[toc] How To Get The Best Click-Through Rate
In 1994, AT&T had the world’s first online display advertisement. This very first ad was largely successful in attracting the target audience to the AT&T website as it had a 44% click-through rate. Although click-through rates for banner ads like the AT&T ad do not normally see a 44% click-through rate anymore, it is still an important measure
Since then, marketers have turned to click-through rates as a metric for measuring the success of an online marketing campaign. Click-through rates are an indicator of a number of things and can relay key information to a marketer.
Click-through rates are an important measure when it comes to digital marketing. If you are new to online marketing or would like to learn more about click-through rates, then this ebook is your perfect resource. We break down everything you need to know about click-through rates and how to get the best click-through rate.
What Is A Click-Through Rate?
Click-through rates (CTR) are one of many essential terms and metrics that you need to know if you want to get in on the internet or digital marketing game. Click-through rates are a crucial part of digital marketing. This simple ratio can tell you how successful your content, email, social media, or any other type of online marketing is.
To put it most simply, click-through rates are the percentage of impressions that produce a click. That is, a CTR is the ratio of the number of users who click on a specific link to the number of total impressions made. When it comes to digital marketing, you want a good click-through rate.
A good CTR will show how relevant and effective your digital content and advertisements are. It is an indicator of the strength of your digital marketing strategy and can help you improve your online presence and drive conversions.
1.1: The Purpose Of Measuring Click-Through Rates
Measuring the ratio of clicks to the number of impressions made on an online ad, social media, email, or digital marketing campaign is the basic principle behind measuring CTR. As stated before, one of the purposes of measuring the click-through rate is to determine the success of a campaign or content. But the rationale behind this measure gives insight into a number of things.
Most marketers want to know the emotional reaction of an advertisement or content, but that is often an expensive and at times impossible measure to obtain. For that reason, marketers rely on the simple CTR to figure out whether they are at least drawing people in with their advertisement or content.
Normally, content and advertisements exist as a call to action that draws people to your website to purchase a product, read something, or some to fulfill some other kind of online action. The click-through ratio will help indicate how effective your advertisement is at drawing the target audience to your website or how well it can direct a user elsewhere.
1.2: CTR Is A Certain Type Of Measure
Click-through rates are not a measure of total web traffic or the number of people who arrive at your website or affiliate link through other streams of web traffic. Instead, CTR is a more specific and immediate measure of your digital marketing strategy.
When implementing a digital marketing strategy, it is advisable to use a number of different methods to reach your target audience. By using a variety of different ways to reach your target audience with your digital marketing, you will be able to make a number of impressions on viewers.
The viewers that immediately click on your specific link through your ad campaign or search engine marketing strategy are those that contribute to your CTR. This means that your CTR is only a measure of those immediate first clicks from the initial point of contact made with the target audience.
1.3: Calculating CTR
Figuring out a click-through rate is relatively easy as long as you know the number of impressions made. To put it into context, consider the example of an online advertisement: if you pay to place an online advertisement somewhere, you hope that you are getting your money’s worth.
If your online advertisement generates 1000 impressions, meaning 1000 people saw your ad, that is all well and good but will not mean much if no one actually clicked on your link. So say out of those 1000 people only 1 person clicked on your ad, what would your CTR be?
The formula for calculating CTR is simple. It’s the number of clicks generated divided by the number of impressions made. So for the online advertisement example, the CTR would be 1/1000 = 0.001. To translate your CTR into a percentage from a rate, multiply the rate you get by 100.
To translate the example rate into a percentage, that would mean your click-through rate is 0.1%. Whether that CTR is good or not is something we will dive into later.
1.4: CTR And Pay-Per-Click
Pay-per-click advertising and CTR go hand in hand. Pay-per-click, or PPC, is an internet marketing model in which advertisers charge a fee to generate clicks back to your website. This is in opposition to organic clicks. But when it comes to PPC, you want to have a solid click-through rate.
Since you are paying for each click, you want to make sure that you have a high click-through rate as it will indicate that your ad is reaching your target audience. When you do not have a high click-through rate, your cost-per-click of your PPC advertisement will be expensive.
This all boils down to having a good return on investment when it comes to your digital marketing and advertising strategy. If you are using PPC advertising, make sure you are mindful of your CTR so that you can make the most of your ads.
1.5: Click-Through Rates And Organic Web Traffic
Click-through rates are not just a metric used to measure your PPC advertisements. CTR is also a measure of organic web traffic that arises from online searches. When a user searches keywords and follows a link from the search results page, that contributes to a click-through rate.
An organic click-through rate is measured by the number of clicks a given search result yields divided by the number of times that it is viewed on the search results page. Since the results are ranked, this makes measuring organic click-through rates a bit more challenging and complex.
However, it is possible to get a measurement of organic click-through rates by researching the insights on your web page for each relevant search engine. Thankfully, most search engines have these insight tools readily available for marketers.
1.6: Estimating Organic Web Traffic Based On CTR
Click-through rates are a vital piece of information that a marketer needs to know. Organic click-through rates can be measured using the simple calculation explained above. However, getting an exact measurement of organic web traffic can be a little more challenging. But organic web traffic is yet another metric that marketers need to know.
Measuring organic web traffic tells a marketer or content creator what type of content is working and what is not. This will help a marketer finetune their content to deliver more effective content that grosses higher click-through rates. Thankfully, if a marketer knows their organic CTR, they are able to get an estimate of organic web traffic.
The calculation is simple once a marketer knows the CTR. The web traffic is equal to the search volume times the click-through rate. This is a rough estimate, however, since there are many factors that go into organic web traffic.
The Importance Of Click-Through Rate
Click-through rates and their importance have been studied since the 1990s. The measure of CTRs has always stayed the same, but their importance has changed over time as technology and the internet have progressed.
Click-through rates are important for a number of reasons. First, as it has already been stated, CTRs are a measure of how effective or successful your marketing strategy is. A high click-through rate means that your advertisement is resonating with your target audience so much so that they want to follow the link to your landing page.
But there are a number of other reasons why CTR is important. Here is a breakdown of why click-through rates matter and why you should take care to get the best click-through rate.
2.1: The Impact Of CTR
Most likely the number one reason that click-through rates are important is because of the impact that CTR has on your advertising and digital marketing strategy’s visibility. That is, a good click-through rate will give you more visibility than a poor one.
A high or a good click-through rate will not only give you a better ranking on a search engine results page (SERP), but it will also help your advertisements rank higher. With a better CTR, you will have much more visibility as you will be filtered to the top of the pile that you and your competitors are lumped into.
2.2: Click-Through Rates And Quality Scores
A quality score or your quality index is the metric used by large search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and Bing to determine the position of your advertisement or website on their respective results page. Since search engines want to provide the highest quality advertisements, they use this measure to rank advertisements from best to worst.
The quality score is calculated by hidden measures of CTR, relevance, and landing page experience. Click-through rates are closely related to quality scores. In fact, if you have a high CTR you are more likely to have a high quality score. A high CRT is an indicator of many things, among those being relevance.
Since search engines want to provide the most relevant information and advertisements, high CRTs improve your quality score. If your advertisement has a higher quality score, then it will cost you less money to run advertisements in better positions.
Quality Scores
Quality scores play a huge role in whether your ad ranks well among others and can be a determining factor in how successful your digital marketing campaign is. Here are some of the common factors used when search engines determine your ad’s quality score:
- Click-through rate
- Quality of your landing page
- The relevance of your copy
- Your geographical location
- The user's geographical location
- The time it takes to load your landing page
Of course, each search engine has its own weights that it assigns each different factor. This means that your advertisement may rank higher on some search engines than it does others.
CTR, Quality Scores, and Return On Investment
Often with pay-per-click advertisements, you want to see a return on your investment. CTR and quality scores are closely related, as stated above, but they also impact your return on investment (ROI).
When you have high click-through rates, not only will you have a good quality score, but you will also receive a larger return on investment. Since you have a high CTR, you have a better quality score, and in turn, you spend less per click than you would in other circumstances.
Having a lower cost-per-click (CPC) in the PPC model can result in a larger ROI as you put less money into the advertisement and can get more out of it with a likely higher conversion. Simply put, a high click-through rate has a positive impact on your quality score, which positively impacts your return on investment.
Cost-Per-Click
When working within the PPC model, you want to have the least expensive cost-per-click (CPC) as you can while maintaining a high-quality ad ranking. To figure out your CPC, you need to have your CTR. The basic formula is CPC= advertising costs/ ads clicked.
This simple formula can break down how much you can expect to pay per click in the PPC model. As you can see, the denominator or the bottom half of that equation is your CTR. With a higher click-through rate, you will decrease your CPC. As your CPC decreases and you have a high conversion, you will see a larger return on investment for your ad.
2.3: CTRs And Connecting With A Target Audience
Making an impression and connecting with an audience matters. If marketers have learned anything from the psychology of branding, it is that it is important to be aware of both brand look and voice.
Click-through rates are one of the ways that a marketer can measure how well their messaging is engaging their target audience. A digital marketing campaign that truly connects well with its intended audience will see a larger CTR since the message resonates with the consumer.
Click-Through Rates And The Audience
Click-through rates can give you an idea of how well your advertisements and marketing strategies are connecting with your target audience. If an advertisement or digital marketing strategy resonates well with a member of a target audience, they are more likely to click on the embedded link and follow it to your landing page.
As a marketer, you want to ensure that the digital content you are putting out actually connects with the audience you want it to. If you are spending a lot of time and money on content that is not relevant to your target audience, then you are wasting your time.
A higher percentage CTR will indicate that you can communicate and connect with your target audience. If you notice that your CTR is lagging, you can tweak it such that your content and messaging better connect with your target audience.
2.4: Click-Through Rates And Understanding What Customers Want
If you are utilizing your marketing strategy such that your content and advertisements are placed where the traffic of your target audience is flowing but you are not seeing many click-throughs, then you need to change some things. In this case, CTR is important because it can indicate what consumers want.
CTR is great for figuring out what works and what does not when it comes to digital marketing and advertisements. By using CTR, you can test different content and advertisement designs and content types to see which is more effective at driving the audience to your landing page.
Content that sees a good click-through rate indicates that your target audience likes what they see enough to want to learn more. Moreover, content or advertisements that see a good click-through rate are often content with a strong call to action. Basically, CTR is a way to discern what does and does not work when it comes to content creation.
