According to Google AdWords, the industry with the highest display click-through rates achieve 0.84%. The average for all industries is only 0.35%. The industry which outperforms all others in click-through marketing is the technology industry.
No surprises there, but who are the runners-up? Dating and personals share this honor with advocacy with display click-through rates of 0.52%. The worst performers with 0.14% are employment services.
These benchmarks give us a context in which to explore how to improve your CTR in click-through marketing campaigns.
Here are 6 ways to improve your CTR in click-through marketing campaigns.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
What is CTR? CTR is the ratio between the number of times a click is made on an advertisement and the number of times an advertisement is viewed. Calculate this by dividing the number of click-throughs by the number of impressions (or views) of the advert. Multiply by 100 to get a percentage.
For example, if a banner advertisement is presented to a user on a web page 1000 times and has one click on it, the click-through rate is 0.1%.
Click-through marketing success depends to a great extent on CTR. A fabulous web site, great content, products, and services are wasted if users or customers don’t see them. The more visitors you can get to click-through to your site the more chance you have of converting them into users or customers.
When banner ads first appeared it was common to have a CTR of 5% or more. Now with a saturation of banner ads and more sophisticated users, rates like those reflected in the Google AdWords reports are to be expected.
6 Ways to Improve Your CTR in Click-Through Marketing Campaigns
Follow these 6 strategies to improve your CTR and achieve your marketing campaign objectives.
1. Goal Setting
What is a reasonable CTR? The wide range of CTR performance across different industries suggests that being clear from the start about what is a reasonable aspiration is important.
Use industry benchmarks and previous performance to set goals. Relate these aspirations to the cost per action (CPA) or cost per click (CPC) to test whether these expectations are viable propositions. It’s all about setting expectations up front.
Make your goals specific, measurable, agreed, realistic and timebound. This SMART goal principle means that expectations will not be different between stakeholders. They will be transparent and everybody can commit to the same end goal.
2. Know Your Customer
Marketing that reaches people other than your target audience is a waste. It’s like sowing seeds on concrete paving. It’s never going to take root and it’s a waste of seed.
Users will not click on advertisements that are not relevant to them. They see advertisements for products and services that are irrelevant to them all day long. They don’t click on them.
Targeting the right demographic means understanding what that demographic actually is. Spending money on researching the right demographic means a reduction of wasted cost and effort communicating with people who are not interested.
Social media advertising can help you reach a specific demographic or interest group.
This approach also means you can design graphics and content that appeals to your target audience. It also means you can test it on efficient small scales and learn to improve its effectiveness.
3. Don’t Be Boring
Users are seeing banners and click-through marketing emails regularly. Even if the ad is targeted at the right customer segment, they have to see it among all the graphical pollution. Be creative with color, shape, movement, graphics, video, and interactivity.
Bright and flashy colors and graphics might seem eye-grabbing but in the context of other content on a web page, they can seem brash and cheap. Consider the overall appearance of banners and their context.
Think about shape and size as a way of grabbing attention. Unique or unusual sizes and shapes might be a way of getting some attention from users who have learned to ignore the standard advertisement shapes and sizes.
The banner is a promise of something and the click should be rewarded with something that meets or exceeds expectations. Don’t over promise and under deliver. Your high CTR will be worthless if you don’t sell anything because the click-through lands on a poor web page or over-hyped product.
Test the ad with customers or users who fit your target audience profile. Learn from their behavior. If they click, go with it but if they don’t click, don’t cling to your favorites.
4. Choose Your Words Carefully
Having good copy has always been a key aspect of advertising and it’s true in the digital advertising world too. Attract and engage your target audience with audience-appropriate language and emotions.
Try a call to action to engage the audience to click. Time-limited offers, extra value and other attention-grabbing features can help.
5. Learn and Improve
Having more than one banner in a click-through marketing campaign will allow you to test the relative merits of different approaches. Examine what is working and learn from this to improve your strategy. Don’t change too many elements at once or it will be difficult to know the cause of any CTR effect.
Analyze reports frequently. How frequently depends on your industry, customers, and campaign, but do it regularly. Checking progress against your goals can provide you with opportunities to optimize the approach and get the best value from the investment.
Identify what is working and what is not. Allocate budget and effort where it gets a return.
6. Outsource for Specialist Skills
Depending on your resources and the campaign, consider outsourcing some or all aspects of the click-through marketing campaign.
Extremely professional and original graphic design and copy might be key to your campaign. If it is, then consider using outsourced designers and copywriters. They may have the specialized technology or research methods that would be hard for you to replicate.
Seek advice from specialists who understand both the technology and marketing aspects of click-through marketing strategies.
Want More?
If you want to learn more about CTR and making the most of your click-through marketing campaigns, contact Attracta, the largest SEO company in the world by clicking here.