Let's Talk About Click Through Rate…

So…….It has been a while, so lets take a little time to talk about click through rate, yes?
One of the biggest question that I always here is the question of “what is a good click through rate? ”  What I feel the question should be is more like “what does our click through rate need to be to reach our goals?”  The reason I say this, is that there is no universal answer to that question.  Like all the other hard questions in life, the answer is “it depends.”
The sad thing, is that many times, your ppc manager my spit out a number without looking at all the variables of your specific account, product, and goal, and the next board meeting that rolls around, BOOM! There is your new goal for your Click through rate.  Then, after either hitting it easily, or not hitting it at all, people are left scratching their heads as to what went wrong, or why they aren’t seeing the return they expect.
Another reason that this question is possibly misguided, is that “good” is more of a graded scale.  Is making a million buck good?  Sure, but like the guys from the movie “The Social Network,”  a BILLION is better.  Why settle for good when it could be great?  Basically, a good click through rate is one that is high enough for you to meet your immediate goals, and is always getting better.
It is not just about how well you did with keywords, ad copies, etc.  It is also an indicator on conversion and can also be an impact on QS.  Obviously, this can effect cost, which is going to directly effect ROI.  Personally, I couldn’t care about quality score, CTR, or any other metric if my ROI is not what I want it to be.  Therefore, I care that my CTR is “good” enough that my ROI is awesome.
Some of the ways you can switch things around to make for a good click through rate that is actually bringing conversions would be things such as changing up the call to action, extending the display URL’s to include your keyword at the end, or try to bring some fast acting action to the call to action, such as an expiration date or something similar for the offer that is getting traction.  Hell, get creative.  Try exclamation points, even caps!(GASP)  If it fits in with your ad and brings the traffic you are trying to get, then go for it. Typically this is not a steadfast piece of advice, but play around a little bit, yes?
Moral of the story is this.  ALL of your stats matter, don’t just focus on the one.  They ALL need to be working together.  A great click through rate doesn’t matter much if your conversion is terrible.  I hope the above article has been helpful, so let us know if you have any other ideas!