2.5: Click-Through Rates And Cost
When it comes to CTR and the cost of PPC advertisements, the two are inversely related. That is, as your CTR increases, your costs of PPC advertisements decreases. Your click-through rate is important because the better percentage or ratio that you have, the less money you will spend per click.
Your advertisement’s price is normally computed by multiplying your quality score with the advertisement bid price. As stated before, the better your click-through rate is, the better your quality score is. Therefore, as you have a better click-through rate, you will pay less for PCC advertisements.
2.6: CTR Guides Content
Marketers know that delivering quality and relevant content is essential for online success. But when it comes to figuring out what content is best for your business, getting started can be tough. Click-through rates can come in handy when trying to perfect your digital content.
When ad and other written copy does not connect well with the target audience then it will not produce a good click-through rate. Using click-through rate, a marketer can test out different content formats, types, and keywords. A marketer can use CTR to see which types of content, styles of writing, or ad campaigns work best.
By using CTR as a metric to evaluate your ad or other written copy, you can improve your content so that your advertisements and content can convert. In this way, click-through rate is a metric that can guide content.
2.7: Click-Through Rates Can Indicate Offline Behavior
Many people still prefer to make their purchases in person or offline. Because of this, their click-through might not convert at first, but that does not mean that all hope is lost on this front.
A strong click-through rate indicates an interest in your product. By having someone click the link to head to your landing page, an initial seed has been planted in their mind about your product. This can impact the decisions they make offline and can come back to help your business after all.
The CTR can be an indicator of potential customer’s interest in your product and business. Therefore, even if your CTR does not convert for every and all click-throughs, you still may convert in the medium or long-term.
Misconceptions About CTR
In some ways, click-through rates can be misinterpreted and misconstrued to convey some important that is not actually revealed by the CTR itself. When working to improve your digital marketing strategy, it is important to have a holistic picture of what certain measures can and cannot tell you.
Although the CTR is a great metric, it has its limits in its ability to tell you everything that you need to know to be able to tell if your digital marketing campaign is successful. Here are some of the reasons why CTR is not the end-all-be-all of marketing metrics.
3.1: CTR Is Not Conversion
Click-through rates measure just that, click-throughs. That means that this metric only takes into account the number of people that followed the lead to your landing page. This does not, however, take into account the number of people that click converted into customers.
It is important to note that the click-through rate is not a measure of conversion. Although the two are closely related when it comes to digital marketing, a marketing campaign with a high CTR does not mean that it is a campaign with a high conversion ratio.
Why Click-Through Rate Is Not A Measure Of Conversion
CTR is not a measure of conversion. For example, you could have an advertisement that draws in so many people that your eyes almost burst out of your head when you look at the click-through rate. But upon closer inspection, you can see that that CTR did not actually convert any potential customer into an actual customer.
When it comes to actual business practices, this high CTR did not do much to have a positive impact on your business. This is why it is important to remember that although you could have a high CTR, it does not mean much if that click-through does not end up converting into a sale.
If this is the case, then more research needs to be done on your keywords, targets, and ad copy so that you can attract qualified visitors to your website or blog to really drive that conversion. Doing that research takes time and can often be handled by content professionals to ensure high performing content.
3.2: Some Clicks Are Not Good Clicks
A click-through rate can also be misleading in terms of the quality of clicks. Sometimes, just simply based on your advertisement placement, you might have more than your fair share of low-quality clicks.
This means that there are a number of clicks that are included in your CTR that are not clicks made consciously or are made in bad faith. Sometimes people accidentally click on links which can impact your CTR. If there are many accidental clicks on your link, then your CTR will skew your response data.
3.3: What CTR Can’t Tell You:
Since the CTR is not a complete measure of your digital marketing strategy’s success, there are some things that the click-through rate is unable to tell you about. Here are some more things that a simple CTR cannot tell you:
- The quality of your website visitors
- The number of unacknowledged impressions
- The number of bad clicks
- The true conversion your ad generated
When it comes to marketing, it is important to always get multiple measures of how well your strategy is performing. Of course, these shortcomings of the CTR do not mean that it should be dismissed or that it is unimportant. No, the CTR is still a largely informative metric that you should pay close attention to.
Average Click-Through Rates
Average click-through rates vary considerably as different businesses negotiate a number of different factors. Average CTRs can vary by a number of things including industry, business size, user experience on a website or blog, geographical location, and many other factors.
Figuring out the average click-through rate that you should be comparing your CTR to can sometimes be a challenge. First, you need to consider whether you are looking for organic clicks or pay-per-clicks via running advertisements. Here are some of the different considerations and average click-through rates for various platforms and industries.
4.1: Organic Click-Through Rates
Click-through rates do not need to only be tied to pay-per-click advertising. They are also very helpful when it comes to organic searches and clicks. Organic click-through rates are the number of clicks a specific search result gets divided by the number of impressions made on the search engine results page (SERP).
Organic CTR is an important measure to have as it can give you insight into a number of different things. First, organic CTR can give you an idea of how much organic web traffic you have for a given keyword. Second, knowing your organic click-through rate will allow you to have some reasonable level of expectation when it comes to digital marketing campaigns.
By knowing your organic click-through rate, you can have better predictions on the return on investment you will get from your changes in content, site, and the launching of projects and campaigns. The organic CTR will be able to give you a measure of success of those by comparing your organic click-through rate before and after any changes.
4.2: CTR, Search Ranking, And Industry Topic
Average click-through rates differ by search engine results page rankings, industry or topic, and whether the search is branded or unbranded. As many would expect, a search result with the first ranking will have the highest click-through rate. However, what that rate is will vary considerably by industry.
When it comes to branded versus unbranded searches, the click-through rates tend to be more favorable for banded searches. For some searches, the average CTR will be quite high. Looking at the table below, you can see that for a branded search under the topic of food, the CTR is 58%.
Moreover, as illustrated by the chart below, you can see that as the rankings worsen by topic, as do the click-through rates. How steep of a decline in click-through rate as the rankings decline will also depend on an industry topic, with sharp decreases in CTR seen in technology, but more gradual declines seen in marketing topics.l
4.3: CTRs And Business Size
When it comes to click-through rates, the business’s size is an important factor when comparing your business to some average. The size of the business has a large impact on the number of impressions or possible impressions made. The reach of a large business is much more vast than that of a small or start-up business.
Therefore, keeping the size of a business in mind is important. A small business that is just breaking into a new market may have a lower click-through rate on average. However, that same business may have a much higher click-through rate with familiar customers. This is why business size can play an important factor.
The same is true for large businesses. A larger business likely has a much wider reach than smaller businesses and will, therefore, make more impressions. However, that does not necessarily mean that those impressions will result in a click. In addition to industry averages, it is important to research average CTRs for businesses of roughly the same size.
4.4: Organic Click-Through Rates And SERPs
The organic click-through rates tend to favor those pages that end up on the first page of the search engine results page. The average organic click-through rate for search results on the first page is much higher than that of results that land on the second or third page.
On average, the click-through rate for results that are on the second, third, or even later pages is under 3.99%. This is especially low when you consider that 71.33% of all searches on average result in an organic click from the first search results page.
This all goes to show that your search engine results page ranking is an important factor in determining not only your click-through rate but also your conversion rate. Your page does not need to hold the number one ranking on the SERP, but the higher the better.
4.5: Average CTR For Mobile Devices
Average click-through rates can also vary depending on the device used to search for any given keyword. Since mobile traffic is growing, it is important to pay attention to not only CTR for desktop devices but also the CTR for mobile devices.
Mobile device average click-through rates differ from desktop devices since it is much easier to scroll through a search results page. Additionally, mobile click-through rates also depend on the user experience on mobile, meaning websites and blogs that are not mobile-friendly will not see the same CTR on mobile as they do for desktop devices.
Many people assume that since you see fewer ranking results on mobile, that the higher ranking results will see a better click-through rate on mobile than they see on desktop devices. This is not the case, in fact, the CTR is actually slightly lower on the first page for mobile devices versus desktop devices. See the chart below for an exact breakdown.
CTR, Device, And Geographical Location
When you parse apart the CTR by geographical location, you will see that there is still a difference between mobile and desktop device CTRs on a search engine results page. For example, in the US there is a large difference in the CTR for mobile and desktop devices.
This is likely because the results pages tend to be more accurate for US data. This difference could also be explained by the different ways in which SERPs are tested in the US before they reach international results pages.
4.6: Ads Impact On Average CTR
When you are paying for an ad, you want to see a high click-through rate so that you can get a better ROI. However, when it comes to average CTRs and advertisements, there are some specific considerations that will help improve your CTR.
SERPs without any advertisements tend to have higher CTRs for the higher ranking results positions. However, this pattern diminished as the position of the result declines. However, if you are paying for an advertisement on a SERP, then you can see your advertisement cut into the CTR for those top results.
One study found that advertisements on the first results page can cut the CTR in half. This means that your ad is taking away some of the shares of the click-through rate that the top results tend to have.
Ad Position and Average CTR
The position of your ad on a search results page matters. Typically on any given search engine results page, there are 3 positions for ads to be placed in the top of the page, the bottom of the page, and on the right side of the page.
These three positions vary in how well they cut the organic CTR down. For example, top ads seem to have the largest impact on organic CTR whereas bottom and right side ads can actually have a positive impact on the organic CTR.
Number Of Ads And CTR
The average organic CTR can also be affected by the number of ads that appear on a results page. As the number of advertisements on a results page increases, the organic click-through rate for the highest-ranking results decreases. This is likely because the advertisements distract a user from the search results.
4.7: Average CTR Of Ads
The average CTR of an advertisement will indicate how successful that ad was at bringing people to your landing page and possibly converting them from potential customers to actual customers. So when paying for an advertisement, you should pay attention to how well its CTR is performing.
On average, the top ads tend to amass the highest CTR. For desktop searches, ads account for 17.2% of clicks. Interestingly, for mobile and tablet average CTRs, ads tend to perform even better than they do on desktop devices. For that reason, you should be mindful of the types of ads you choose to run for your business.
When it comes to pay-per-click ads, the average click-through rate is about 2% in general but can actually be much higher depending on the industry. Average CTRs are higher for non-competitive or very niche industries or product.
Search Ads and Average CTR
Search ads are advertisements that appear when a consumer or potential customer searches for a product, keyword, or for long-tail keywords. These ads appear right above organic search results on a search engine results page, often fitting seamlessly into the results page.
