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How To Increase Clicks On Your Google Ads

Have you been running your Google Ads for a while and found that it has stagnated, giving you around the same amount of clicks every month? What if we told you that there are a few easy changes and additions that can be done to your ads to significantly increase your clicks and improve your click-through rate!

Here we’ll take you through those easy tricks and give you some inside tips straight from our professionals to improve your CTR in Google Ads Now!.

The Importance Of A Good Click Through Rate (CTR)

If you’ve been in the Google Ads game for 2 days or for 10 years, you need to know what a click-through rate is. A click-through rate or CTR is the percentage of people that view your ad (impressions) and actually click on it. It is your clicks ÷ your impressions x 100. Therefore if you had 7 clicks and 100 impressions, then your CTR would be 7%. Now, this may seem like a low percentage, but a 4-5% CTR is the average, and anything over 10% means your ads are working their magic! Of course, this will differ throughout different industries so remember to research this number first!

*Pro-Tip* You can quickly view your CTR on your Google Ads dashboard. If it’s not showing on the dashboard already, click ‘column’ in the top right corner, click modify columns, search for CTR, and add this to your columns. From here, you can see the CTR of your campaigns, ad groups, ads and keywords.

find your CTR

If you’re sitting on a low CTR percentage, it means that your ads have gone through the hurdle of being displayed in the top 3 paid search results, and unfortunately, something about them is not enticing people enough to click. This could be due to many reasons, but most of the time, your ad isn’t saying the right things to the right people. 

Your CTR helps you to understand your audience better, see if your ad is speaking their language, or even targeting the right audience or location. It’s critical to improve your CTR in Google Ads as it is super important because it directly affects your ads quality score, ultimately affecting your cost-per-click. This affects how much a click or lead may cost you. 

How A Structured Google Ad Account Goes A Long Way To Improving CTR

Before you can increase your CTR, you need to first understand how the structure of your Google Ads account can easily help you improve your CTR. The more structured, organised, and refined your account is, the better your quality score will be, and you will have a solid foundation for a high CTR!

Here is a quick rundown of your Google Ads structure and what you need to be aware of before you can start improving your CTR:

  • Google Ads Account – This would be the entire account for your specific business and would hold all your separate campaigns, ad groups, ads, keywords etc. You can only have one account per business; otherwise, you will be competing against yourself.
  • Campaigns – You can have several different campaigns in your Google Ads account, and they will be separated according to your business structure. Each campaign can have a separate daily budget, so this is helpful when you are wanting to divert more or less budget to a specific aspect of your business. For example, you may want different campaigns that focus on different products, ie. a campaign for clothes, a campaign for home products, and a campaign for stationary. Or you may want to create separate campaigns for different locations. Each campaign will house different ad groups.
  • Ad groups – You will create different ad groups surrounding different themes ie. if a campaign is centred around shoes, you may have ad groups for different types of shoes such as sandals, boots and high heels. The more refined and specific these ad groups are, the better. Ad groups are formed around different keywords and contain different ads. A minimum of 3 ads per ad group is best.
  • Keywords – Keywords form the basis of your Googles ads, if an ad group contains no keywords, then no ads can run. Search keywords are the words and phrases that users type into Google’s search bar when they are looking for something. Google will deem your keywords and ads relevant for that search term and will show your ad in the search results.
  • Ads – Your ads are what you will be spending most of your time perfecting and testing to get the most relevant ad for your target audience. There are different types of ads you can show. The two most popular being expanded text ads (contains 3 headlines and 2 descriptions) and responsive search ads (contains 15 headlines and 4 descriptions which will be rotated to create the most relevant ad for the user).
  • Ad extensions – Google ad extensions can be separately added to each ad group or to whole campaigns or accounts. Like the name suggestions, ad extensions add something extra to your standard Google Ad structure. For example, you can add links to your website straight from your ad (sitelink extensions) or give additional information on your business, ie. delivery options (callout extensions). You can also add a call button (call extension), a summary of services/products (structured snippet), and other more advanced extensions.

