Advice from an eCommerce PPC Management Company: When High CTR Is Not So Great

If you hear any online merchant say “click-through rate is high” it’s almost certainly a good thing. At the very least, that’s typically one of the goals of a PPC campaign – to generate clicks. At a minimum, that’s how many merchants see it.

However, high click-through rates are not necessarily a good thing. You need a little more information in order to draw a distinction. Here’s how and when a high click-through rate can be a bad thing, as told by an eCommerce PPC management company.

What Is Click-Through Rate (CTR)?
In order to shed some light on when a high click-through rate can be a bad thing, first we need to define click-through rate (CTR) and how a PPC campaign works. Let’s take a step back.

In paid advertising in general and PPC in specific, an eCommerce business will define ad groups, draft ad copy, and then bid on keywords that will determine when and where those ads populate in the search results. Hopefully, users will search for those keywords or search terms, click on those ads on the search engine results pages, and then convert through the ads.

Click-through rate refers to the percentage of viewers (impressions, or the number of times the ad “shows up”) that click on the ad and end up on the landing page.

Merchants that have eCommerce stores pay for each click to a given PPC ad – hence the term “pay-per-click marketing.” The idea is that some of those clicks will end up in a sale, justifying the cost of the clicks. That’s why some merchants see a high click-through rate as a good thing when associated with eCommerce PPC campaigns.

Generally, a higher click-through rate is seen as a good thing, but there is a specific situation in which this can be less than a good thing.

High Clicks, Low Conversions
Since eCommerce businesses pay for each click on to a specific ad, if the ad does not result in a conversion, that means the PPC advertising manager or business will end up paying for a click that didn’t generate any revenue.

If CTR is very high and conversions are low, it drives up the cost of the paid search campaign and it can even cost more to run the campaign than it’s worth. In extreme cases, a poorly run PPC strategy can actually lose money.

So what’s the cause of this specific issue?

What Can Cause It?
Though high CTR and low conversions are only one problem that can befall a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign, there are several different things that can cause this specific issue, including but not limited to the following:

● Click-bait-like ads: Ads that are designed to attract clicks but not to fulfill user expectations may result in high clicks and a commensurately high bounce rate from the landing page.
● Non-specific ad targeting: Ads that are poorly targeted may generate high clicks due to potential interest, but then fail to deliver conversions.
● Poorly developed landing pages: Even with well-targeted and carefully crafted ad copy, landing pages that are confusing, do not align with the messaging of the ads associated with them, or otherwise do not meet customer expectations are not a good thing. They can turn off a high CTR with low conversions.

These are just some of the top causes of high CTR and low conversions, although there are many others.

So, what can you do about it, and specifically, how will work with an eCommerce PPC management help?

What You Can Do About It: How an eCommerce PPC Management Agency Can Help
An eCommerce PPC management company can do more than help you define your ad campaigns, draft copy, and set a PPC budget with a given ad spend.

They will help you target your eCommerce market, suggest land page development where needed, ensure that ad copy is aligned with customer expectations, discourage users with low intent to purchase from clicking, and much more.

Most importantly, an eCommerce PPC management company will specifically run continuous optimizations and reporting on a PPC campaign, in order to ensure that ad groups are well designed, properly targeted and that ads that are resulting in high clicks and low conversions can be adjusted as needed.

If you’re in the market for a PPC management company that can help you turn out the sluggish performance of your current PPC campaign, consult 1DigitalⓇ Agency at 1DigitalAgency.com. They have many years of experience running successful eCommerce PPC campaigns and have served clients in various industries.

Give them a call today at 888-982-8269 to learn more about how they can help you extract greater value from your paid search investment!

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