The average CTR for search ass is 1.91% across all industries. Of course, the average CTR for search ads will vary by industry as well, as mentioned above.
Display Ads and Average CTR
Display ads often appear on a website as banner images either on the top, bottom, or sides of the page. Usually, display ads feature attention-grabbing graphics or images to encourage a potential customer to click on the advertisement.
Display ads tend not to have as high of an overall average CTR as search ads do. For display ads, the overall average CTR is 0.35%. This average will also vary by industry considerably.
Click-Through Rates And Different Platforms
Click-through rates vary considerably when you take into account the various different platforms that you can promote your product or blog on. For example, you may be able to promote your product on social media, through email, and through searches.
Which platform works best for your business will vary considerably. The content required to attract people to your product or landing page will also vary by platform. As a result, different platforms have different organic and PPC CTRs.
5.1: Average Marketing Email CTR
There is a wide variation in the click-through rate for email marketing campaigns. Depending on the email service provider that you use, the benchmark CTR can also vary considerably. Take for example Mailchimp’s 2017 CTR benchmarks for an email marketing campaign.
Depending on the industry, the click-through rate can vary from 1.06% for the restaurant industry all the way up to 4.78% for the hobby industry. Now although those CTRs may not seem that significant, then you put it into real numbers it can make a huge difference.
For the hobbies CTR, a percentage of 4.78 means that nearly 50 people out of 1000 who received your email clicked-through to your landing page. That is in comparison to nearly 11 people for 1000 impressions for the restaurant industry. In general, a click-through rate is anywhere between 0.4% and 2.4% for all digital marketing.
5.2: Social Media CTR
Social media click-through rates change by the social media platform that you use. Whether you post regularly on social media and generate click-throughs that way, or you run an ad on a social media platform, each platform is its own beast.
As a general rule, content that is relevant has the best click-through rates. Here are some of the average click-through rates for various social media platforms as well as some of the content that tends to attract the most clicks.
Facebook CTR
Facebook is an invaluable social media platform when it comes to marketing. Facebook has made a number of upgrades to its News Feed over the years, making it more competitive than ever. As a result, the Facebook algorithm favors family and friends based content rather than business and marketing content.
Posting on Facebook can be tough, which is why knowing a click-through rate is a vital tool when developing a marketing strategy. When it comes to choosing between organic Facebook posts and running a Facebook ad, it is important to keep a number of things in mind.
Organic CTR On Facebook
Organic posts on Facebook used to have a large reach with a huge click-through rate. In 2012, organic Facebook posts were king and resulted in high CTRs. However, in today’s world, the number of impressions made by an organic Facebook post are dwindling.
Some of the most recent data that a Facebook page’s organic reach is somewhere around 2%. With only a 2% reach, you can expect that your click-through rate would be a smaller percentage of that already small percent. When it comes to trying to create content that is worthwhile, this minimal reach will not translate well to a high CTR or a high conversion rate.
This does not mean that businesses should entirely move away from posting anything organic on Facebook. Some posts if catered correctly can still yield a high click-through rate. But it does mean that businesses should be mindful of where they invest their time in terms of content creation.
CTR Of Facebook Ads
Almost all social media advertisers use Facebook Ads. In fact, 93% of all social media advertisers and marketers use the handy Facebook Ads tool. This makes Facebook ads the new king when it comes to attracting potential customers to your business.
In terms of content, certain types of content perform better on Facebook than others, namely high-quality images and images that feature models. As a result, Facebook advertisers in the apparel, retail, beauty, and fitness industries have the highest CTRs for this platform.
Across all industries, the click-through rate on Facebook is 0.90%. This is because Facebook has such a highly competitive News Feed, meaning you have to really beat out your competitors to win a click-through. Here is a break down of the average CTR on Facebook by industry.
Instagram CTR
More recently, Instagram has proven itself to be the favored social media platform in comparison to its parent company, Facebook. Marketing on Instagram has become even more popular as consumers increasingly use the platform to research and purchase products and services.
As for the click-through rate on Instagram, the overall average CTR is at about 0.62% as of the end of 2018. But with the addition of new features such as Story promotion and IGTV, this mighty platform shows promise for delivering a solid click-through rate.
Running an ad on Instagram can be done many ways, including running it within the Instagram feed, placing it on an explore feed, inserting a Story as into the Stories queue, and promotion on IGTV. Since there are so many ways to increase the number of impressions made, the overall average CTR on Instagram will likely improve.
Youtube CTR
Each year, YouTube ads continue to drive more and more engagement. In 2018, the average click-through rate for the entire platform increased by 22% in comparison to the previous year. Currently, the overall average click-through rate for Youtube is 0.33%.
YouTube is growing its ad product offerings to better assist marketers in reaching their target audiences. Recently it was announced that YouTube is extending the Google custom intent audiences to its platform. It is also introducing a new ad format called the TueView for Action.
These two additions to Youtube’s platform will help to improve the click-through rate on the social media platform. As a result, including youtube ads into a marketing strategy may prove to be favorable.
5.3: SERP Click-Through Rate
Search engine result page click-through rates have already been discussed at length above. But it is important to note that content is still king when it comes to having a high click-through rate on a results page.
Creating quality and well-researched content can be hard, which is why it is often better to trust it in the hands of professionals like those at Content Refined. Content Refined offers a number of different end-to-end packages to best suit your content needs.
5.4: Paid Marketing On Social Media
The concept of pay-per-click marketing was discussed earlier but PPC is not the method used on social media, unlike search engine results pages. With the growth in prominence of social media came the increasing importance of social media marketing.
With paid marketing on social media, there are a number of different approaches a business can take that can result in a better click-through rate. For example, a business can run a simple ad on Facebook that can convert to clicks to their landing page. With the right content creation, social media marketing can be a breeze that brings in a high CTR.
Pros Of Social Media Marketing
Like any kind of marketing, there are pros and cons. Much like PPC marketing, you can create an ad on social media to location and audience target your relevant audience. However, social media marketing can be much more variable than the simple PPC model.
Social media is equipped to handle a number of different message delivery methods. For example, you can use different platforms to create video ads, image ads, or even vlogs. Social media also allows businesses to use hashtags to better target their audience and niche.
Social media marketing, however, does not always result in a call to action, instead of focusing on awareness. Lastly, in general, but of course not always, social media marketing can be less expensive than pay-per-click marketing. If on a tight budget, social media marketing is one less expensive route to take to possibly improve a CTR.
Cons Of Social Media Marketing
To put it simply, social media marketing campaigns tend to be less effective than pay-per-click marketing strategies. The reason being is that social media marketing is more difficult to optimize than PPC. Without analysis from handy research tools that SERPs and PPC can offer, social media marketing may not translate to much of a click-through rate.
Social media marketing is also more demanding in terms of content creation. With constant refreshes and the short attention span that typically accompanies social media use, users are looking for fresh content all of the time to stay interested. As a result, social media marketing can be much more labor-intensive than PPC marketing.
Blog Post CRTs
Click-through rates are not only important for search engine results pages, advertisements, or social media posts, they are also an important metric for blogs. Click-through rates for blogs take into account a number of different types of clicks since blogs can have multiple revenue streams at once.
For blogs and blog posts, the click-through rate refers to the ratio of the number of times a user or blog visitor clicks on the advertisement, affiliate link, or call to action on your blog to the number of total impressions or readers of your blog or blog post. These three types of CTRs fall into two broad categories: advertisement CTRs and call to action CTAs.
6.1: Ad Click-Through Rates On Blogs
Blogs can have many different revenue streams. Since blogs are often considered the most valuable channel for business to business marketing, blog advertisement real estate is valuable. As such, bloggers can often use this real estate as a revenue stream on their blogs.
Companies are willing to pay bloggers either per click or per flat rate to run an advertisement on the blog. If advertisers are paying you to have their ads run on your blog, you will want to see a high click-through rate as the advertisers are likely using a pay-per-click method.
This means that each time someone clicks on an ad from your blog, you receive some revenue through that stream. A better click-through rate will help increase your profits at a relatively low labor cost to your business.
6.2: Call To Action CTRs
Call to action click-through rates is the second broad category of blog revenue streams. Call to actions on a blog can include directly selling a product, linking users to more information, or connecting users to an affiliate link.
Click-through rates are important for calls to action. CTRs indicate that you are able to properly pitch an idea or a product to users to the point that they are interested in checking the idea or product our themselves. Having a good click-through rate on your calls to action show that you are persuasive in your writing.
Moreover, having a high click-through rate on your calls to action can likely translate into conversions of potential customers into actual customers. So seeing a good click-through rate for your calls to action can often point to a solid revenue stream.
Amazon Affiliate Links and Click-Through Rates
One of the increasingly popular calls to action is affiliate links. Affiliate links like Amazon affiliate links are one of the ways in which click-through rates are important on blogs. One of the most popular ways to collect revenue from a blog is through Amazon affiliate links.
Although click-through rates for your amazon affiliate links are not what produce revenue, they at least indicate that you are doing something right. If your blog has a high click-through rate for your amazon affiliate links then you are likely communicating well with your target audience.
For example, if you are able to communicate the benefits of a given product and how you approve of it on your blog, people are more likely to click on the link to check the product out for themselves. As a result, you are informed by your high click-through rate that you are able to connect with your target audience.
6.3: Click-Through Rates, Blogs, And Other Platforms
Blogs are often promoted on a number of different platforms. Many marketers use social media to promote their blog among their target audience. This helps to drive traffic to the blog and increase readership and in turn, can increase blog revenue.
Web traffic and click-through rates improve when marketers spend more time promoting their blog on social media. In fact, 81% of marketers saw an increase in their CTR and web traffic after spending only 6 hours a week on social media marketing. If you are looking to improve your click-through rate on your blog, promotion on social media may help.
Blog CTR When Shared On Facebook
Click-through rates for blogs that are shared on Facebook can have a wide variation. The click-through rate will depend on a number of factors, including industry, budget, target audience, subject, and whether the business is business-to-business or business-to-customer.
Blog posts shared to Facebook often produce a better click-through rate than banner ads for the same blog would. Currently, the average click-through rate for a blog promoted or shared on Facebook is 1%. This number might seem low but for the industry of digital marketing, a CTR of 1% is not bad.
Of course, this is also dependent on geographical location, whether the blog or mobile-friendly or not, and the time of day of the post. A blog with a poor user experience will see a lower click-through rate than one with a better user experience.