Now that you know the basics of your Google Ads account now we can start making real, effective changes to increase your CTR!

Top 7 Ways To Increase Clicks On Your Google Ads

  1. Use Google Ad Extensions
ad extensions

Ad extensions often go overlooked by many companies who may not see the significant value they give or may not even understand what they are. Either way, if you fall into this category or haven’t taken a look at your ad extensions lately, you need to head over to your ads account stat! Ad extensions help to add a different dimension to your ads without spending the extra budget. 

Since we are speaking about clicks, ad extensions help increase the likelihood of users clicking on your ads because they see something they like, are intrigued by, or something that will make their life easier, like the tempting call button. Yes, if you didn’t already know, you can create a call extension for all your ads so people can call you straight from your ad to ask any questions. 

Sitelink extensions which lead to pages on your site can also help increase conversions as you are directing users to exactly where they want to go.

*Pro-Tip* Something that is just as tempting is adding a ‘free quote’ or ‘free consultation’ as a callout or sitelink extension to navigate user’s straight to a highly converting landing page. Don’t forget to target local traffic by adding the location extension to your ads. It’s that easy!

 Extensions help give that little bit of extra information that users might be looking for to give you that click!

  1. Improve Your Quality Score

People cannot click on your ad if they cannot see your ad. To quickly rectify this problem, you need to take a look at improving your quality score. Improving your quality score will also improve your cost-per-click, meaning that all your additional clicks should start costing you less! Your quality score is a score out of 10 given by Google according to the relevance of your keyword, ad and landing page to the search query. To improve your quality score, you need to be consistently refining your ad account by looking at the following:  

  • Target high-quality keywords
  • Ad groups must be centred around tight keyword themes, ie. not too broad
  • Each ad group should send users to a highly relevant landing page
  • Keywords should feature in headlines, descriptions and custom URL’s
  • Add relevant ad extensions
  • Constantly add negative keywords

*Pro-Tip* Check out our in-depth article on Google Ads quality score factors for tips about how to improve your quality score so you can start getting a better CTR and lower CPC.

  1. Create Ad Groups With Tightly Grouped Keywords
single keyword ad groups

Keywords are the make or break of your account and can highly affect your CTR. Let’s look at an example of a poorly organised ad group that has over 20 keywords that are all loosely related. Now, if we use 5 of those keywords in our ad copy, that means 15 aren’t being featured anywhere in your ad and potentially on your landing page. This means if someone types in the search query of any of those 15 keywords, it’s likely they won’t click or even see your ad because it isn’t saying the keywords they want to see. Think of it like tunnel vision. 

Now let’s look at a refined ad group that has 3 keywords, all saying slight variations of the same thing. This means that your ad copy will be saturated with this keyword and, hopefully, your landing page too. As a result, users will hone in on your ad, and Google will give you a higher quality score too!

*Pro-Tip* To create small, tightly-knit ad groups of similar keyword themes, visit your large ad groups and start bundling similar keywords and move them to a new ad group named after that keyword theme. Don’t be afraid to make single keyword ad groups (SKAGs) whereby the ad group is centred around one powerful keyword! You will need to do this every few months as ad groups will grow when adding new search queries. Your ad should feature the keyword at least twice if possible.

  1. Create Tailor-Made Landing Pages

Now that your ads are narrowed down to tight keywords, you need to create bespoke landing pages to target your audience even more. Creating a higher chance of converting even more! Your landing page should mirror your ad’s copy, using similar, if not the same, phrases and calls to action. If you send someone to a landing page that does not reflect what your ad promised, then all the clicks in the world won’t give your more leads or conversions. Let’s take a look at two landing pages for the same keyword.

1.

how to improve CTR in Google Ads

2.

hairhouse

The two companies I looked at were Dis-Chem and Hairhouse. As you can see, the Dis-Chem landing page also included all types of hair styling heat products, including hairdryers, brushes and hair straighteners. This isn’t specific to the keyword and doesn’t even contain any landing page copy to describe the products in more detail. Hairhouse, on the other hand, has a page dedicated to hair curlers, describes the products and even shows their unique specials and gifts included. I know which landing page I would convert on!

