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These are our 13 practical tips designed to help you improve the CTR of your Google Ads campaigns.
Anyone can do Google Ads campaigns …
You simply write your ads, add a few keywords, enter your credit card details and watch as visits and sales come in droves…
Does it sound too good to be true? And you’re right.
As a matter of fact, that’s how it was 20 years ago when Adwords started. There was a large inventory (Google searches), few advertisers and it was like an open bar with ridiculously cheap traffic compared to today. Most of the major web platforms were created using the power of Adwords (now Google Ads).
It has become much more competitive and there is only room for excellence.
The good news is that there is still a way to reduce the cost of your traffic and that is to improve the CTR of your ads on Google Ads.
Quality Level
In Google Ads there is a notion of quality of the ads we measure using the Quality Level. A good quality score means a relevant ad and Google rewards you by paying less for your traffic.
One of the important components of this Quality Level is the CTR (click rate). The latter is a direct reflection of the relevance of your ads. In fact, if no one clicks on your ads, it means that something is wrong and therefore your ad is probably irrelevant.
If you don’t structure your Google Ads account enough and manage it efficiently, your ad click rates can be low. This means you won’t get the traffic, contacts or sales you’ve been waiting for, and probably not with the expected return on investment.
So how can you improve the Google Ads CTR? Here are 13 ways to improve the CTR of your Google Ads
Use a maximum of ad extension types
There are many types of ad extensions that can make your ad stand out on Google. If it takes up more space, it will have more clicks. Google is happy (makes more money) and everyone is happy.
I’m not usually around to add extensions just to please Google. You must take into account the end user. I often find the ads too complex and unreadable. You’ll be happy to see a higher CTR, more clicks, but not necessarily more conversions or rotation …
The proper use of extensions increases the size of your ads, but above all makes them more relevant, and consequently helps improve the CTR (click rate).
There are several different types of ad extensions and below I recommend some to try on your ads:
Site link ad extensions
A site link extension is an extra line of text that appears when your ads appear in the first three positions. They look like organic search links that appear when you search for a company name.
Up to 4 site links appear below your ads, but you can create more site links and Google will decide which links to show.
Adding a description to your site links allows you to add two additional lines of text below the link title of each site. By using this feature, your ads are highlighted and reduce the visibility of your competitors’ ads.
Call extensions
As with link extensions, adding call extensions to your ads makes it easier for people to contact you. This is ideal for businesses where customer calls are common in the sales process. The main advantage of call extensions is that people can click to call using their mobile device or software such as Skype on a desktop computer.
If you set up a Google phone number when you created your calling extension, you can save the calls as an AdWords conversion if they last longer than the call duration you specify. Calling extensions also allow you to highlight your ads and encourage clicks. It is particularly effective on mobile devices.
Site extract extensions
Structured snippet extensions can be created to display product data below the ad description lines.
Structured snippet extensions to Google Ads can improve ad performance.
There are several categories available: equipment, brands, courses, programs, hotels, insurance coverage, models, districts, service catalog, shows and more generic types. Up to 10 values can be added per statement type.
Highlighted text extensions
Featured text extensions are pieces of text that you can add to your ads. Four highlighted text extensions can be shown per ad, but you can add other highlighted text and Google will change the appearance of the ad based on user performance and search. Each calling extension must be within the 25 character limit.
Seller Score Extensions
A seller’s score is an extension of Google Ads that provides a rating between one and five stars that is displayed in search ads.
It is an automated extension that is calculated using customer reviews from various sources that Google trusts (reviews left through Google, Trustpilot, Bizrate, Yotpo, etc.).
Other types of ad extensions
There are many other types of extensions, including pricing extensions, message extensions, location extensions, and application extensions. Depending on your advertising goals, they may be helpful in improving the CTR of your Google Ads.
Writing compelling texts
It sounds simple, but unless you take the time to write attractive ads that include a call to action (or, as we marketers say, a CTA), the performance of your ad will not be optimal.
How to do ? Look at your competitors’ ads and try to write a text (copy) of the ad that stands out from the competition. Think about your strengths and experiment with A/B tests of at least two ads in each ad group.
And the most important thing when writing ads: Nobody cares how big/beautiful/smart you are. It’s not about you or your brand. The secret is to write thinking about your clients, their needs, their fears, their desires,…
Include your target keywords in your ads
It seems obvious, but if your ads do not include the keywords you are bidding on, your CTR will be lower and you may be able to pay more than you want (quality level).