Blog CTR And Email Campaigns
Email campaigns are an excellent way to promote new blog posts to your current subscribers. You can also use email campaigns to attract new potential subscribers and customers to your blog. The click-through rate from these emails to your blog will help you figure out a number of things.
Email campaigns usually have a higher average click-through rate for blogs in general, regardless of industry. The average click-through rate for blogs is about 7%. First, it should be noted that click-through rates of emails to your current subscribers will be much higher than any email campaign focused on prospecting new users.
Regardless, when focusing on an email campaign for your blog, a good click-through rate, with the goal of the campaign in mind, will indicate you are offering something of value to your readers.
6.4: Click-Through Rates For Advertisements Of Blogs
Figuring out the average click-through rate for advertisements run to bring attention to a blog is difficult to find. Since so many blogs operate in a niche part of the market, what is considered average may not be a good number to it compare to.
That being said, when bloggers run a pay-per-click advertisement for their blog, they often have seen a positive return on investment. That means that when a blogger pays by the click to put an ad for their blog on some other platform, website, or search page, they often report seeing the investment as worthwhile.
That means that their pay-per-click advertisement has a good click-through rate and they are seeing an increased readership. In fact, over 80% of marketers see a positive ROI from these types of efforts. The metric used to measure this success is always click-through rates.
What Makes A Good Click-Through Rate And Why
Now that you have a thorough rundown on CTRs, their importance, and averages across different platforms, it is time to delve into what makes a good click-through rate and why. This topic is one that needs to be approached carefully as there are a number of factors that contribute to click-through rates.
Considerations for industry, business size, and niche are also important when deliberating on what makes a good click-through rate and why. It is important to take care to diligently flesh out all of these ideas to fully understand the tried and true theories behind good click-through rates.
7.1: What Is A Good CTR For SERPs?
A good click-through rate for a search engine results page is highly dependent on a number of things. As mentioned before, the average click-through rate for SERPs highly depends on the industry. Therefore, if you are looking for a good click-through rate for your industry you should compare your CTR to the overall overage of your industry.
A good CTR for a search engine results page is anywhere that hovers around the average for your industry. A better measure would be to figure out the click-through rate for your specific niche and base a good CTR for your niche’s SERP off of that.
A number of things go into developing a good ctr for search engine results pages. In fact, a lot of research and time has been devoted to this very subject. The field of search engine optimization arose from an attempt to drive traffic and increase ctr for any given website.
Making A Good CTR For SERPs
The top results on a SERP are the ones with the best click-through rates. Those top results are positioned in those high rankings and see the best click-through rates because those results check off a number of the essential factors that determine ranking.
Some of the things that go into creating a good ctr and ranking result for SERPs are researching keywords, developing and embedding rich snippets, and providing high-quality content. Each of these factors allows a search engine to better understand what information is contained on a website.
Keywords
Keywords, long-tail keywords, and negative keywords are all words or phrases that users of a search engine enter into the search query. These terms usually need to be well researched so that you can see a higher click-through rate for your website when those terms are searched.
Keywords can be niche specific and often should be related and well worked into high-quality written copy. When all three factors are combined, a good click-through rate can be achieved.
Rich Snippets
Rich snippets are structured data markups that website operators and marketers can add to their web page. Rich snippets are things like ratings, prices of products, business information, recipes, or many other things.
Essentially, rich snippets help a search engine understand what is on a given web page. For this reason, featuring rich snippets on a web page will not only improve SERP ranking but it will improve CTR.
High-Quality Content
High-quality content is content that is relevant to the topic, informative, and well-written. Usually high-quality content requires research to be done in advance so that the copy written include the proper keywords, long-tail keywords, and negative keywords.
Additionally, search engines prefer high-quality content that is a certain word length. Some search engines prefer copy or blog posts that are roughly 750-1000 words in length. Writing and researching content is one of the most commonly outsourced components of digital marketing.
Many times marketers struggle with delivering creative and fresh content. This is why content writing, editing, research, and SEO optimization is often better left to the pros like the professionals at Content Refined.
Meta Descriptions, CTR, and Search Engine Result Pages
Meta descriptions are often displayed on search engine results pages to provide a brief summary of a given web page. Meta descriptions are an HTML attribute that is normally as long as 160 characters. In terms of click-through rates, they are one of the largest influencers in driving that number.
Meta descriptions give searchers a quick preview to what the web page will offer them. Much like a movie trailer, a meta description can give a user an idea of what the overall page will tell them. Since users want to see the most relevant page to their search as possible, the meta description can be the determining factor in whether a web page gets clicked.
7.2: Good Click-Through Rates For Social Media
Creating a good click-through rate on social media can be tough. Content on social media needs to be attention-grabbing, fresh, and creative. Moreover, users of social media favor posts that are image-driven and feature models. Therefore, good click-through rates on social media often need to feature a number of things to make the cut.
What makes for a good click-through rating on social media will differ by platform, industry, and niche within that industry. Comparing a business’s click-through rate with a platforms average click-through rate may not indicate that it is a good CTR.
Instead, to know if you have a good CTR you need to compare what your direct competitors are getting. This will require some research on your part of on the part of a professional.
Getting a good CTR on Facebook has some specific considerations to keep in mind. Since Facebook has altered its algorithm in the past couple of years, it now favor family-friendly content. As such, content that is family-friendly will see a better click-through rating than content that is not.
Additionally, content that has an emotional appeal performs better on Facebook than a regular post. Delivering content that has both of these qualities consistently can be tough, but the pay-off is worth it as you will see the return on investment with a good click-through rating.
Youtube
Changes to Youtube’s algorithm has changed how marketers can get their best click-through rating on this platform. CTRs on Youtube are often dependent on good title creation. To deliver a good CTR on Youtube, you need to be able to make a video that captures the attention of the viewer and that makes a genuine impression on the user.
LinkedIn has become a quiet giant on social media. LinkedIn has become a hot spot for marketers to promote businesses and products. Since LinkedIn posts are often long-form written content, creating an emotional appeal often delivers a good click-through rating.
7.3: Good CTRs For Emails
Emails have long been a trusted marketing method. Emails can easily be personalized and targeted meaning they often have the best click-through rate. Business-to-business email newsletters tend to have a higher click-through rate than business-to-customer emails.
When working on an email campaign, a good click-through rate is often between 10% and 20%. Emails have a higher click-through rate often because the recipients have chosen to opt-in to receiving the newsletter.
However, for email lists that have been bought, what qualifies a good CTR is somewhat different. Since the recipient has not chosen to receive email newsletters from a business, the click-through rate for these is much lower, sitting at somewhere between 1% and 5%.
What Makes A Good Email Click-Through Rate
Good click-through rates for emails are like Rome, they were not built in a day. Often, getting to a good click-through rate requires some trial and error. Yet, some things are more likely to deliver a good click-through rate than others.
Having a good email subject line is one of the most important factors in getting a good click-through rate. The subject line of an email not only affects CTR, but it also has an impact on conversions and unsubscriptions. Carefully crafting a good email subject line is one of the ways to get a good click-through rating.
As with other types of marketing, the content within the email needs to be of sound quality. Sending quality content to recipients helps with the click-through rate.
7.4: Good CTRs For Blogs
Blogs are becoming some of the most clicked web pages on the internet. Since blogs make effective use of high-quality written copy alongside keywords, they are increasingly favored on search engine results pages. What makes a good CTR for a blog, however, is somewhat nuanced.
Since the click-through rate for blogs can mean a number of different things, be it ads for the blog, ads on the blog, or clicks to the blog from elsewhere, there are a number of different factors that are at play behind a good click-through rate for blogs.
Blog CRT From A SERP
A good CRT for a blog from a search engine results page is usually the same as a good click-through rate for any given search result on a SERP. Normally, this is dependent on the quality of content, meta descriptions, keywords, and user experience. Having these things at play make for a good click-through rate for blogs.
Good Blog CRT For Ads
Whether the ad is on the blog or the ad is for a blog, a good click-through rate matters. For ads on the blog, the advertisement should be clear and relevant to the blog content. Whereas ads for a blog should be posted somewhere where the blog’s target audience will see them.
7.5: Good Click-Through Rates For Ads
Running an ad campaign having a good click-through rate is crucial. The standard across the board for advertisement click-through rates is roughly 2% for well-performing ads. Of course, when running an ad campaign or an ad group, you want to perform better than the average.
Some things that make for a good ad CTR are a clean design, the quality of the imagery, keywords, where the ad is run, and positioning. Ad groups that complement one another and are positioned in key locations such as near the top of the page have been shown to have the best ad CTR.
Creating an ad group with a memorable design that reflects brand values helps ad CTR. Making sure that the ad campaign is run in places that are not only relevant to the content but that also reach the target audiences are other contributing factors behind a good ad click-through rate.
7.6: Content, Content, Content
Content is still king in the digital marketing business. High-quality content is often what is needed to deliver a good click-through rating. When it comes to written copy or ad copy, some marketers often feel like a stick in the mud. At first, many marketers and business owners can feel lost at where to start when producing content.
Creating high-quality content can require a lot of research and time. Many marketers struggle to create consistent content to maintain or grow a good click-through rate. There are two ways to approach content creation: doing it yourself or trusting it to the pros.
DIY Content Writing
If you plan on writing your own content so that you can get a good click-through rate, then you have some work cut out for you. Creating high-quality content that delivers the results you want requires keyword research, topic research, title creation, and SEO optimization.
Of course, there are some tools available online that can help you with these things. You are not left totally in the dark when it comes to writing relevant copy that will deliver a good CTR. Once you are finished the behind the scenes work, you will need to spend time writing relevant informative articles, ad copy, and blog posts.
The written copy should flow naturally and should be free of spelling and grammar errors. Tools like spell check will not cut it if you want your copy to shine and produce a good CTR. Careful editing is needed for content writing to ensure a quality finished product.
Professional Content Writing
Leaving content writing to the pros can save you a huge headache. Not only do you free yourself from having to do all of the research needed to write high-quality content, but you also free yourself from the burden of writing the copy yourself.
Often, when content creation is left to professionals the results prove to be worth it. In comparison to DIY content writing, professional content creators can increase click-through rates and grow websites by as much as 300% or more.
Content professionals like the pros at Content Refined are able to deliver keyword research, title creation, writing and editing, SEO optimization and much more. The results speak for themselves as one of their clients was able to grow a website from 0 visitors to over 72 thousand monthly visits with a great CTR.