*Pro-Tip* As much as your landing page needs to say the right things, it also needs to look good while saying it. A poorly designed landing page will turn customers away just as much as irrelevant content.

  1. Write Converting Ad Copy

You may ask, ‘what is converting ad copy?’ or ‘how do I write ad copy that converts?’ Well, there’s a special formula for this. You need to write compelling copy that also features your keywords throughout. Your headline is the first thing that users will see; therefore, it needs to stand out and speak directly into your users’ wants. 

  • Powerful Headline

Remember to use power words throughout, words that illicit an emotion or response. Each one of your ads needs to have the user in mind, think about what they want from you and what their search query means ie. looking to buy or looking for more information? Check out our headlines article to get more inspiration on how to write clickable headlines. 

  • Direction-Filled Descriptions

Once you have created a clickable headline, you need to ensure that your descriptions pack a punch, too, giving just the right amount of information to intrigue users to click you over your competition. It’s important never to forget to add a call to action, a direction users must follow after seeing your ad, such as, ‘call now’ or ‘visit our range online’ or ‘get a free quote today’. Users love to know what to do next, so tell them!

  • Test Out Different Copy

Don’t forget to test ad copy to get the best performing ad possible. This is why you have 3 different ads in each ad group, whereby each ad has slightly different copy. This will help improve your CTR in Google Ads and give you better insights into which non-performing ads you should pause.

*Pro-Tip* Try highlight pricing in headlines and ad copy. If users are in the market to buy and are shopping around for prices, then having your competitive prices front and centre is a great way to get that click!

  1. Add Competitor Keywords In Headlines
how to improve CTR in Google Ads

As we’ve already mentioned, keywords are pivotal and the foundation of your ads. However, you might find as a smaller business that you’re competing for some highly competitive keywords, which means you’re not always going to get the clicks like your bigger competitors. Therefore, why not piggyback on their popularity and bid on their names as a keyword? 

Better yet, you could even add their name in your ads. This has the risk of being a bait and switch for some users, but for others, it’s a way of finding your unique company that may have better offerings. Bidding on competitor’s brand names is a way to bid for less competitive keywords while giving your business more brand exposure!

*Pro-Tip* Make sure you bid on the right competitor! This means choosing competitors that are actually taking business from you and ones that you can compete within pricing, products and services. For example, if you’re a small business selling curtains, don’t go after the big names that sell premade curtains across the country in two days. Rather find the competitor that’s working in your surrounding neighbourhood and one you can actually compete with.

  1. Don’t Forget To Add Negative Keywords
negative keywords

As much as you want more clicks on your ads, you definitely don’t want people clicking on your ad for something you can’t provide. This is wasting your budget and will harm your quality score and your CPC. Negative keywords are lists of search terms that you do not want your ad to show up for. You may have a niche business that can be misunderstood as something else, or you don’t want people clicking on you when searching for your competitors or specific locations you don’t supply to. Other negative keywords you might want to include which will narrow your target market could be words such as: 

  • Cheap
  • Sample
  • Free
  • Second hand
  • Prices/quote
  • Job/ hire 
  • Course
  • PDF
  • Research
  • About
  • How to

It all depends on your business and what you don’t want to waste your budget on.

*Pro-Tip* You should be adding negative keywords monthly, if not weekly. You can find negative keywords by looking at the search queries in your Google Ads Account. There you can find new, relevant keywords as well as irrelevant negative keywords that users have already clicked on your ad for.

Now that you’ve viewed a whole lot of helpful insider tips to improve your CTR in your Google Ads account, we hope you will be busy for the next little while! However, if you find this overwhelming or just don’t have the time to improve your CTR in Google Ads, we at The Weblab can do it for you! We have years of experience in creating and refining Google Ads accounts that will get you those clicks. Interested? Schedule a free strategy call today to find out more!