A high click-through rate shows search engines that users find your content relevant.

The organic click-through rate is crucial for website traffic. Google sees users clicking on your page at a high frequency as a powerful indicator of quality content, one of many factors that determine your ranking in their delivered results.

You should also pay attention to your click-through rate on paid ads, the for-profit version of organic traffic.

This article will dive into how using this metric can get a paid ad campaign off the ground, producing quality traffic and maximizing your return.

A focus on click-through rate

Click through rate is a measure of how many people click a displayed link. On Google and Amazon’s paid ad platform, this link is the ads.

Conversions are a measure of how many people take a specific action after clicking.

So, the click-through rate is a sort of conversion involving the number of clicks per impression.

An initial focus on click-through rate will ensure ads continuously show to your target audience.

Looking at the metrics

The two ad platforms this article will focus on are Google and Amazon. They are both search engines, one for information and the other for products. And they both use the click-through rate as an initial indicator of quality.

Google provides a quality score, an aggregated measure of how well an ad performs in their system. It includes the ad copy, landing page copy, and bid amount. Amazon doesn’t provide this information, so their determination of quality is a little murkier.

Regardless of platform, the click-through rate comes into play once ads are “good enough.” Effectively, the search engines are leaving the decision about which ad, among those served, are most applicable. 

Showing ads to the best candidates is the goal. Paying for junk traffic wastes the advertiser’s money, and it also leads to dissatisfied users on these platforms.

Focusing on the rate of click vs. impressions on your ad campaign will help launch your efforts past the initial stages and to a point where you can turn your attention to the conversion.

On Google

The most significant factor in click through rate on Google is the keyword structure. In short, broad keywords will garner many impressions, which tips the scales on your click-through rate and drives it lower.

Using all exact keywords isn’t a promising approach for improving click-through rate–you run the risk of not generating enough traffic in the first place and not spending your campaign budget.

Manipulate the keywords so that your campaign spends the budget to maximize the click-through rate. This strategy will ensure that Google continues showing your ads. Once the campaign is off the ground, move over to an approach where maximizing conversions is the primary goal.

On Amazon

Amazon doesn’t provide nearly as much information as Google. Additionally, they have another category of ads: those served on product pages.

The Amazon platform is notorious for underspending the budget. It’s the only major platform that behaves this way: for the most part, Google and Facebook will spend as much money as you set.

A laser-like focus on click-through rate will ensure Amazon shows your ads as often as possible. They want people viewing your page and buying your advertised products!

After the click-through rate, Amazon looks at how many of those turns into customers–the conversion rate–which provides them more data about their customer behavior.

How do you calculate the click-through rate?

Calculate the click-through rate by dividing the number of clicks by the number of impressions. This metric is used by search engines in their organic results and by their paid counterparts. 

Click through rate is a rough measure of how relevant content is to a user.

What is a good click-through rate?

A reasonable click-through rate varies on the ad platform, the type of ad, and the budget.

A click-through rate of .2% is a good baseline for both Google search ads and Amazon ads.

What affects click-through rate?

Many factors go into making an ad show on the search results pages. These include headlines, copy, page authority, and position.

In short, the higher a link appears on the page, the greater the chance potential customers will click it.

The more relevant content, in general, will generate a higher rates. That’s why search engines use the metric in both organic and paid results.

Your digital marketing strategy

Take an objective look at your paid ad strategy and determine whether your click-through rate is where you want it. It’s a great first step in developing a robust, effective ad campaign that can scale to whatever amount of money your ad budget allows!

Put another way, focus on click-through rate, not sales or other conversions, when you’re first starting. Build your foundation on relevance.
The team at Algorithmic Global can help if you are looking for help with your paid ad strategy on Google, Amazon, or Facebook! Reach out to us via our contact page, and our experienced team will follow up with you and find out how we can work together on your digital marketing program.