7.7: Conversion
As discussed earlier, the click-through rate is not a measure of conversion although the two are closely related. Conversion is its own measure, specifically the measure of the rate of potential customers that become actual customers. Focusing solely on click-through rate can leave you high and dry when it comes to conversion.
It is important for business success to not only focus on click-through rate but also focus on conversion. According to some experts, it can actually be much easier to improve a conversion rate than it is a click-through rate.
As a marketer, you want to improve both to have the best performing platform that you can. Working to improve CTR is one step, but knowing the relationship between CTR and conversion is also important.
Similarities Between Conversion And Click-Through Rate
Conversion rates and click-through rates are both measures of success used by marketers. The two rates measure a level of interest in either a product or a product message. A business with both a high click-through rate and a high conversion rate is likely to be a successful one.
Difference Between Conversion Rates and CTRs
While both conversion rates and click-through rates are measures of marketing success, the two ultimately measure different things. Click-through rates measure the percentage of people brought to your landing page from an impression made elsewhere.
However, conversion rate measures the percentage of people who complete an action, such as purchasing a product or subscribing to a newsletter, on a webpage out of the total number of web page visitors. Although the two are closely related and can actually influence one another, they are different measures of success.
Relationship Between Conversion And Click-Through Rate
Funnels are often used for imagery when picturing sales and the market. The market as a whole is everything that is above the wide mouth, or top, of the funnel. The goal of sales is to move potential customers into the wide mouth of the funnel, down through the funnel, and out the small end of the funnel as a customer.
Conversions and click-through rates measure different parts of the sales process and as such fit into different parts of the funnel. Click-through rates are measured in an early stage of a potential sale. Conversion rates are measured once a sale has been made.
The Sales Funnel, Conversion & CTR
Conversions and click-throughs fit this image quite nicely. Click-through rates are a measurement made in the top of the funnel. It measures how many people come in from the market into the funnel. Conversion, on the other hand, measures the number of people that move from the middle of the funnel out through the bottom.
Since conversion measures the rate of people that are already on a web page that performs the intended action, it computes the number of people that make their way through the little hole in the bottom. This image helps to demonstrate that the number of people that convert to customers is likely less than the number that visits a web page.
A Conversion and CTR Example
Consider, for example, the organic clicks on a website from a search engine results page. If that specific results page earns 50,000 impressions and 2,000 of those people click on the website, then the CTR is 4%.
Now out of those 2,000 people that visited the website, imagine that 25 of them purchased the product sold on the web page. That would make the conversion rate 1.25%. So in this example, the top of the funnel had 50,000 people, the middle had 2,000, and the very bottom had 25.
How To Get The Best Click-Through Rate
With all of the background information needed to fully understand click-through rates and what they mean to marketers, it is time to move on to how to get the best click-through rate. Some experts have found that improving click-through rates can actually be more difficult than improving conversion rates.
But when it comes to increasing CTR, there are some fool-proof steps that a marketer can take. Each platform, such as search engine results pages, social media, blogs, or email campaigns have their own best practices when it comes to improving CTR.
That being said, there are some general considerations and practices that tend to increase CTR for each platform. Here is how to get the best click-through rate for each platform and general tips and tricks for getting the best CTR.
8.1: Keywords To Increase CTR
Keywords are a crucial component of the click-through rate. If a search, ad copy, written copy, or social media post does not feature keywords in it, then it likely will not see a good click-through rate. As stated before, keywords are topics, words, or ideas that define what a business’s content is about.
Keywords are important because they are the most common words or phrases that are searched for a given niche. Using keywords in your content is important not only so that your content is seen, but so increase the number of times your content is clicked on.
Keywords have a number of different considerations to keep in mind when trying to use them to your advantage. Moreover, research needs to be done in order to figure out the best keywords for a given niche. Here are some tips on how to get the best click-through rate by using keywords to your advantage.
Keyword Difficulty
When doing keyword research, keyword difficulty is the most important metric. When a keyword has a high keyword difficulty, it is harder to rank among the top SERP results due to the competitive nature of that keyword.
Depending on the industry niche, some of the keywords associated with that niche may be very difficult. Those keywords should be avoided as using them likely will not pay off in terms of click-through rate. Instead, focus on using keywords that have an easier keyword difficulty ranking.
These easier keywords will still be relevant to your niche, although they might not be the most commonly used search words. Regardless of that point, using keywords that are rated as being easier in terms of difficulty will pay off by yielding a good click-through rate. Try to include words of all difficulty ratings to best match your niche.
Monthly Search Volume
Monthly search volumes are the second most important metric when doing keyword research. Monthly search volume is the number of searches for a particular keyword in a month’s time frame. The value given by the monthly search volume is often an average of the number of times a particular keyword is searched in a day.
When trying to get the best click-through rate, a marketer wants to focus on using keywords that have a high monthly search volume. The downside of using keywords with a high monthly search volume is that they are usually the keywords with a hard keyword difficulty rating.
To strike a balance between the two to get a good click-through rate, try to use keywords in your content that is both relatively easy and have a relatively good search volume. This will increase the likelihood that your content will be seen and will improve click-through rates.
Negative Keywords
Negative keywords are key ideas or phrases that prevent your website or advertisement from being shown in a search result for a phrase. Negative keywords are also known as negative matches’. The purpose of using negative keywords is a better-focused ad campaign and search results.
Using negative keywords to focus search results and ad campaigns can help improve your organic click-through rate. Having more relevant clicks to your website will also pay off in terms of conversion. Adwords, also known as Google Ads more recently, rewards the use of negative keywords.
Ads and websites that use negative keywords see a better ranking thanks to the Adwords algorithm. As explained earlier, a better ranking is almost guaranteed to result in a better click-through rate.
Negative Keyword Research
To figure out which words to exclude and which to include, a marketer needs to do some research. To find negative keywords for advertisements, you will need a report on your current ad groups. Filter this report by the group and then sort all of the queries, both phrase match and broad, by the highest click-through rates and most number of impressions.
By reviewing the search queries in this way, you can see all of the irrelevant words that come up. These irrelevant words can become your negative keywords to better focus your ad campaign. Try to exclude the negative keywords that have the highest number of impressions and CTRs.
The negative keywords chosen can be applied either at the ad group level or the ad campaign level. Depending on what a business needs, there may be a need to exclude some words at one level but not the other.
8.2: Research And Getting The Best Click-Through Rate
It may already seem obvious, but getting the best click-through rate requires a lot of research and work to be put in behind the scenes. Keyword research is crucial to the click-through rate. Including the right keywords for each piece of content produced is essential to digital marketing success.
To start to do research, make a list of important topics that are relevant to your niche. For each different topic, try to think of some keywords and long-tail keywords that are associated with it. Once you have a list of potential keywords, start to research those keywords and see what comes up when those keywords are searched.
This will give another list of words that are related to your keywords. Make sure that you have a good mix of both long-tail keywords and plain keywords for the best click-through rate. If this kind of keyword research seems burdensome, you can also use software or high a professional to research keywords for you.
Software
Using a keyword research software can finetune your rough research that was done just using search queries. In fact, keywords used that have been found by using a software improve click-through rate much more than software-free research.
There are a number of softwares on the market that can be used to finetune keywords. Some software can deliver better keywords than others. As such, your click-through rate will depend on the quality of software used to figure out keywords.
Hiring A Professional
Choosing to hire a professional for research can take the weight of keywords research off of your shoulders. Many entrepreneurs and business owners are not exactly sure where to start when it comes to research and content creation. That is when hiring a professional comes in handy.
Not only will a content creation professionals do all of the research needed to improve CTR they will also create content that uses those keywords to get the best click-through rate for a business. Hiring a content creator to complete keyword research can drastically improve CTR. When hiring someone to handle keyword research and content creation, you are trusting your click-through rate in the hand of a professional.
Many professionals have carved out careers in content creation, meaning they want to see your CTR improve just as much as you do. If you are interested in hiring a professional to improve click-through rates consider the professionals at Content Refined. With years of experience in creating content, a business can rest assured their CTR will increase.
8.3: Calls To Action And Increasing Click-Through Rate
Calls to action in content creation and marketing are the focal point of ads, web pages, social media, and email marketing campaigns. Calls to action are the part of the content that tells the online target audience what they should do. As such, a compelling call to action is what can either deliver a great CTR or fail to yield many clicks at all.
Calls to action let the primary target audience know what they need to do. Being as informative as possible in a call to action will do good by your business. Giving a potential customer the information they need to become an actual customer and how being a customer will benefit them are both components of a good call to action.
Calls to action are a factor that defines the success or failure of an ad campaign or web page click-through rate. Time should be taken into properly crafting a great call to action that will deliver the best click-through rate. Here are some tips for an effective call to action that brings in the best click-through rate.
Tell A User Why They Should Choose You
It’s a jungle out there–no, really, digital marketing is a crazy, online jungle that is hyper-competitive. Users are surrounded by online offers from your business competitors almost all of the time, that is why it is important to communicate to a user why they should choose to listen to your call to action over your competitor’s.
A call to action that delivers the best click-through rate is one that makes use of a unique selling point. Does your business offer something that the others do not? Then that should be included in the call to action in some way. The best call to action is one that tells a user what they should do something and the reasoning behind it.
For example, a business can create a call to action that suggests a user should buy now because if they buy now they will receive a special offer. That reason should be rooted in the unique selling point of a business that shows the value that the product or service will bring to the user. Selling the benefits to the user will increase the click-through rate.
Language Is Your Friend
Using elements of language can make all the difference between an ineffective and an effective call to action. Some words are more persuasive than others, and an effective call to action should make use of the most persuasive language as possible. Using strong command verbs in a call to action are a great way to get the best click-through rate.
Command verbs are verbs that ask someone to do something. Making use of strong command verbs will come across as more confident and be more convincing to a user. Consider the difference between a call to action that says “consider calling today” and one that states “call today”. Clearly, the latter is stronger and more persuasive than the former.
Placing strong command words at the start of a call to action will immediately let a user know what you want them to do. Being direct and informative in a call to action is crucial to getting a good click-through rate.
Optimize Calls To Action To Function On All Devices
Effectively written calls to action can become even more effective when optimized to fit the device on which they are read. Great calls to action that are matched with mobile device capabilities will see a better click-through rate than calls to actions that do not make use of this technology.
