I’m slightly obsessed when it comes to CTR with my campaigns, I’ll always try to push things as hard as I can to get the best bang for my buck. These strategies can be used for established campaigns or new campaigns to get some quick results.

As you know, CTR is linked to your ad quality & also the price you end up paying.

AdRank = CTR x Maximum Bid

From my observations quality score merely dictates your minimum entry into the bidding. If you have a high quality score you can eventually bring you bids down to sub 5c, however if you have a low quality score then you might have to bid $5 just to show.

Two Examples of how CTR can Reduce Cost
Stuart is bidding on the same keyword & match type as Jenny. Jenny is bidding $10 with a CTR of 3.3%, Stuart’s maximum bid on the otherhand is $5 & his CTR is 10%. Who’s ad is showing the highest?

Jenny: $10 x 3.3 = AdRank of 33
Stuart: $5 x 10 = AdRank of 50
In this situation Stuart is bidding half of what Jenny is but his ad is much more relevant therefore he’ll end up appearing higher. This is the power of really tuning & testing to increase your CTR.

Tip 1 – Increase your Maximum Bid
Since we’ve already established that your maximum bid can have a huge effect on your positioning you can use this to you advantage. Simply increase your bid to position 1, watch your CTR build then slowly bring the bid back after a few days until your position starts to slide again. I’ve successfully used this method to stay in position 1 & ultimately pay much less than the person below me.

Tip 2 – Split test religiously
I always split test two ads at once, the reason behind this is if you test any more & 1 performs shockingly then it drags your overall performance down. There’s plenty of variations you can try, but simply start with 2 ads, then remove the underperforming one after a few days & rewrite it with your learnings from the previous test.

Tip 3 – Target your Headline
The headline is one of the most important parts of your ad, it’s probably what the user will see first. So try to make this as targeted as possible. i.e. if the user is searching for Health Affiliate Program then ideally that’s what you want as your title.

You can test with variations & also try adding calls to action in there like “Top Health Aff Program” (remember you can’t have more than 25 characters) etc. Quite often you can get away with abbreviations so don’t be afraid to try some.

Using official site in the headline also works well for increasing CTR:

Dell AU – Official Site
Latest Deals on Dell Computers
& Laptops. Buy Online Today!
www.dell.com/au

Tip 4 – Use Description to highlight your USP’s
Once your headline has grabbed their attention you really need to sell them with the description. Try to include the things that separate you from your competitors. This may be price, free shipping, money back guarantee or certain product features. Here’s an example of an ad that makes good use of the body text:

1/2 Price Broadband Sale
6GB for $19.50 for 1st 6 Months on
3’s $39 Mobile Broadband Plan!
www.Three.com.au/MobileBroadband

Tip 5 – The pyramid/arrow theory
You’ll notice that when you search for a keyword if it’s in your ad Google will highlight it. With the right positioning of keywords in your Headline, Description & Display URL it is possible to take advantage of this highlighting to create an arrow or pyramid that helps with drawing the users attention to it.

Instant Ringtones
Get Instant Ringtones
& Latest Rad Ringtones Online
www.Rebcell.com/Ringtones

When a user searches for Ringtones the ad above contains the keyword 4 times. Notice how when bolded the ad looks like a series of steps (or a pyramid), this is a proven method that subliminally attracts users towards your ad over all the others on the page.

Tip 6 – Test with the Search Network on & Off
The search network can have a positive or negative effect on your CTR, there’s really no way to tell how it will impact your overall campaign CTR. Make sure you test it on & off.

Tip 7 – Split out Broad, Phrase & Exact into their own Adgroups
I generally won’t do this for every single keyword in a campaign but for the high traffic / top converting words this really allows you to tweak your ads to best suit the match type. For example the ad that works for an exact match on the word “free ringtones” might not be as effective when you start broad or phrase matching because you’ll be triggering on keywords like “free ringtone downloads” which you’re not targeting in the Headline or Description.

Tip 8 – Test Keyword Insertion
I try to stay away from keyword insertion on the most part but it’s useful when you’re trying to get a campaign up & running quickly. It’s great for CTR since it’ll substitute the keyword into your ad.

Be careful though because keyword insertion can backfire (check out this search for “buy kids online” for example):

Online Kids Buy
Find Over 10,000 Offers From Major
Retailers Online Today With Lasoo!
www.Lasoo.com.au

Tip 9 – Run content campaigns separately
Whilst the content network doesn’t affect your overall search CTR it can confuse you when trying to evaluate your overall CTR for a campaign. I usually split them into two campaigns just so it’s easy to get an overview. I also find it easier to view & evaluate conversion data better by doing this.

Tip 10 – Curiosity killed the cat
People are curious creatures & you can play to this when writing your ad. This works incredibly well for product based searches. For this example lets use the term “arbitrage conspiracy”. Chances are that if you’re searching on this term you’re looking to buy the book.

Arbitrage Conspiracy Lie
Check Out This Shocking Truth About
The Flaw of Arbitrage Conspiracy!
ShockingReview.com/ArbitrageConspir

Tip 11 – Tweak your Display URL
There’s a few ways of tweaking the Display URL, this can have a moderate to large effect on CTR:

earnersblog.com
www.earnersblog.com
EarnersBlog.com
www.EarnersBlog.com
Keyword.EarnersBlog.com
EarnersBlog.com/Keyword
www.EarnersBlog.com/Keyword
I usually tend to go with option 6, but in some cases I’ve seen option 1 blow it out of the water. It pays to test the variations to get an idea of which display URL’s work best with your demographic.

Tip 12 – Play with Scheduling
I’ve seen scheduling used in some quite ingenious ways to build up history. For example initially only having your ads active for 1 hour during the day (around 8pm at night) to ease your way into a new market without your competitors spotting you & adjusting their bids up too quickly.

Scheduling for your industry may reveal that people are more click happy & night when at home or it may be the opposite, they may click less at home but more at work. You can use this to your advantage if you split test it.

Tip 13 – Use Trademark Symbols
Using trademark symbols for products can increase CTR by insane amounts, (something to do with people thinking that ad is the official site).

Conversions always rule over CTR
Just because an ad has a better CTR doesn’t mean it will convert better. I will always choose an ad that converts better or has a better ROI over one that has a better CTR.

So now you have 13 things that you can test, find the winning combination & take you Adwords Campaigns to the next level.

Other usefull links:

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www.bigdebtconsolidator.com
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beanbag
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