The click-through rate is also known as CTR. It’s the name of the game in Internet (Inbound) marketing, and a measure of how successful you are at:
1. Getting eyeballs on your site (through ads, calls to action, etc.)
2. Compelling those eyeballs to act
It’s a fact—that all the web advertising in the world, whether on your site or elsewhere, is useless if nobody is clicking. According to Google, the average click-through rate for AdWords is around 2%. Could you be doing better? Getting the click rates you want requires attention to a few important factors:
1. Know your target audience
Web users don’t mind ads—as long as those ads are for goods and services they’re interested in. The question is: are your ads designed for your audience?
Identify your target market. Why? Targeting brings with it two important advantages over non-targeted advertising: it reaches the customers you want to reach, and it gives you the ability to design ads and calls to action specifically for certain groups.
Studies show that targeted ads outperform non-targeted ads by about 2 to 1, so it’s worth doing a little extra homework. If you don’t have the time or expertise to do it yourself, an experienced Internet marketing agency in Denver can help you find and reach your specific audience.
2. Create engaging copy
More than ever, content is key to making the sale. Internet marketing relies on how well you can grab attention through clear, concise and compelling copy. Identifying your market is a first step toward knowing what motivates these buyers—the next step is to make sure that the content for your ads and calls to action really pops.
Ask the question they’ve been asking themselves. Encourage clicks with positive action verbs. Customize copy for geographical areas.
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“Do you want more from your Internet marketing service?”
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“Click here for a special offer for our Denver customers only!”
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“Limited time only!”
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“Download your free trial!”
You get the picture!
3. Test with A/B splits
A fancy way to say that you should create more than one design for each call to action, so that you can test which one works better.
Many factors influence which ads perform better than others—color, font, graphic design, size and copy all play a part. You won’t be able to increase click rates until you know which combinations people are most drawn to.
You can do A/B testing yourself, or leave it to a Denver Internet marketing service (Like DBC) to determine which ads and calls to action garner the most clicks from your audience.
4. Don’t ignore analytics
Daily, weekly and monthly analysis gives you the data you need to fine tune your ad campaigns and optimize your site’s calls to action. Which ads are working? Which need to be discarded? Let’s face it—your marketing budget only stretches so far, and you can’t afford to waste it on efforts that aren’t producing results.
Better click rates are the ticket to better Internet marketing results! Get people to click, and you’re on your way to increased leads and conversions—not to mention greater online visibility.
What have we missed? Do you have other “white hat” techniques for increasing your click-through rates? Let us know!
