Let’s unravel the mystery of Click-Through Rates in advertising.
First: What is a Click-Through Rate? This is a term used to represent the percentage of clicks your ad receives (clicks) compared to the number of times your ad is displayed (impressions). You will often see this represented as “CTR”. The simplest calculation is to divide the number of clicks your ad receives for every 100 times your ad is shown (Clicks / Impressions = CTR).
As an example, if your ad is shown 100 times (impressions) and your ad gets clicked 1 time, your have a CTR of 100:1 or 1%.
Quite often, I’m asked by new advertisers to tell them what a “good CTR” is. Or they want to know what my CTR is.
The truth of the matter is: There is no way for me to know what a good CTR is for you and it really doesn’t matter for your business what my own CTR is. Some of my ads get great CTR’s and some of my ads get horrible CTR’s.
Here is the ONLY question that matters: What Is YOUR CTR and How Can You Improve it?
And the only way to find out is to run your ads, test the results, make changes, and test some more.
Run Your Ads. This will help you establish a baseline for your own CTR.
Make and TRACK changes in your subject lines, copy, call to action, etc…
Did your CTR improve or decline? Make changes accordingly.
In addition to the standard elements like your subject line, ad copy, call to action, etc… remember that your CTR can also be affected by where your ad is being run, where it appears on a web site or magazine page, how large or small it is compared to other ads on that same page, etc…
To really get in to the fine-tuning, you also need to be aware of your ad costs. CTR for a free ad may not be as critical as getting a good CTR for an ad you paid $500 to run.
Beyond CTR, you also need to track conversion. It’s great that somebody clicked your ad. But once they got to your web site, capture page, blog, offer page, etc… did they take the desired action?
Once you’ve got a strong CTR for your landing page, make sure you work on conversion next. Getting a visitor is great. Getting a visitor to take the desired action such as filling out a form, placing an order, subscribing to your blog, etc… is the real goal.
Don’t worry about of focus on the CTR someone else is getting.
Focus on finding and then improving your own CTR for your ads to get the best results possible in your business.
I am just starting. I need to know more and start working ASAP. Thanks
You will find this blog and your back office a great (the best) way to learn more!
Hi there,
I would love to use this information on my own blog….is this allowed. I love the way you make it so easy to understand which is what I am trying to achieve for my readers.
Lynne
Feel free to share. All we ask is that you provide a link back to the source and give credit.
No worries, I’ll state you wrote it and put a link straight back to you guys – I am a user and an affiliate of your site.
Thanks again, Lynne
I have over 26K of impressions June to date with with over 500 clicks and no conversions. Not even a lead. Most of my ads are banners to a variety of capture pages. have you any omments?
Absolutely.
Change your capture pages. Clearly people are interested enough to get to your site so your site is losing them somewhere.
Thanks for your comments. A lot of my ads are for Toan & the 7KTeam system. For the 7KTeam I am using the branded capture pages. It’s a worry if they are the reason I am not getting conversions.
I have marketed it everywhere not one lead, tried it all.Am about to give up no response, if people are getting sign ups I need to know where from.If they have to pay they don’t sign up.
We both know that can’t actually be true. You’ve not come anywhere close to marketing even 1/2 of 1% of “everywhere”. Are you tracking the advertising that you are doing to see what is getting results and what is not?
Hi Bryan,
Lindsay Cotton above has literally stolen my question!
Over the last 14 days I have a CTR averaging 14.09% which is fantastic but not one single signup! They are all 186×60 banners, many of them from 7k or TOAN. Like Lindsay I am using 7k capture pages which I personally think are very good but they do not seem to work! It could be my bald head that is putting people off but that doesn’t seem to affect some other marketers I know of!!!! I tried painting rabbits on my head (they look like hares from a distance) but even that didn’t work so any further advice please Brian?
What is the actual question?