4 great tips to improving your Google AdWords CTR
Friday 22 May 2009
TAGS: Google AdWords | Pay per click
Are your Google AdWords adverts standing out in the crowd? Are they being used to their maximum potential? Neil M Hancock discusses some simple tips to improving your Google AdWords click through rate.
You understand the immediate gain a Google AdWords campaign can bring your business but you are far from an expert in pay per click management. Your campaign is making some sales but you cannot afford the cost per click (CPC) to compete with the ‘big boys’ at the top of the list. Don’t despair; here are a few simple techniques which you can incorporate into your adverts to increase your click through rate (CTR) without needing to increase your budget!
Use non-alphanumeric characters
Search for anything in Google, and look at the sponsored ads, what do you notice about them all?...They are all very similar in structure and layout, this is deliberate by Google, so we can all compete on a level playing field. Therefore what can you do to make your advert stand out, particularly if it’s near the bottom of the list?
You can use non-alphanumeric characters! Which of the following adverts stand out more?
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I am going to say you were drawn to the advert with the stars (*), these are non-alphanumeric characters, you could also create arrows (-->), or have a row of hats (^^). These are used to help make your advert stand out to the searcher while remaining within Google’s advert policies.
Use Capitals in your display URL
Another simple technique that lots of advertisers miss out on is maximising your brand name, especially if your brand name is either difficult to understand, or very popular within your search terms. There are very few restrictions to your display URL, the only things you can not do is use spaces or display an incorrect domain. Therefore you can optimise the display URL to say what ever you like. Which of the two following URLs look better if you were searching for Insurance?
www.wheretofindthebestinsurancedeal.com
WhereToFindTheBestInsuranceDeal.com/Insurance
As I am sure you will agree the second URL is the easiest to interpret and it also appears to be going to an insurance page, whereas the other appear to be going to the home page, which may not be as relevant to me.
Use Dynamic Keyword Insertion
You can use ‘Dynamic Keyword Insertion’ in Google AdWords, this is where Google automatically replaces your advert text with the exact search query that the user requested. This means that your advert can appeal to exact what the user is looking for. If they search for ‘Car Insurance Leeds’ rather than having to have a separate advert for this search term, you can use dynamic keyword insertion to place ‘Car Insurance Leeds’ into your advert. If someone else then searches for ‘Car Insurance Hull’ the dynamic keyword insertion tool will place their search query into your advert too, and they see a extremely relevant advert, without the need for you to create hundreds of adverts.
So how do I use Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI)?
To use the DKI you simply place a small amount of text into your advert in the format below;
{keyword:Alternative text}
This tells the search engines to place the users exact search query in the place of this text. As the adverts have a maximum character length, and many users search for queries that are too long to fit into an advert, in these instances the ‘Alternative text’ is used instead.
The tool doesn’t finish there, you can also decide upon the capitalisation of the words on your advert. You may like to have every work capitalised, or may you just want the first word capitalised, this can be achieved by using different capitals in the word ‘keyword’
- keyword – No capitalisation is used
- Keyword – The first letter only, of the first word only is capitalised
- KeyWord – The first letter of every word is capitalised
- KEYword – Every letter of the first word is capitalised but the remaining words are all in lower case
- KEYWord – Every letter of the first word is capitalised and the first letter of every other word is also capitalised
- KeYwOrD – Every other letter is capitalised
- KEYWORD – Every word is capitalised
So and example advert may be;
{KeyWord:Football Matchday Program}
Buy your {keyword:football matchday program}s online.
{Keyword:football matchday program}s with free P&P
FootballPrograms.com/Programmes
If some was to search for ‘football programs’ your above advert would appear below;
Football Programs
Buy your football programs online
Football programs with free P&P
FootbalPrograms.com/Programmes
Use AdWords advert rotation
The above tips mentioned can all be utilised while trying to increase your CTR’s, you do not need to pick one style and stick with it. You should be creating several adverts and getting Google to rotate these adverts on an even basis until you can be sure which advert works best for you.
Neil M Hancock is the Search Marketing Manager at Silverbean. If you have any questions or would like to discuss how Silverbean can help you achieve your marketing objectives via search engine marketing; please contact our resident PPC management using one of the following.
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