Understanding CTR — and how to improve it — can mean the difference between long-term return on investments (ROI) and running in the red.

What is CTR?

Whether your company’s target market fits the B2B or B2C mold, CTR is an important metric. You can calculate it in a few different ways, depending on the type of digital marketing campaign you are running, including the following:

• Paid search campaigns – Total number of people who are presented with your ad (impressions) / total number of people who clicked on the ad
• Email campaigns – Number of subscribers who open your email (open rate) / number of subscribers who click through an email link
• Social media campaigns – Number of impressions for a post / total number of clicks on the post

Today, though, we’re going to focus on click-throughs for Google Ads and Bing Ads.

What is a Good Click-Through Rate?

Defining CTR can be a little nebulous; however, most people generally put CTR in the following three categories:

• High CTR – Any CTR that is higher than the average CTR.
• Average CTR – A common or expected CTR for your industry or channel.
• Low CTR – A click-through rate that is lower than the expected CTR.

No matter what is considered “good” for your industry or channel, just remember that the higher the CTR, the better.

Click-Through Rates by Industry

What counts as a “good CTR” can vary vastly depending on your industry and the type of campaign you are running (again: things can get nebulous here). That said, across various industries and platforms:

• 1.91% is an average CTR for Search ads, according to HubSpot
• For Display ads, 0.35% is to be expected, according to HubSpot
• For email campaigns, Mailchimp says to expect a CTR of 2.91%
• 1.3% was the average social media CTR in the second quarter of 2020, says the Statista Research Department

Good Click-Through Rates for Google and Bing

Google and Microsoft Bing are the two most popular search engines by volume, making them popular platforms for search advertisers. So, just what do click-through rates look like for these platforms? Across all industries, the average for search is between:

• 1.91% and 5.06% for Google
• 2.83% for Bing

How to Get Higher Click-Through Rates on Google and Bing

High click-through rates mean more successful (and more profitable) online advertising campaigns. If you’re noticing lower-than-average click-through rates, the following methods may help your PPC efforts—and bottom line—improve.

1. Create a Stronger Call to Action (CTA)

As the name implies, a call to action asks users to take a certain action. It can be a button, an email subscription box, or something else. For Google and Bing ads, you can add your CTA anywhere, including within one of the available headlines (which we believe is most effective).

No matter what yours looks like, there are plenty of ways to make any CTA stronger, such as the following methods:

• For both Display and Search ads, include stronger action words while keeping everything short and sweet. For example, try “Save Money Now!” instead of “Learn more about ways to spend less money.”
• For Display ads, create a more attractive design for your CTA, with more eye-catching colors like green or red
• Reconsider the placement of your CTA, or consider making it sticky, if you are running Display ad campaigns. After all, an ad is no good if your audience can’t see it

2. Make Sure to Segment Your Target Audience Properly

If your ads are being seen by the wrong audience, your campaigns may as well be dead in the water. And no amount of money will save them.

The key to proper audience segmentation? It starts with identifying user intent.

What keywords are your audience members using on Google or Bing to find the services or products that they need, relative to where they reside in the buying cycle? And do these terms align with those that were used to build your campaigns.

If the answer is no, there’s your issue. Dig no further. This means that your ads are being presented to people who probably have no reason to engage your brand.

3. Create Themes from Ad Groups

The segmentation of your target audience begins and ends with keywords, but how do you best organize what could legitimately be hundreds of terms when it’s all said and done, especially when they all reflect varying levels of intent?

The answer is ad groups.

Both Google and Bing’s pay-per-click platforms allow users to create ad groups using themes centered around similar keywords. The benefit of creating themed ad groups is twofold:

1. It is easier to write ad copy around a subset of terms that fall under one topical umbrella than it is to write copy about a wide variety of keywords that don’t share much common ground.
2. It increases the likelihood that your ads are more relevant to your audience’s search intent. This relevancy can both decrease your campaign’s costs (no one is clicking on an irrelevant ad that promises a poor experience) and improve click-through rate (the people who do see the ads are more likely to click them) at the same time.

