Yes, I'd also like a definitive answer to that question. Maybe someone from Google will stop by?
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Yes, I'd also like a definitive answer to that question. Maybe someone from Google will stop by?
Answering with click through rates for specific adverts or groups of adverts, even if they have a wide variety of ads, products, keywords and search engines, still does little to answer the question posed: "What percentage of pageviews get a click on an adverts at search engines in general."
I have researched this topic and the answer isn't easy to find as one of the first things i learned is that the search engines aren't talking about this. Who would believe them anyway, right?
I did find some alternate scientific research by third parties that have tried to answer this question. They performed "eye tracking" studies and other studies. With special gear they found that people looked at the adverts less than 5% of the time and actually clicked adverts less than 2% of the time.
some people are skeptical of this info though because the subjects were just searching for information on a list of subjects given to them, not subjects they actually wanted/needed to find info on.
I did this research a little more than a year ago. Do with this what you will, and if you've heard something fresher and more concrete, please share it with us.
Such studies are inherently flawed if they fail to account for user intent - e.g., shopping vs. seeking information - and level of commitment - e.g., for shopping, information search, information evaluation, purchase decision.Originally Posted by texxs
I was talking to an SEO guy who works for a big UK firm recently and he reckoned that if you were somewhere in the top 3 organic results for a search then the CTR would be approx 10%.
Sooo (and I know this is *very* unscientific, *and* I am biased as I do PPC) - therefore I can only conclude that the split between paid and organic listings on Google is ...
50:50
10% for 1-3? That's crazy. The drop off from first to third is going to be massive.
Not crazy at all, because there is no general pattern.
As already noted, the variables involved are many, with the results being greatly varied.
The other thing to bear in mind (which pains me to say as it goes in favour of organic/SEO) is that you don't often get anywhere near a 100% 'impression share' on AdWords.
i.e. if there are a load of other competitors bidding on the same keyword as you - your ads may only be displayed 50% of the time which would mean that the ratio of PPC clicks to organic clicks (if we accepted that 50:50 was reasonable on a 100% impression share basis) would usually be significantly lower than 50:50.
On the upside, with PPC one need not lose any sleep over nasty surprises such as the recent Farmer/Panda algorithmic change.
With PPC one at least always has a way, even if not the means, to get to the top.
Have to agree with you 100% there..
Actually the organic results have been studied to death and there is a clear pattern. Number one in the natural results gets approx 90%-85% of clicks.
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