How To Improve CTR Of Your Google Adwords!

As the Click-Through-Rate (CTR) goes up, your ad position improves and Cost-Per-Click (CPC) goes down.
Here are some simple tips to improve your CTR

1) Specific matching along with broad matching

Generally when you want to advertise for, say, online Games, you put online Games in the keywords list. I suggest that you all of these in the keywords list –

[online Games]
“online games”
online games

This way, when a searcher types just online games, the click is credited to the 1st keyword. If the searcher types a keyphrase including online games in that order but as part of a bigger term like free online games, it is credited to the 2nd keyword. And if both online and games are present but not together and in that order, like online singles games, it is credited to the 3rd keyword. This improves the CTR for certain specific keywords and helps to lower your CPC and also improves your ad position.

2) Use a variable title

Did you know that your clickthrough rate (CTR) goes up when the searcher sees his keywords (that he searched for) in your ad? This is because Google shows these words in bold.

But you don’t know what term this searcher has used. So how can you put the term in the title? Try this.

Put this string in the title field on the Adwords screen –

{KeyWord: Default Title} where you replace “Default Title” with a suitable text. Now Google will show the search term as the ad title if the searched term fits within the 25 character limit and your default title if the search term won’t fit.

Example – say you use {KeyWord: Online Games} as the title and games as the keyword.

If someone searches for games help, the shown title will be Games Help. However if one searches for free online games resources, Google will show Online Games because the search term won’t fit in the title space (25 characters).

Did you notice the capitalization? If you use Keyword, then only the first word would be capitalized. If you use keyword, all the letters will be in small case.

This tip alone can boost your CTR by 157% or more.

3) Variable destination URL

Did you know that Google now allows variable destination URLs? Why do you need that? Variable destination URL can help you identify the terms that the searchers are using and you can alter your page content to suit those terms for a much better conversion.

 

 

Tips to improve a campaign’s performance

1. Having too many keywords in a single Ad Group.

Since an Ad Group is Google’s lowest level of segmentation, it should ideally be used to express a single idea or theme. Generally, I find that the more specific, the better. Typically, I find that any Ad Group with more than 50 keywords is probably too broad. The exception would be Ad Groups with a large number of misspellings.

More specific Ad Groups do mean more management — but it will also mean a much better ROI.

2. Using “Broad Match” without negative keywords.

The default setting for keywords in Google is Broad Match. That means that any search phrase that contains your keyword can trigger your ads, whether they are relevant or not. I recall working on a campaign for a printing company, and finding that its ads describing silk-screen t-shirt printing were showing up for the very popular search phrase — wet t-shirt. Setting “wet” as a negative phrase was a simple fix.

3. Not understanding the difference between “Search Match” and “Content Match” (and setting single campaigns for both).

Google does a nice job of allowing a site to determine where its ads will show. But many AdWords advertisers use these settings indiscriminately. I would suggest that campaigns be set to either “Search Match” or “Content Match” (but not both). The simple reason is the ads that will appeal to individuals actively searching on a phrase will be quite different from the types of ads that will appeal for browsers who see “Content Match” ads.

4. Bidding for Position No.1.

I often see new AdWords advertisers over paying for clicks because they are pursuing the No. 1 position. I think they assume that being in position No. 1 is always best‚, but I think when you consider the additional cost for position No.1, often times positions 2-5 are a much better value.

5. Not testing different ads.

I’m a huge fan of split testing — both on websites and for ads within Google AdWords. New advertisers should create two or three ads for each Ad Group, and after about a month, take a look which ad has the best cost-per-conversion. Ad split testing should be a continual process. One tip I like to use is to pause my old ads rather than delete them, that way I can see what ads I’ve already tested.

6. Not tracking conversions.

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This might be the cardinal sin of Google AdWords. Conversion tracking might take a little bit of effort to set up, but it is a critical step in identifying which keywords create conversions, and which ones just create clicks.