If an ad is read on a SERP, it is more likely to be clicked when a well-written call to action is matched with smart buttons. When a person sees a search ad on their phone, it may come up after seeing a display ad elsewhere and wanting to quickly learn more. A marketer can use this curiosity to their advantage with effective calls to actions and smart buttons
Technology should work for you, not against you. Calls to actions can be optimized to include ‘call now’ buttons. Since people are more likely to take action when the button is so easy to click, optimizing calls to action to work with mobile devices will help improve click-through rates.
8.4: Writing Good Ad Copy For A Great CTR
Advertisements, in general, are one of the best ways to increase traffic to a web page. But how does one manage to run an ad that draws in that traffic and produces the best click-through rate? Most of the time, this question is answered by creating a well-written ad copy.
Well written ad copy has a primary goal of not only increasing website traffic but selling a product or service to a potential customer. There is usually a very small window of opportunity for an ad to convince a potential customer to visit a business’s web page. But digital marketing is a game played entirely in that small window.
Digital advertisements can be tweaked ever so slightly to improve the chances of seeing a good click-through rate in that small window. Writing good ad copy is one of the best ways to improve click-through rate. Here are some tips on how to create well-written ad copy that can deliver a high CTR.
Emotions Help
The best ads often appeal to our emotions. The reason marketers choose to appeal to emotions is that emotions are more likely to trigger action in comparison to a simple logical appeal alone. Creators of good ad copy use this fact to their advantage.
People often casually browse the internet, reading up on information for products or services and figuring out solutions to potential problems. If a casual browser comes across a strictly factual ad, chances are it will not pique their attention in the way that an emotional advertisement would.
Ad copy that highlights how a product or service will help the casual browser makes an appeal to their emotions. This appeal can cause the casual browser to become interested in that web page as it may offer some insight into a problem they are having. As a result, ad copy with emotional appeals yields better click-through rates.
Keywords
Using keywords is not only essential for high-quality written content, but it is also absolutely crucial when it comes to writing ad copy as well. An ad does not to be heavily written with keywords to be effective. Instead, smart use of keywords and long-tail keywords in an advertisement will drastically improve CTR.
Keywords can be used not only in the header of an ad, but they can also be used in the URL. Using keywords in both will give the impression that your business’s ad is more legitimate than your competitors. Search engines will also prefer ads that make effective use of keywords.
Break up keywords in headers to give the ad a more natural appearance. This will drive click-through rate, improving the return on investment in an advertisement.
Use Numbers
Making use of numbers in ad copy can give readers the impression that an advertisement is much more informative and trust-worthy. Many people see numbers as an authority, much more trustworthy than a simple phrase. Using numbers in ad copy are one of the best ways to increase the click-through rate.
Using numbers instead of words wherever possible can help a business get the best click-through rate. Not only do numbers make for faster reading, but they also help a user know what to expect from an ad. That is why using number can be so effective in improving click-through rate.
In fact, making use of numbers in ad copy can increase CTR by as much as 36%. To use numbers in ad copy, write out any discounts or special offers in number form. Such a simple change to ad copy can have a significant positive impact on click-through rate.
Include Offers
Writing ad copy that focuses only on how amazing the product or service is will likely not deliver a good click-through rate. Each business likes to highlight the wonderful services and products they offer, but doing more of the same will not help your ad stand apart and as a result, will not yield a good click-through rate.
If one business’s ad has an offer but the other does not, it is a no brainer as to which one a user would choose. Advertisements need to offer something to a user in order to see a better click-through rate, especially as it becomes more common to do so.
It is important to not only include offers in the first few lines of the ad copy but to include offers in the headline of the ad as well. Since headlines are the first thing users see, including an offer in the headline will create more of a draw to your web page. Giving users an added reason like an offer can help get the best click-through rate.
8.5: Title Creation For Getting A Good Click-Through Rate
Getting the best click-through rate depends on a good title. Title creation is something that many content creators and marketers struggle with. Coming up with an engaging and catchy title can sometimes feel harder than creating the content itself.
Titles matter when it comes to marketing because if an article or advertisement fails to have a good title, there is no appeal for a user to choose to click on that link. That is why title creation is so important. Yet, there is a struggle among many marketers to create a good title that will drive CTR.
Most titles are boring and there are many over-used tactics that some search engine optimization specialists can’t seem to stop using. So how does one stand apart from the crowd to improve their click-through rate? The answer is not so difficult. Here are some title hacks to get the best CTR.
Formatting And Titles For CTR
When discussing formatting, titles can make a world of difference. Content can come in many different forms, shapes, and sizes. For example, the content on your web page may be a listicle, it may be research, it could be a how-to article, possibly and ebook, or many different content formats.
By stating the format of the content in the title, it becomes more informative to the user. As has been discussed, not only do search engines prefer the most informative content but so do users. Therefore, putting the format on your content in your title will encourage more click-throughs to the web page.
It should be noted that by including a format in the title will only work so long as the content is actually what the title says it is. When a title is misleading or deceitful, it will often suffer in terms of click-through rate. Be honest with the title of the content and it can deliver a strong click-through rate.
Appeal To Emotion
Appealing to emotion in the title can be a great way to improve click-through rate. Appeals to emotion do not need to be ‘happy’ or ‘sad’ to see a good click-through rate. Instead, using emotional words that are more relevant to the content in the title often see the best click-through rate.
Making use of words like ‘brilliant’, ‘best’, ‘unusual’, or ‘surprising’ can often appeal to a reader or user’s emotions. The user of the search engine wants to see the best content that they can find, and as a result, will often follow links that seem to appeal more to their emotions.
Choosing between content titled ‘Things To Know About Sample Topic’ versus ‘Surprising Things You Need To Know About Sample Topic’ is easy. The latter is more likely to be clicked since the user expects to find the most relevant and coveted information on that page. This will significantly improve CTR.
Use Of Brackets
Making use of some brackets in a title or title tag can make a massive difference in click-through rate. In fact, one study found that the use of brackets in a headline increase clicks by almost 40%. Of course, that number is an average but changing the title to include brackets can help your web page get the best click-through rate.
Brackets can improve CTR because they give a quick preview of what the content provides. For example, a web page may feature a how-to video and by writing
in the title, the user of the search engine has a better idea of what to expect from that web page.
Brackets can also help differential new content from old content. Many marketers like to create guides to a number of different things however when a new version of the old guide is written, it may be hard for a user to tell them apart. Including [New Guide] in brackets can let a user know that there is fresh content in your guide, increasing click-through rate.
Title Tags
Title tags, also known as title elements, are what create the title text of each web page. Title tags are created with HTML code in a header are used to summarize a web page. It used to be the case that the title tags that saw the best click-through rates were the ones that included the most keywords in the title tag, but this is not necessarily the case today.
In fact, trying to fit as many keywords as possible into a keyword can hurt CTR. Instead, using a few keywords in the title tag will allow a search engine to discern what the web page contains. Title tags should be used to the marketer’s advantage as much as possible, including using that opportunity to show the web page’s value to a user.
Including low price references, speed, new content, or brand references in title tags can improve click-through rate. In fact, making these small changes to the title tags to improve titles, in general, can improve the click-through rate by close to 10%.
Trust A Pro
Title creation can be tough. Not only do you want a title to be catchy, but you do not want it to be click-bait. Striking a fine line between the two can be tough for some marketers. However, title creation does not need to be a constant struggle–at least, not when it is trusted to a professional.
Choosing to hire a professional for title creation often comes with a number of perks. Since the pros want to deliver their clients the best CTR, they often put in a lot of research to come up with the best title. As such, they often research the best keywords to use that are relevant to the topic at hand.
Leaving title creation to a professional usually gives you more than just a simple title. Professionals have high standards they like to adhere to, meaning they want to provide a business with the most effective title they can. Choosing to hire a professional like those at Content Refined can also provide your business with high-quality content to match the title.
8.6: Key Phrases And Symbol Use To Increase CTR
Getting the best click-through rate does not stop at just using keywords in content creation, it also involved including key phrases and symbols in written content. Key phrases, or long-tail keywords, and symbols have both been found to significantly improve click-through rate.
Symbols, long-tail keywords, and other keywords not only improve click-through rates for organic clicks on a SERP, but they also have a significant effect on CTR for pay-per-click ads. Focusing on having these three elements in both regular written copy and ad copy will yield the best click-through rate.
By including a mix of keywords, long-tail keywords, and symbols in written or ad copy, a marketer can expect to see an increase in CTR. Use of all three results in a web page or advertisement that is optimized—and a web page that is optimized is one that sees a high click-through rate.
Long-Tail Keywords
Long-tail keywords are three-letter or four-letter long key phrases that are highly specific to certain products or services. For example, instead of a search for ‘cheese’ grater, many users search for long-tail keywords like ‘aluminum cheese grater’. This indicates a user intent to find a specific product.
Marketers can use user intent and specificity to their advantage when it comes to increasing click-through rates. Recent data suggest that the longer the search query, the more likely a user is to search on links that are not ranked in the first position. This can improve CTRs drastically for those results that do not rank first on a SERP.
Using long-tail keywords will attract the potential customers a business wants to their web page. By using the long-tail keywords and key phrases that potential customers search most often, an entrepreneur or business over can get the best click-through rate.
Use Of Symbols For A Good Click-Through Rate
Symbols, such as the trademark symbol ™, the copyright symbol ©, and the registered trademark symbol ®, have a dramatic effect on click-through rate. When using these symbols in the heading of a pay-per-click advertisement, it can be the difference between a high or low click-through rate.
Symbols made the largest difference in highly competitive or high researched industries such as business to business industries. When writing ad copy, simply including one of the above symbols can increase click-through rate by over 5%. Some studies have found that in comparison to other symbols, the registered trademark symbol delivers the best CTR.
The reason why adding symbols to ad copy helps CTR is that it aids in setting a PPC ad apart from other ads on a SERP and it also increases consumer confidence in a business. A business that has a lot of consumer confidence behind it is one that will see a high click-through rate.
8.7: Creating Well-Written Content For Great Click-Through Rates
Well written content that yields a good click-through rate has a number of features. Not only is that content relevant to a given subject, but it is also informative. The written copy should also feature a number of things, such as bullet points, different headers, catchy titles and headings, keywords, rich snippets, and much more.
Creating well-written content does not only have all of the above it is also coherent and grammatically sound. Well-written copy is free of spelling and grammar errors and each sentence should flow from one to the next. The written copy should also have a clear start and finish. Not to mention that the written copy should meet a certain word count.
