Click Through Rate, otherwise known as (CTR), is the number of clicks divided by the number of impressions (ad views).  CTR plays a large role in  your keyword quality scores. Google uses CTR data to gauge the relevance of your keywords to ad text by more or less letting the end user tell Google how relevant the ads were to the search term they used to find your ad.  Ads that are more relevant usually get a higher rate of click throughs to their website.

When an advertisers includes a new keyword in their account it is assigned a quality score based on the keyword performance within the AdWords system for other advertisers, as well as its relevance within your account.  The quality score assigned can then be raised or lowered from that point based on the Click Through Rate (CTR) score that the keyword accrues within your account.

CTR has a large impact on quality score so raising CTR, and in-turn Quality Score, will result in you being able to improve ad rank (position in the auction) or if you choose to stay at the same ad rank position you can potentially reduce your bids while maintaining the same position in the auction.

What is a ‘good’ CTR?

Not the easiest question to answer because there are a lot of moving parts to consider, and such a wide variety of advertisers on Google.  CTR will differ (sometimes greatly) between the Google Search and Display.  I suggest continually evaluating CTR and doing maintenance but in my opinion take special note on Search Network CTR under 1.5% and Display Network CTR under 0.05%.  CTR is a Key Performance Indicator for how well your ads are received by your potential customers.

How do I evaluate and Improve CTR?

A low CTR indicates room for improvement.  Perhaps potential customers found your ads in error due to poor keyword selections, perhaps your broad match types are expanding to irrelevant searches, maybe your ad text is boring, and perhaps your rank is just too low and your ads are below the page fold allowing for impressions but not enough visibility.  Below is more detail on evaluating CTR at the keyword, ad text and rank levels.

• Evaluate Account Structure - A good account structure is a must.  By creating multiple adgroups, each around a keyword theme you can deliver ad copy that is relevant to the search query used to trigger your ads.  You then can use the destination url of your ads to target the most relevant page on your website about any given product/service, i.e. graphic design firm – adgroup A: logo design, Keywords about: logo design,  Ad Copy about: logo design, Destination URL about: logo design.  Planning an account structure is easy with these three simple steps.
•  Evaluating Keywords - Are your keywords too generic? If you are a personal trainer you may be tempted to select a keyword like ‘fitness’ but think of all the other applications that the word ‘fitness’ can apply to; fitness diet, fitness equipment, fitness supplements, fitness clothing, to name a few.  If your ads appear for your personal training program when a person searches for fitness supplements then you are not going to appear relevant, will not receive the click, and your CTR will suffer.  Are your keywords in the proper match type?  There are different keywords Match Types and selecting the right match type for your account is important.  Read more about Keyword Match Types.
•  Evaluating Ad Text - Is your ad text well written?  Ad text needs to be honest, compelling and contain a call to action.   If you offer specials let people know.   Your ads appear among many other advertisers, ad text that stands out and grabs a potential customer’s attention is important.
•  Evaluating Ad Position - Does your ad position need to be evaluated?  Ads that are below the page fold (requiring users to scroll down) will receive impressions because they are on the first page but will not actually be viewed as often as ads above the fold.   If you find you have a low CTR check your ad position.  If you find it is low on the first page you may want to consider raising your position by adjusting bids.  To identify approximately what you need to pay for higher positions learn more about first page bid estimates and top of page bid estimates.

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Article by:  +Kim Clinkunbroomer Clinks Web Service a Google AdWords Partner Company Subscribe: RSS Feeds  |  Follow me on Twitter

The old AdWords Offers Beta design looked like this:

And the updated design for the AdWords Offers Beta I noticed today looked like this:

I like it, a much cleaner look and the offers stands out more now.

If you are not aware of the Offers Beta it is likely because it is currently very limited.   Search Engine Land reported on the Offers Beta back in June, 2011.   This beta allows advertisers to make an offer with their ads.  The advertiser needs to meet specific criteria to be allowed into the beta and must also provide Google will a pretty detailed list of required materials, coupon text, expiration date, redemption dates and more, last look it was 9 items.  Then you are eligible to have an offer as seen in the screenshot above that when clicked leads to a full-sized coupon where potential customers can  print or save to “My Offers”.

Do any of you use the AdWords Offers Beta?  Have you or your clients had any success with it?

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Article by:  +Kim Clinkunbroomer Clinks Web Service a Google AdWords Partner Company Subscribe: RSS Feeds  |  Follow me on Twitter

The colors are different, the legend is moved to the top vs the right side and on chart mouseover a popup that is also newly formatted including the color codes.

New Look:

Old Look:

New look is a hands down winner in my opinion!

Do you see this in your accounts?  Comments welcome!

Article by:  +Kim Clinkunbroomer Clinks Web Service a Google AdWords Partner Company Subscribe: RSS Feeds  |  Follow me on Twitter

Automated Rules are a time saver and decent optimization feature for advertisers who just don’t have the resources for professional AdWords account management or the time to self manage effectively.   The major drawback was that the rules were limited at 10 rules per user and advertisers who found the feature helpful were left frustrated by the limitation.  Google announced yesterday (1/17/2012) that the limit for automated rules is now increased to 100.

Also announced yesterday is the addition of a very welcome “undo” changes feature.  Who can’t love an undo button, right?  Google added this undo feature to give advertisers more comfort when experimenting with the Automate Rules feature, now they simply ‘undo’ a rule that did not work out. Google’s Help Center explains in more details that only the most recent rule can be undone.  If you set a rule on Friday and another on Saturday you would have to undo Saturdays rule to have Fridays available for undoing.  If Saturdays Rule was set, but did not results in any account changes, it will not have to be undone to get to Fridays rule(s) – read more.

Some of the popular things that can be accomplished with Automated Rules are:

• Scheduling ads
• Pausing low-performing ads or keywords
• Bids and bid scheduling
• Controlling budgets and cost

Full post from Google on Inside AdWords.

Article by:  +Kim Clinkunbroomer Clinks Web Service a Google AdWords Partner Company Subscribe: RSS Feeds  |  Follow me on Twitter