He is Google Analytics Certified and SEMrush SEO Certified and having experience in high competitive niches for B2B and B2C clients. SEO is his core competency and he has a track record of getting clients the results they want. He likes writing, reading novels, playing cricket & volleyball. He also loves music, sings and plays guitar.

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