Word count matters when it comes to written copy. An article that is too short likely can’t convey a coherent message. Because of all of these factors, delivering well-written content that yields a high click-through rate as a marketer can be tough. Without an in-house person dedicated to the craft, it can be hard for entrepreneurs to consistently deliver quality content.
Professionally Written Content
When you choose to leave the writing to the pros, you reap a number of benefits. Professional content creators and writers are experts in their field. When you leave copy writing up to an expert, not only will they deliver good content, but they will put in the behind the scenes work necessary to deliver a good click-through rate.
Professionals Can Cater To Your Business Needs
When choosing to hire a professional for your content creation, you can choose from a number of different packages that will better suit your needs. Professional content creators know that the business is not one-size-fits-all. Depending on your needs, professionals can customize their services to offer you the content creation you need to improve your CTR.
Different businesses and entrepreneurs need different things when it comes to content creation. Thankfully, professional content creators are not one-trick ponies. Trusting a professional to create content can come in many different forms.
Content Creation Packages
Trusting a professional with your content creation will not only give you keyword research, SEO optimization, writing, and editing, but you will also have a team member focused on your project. Content creation packages can give you all of the above.
With a content creation package, you can choose the number of posts or articles you want to be written. Depending on your business needs you can also customize the number of posts you need. No need to map out and plan content creation yourself when you leave it to a professional. Here are some of the package rates that we offer at Content Refined.
Content Writing Packages
If you prefer to do the research on your own, you can choose to go that route with professional services as well. Taking time to do your own keyword, title tag, and title creation research can still leave room for a professional to do the writing, editing, and SEO optimization.
By doing your own keyword research and title creation, you can leave the task of writing to someone who does it best. Simply send the professional content creator your keywords and titles and they will do the rest. Content Refined are content creators that can take your keywords and titles and fill in the rest.
Content Upgrade Packages
Some entrepreneurs and business owners may already have a bunch of content on their website. But this content may no longer be delivering in terms of click-through rate and conversion rate. As a result, that content is not working to their advantage.
Another service that we provide is content updating. Updating existing content has been found to be an effective and efficient way to improve click-through rates. Often times updated content performs better than freshly created content.
Choosing a professional to update your content can help a business flesh out content gaps, edit and improve existing content, and optimize all content so that it can produce the best click-through rate. This is a great option for those who have recently bought a website that features existing content or someone who knows their articles need a refresh.
Creating Your Own Written Content
Creating your own content is not simply writing an article and publishing on your website. Careful thought and planning go behind creating high-quality written content. To create your own written content, you need to keep a number of things in mind:
- Keep titles relevant
- Use keywords relevant to your niche
- Utilize different headings in your articles
- Write a persuasive call to action
- Keep the written content creative and exciting to read
- Use bullet points
- Add in symbols
Keeping all of the above in mind can help your written content deliver a good click-through rating. Content creation is a careful craft that when done correctly can significantly improve web traffic, click-through rates, and conversion rates.
Upgrading Your Current Content
If you already have some written content created, you might think that your old content will still help your click-through rate in the future. But this is often not the case. Updating your content so that the articles are longer, use better keywords, and are still optimized can go a long way in terms of content creation.
Search engines are constantly updating the top results as new content is being created by competitors and other businesses every day. As such, you need to make sure that all of your content is working to your advantage to deliver a good click-through rate. Leaving old content to rest might not be doing many favors for your CTR.
Updating your old content can also save marketers the headache of having to constantly think of new and exciting content. Refreshed content can be just as exciting and can become more relevant and informative to customers of a particular business niche.
8.8: Trial And Error To Improve CTR
Perfecting your content so that it gets the best click-through rate is not something that can happen overnight. Instead, developing a great click-through rate will require some trial and error. What best tricks work for some content will not work for others, and what strategies pull in a great click-through rate for one ad group may not apply to another ad group.
Testing what yield the best click-through rate for each different platform is a necessary step in optimizing a digital marketing strategy. For social media, emails, and PPC ads testing is a necessary learning portion of digital marketing. Finding out what is working best for each platform and each ad group will deliver the best click-through rate.
Testing On Social Media
There are many variables at work when trying to get the best click-through rate on social media. For example, the copy written, headline, photo quality, if the post features of video, time of publication, and many more factors all play a part in click-through rates. However, finding what works for getting the best click-through rate on social media can be simple.
Testing what works and what does not on social media will require two posts to be published. Trying different methods like personalization on one and a catchy headline on the other will help to narrow down what the best route forward is for your business.
Analyzing the response to posts on social media can also help improve click-through rate. Figure out the commonalities between posts that saw a higher level of likes, comments, replies, shares, and follows as these posts will ultimately deliver the best click-through rate.
Testing Email CTR
Some emails will receive a better click-through rate than others. Try to systematically change small parts of emails until you figure out which features readers respond the best too. This may take a couple of trials but analyzing the emails that saw the best click-through rates for commonalities will improve emails for the future.
Focus on the call to action in the email as this can have the biggest impact on click-through rate. After some time, emails will be fine-tuned and will consistently deliver a great CTR. But of course it takes some work and a little trial and error to get to that point first.
Testing Ad CTR
Advertisement testing is a large component of PPC ads. Not all ads are created equal. Some ads, such as responsive search ads or expanded text ads, often perform better than others, like banner ads in terms of click-through rate. To test ads, run two different ads at similar times. The ads should be tested on as level a playing field as possible.
Both ads should be shown at the same frequency so that they are truly put head-to-head. The ads should also be published around the same time. This levels the playing field so that a direct comparison of which one performs better than the other can be made.
8.9: Getting The Best Click-Through Rates For SERPs
Developing a good click-through rate for a search engine results page requires search engine optimization. Search engine optimization increases both the quality and quantity of traffic to your website. A number of things go into search engine optimization, such as quality content, well-researched key terms, and rich snippets.
Increasing organic click-through rates for a business’s web page is one of the most important considerations for marketers. An organic click-through rate can be indicative of the business’s performance, so having a good organic click-through rate is hugely important. Organic click-through rates give an idea of what to expect in terms of campaigns.
Thankfully, there are a number of things that a marketer can tweak to get the best organic click-through rate for SERPs. From focusing on content to changing URLs, improving SERP click-through rates does not need to be too complicated. Here are some of the ways to get the best click-through rate for SERPs.
Use Structured Data On A Web Page
Structured data is data on a webpage that has been formatted into a database. By including structured data on a web page, that data can then be better addressed an understood by various analyses and processes. Structured data on a web page can be better understood by a search engine than regular plain written copy.
A web page that contains structured data is a rich web page. Search engines like Google can pick up on this data and display the structured portions of the web page to the user when they search. Structured data like the use of rich snippets can increase organic click-through rate since interactive search results are often favored over static web pages.
For example, if a web page features a recipe, the search result for that recipe may have a webpage that contains the average rating of that recipe, the time it takes to make the recipe, the number of estimated calories per serving, and some of the ingredients. Since this search result is the most informative by including structured data, it will see the best click-through rate.
Using Google AdWords Keyword Planner To Improve CTR
Google Ads, formerly known as Google AdWords, is Google’s advertisement platform. The Google Ads Keyword Planner is a free tool put forth by Google Ads to help marketers build better search ad campaigns. This tool is handy when trying to create search ads for the Google search engine.
The Keyword Planner allows a marketer to search for keywords that are relevant to their content. The Planner illustrates to a marketer as to how the keywords may perform in a given campaign. This can help marketers improve their CTR on Google by finding the keywords that have the highest performance potential.
Use Keywords In URLs
Lately, many of the top search results on a given SERP make use of keywords in their URL. For example, if a user were to search for an example word, one or more of the top search results would likely have the example word in their URL such that the URL is formatted like www.examplewebpage.com/exampleword.
Not only will the search engine results page favor these types of URLs, but users of search engines will too. New search engine algorithms favor these URLs, prioritizing them to getting search ranks. As a result, a business can expect a better click-through rate since their web page has a higher ranking.
Making use of descriptive URLs is one of the best ways to increase the click-through rate. Using keywords and long-tail keywords in a URL can give a user of search engine a better preview of what clicking on a business’s link will offer them. To the user, a web page with the keywords they search for in the URL is more likely to give them exactly what they need.
Keywords Can Shorten URLs
Using keywords in a URL can shrink the length of the URL, but why would that matter? The answer is simple: search engine algorithms prefer it and so do users. Shorter URLs are more likely to have a higher ranking on a SERP. In fact, URLs that have close to 50, but no more than 60, characters are likely to see a better click-through rate than long URLs.
Having a shorter URL also provides a cleaner look and is more likely to draw a user to click on a link. By appealing more to the user of the search engine, a marketer can improve CTR to a web page. Shortening a URL by using a keyword will help improve click-through rates for a number of reasons.
Make Use Meta Descriptions
Meta descriptions are attributes written in HTML code that give a short summary of the contents of a web page. Meta descriptions are normally as long as 160 characters and search engines often scan meta descriptions to determine if a web page is relevant and high quality. If it deems it to be the case, that web page will see a better ranking and CTR.
Think of meta descriptions as a sort of elevator pitch. Like an elevator pitch, meta descriptions allow a business to make a pitch to a search engine user in an effort to get them to click on their link. Without a meta description, the search engine will provide a sentence from your web page that contains the keyword the user searched for.
By only being provided with one automatically generated sentence, users may not choose to click on a business’s web page because that one sentence may not be relevant. By providing a meta description, the business is able to show that its web page is relevant to the user, increasing the business’s click-through rate.
Listicles Are Everywhere For A Reason
Listicles have becomes extremely popular online. Almost every time a person goes online, they are likely to see some sort of listicle. Whether that be the top 10 international vacation destinations or the top 5 burger restaurants near you, a person is likely to see a couple of links to listicles in their time online.
There is a reason why listicles are everywhere–it is because they are effective. Recent market research shows that across many demographics, numbered headlines or listicles resonate the best with readers. In fact, one study found that 36% of people prefer listicles. Since so many people prefer listicles, it is safe to say that using then will improve CTR.
Listicles are so effective as increasing click-through rate because people are predisposed to prefer numbers over plain text. Making effective use of listicles will not only improve a business’s ranking on a SERP, but it will yield a high click-through rate.