Include your target keyword in the title and again in the ad copy and again in the visible URL.
By including them in the ad, they will appear in bold in the ad and your ad gains in visibility and readability.
Segmenting your ad groups
All options in the Google Ads interface are designed to invite you to add multiple keywords to your account and ad groups. The problem is that having more than 20 keywords in an ad group has an impact on the relationship between the ad text and the keywords in each ad group
When you do that, your ads are too generic and the end result is that click rates and quality scores for your keywords and ads are affected.
The solution is to group topics or keywords into smaller groups and make sure the ad contains the keywords.
Test campaigns with Smart Bidding
With the rise of automation, Google Ads has really stepped up its game with smart bidding strategies.
The beauty of smart bidding is that Google will automate when your ads appear, so that you only enter your ad in auctions where you are most likely to get a click.
By participating in more accurate and targeted auctions, you’ll get a higher click rate.
Gone are the days of automatic bidding, i.e. manual with improved CPC. There are now fully developed smart bidding strategies that may not be perfect but if used correctly, can dramatically improve the performance of your ads.
The main benefit of these new strategies is that they place bids at the time of the auction, which basically means that they use automatic learning to adjust the bids for your keywords in each and every auction. Since every auction is different, it is simply not possible to do it manually.
Use the visible URL of the ad effectively
The visible URL can be used to reinforce the keywords used in your ad groups. Instead of just displaying your website address, you can create an address that doesn’t actually exist on your site, but is very relevant to the requested search for which your ad is displayed.
It has 30 characters in the URL visible in the extended text ads and this is divided into two parts of 15 characters. Use the viewable URL to your advantage and include the keyword phrases for your ad group in parts 1 and 2 of the viewable URL.
Adjust your offers regularly
Bidding too low on your keywords will cause you to lose positions, especially if you go below position 3 or 4. Below these positions, you fall into a desert … it’s almost the same as being on the second page of Google with organic searches.
Be sure to check your bids periodically to make sure you have enough bids to appear on the first page and that your bids place you high enough on the page to get the right click rate.
The objective is not necessarily to be in the first position all the time, but above all to guarantee visibility in the TOP 3 with online auctions with your maximum cost per acquisition.
Include ‘call to action’ in your ads
Don’t be afraid to tell your potential customers what to do. The websites that work best are those that guide their visitors particularly well towards a well-defined goal.
If your goal is to receive calls, say so, put your number on your site and in your ad, but above all, clearly inform your prospects when they visit Google.
A “Call us for a free quote” will have more effect and immediate action.
By adding this type of call to action, you precondition them and gently push them towards conversion.
Analyze the competition
If you’re looking for ideas when writing new ads, why not start by looking at what your competitors are doing?
It’s not about copying, it’s about seeing their strategy. Surely you can identify some mistakes, or interesting ideas.
Make A/B tests of your ads
Google Ads gives you the tools you need to run experiments on your campaigns. One type of experiment is an A/B test, in which you create different variations of your advertising text. As in a CRO campaign, A/B tests allow you to make decisions based on data.
When it comes to testing your ads, you should try to do this with 2 or 3 ads in each ad group.
By creating variations on your ads, you can test which ads get the most clicks and identify the variation that improves CTR.
Once they have run for an acceptable period of time, you can pause the test and create another variation to try again.
Remember to turn off the worst performing ads when you create new ones so you don’t end up with too many ads in the ad group!
Use negative keywords
This idea is not only to help increase the CTR, but also to stop spending your budget on keywords that you cannot capitalize on.
Negative keywords are words that you add to a specific list to prevent search engines that are not looking for what you are selling from seeing your ad.
You can read our article https://adkonversion.com/blog/lista-palabras-clave-negativas-google-ads/ for more ideas on managing your keywords.
Using Remarketing Audiences
A remarketing campaign allows you to publish ads perfectly adapted to specific users. For example, you could choose to place a specific ad for a visitor who has seen a particular product or service on your website.
You can choose to target visitors who are already familiar with your brand, or you can create specific ads to sell more products to existing customers.
If they know you, they’re more likely to click on your ad.
The CTR is not everything: the important thing is the conversions
Finally, CTR is certainly an important performance indicator, but it is not the only indicator that should be followed closely when managing a Google Ads campaign.
In many cases, what will ultimately matter will be the conversions made on your site. They can be purchases, requests for information, registrations, etc. and represent your objectives. Therefore, it is essential to set up conversion tracking on your site and optimize your campaigns to get the most conversions at a cost-effective cost per conversion.
