The CTR or Click Through Rate is one of the most important metrics in digital marketing and can be applied to almost any branch or action. Today in our blog we want to bring you a little closer to this term and show you the importance of CTR within your online advertising and web positioning strategy.
During this article we will learn everything about the CTR and at the end we will make a comparison between the importance it has in SEO and SEM. let’s start 👇
What is the CTR?
The CTR or Click Through Rate is a metric that measures the number of times a user clicks on an ad or URL divided by the number of times they have seen it (impressions).
Other definitions of CTR
CTR is a indicator that measures the effectiveness of a campaign. The proportion of clicks is obtained by dividing the number of users who clicked on an advertising piece -banner- by the number of impressions shown to users, expressed as a percentage.
The CTR is the percentage that indicates how often users who see your ad end up clicking on it. Click-through rate (CTR) can be used to measure the performance of keywords and ads.
How is CTR calculated?
CTR is a percentage calculated by dividing the number of clicks your ad receives by the number of times your ad is displayed.
CTR Formula
clicks ÷ impressions = CTR
- *Impression is considered the number of times your ad has appeared.
- **Clicks are considered the number of times your ad has been clicked or clicked.
Let’s put a example of how to calculate CTR of an ad. Let’s say your ad has been viewed 1,000 times, thus generating 1,000 impressions. In addition to this, it has generated 50 clicks.
Our CTR would be calculated like this:
CTR = (Clicks / Impressions) x 100 = (25 / 1000) x 100 = 2.5%
Therefore the CTR of your ad is 2.5%
Why is CTR important?
Importance of CTR in Google Ads
The Click Through Rate is important because it affects the Quality Score. Google Adwords, like other advertising networks, offer lower costs per click when you have a high Quality Score. It is a metric that is directly related to the advertising quality of your ads. That is, if they are relevant, if the landing page is related to your ad. Well, within these factors that affect the Quality Score, the CTR is one of them. We can affirm that a high percentage of CTR will help you to have a higher Quality Score and therefore to have cheaper CPCs.
It’s simple, Google considers that if a large part of the people who see your ads click on them, it means that they are relevant. However, if of all the people who see your ads hardly anyone decides to click on them, this probably means that they are of poor quality or uninteresting.
Importance of CTR in SEO
Something similar happens in SEO as in Google Ads with the CTR, since it is considered one of the most important SEO factors from the actuality. The higher the CTR of a page, the better its positioning ends up being.
What can we consider a good CTR?
Good CTR in Google Ads
Surely by now you are wondering: “OK, how can I know if the CTRs of my ads are good or not? The truth is It depends a lot on the sector, the type of ad (A banner has nothing to do with a text ad) or the advertising network, advertising on LinkedIn is not the same as on Facebook. Although there is no clear data to say, from here it is a good CTR, there are some guiding data that can help you evaluate how your CTR is:
- In a search campaign in Google Ads you should try to have between 2% to 5% for competitive sectors and try to have more than 5% if your sector is not competitive.
- With your banners for Google Ads or other ad networks, the average CTR is over 0.25%.
- Ads in the right column of Facebook they are between 0.05% and 0.1%.
Good CTR in SEO
There are many studies that have been carried out on the relationship of the CTR based on the position you occupy in the search results. The first three results are the ones that receive the most clicks:
- 1st Position between 25% and 30%
- 2nd Position between 7.5% and 18%
- 3rd Position between 4% and 14%
- 4th Position between 3% and 8%
- 5th Pisition between 2% and 6%
* With the latest Google updates and the increased appearance of rich results, the CTR percentage varies depending on what searches.
How to improve your CTR?
Google ads
Improving your click through rate is simple but it takes time, because in the end it’s about making your ad more relevant to different users or searches.
For search campaigns with Google Adwords, make the keyword or keyword that the user is looking for appear in your ad. That is, if the user searches for “Emergency Vet”, your ad will have a higher CTR if it is titled “Emergency Vet” than if it is titled “Veterinary Clinic”. In order to do this, the best thing you can do is have your campaign well organized into ad groups targeting similar keywords. This way, the ads in these ad groups will be relevant.
Another trick that you can use, although it may have its drawbacks, is the . It doesn’t convince me personally, but it can be useful if you’re in a hurry.
Another thing you should always do, both for search and display ads, is to test. That is, leave two different ads running and after a while, you keep the one with the highest CTR. In this way you should always try different messages, images or promotions to know which one is more relevant to the user and generates higher CTR. It cannot be affirmed that there is a magic formula, each sector is different: In some sectors the price can be decisive, in others the availability, in others the experience…
You can also generate rules. For example within Google Adwords you have automated rules that are within block operations. Through these you can establish that an ad stops automatically if its CTR is lower than you consider appropriate. This can help you avoid unpleasant surprises.
SEO
The CTR in SEO can be improved if we take into account some small sections such as:
- SEO Title
- Target Description
- Rich Results – Structured Data
Last conclusions
CTR is one of the most important metrics and every good consultant should constantly monitor it. A low CTR can indicate that a page is not well positioned or that an ad is not working and the cost of conversion will be higher.
Getting a CTR takes time, since in SEO we need the URL to start appearing at least on the first page of Google to attract clicks. While in Google Ads it takes time to structure that campaign properly in different ad groups with their corresponding keywords, which will help to have a better level of quality and CTR.
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