8.10: How To Get The Best Click-Through Rate For Social Media
Social media marketing has taken the digital world by storm. That means that running a successful ad campaign or posting high-performing content on social media is more important than ever. But sometimes getting the best click-through rate on social media can be a challenge.
Creating content that performs well on social can be a challenge. Often content creation on social media requires a lot of time and effort so when it fails to perform well in terms of click-through rate, it can be a huge resource sink. However, there are some tried and true methods that seem to consistently bring in the good click-through rates.
Getting The Best CTR For Facebook
Facebook has become one of the most important social media platforms when it comes to digital marketing. Facebook is one of the largest social media platforms in the world with more than one billion people being active on Facebook. The potential to see high click-through rates on Facebook is massive.
This all means that marketers need to pay attention to the content that produces the best CTR on Facebook. Here are a few tips on getting the best click-through rate on Facebook.
Put A Friendly Face In the Picture
Some posts and advertisements perform better on Facebook than others. One thing is common among most clicked Facebook posts: they contain images that often feature a face. It makes sense when you consider the platform that the content is run on. Many people log on to see what is the latest with their friends, family, and sometimes the news.
Facebook was invented to be a sort of catalogue of the faces that you know. Building on that fact, marketers can see a better click-through rate on their content that features a photo showing a face.
This method has been proven to increase CTR as recent data suggests Facebook posts that contain images with faces perform over 2 times better than those without images at all. To get the best CTR on Facebook, include images in all of your content.
Feature Well-Written Copy
It has been said before but it is worth saying again: content is king–even in the digital era. Well-written ad copy and post copy are some of the best ways to increase the click-through rate on Facebook. Captions that are moving or well-written even have the possibility to go viral.
There are a couple of ways that copy can be improved on Facebook:
- Add a personal touch
- Asking questions
- Answering questions
- Write captivating ad titles
By making use of one or more of these tips in a Facebook post, a marketer will likely see an increased CTR. Some studies have found that the above tips for improving copy can increase CTR by over 14%.
Getting A Great CTR For Instagram
Instagram is a platform dedicated to sharing photos and much like Facebook, users on Instagram prefer to see photos that feature faces on their feed. Some recent digital media research has found that Instagram posts with faces get 38% more likes than image posts without any faces or posts of graphics.
To start seeing a better click-through rate on Instagram, try to focus on producing content that features a face in the images. This along with well-written captions following some of the guidelines written above can help to increase organic CTR.
8.11: Developing The Best CTR For Email
Email campaigns, when done correctly, can have some of the best click-through rates. Since many email newsletters or marketing campaigns are opt-in, the recipient already has some expectations to receive an email from a business.
Opt-in emails have been shown to have some of the best CTRs. The recipients likely chose to sign up for emails because they are interested in a business’s product or service and would like to stay up to date. But not at email campaigns are opt-in based.
Some email campaigns are prospective, that is, they are trying to prospect new potential customers and invite them to the business. In either case, what both often desire are a good click-through rate. Both types of email campaigns have some general best practices to deliver the best click-through rate.
Make Use Of Preview Text
Preview text gives the recipient a chance to see what is going on in the email that is sent out. In fact, 24% of people read the preview text before deciding whether to open an email. Improving preview text, then, can be the difference between whether a recipient opens an email or not, steps ahead of working on the CTR directly.
By featuring effective preview text, a person is more likely to read the email and then potentially click-through any link attached. To improve CTR, try adding a second subject line that will operate as preview text. Preview text should either summarize the entire email or be a call to action.
Having a call to action as preview text is effective since that will direct a recipient right to your lead, improving click-through rate. Since both Apple mail and Gmail use preview text adding preview text to your email campaign will improve the look of your email for a large number of recipients, which, in turn, boosts CTR.
Mind Email Formatting
User experience makes or breaks digital marketing. An email that is not formatted correctly will likely not be read in its entirety and as such will not see a good click-through rate. Nowadays, emails need to be formatted for both desktop and mobile devices. Since most people check emails on their mobile device, an improperly formatted email will be discarded.
When formatting an email including important information in a graphic should be avoided. Hiding key information in a graphic is bad for accessibility. Graphics are also often blocked by spam detectors by default. An email without information hidden in graphics will see a better click-through rate.
Email content should also be formatted so that it is easy to read. Long emails are hard to pay attention to, so breaking email copy up into smaller paragraphs will provide a better user experience. By keeping people reading through better formatting, a business can expect improved click-through rates.
Include High-Quality Content
It should almost go without saying that the content of the email needs to be high-quality and relevant. Sending out an email campaign that is sloppily written or irrelevant to the recipients will see a poor click-through rate.
Content can also be improved by including data in an email. Using numbers draws customers in and will educate them on the email topic. Including images or GIFs have also become a trendy feature of email campaigns with a high CTR.
People respond positively when visual stimuli are included in an email. So including images within the email, GIFs, or video thumbnails will not only get the reader’s attention, it will help an email campaign get the best click-through rate.
Mind The Time
Timing is always important. An email sent at 3 o’clock in the morning will see nowhere near as good of a click-through rate as one that is sent at 3 PM. But emails sent during standard business hours will also not see as good of a click-through rate as those sent after work.
Between the hours of 9 AM and 5 PM, many email recipients will be too busy with other tasks to check your email and click-through to your landing page. Sending emails once the workday is done and people are expected to be settled at home has been proven to deliver the best click-through rate.
Some research has indicated that the period between 8 PM and midnight is the best time to send an email, regardless of where the recipient is in the world. This is because many people have calmed down after a full day of work and errands and other life commitments freeing them to open your email and improve your click-through rate.
Frequency Matters
The frequency in which you send email campaigns plays an important role in click-through rates. Sending too many and too few can both come back to hurt your click-through rate.
Sending too many emails will leave a bad impression on recipients. Not only will automatic filters likely flag your marketing emails as spam, but recipients may become incentivized to opt-out or block future emails from coming through. Obviously, if the emails are not read, the click-through rate will reflect that.
Sending too few emails can result in recipients forgetting who you are and what you have to offer. The last thing a marketer wants to do is to be forgotten. So try to hit a sweet spot between spending too few emails and too many to improve CTR. Emails send roughly once to twice a week are best practices for increasing the click-through rate.
Link And Relink
Including several different links in your email can result in only marginal click-through rates for each link. This also indicates that maybe an email is not as focused as it should be. To improve click-through rates, focus on trying to increase click-through rates for a specific link.
To actually improve CTRs for that link, one of the best things a marketer can do is include the link multiple times. Just including a link once can leave open the opportunity for the reader to quickly glance over it. By including a link multiple times the click-through rate can increase to almost 30%.
Include the link either embedded in the text or as a whole link itself in different places throughout the email. Giving the reader multiple opportunities to click the link will significantly improve CTR.
8.12: Increasing Ad CTR
When click-through rates on your advertisement are low, you likely are not in a comfortable position. Handling a low CTR on a pay-per-click ad can mean a business is not getting its money’s worth. Increasing ad click-through rates is the best way to see a return on investment.
Thankfully, increasing CTR for a PPC ad can be simple. Whether the ad is a display ad or a search ad, some minor tweaks can make a major difference. By improving features such as the ad copy only by the slightest bit, a business can improve ad CTR with minimal effort.
Display Ads
Display ads that underperform in terms of click-through rate are nothing new. Thankfully, you can get the best display ad click-through rate without having to entirely remake a display ad. First, the display or banner ad needs to fit all standard formats.
A display ad that does not properly fit different operating systems, window size, or device type will not perform well. Take your existing display ad and format a set of ads such that they fit all of the display ad standard formats.
Display ads can also be altered to become responsive ads. Responsive ads are ads that automatically adjust their size and format to fit the space. The search engine automatically optimizes responsive ads which can significantly improve ad click-through rates.
Search Ads
Improving search ads is as simple as editing some of the ad copy. Some quick tips that tend to improve ad CTR are the following:
- Include rich snippets
- Add a main keyword to the display URL
- Include a special offer in the headline
- Put a period at the end of the description line
Some of these quick tops may surprise you, especially the last one. When running a search ad, you are limited to having 25 characters in the headline of the ad text whereas the description line has a limit of 35 characters. This helps users better understand what your web page offers and therefore improves click-through rate.
By adding a period to the end of the description line, the description line becomes lumped into the headline. This allows both to appear on the same line when appearing in the top spots on a given SERP. Having both the description line and headline lumped together creates a more informative headline, enticing a user to click that search ad.
Try Remarketing
Just a user has visiting a web page in the past, does not mean that they can’t fulfill a call to action in the future. Remarketing is a great way to connect with people who have already visited your website. These ads appear in strategic positions in front of users as they browse the internet using a search engine or a partner website.
Remarketing is an effective strategy for a number of reasons. First, it reminds target audiences to come back and fulfill the call to action by making a purchase or subscribing to content. Second, it increases brand awareness. Third, these two other benefits combine to produce an improved click-through rate.
Remarketing campaigns are often highly focused and do not require a lot of work remaking a full, independent ad campaign. Remarketing campaigns often make use of targeting timing so the ads are shown when the user is most likely to click through to your website and fulfilled the CTA. Essentially, remarketing is a great way to improve CTA and conversion.
Conclusion
There is a lot to learn about click-through rates, their importance, and how to get the best CTR. It is important to remember that click-through rates are only one measure of success in digital marketing, although it is an important one. Click-through rates are the first measure to figure out if the content run is performing well or not.
Poor click-through rates tell a marketer that the content is either not reaching the target audience or it is failing to captivate the target audience. If a marketer knows that the content is in the places where the targeted traffic is flowing, then it clearly is a content problem.
If there is one takeaway from this ebook, it should be that high-quality content matters when it comes to click-through rate. Creating content that is effective, to the point, and well written is one of the biggest challenges a marketer faces when trying to increase CTR. There is a lot of work that goes into creating well-written copy and developing high-quality content.
Making use of the best keywords, titles, and rich snippets where applicable can be a lot to manage when trying to increase web traffic and click-through rate. But all of those elements are crucial to digital marketing success. Making use of the resources available as a marketer is one of the ways to deliver effective content.
One of those resources could be to hire a professional with a proven track record for delivering high-quality content that can supply a great click-through rate. Choosing to take the professional route for content creation can take a load off of a marketer’s back.
Trusting content creation in the hands of the professionals at Content Refined ensures that your content will be striking, captivating, and engaging. Contact them today learn more about their content services.