4. Improve Quality Score

See how you measure up to the competition with Quality Score when using Google Ads. On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the best), you can quickly assess the health of your campaign at an individual keyword level. According to Google, this score is calculated using the following metrics:

• Expected CTR – How well a particular paid ad is expected to perform
• Ad relevancy – How relevant your ad is to your chosen audience’s intent
• Landing page experience – The strength of the relationship your landing page has to both the corresponding keyword and ad

If your Quality Score is above average, then congratulations! You’re running an amazing campaign that will likely produce the enviable combination of low costs-per-click and above-average CTRs.

If you’re getting average or below-average marks, well, don’t worry. There are ways you can update your ads and landing pages to earn a higher score (and get higher clickthrough rates).

Besides taking steps to improve CTR, you can also update your landing page and revise your copy (both of which you can learn more about directly below).

5. Don’t Neglect Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

One of the best things you can do for your campaigns is to optimize your landing page for the right keywords. Crucially, make sure to use those keywords the correct number of times. In other words: don’t keyword stuff your web pages. (Leave the stuffing for Thanksgiving and Oreos.)

An optimized page using SEO best practices — quality, topical content, fast load times, clear messaging, etc. — leads to higher Quality Scores, which lead to better ad performance. Better performance from your ads results in more clicks from the right people, who, in turn, provide your company with more growth opportunities through higher conversion rates.

Bonus Tip: If you choose to have your landing page indexed, good SEO practices may even help your page become more authoritative and perform better on Bing and Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs), meaning you could earn some organic traffic as well as paid. A real win-win!

6. Revise Your Ad Copy

From headlines — Google and Bing both allow up to three per ad — to the body text, the copy of your PPC ad is critical to getting people interested in what you have to say. More interested people’s eyeballs on your ads mean higher clickthrough rates. Revising your ad copy can take many forms, including:

• Crafting compelling calls to action for use in the second or third headline fields and in the ad body
• Using your target keywords in the first headline field and in the ad body
• Leveraging unique characters (!, @, $, &, *, #) to highlight offers, promotions, specials, etc.
• Using everyday language rather than overly flowery language (state your message plainly)

Clearly, there are lots of ways to spruce up your copy. But which way is best? One method to see which copy works best is to use A/B tests. They can help you better determine what words and overall tone will work best with your chosen demographic.

7. Monitor Bidding Practices To Ensure Ad Position

Location really is everything, whether you’re running Search or Display Ads.

The right keywords act as a sturdy foundation, and the right ad copy provides the curb appeal. But the third part of the equation is making sure you’re bidding effectively with your PPC platform of choice to effectively promote your ads.

Google and Bing each have a vested interest in showing what they deem to be the best-performing ads highest on the page, even if it means placing your ad above that of a competitor who has shown a willingness to bid more money for a click.

This is where the work to improve your campaign quality really pays off, but be mindful that you’re not pricing yourself out of the market for that click by bidding low. Use the tools at your disposal within your Google or Bing Ads account to monitor what the competition is doing and then act accordingly.

8. Use Ad Extensions

The more robust an ad, the more likely Google and Bing are to show it as much as possible.

This is code for using as many of the built-in features that each platform provides. And no feature has as much of a positive effect on CTR than ad extensions.

Google and Bing both offer ad extensions, and they come in many forms, each with its own little way of promoting aspects of your business.

Some of the most commonly used ad extensions include:

• Sitelinks (opportunities for users to visit a multiple page of your site from one single ad)
• Location (local businesses can integrate Google Ads with Google Business Profile to show important address information)
• Callouts (non-clickable list of unique business descriptors — free delivery, open 24 hours, etc.)
• Snippets (lists of related attributes pertaining to a business — amenities, brands, models, etc.)
• Image (attach striking visuals to your ads to showcase projects, products, offices, etc.)

Using these extensions may improve your ad’s visibility and credibility, meaning potentially higher CTRs for you.

GetBetterClick-Through RatesToday

A second set of eyes is always welcome. We (respectfully) could be your second set of eyes on any troublesome campaigns you have on your hands. With our team of experts on your side, you can turn around your online campaigns and see the conversions you’ve been aiming for.

That’s true—it isn’t brainstorming how to overcome problems, creating unique campaigns, or closing big deals. But what reporting does do is target campaign goals, easily identify campaign performance, and save you time understanding where improvements need to be made.

