CTR percentage

[Peter]

This is probably going to be a hard question to answer, but what sort of CTR should be expected or achieved on a PPC campaign?

We previously used a recognised partner to do our PPC, however we have taken it in-house and have managed to double the CTR.

We have also adjusted some adverts and gotten a better CTR from original versions by changing the ad.

So what is a common target value that people work to, given the ad is seen, it matches your target and keyword.

Our campaigns are rating between 0.9% for a very competitve keyword up to 12% for a more targeted phrase.

The low percentage campaign is for a highly competivite term, that encompasses both low quailty products to very high quality products, that sadly is either a 1 or 2 keyword pharse.

So I guess that leads to a second question, are adwords for single word "common" terms a waste of time, and is it better to concentrate on niche words.

Regarding bounce rates, it varies, some have high bounce rates because the landing page is not designed for a specifc keyword. I can work on that, however at the moment I want to know if I should target 5, 10, 15 or 50% CTR i.e. optimise the advert to achieve a certain CTR.

Yes I realise conversions matter too.

[Katt]

I think 12% is a very good CTR. You're not going to get much better without using very specific long-tail keywords. I've never seen or heard of a 50% CTR - if anyone has, I'd like to hear how, and hear the bounce rates as well.

I shudder to think about using a single word - I would imagine the CTR is very low and the bounce rate is very high no matter how well you optimize the ad and the landing page. Just seems like a waste of time and money.

[jbsmith]

I like to shoot for 3-5% with the longer-tail keywords coming in at higher CTR's than the more general keywords for sure.

When I launch a new campaign with highly targeted keywords, 1% is my first few day target, then continually adjust the ads until I approach the 3-5% range. Have had some in the 10% range, but not many.

Jeff

[The Leader]

6 to 8% is pretty good without paying too much!

[jayparker90]

CTR is what is the most important part needed in google adwords
i have noticed that my CTR's are always in the range of 10%
which would need long keywords and more bid rates

[Peter]

Hi again, we have been adjusting the ads a bit again. I have come to the opinion that the CTR on the advert is going to be low for this competitive keyword, however what we are doing instead is focusing on reducing the bounce rate.

[freeleads2]

Do you really want the highest clickthrough ratio? Who is clicking through? Sometimes you are better putting your price or qualifying information in the ad so that only qualified people clickthrough. Google does not care if your prospects are qualified they just want people to click. I have had very targetted campaigns banned from Google because the clickthrough ratio was too low. Of course, they never tell you that they say that you keywords are of low quality. But if your site is a site about dog food and nothing but dog food and your keyword is dog food and they give you a quality score of 1 you know something is not right. Google want high clickthroughs. But do you?

[ogletreeseo]

High CTR is not always good. If you put up an add that says "free money" your going to get a lot of clicks and very few sells. Unless of course you are giving away free money. It is very easy to raise CTR but it is not always a good idea. You should be more concerned with ROI.

[dmartin]

As a few other people have pointed out, it's really a high *conversion* that you want, with a high enough CTR that you benefit from a good quality score from Google (i.e. you pay a little less per click).

If you can get your visitors to take the action you want (buy a product, sign up for a newsletter, contact you for more information, whatever) at a high enough rate, then you can optimize the front end (ads and keywords) to improve click through (but hopefully without reducing the conversion rate).

For example, if I create an ad saying "Free Beer Delivered to Your Door", I'll probably get a pretty high click through rate. Maybe event 50 percent

But if the landing page for that ad is misleading (it's really some sort of offer like "Buy a case of beer, get one beer delivered free"), very few visitors will actually take any action, making the ad not cost effective, and my click through rate irrelevant.

So ideally you want:

1. A good, specific ad that disqualifies visitors (e.g. "Best prices on beer")
2. Is well targeted towards relevant search terms ("buy beer online" or "online beer delivery", but maybe not "free beer")
3. A landing page that converts well (makes it clear what they should do, loads quickly, is attractive and effective, etc., e.g. "Buy a case of beer today for 30% off retail, and get one extra beer for free. Free Delivery!".)

[Steveburner]

Hi, I think CTR above 1% is satisfactory.But getting more than it is your effort which is appreciated.