Reporting is taking all of the information associated with a campaign and compiling it in one, easy-to-digest place, ready to hand off to a client or your team to understand wins and opportunities. 

Whether you’re in an agency or running campaigns in-house, you know all too well the importance of reporting. One problem we see in the industry is that people often overcomplicate their reporting process and end up spending too much time on it. When you have an efficient reporting process in place, you’ll actually have more time to focus on campaigns!

And that’s where we come in. We’re here to help give you some key points to follow when creating or refining your reporting process that will help you create the best possible way to analyze your campaign’s performance!

Keep it simple.

The first key thing to keep in mind come reporting time is to keep it simple!

As we all know, reports are often created not just so we can analyze performance, but to hand off to someone else to analyze that performance as well.

Whether we are handing the report off to a client or another team member, they will want an easy to understand, concise report that gets to the point.

Remember: More words equals more opportunities for information to be lost in translation.

You want to make sure your reports are not data dumps. You can give someone all the information in the world, but at the end of the day people just want to know if the campaign is working or not working, and why.

The best way to avoid this is to discuss your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)—what will best show the success of your campaign?

Is your campaign designed to get eyes on a brand or sales? Do we want phone calls or PDF downloads? Identifying this will allow you to measure those KPIs and get a quick understanding of campaign performance.

You also want to make sure you have a consistent reporting cycle.

We have heard horror stories of reports only being put together when asked; as you can guess, that leads to catching problems too late. Depending on your business and your industry, setting a consistent reporting cycle will help keep a close eye on performance. One example may be compiling a report once monthly, and a more in-depth deep dive every quarter.

Visualize your data.

If you want to keep your reports simple, you should create a way to visualize the data for easy interpretation.

Visualizing data typically means turning hard data (i.e. the numbers) into graphs or charts.

Graphs and charts allow you to compare data sets or check performance over time.

Pictures tell a thousand words and graphs explain a thousand data points. 

Depending on what KPIs you are reporting on and the information you want to display, your choice of graphs and charts is going to be an important part of the process. Each one will

• Line graphs help show trends over time.
• Column graphs help compare data.
• Pie charts show percentages of a whole.

There are tons of possibilities, but you want to be aware not to oversaturate your graphs with information. It is better to make a second graph before making one too complicated.

Automate your process.

The goal of these reports is to provide all the information needed to decide the success of campaigns—and to do so in a time-efficient manner.

If you spend hours per week creating and adjusting reports, you end up defeating the purpose of reports in the first place. Ideally, your reporting process should be as automated as absolutely possible.

Whether your reports come in a simple Excel sheet or a complicated Tableau dashboard, spend the time to find a way for your reports to automatically import all the necessary data to show trends in your KPIs.

There are endless amounts of reporting tools out there like Tableau, Sisense, TapAnalytics, and NinjaCat, to name a few.

Find one that has the necessary connections with tools you currently use and take the time to create the perfect report for your needs. It will save you countless hours in the future, I promise!

Tell a story.

We’ve talked about the importance of making your reports easy to understand and pretty, but maybe the most important function of our reports is to tell a story.

We’ve mentioned how almost always, our reports are going to end up in someone else’s hands. We want that person to understand the campaign goals, campaign performance, and what changes need to be made.

Think of your reports like a short story. You can hand someone Red Fish, Blue Fish or hand them a Tolkien-level masterpiece. Both meet different goals but when it comes to campaign management, time is of the essence, people.

Just like a story, our reports should have a beginning, middle, and end. It should follow the story of your campaign and align with the campaign goals, displaying things in an order that makes sense.

For instance, you can follow a typical buyer’s cycle: Measure impressions of your campaign, share how many leads you got, and document how many sales you closed. Follow up with a recap of the data and end with recommendations for adjustments.

Put together an outline of what needs to be explained, just how you would when writing a book, and you’ll have a masterpiece of your own in no time!

Tired of building those reports by yourself? Sick of managing campaigns without seeing progress? Let us take over. Contact us today to find out how we can help.

Where do you even begin looking for that perfect fit? Do you even know the specific marketing services you might need? How do you know which agencies are worth it? Do you ask friends? Do you search Google? Do you fly to Rome, throw a coin into the Trevi fountain, and wish for the answer? (Yes, we highly recommend all the above).

But if you want to find a simple answer from the comfort of your desk, keep reading.

First things first, we are biased. We know our team is great, but you can find great people in agencies across Saint Louis, Missouri and the entire country. We know our team is smart, but you can find smart people in agencies across the country, too. While we’d love to partner with every amazing company we come across, it’s just not possible.

A lot of inbound marketing agencies are recent start-ups, or unproven – so you’ll want to do your due diligence in selecting one. There are also the large, national marketing firms that may handle huge franchise businesses, and don’t have the time for anything smaller than that.

Whether you’re happy with your current marketing agency, haven’t worked with one, or anywhere in between, these are the characteristics that separate the exceptional agencies from the rest.

Transparency

In any relationship, not knowing what the other person is up to can make you feel a bit uneasy. The same is true of your relationship with your marketing agency. There should be clear communication about expectations, goals, problems, and every aspect of their work.

A great partner will also be honest with you and tell you what the best strategy is for your business, even if that’s not something that’s in their wheelhouse. Need a video produced for a commercial? A great digital agency will give introduce you to the best video production team they know, even if it’s out-of-house.

If you’re hesitant to discuss something with your agency partner, that’s a red flag.

Generally, there are many marketing solutions that should be able to get you to where you want to be, but you want to start with the simplest, easiest solutions first and then go from there.

Effective Budgeting

When it comes to digital marketing, prices are flexible, so be wary of strict contracts and how much any agency “takes off the top.” You should definitely receive budget estimates and a list of services provided, but after you sign off on expenditures, your agency should continue to clearly communicate how much they’re spending and why.

Marketing campaigns can be complicated, but your advertising agency should be able to break things down in a way that makes sense to you. If they aren’t able to explain their marketing plans clearly to you, then you may have a problem. Whether you are focused on lead generation, customer retention or just overall visibility – your marketing company should be able to help you find a solution.

Your marketing agency is an extension of your business, so they should be as concerned with spending your budget efficiently as you are.

Credibility and Experience

All agencies can talk the talk, but only the ones worth your time can walk the walk. Your agency should have a wealth of knowledge when it comes to all aspects of marketing. Additionally, your agency should have experience to back their knowledge up. If an agency has direct experience in your industry, great! If not, don’t be alarmed. Instead, ask how they would approach the new subject matter and judge accordingly.

Your marketing company should always develop a specific, unique marketing strategy that fits your business’ personal needs. Don’t look for a “one-size-fits-all” approach! At Digital Strike, each of our clients has their own, specially-designed digital strategy, which we use to achieve the specific results YOU care about.

In fact, the best agencies don’t necessarily specialize in one industry, but rather adapt and challenge traditional industry approaches. They take lessons from each client and apply that knowledge to future strategies.

That’s the kind of experience you want from a partner.

Another thing to consider are references and portfolios. Does your marketing agency have a few website designs that they can show you? Can you log on to these sites and check out the user experience? If this was your business website, would you be able to impress potential customers?

Are they able to prove that they’ve provided ROI boosts for previous clients? Be sure to ask as many questions you can to make sure your agency is legit.

Drive

The best digital marketing agencies are run by teams of smart people that love marketing, technology, and learning. Not only will they want to learn cutting-edge technology that can help your business, but they’ll also want to learn about your business’s unique challenges and industry practices.

You should feel confident that your business is in the hands of a savvy team that values your business as an in-house employee would.

If you already have a healthy relationship with your marketing agency, we guarantee you know it already. An agency partner should make your life easier, make marketing fun, and increase your business leads. Great agencies are full of unapologetic marketing nerds who are ready to tackle SEO (search engine optimization), PPC, web design/web development, content marketing, graphic design, social media marketing, and anything else you can think of.

As a small business, marketing is vital to success, and your agency partner should be a seamless fit. Any worthwhile relationship takes time, experiences trials, and involves a lot of personal growth. Building a healthy relationship with the right digital agency will take time, but we promise, it will be life-changing.

Want to see what it’s like to work with a great agency for yourself? Contact us today and learn why Digital Strike might be exactly what you’re looking for.

The fundamental difference between a website, landing page, and homepage is that you design them with completely different purposes in mind:

• The website is the base of operations for your online presence
• The homepage of your site sets the stage
• A landing page allows visitors to accomplish a specific goal

These are all broad definitions, so let’s get more into what makes for a compelling website, effective homepage, and typical landing page.

It’s a Bird. It’s a Plane. No—It’s a Website!

It all starts here. The website.

A website is the place where your brand primarily lives online. It’s where you post your content (blogs, service pages, testimonials, landing pages, homepages, contact info, and more) as various web pages, all under a single domain name.

What Makes for a Good Website?

The markers of a good website are that it accomplishes the following:

• Authentically represents your brand and services.
• Offers a stellar user experience with, among other goodies, an appealing web design, easy website navigation, quick loading times, easy-to-follow page designs, and high-quality content that users want to consume.
• Undergoes routine optimization for search engines so that your site experiences plenty of organic traffic.

Two of the most important types of pages you can have on your site are your homepage and landing pages. Let’s dig into each a little more.

What the Heck is a Homepage?

A website homepage is typically the first page users will see on your site. So make sure it leaves a good first impression.

Let’s use an example… our own!

It didn’t always look this good, but right now we’re pretty darn proud of it.

As you can see, we give an overview of the solutions and services we offer with a couple of calls-to-action (CTAs) sprinkled throughout the page. We have a “sticky header,” which means our header stays at the top even when you scroll down—and our phone number stays prominently displayed. We also have a navigation menu that lets you explore the rest of our site depending on what you want to know.

Look how pretty it is.

What Makes for a Good Homepage?

Seeing a homepage is great, but what exactly makes one good? Here is what a good homepage should accomplish.

1. Occupy your root domain (e.g., www.digitalstrike.com) and be the central hub of your website.

It’s where the link in your company logo links, and it’s where site visitors can easily find navigation to the rest of your site. It should always leave a phenomenal first impression.

2. Give a comprehensive overview of what your business does.

When looking at your homepage, a visitor should definitively know what your company does and feel compelled to venture within the site for more detailed information.

3. Link to every other crucial permanent page of your website.

People who land on your homepage should be able to easily access all valuable web pages, including all service pages, your blog, the contact page, your storefront (if you have one) and more.

4. Tell visitors how to connect with you in different ways.

Your homepage does not need to call someone to conduct a specific action, but it should allow for some type of action, including telling users how to connect with you. That means:

• Making sure your phone number is prominently displayed.
• Including buttons to your social media pages.
• Including a Contact Us form/email submission form.
• Adding your email contact information in a smart location.

5. Get users to engage with your brand.

You want all site visitors to engage your brand in some way as quickly and as efficiently as possible before their enthusiasm fades. Anything less is a wasted visit, which means wasted opportunity for new business with your target audience.

What’s a Landing Page?

A landing page is a fundamental component of online ad campaigns.

Here is how it works.

You create an ad with a strong CTA that incentivizes users to click through the ad to land on—you guessed it—your landing page. The landing page is a specially designed, standalone web page for a specific campaign, engineered to encourage users to take a desired action. That desired action can be anything, from signing up for an email list to making a purchase.

Let’s take a look at a few examples below.

Landing Page Example #1

Here is an example of a landing page we designed for a client.

We specifically designed it for a campaign to promote the company’s fire damage restoration services. The call-to-action is to schedule a free estimate, and as you can see below, the phone number is prominently displayed three times. And there’s a form you can fill out.

It gives you just enough information that makes you want to call this company and see how they can restore your home.

Note that it has a singular call-to-action (get the free estimate).

Landing Page Example #2

Landing pages aren’t always as short and sweet as our previous example. Sometimes, you need to have more information available because your business is intricate.

This particular client specializes in micromachining laser services and systems, which, as you can imagine, can be complex in nature. The concept of micromachining lasers is not easily whittled down to a one-scroll landing page.

But, as you can see, we were able to temper this complexity by including a series of bright call-to-action buttons that guide the visitor’s eye to the form at the bottom. It’s a relatively long page, but it still funnels the visitor toward a single call-to-action.

This landing page is a little longer, but it does everything it needs to do.

What Makes for an Effective Landing Page?

Let’s talk about what a high-converting landing page should accomplish.

1. Feature design elements to receive traffic from one or several specific sources.

A landing page is designed to welcome traffic from a click on an ad on Google (or another search engine) or a link inside an email marketing campaign. The info on the page should expand on what’s found in the ad/email and be easy to navigate both on desktop and on mobile.

2. Prompt visitors to accomplish a goal with a strong CTA.

A landing page funnels visitors in the direction of accomplishing a central goal, such as signing up for a newsletter, requesting a free quote, registering for a webinar, and more.

3. Stay focused on a single topic or offer.

A landing page should never say or do too much. Anything above and beyond a single topic distracts the visitor from the main goal.

4. Omit or downplay navigation options.

Unlike your homepage, a landing page should not include a navigation bar. That would allow visitors to click out of the page, lessening any chance for meaningful action and leading to lower conversion rates.

5. Not necessarily be a permanent part of your site.

Your homepage is the face of your website, a mainstay feature. A landing page is more of a temporary microsite, meant only for use in conjunction with specific marketing campaigns.

Landing Page vs Homepage: How and When to Use Each One

When do you use a landing page or a homepage? It all depends on what you’re trying to achieve.

Let’s look at some of the most common scenarios and when you might have to choose between your homepage and a landing page.

Listing necessary information about your business.

Landing page or homepage: Homepage.

Why: When you’re listing core business details like your address, phone number, and office hours, you don’t need an action-oriented landing page. People will likely interact with you offline if they’re searching for this kind of information by calling you or visiting your office or store.

Note: Don’t necessarily shy away from including an opt-in opportunity on your homepage, in addition to your general business info. Doing so can help with lead generation.

When you’re running Facebook ads (or any other paid social campaign).

Landing page or homepage: Landing page.

Why: Just informing people your business exists is not an effective angle for your paid search campaigns. Facebook users don’t go to Facebook to look at your ads, so it usually takes a little extra nudge to get them to click through your ad and connect with you.

The best kind of nudge is to offer something special, like a freebie, a signup bonus, or a limited-time discount.

Note: While you can use your homepage for special offers, you’ll have a lot more space to make an impact on a landing page. Your homepage likely contains too many areas that can distract the visitor and entice them to click away before they commit to the specific action you want them to perform. Plus, when you use a landing page specifically designed for a social campaign, you can track your success much more easily.

Running a paid search campaign (e.g., Google Ads).

Landing page or homepage: Landing page…usually.

Why: The same factors that make landing pages good fits for paid social campaigns also make them the best choice for PPC campaigns. Visitors from paid search campaigns are acquired by using keywords that relate to specific elements contained within your business offers, and so a landing page gives you the chance to write content that is a reflection of these keywords.

For example, let’s say you’re running a campaign for a construction company that wants to promote its siding services. Instead of making the primary focus of the homepage all about siding (and ignoring all of the other services they offer), you can create a dedicated landing page to showcase siding services and then funnel the visitors from the campaign to this specific page. This action can significantly increase the company’s chances of acquiring potential customers.

Note: One possible exception is if you’re running a paid local search campaign that uses extremely broad keywords like “construction companies near me.” In this case, the homepage could be used since you’re just advertising that you exist and not promoting a specific service.

Launching a new product or service.

Landing page or homepage: Landing page.

Why: Whether it’s a new product, a live event, a big sale, or whatever you’re promoting, a landing page is the best choice.

Note: A great landing page is where visitors can channel their excitement over something new into immediate action, providing immediate results for you. These results include an RSVP to your event, a pre-order process for your new product, or a mobile-friendly CTA button that visitors can use to call you directly from their devices.

When You Need Help Optimizing Websites, Landing Pages, and Homepages…

Now you know the basics of a landing page vs homepage vs website. But optimizing each piece of this digital marketing puzzle can be difficult. That’s where the help of a team of digital marketing strategists can make a difference. Contact the experts at Digital Strike – Targeted Marketing. We may not know how to tackle lions, tigers, and bears (oh my!), but we can certainly help you tackle your landing pages, homepages, and websites.