Your research has shown a decline in interest. Do we need to be concerned? Yes. Possible commercial prospects may pass you by. If your company isn’t getting its fair share of online traffic, your rivals steal potential clients with every click they get.
With only about 3 percent of website visits converting, attracting those clicks is more important than ever. What should you do if you suddenly see a drop in your website’s click volume? How can you determine what went wrong and fix it?
In a nutshell: You have to delve even further. Let me help you with it!
What is CTR, and why does it matter?
Click-through rate (CTR) is an essential indicator since it reveals valuable information about your clients, such as which approaches are more successful than others when trying to capture their attention.
If your CTR is poor, it could be because you aren’t reaching your intended audience or because your content isn’t written in a way that compels people to click. Take, for instance, a paid search advertising campaign that sends users to your site, online store, or other specified pages.
An online ad’s click-through rate (CTR) indicates how well it attracts potential buyers; using this metric, you may evaluate the relative merits of different ad formats, placements, and calls to action.
4 Reasons for Decreasing Click Volume
How come click performance suddenly dropped? Hopefully, this list of possible explanations will help you zero in on the root of the problem.
Your Competitors are Outsmarting You
You have no say over the level of competition. It’s possible they can outspend you or write catchier ads. These are all factors beyond your control. That which you can manage is your reaction to rivalry.
Allow me to illustrate: let’s say you’ve got a maximum CPC of $5 per click on a particular keyword, but you’ve seen that a competitor keeps outranking you. This indicates that your rival is trying to outbid you.
The solution is straightforward: be more competitive in your bidding if you have the resources to do so. A higher frequency of appearances can boost your number of impressions and, by extension, clicks. How to make the most of Smart Bidding is discussed in greater detail here.
Another case in point is when a rival business outshines your ad material. Let’s pretend you and your competition sell identical products, but they’re offering a discount while you don’t. In your opinion, which advertisement is more likely to be clicked on?
There’s a good chance it was the ad. If you aren’t able to run a campaign, one solution is to look at your ads and see where you can make them more compelling.
Always use all available ad extensions to boost your ad’s visibility and prominence. Be sure your ad is still the most eye-catching option by using the Ad Preview Tool often.
Issues with Impression
If your CTR has remained stable despite a click volume decline, dwindling impressions are likely to blame. A quick drop in popularity can be due to several things, but the most common are:
New Negative Keywords
Like many other advertisers, you’ve probably had to tighten up your list of negative keywords. Because Google has relaxed its requirements for certain types of keyword matches, this has happened.
On the other hand, it’s possible that your use of negative keywords was too stringent. The adverse effects of these competing ideas can overwhelm the positives and lead the impression to be forgotten.
Now, the question becomes, “How can I improve my first impressions?”
Seasonality
Inevitably, sales will be lulls and surge if your product has a seasonal release schedule. If fewer people are looking for what you offer online, fewer people will see your terms in search results.
New Approach to the Bidding Process
Your daily budget may not align with your target ROAS/CPA/CPC if you have recently changed your bidding strategy. Any significant mismatches in expectations might lead to a dramatic drop in overall impressions.
If you’re using competitive keywords and your CPA goal is $50, but you usually see $150, you’ll see a drastic change in your impressions almost immediately. Reducing exposure to unlikely convert users is how CPA and ROAS methods work.
Regardless of the time of year, the solution is to examine current Bidding Strategies to check if their targets align with (and achievable) performance objectives. Additionally, examine your negative keyword lists for any potential conflicts that may prevent your ad from being displayed.
A recent drop in quality score
The fall in click volume may have its origins in the Quality Score measure, which, while not being the “end all be all,” is often overlooked. With Quality Score, we evaluate the following aspects of your advertisement:
- The predicted click-through rate.
- The importance of ad relevancy.
- Relevance of the landing page.
Google Ads provides a comprehensive overview of these metrics to see where your efforts are best spent. Ad eligibility is directly tied to Quality Score. It also affects the cost per click. Improve your Quality Score by focusing on the letter grades your keywords receive from Google.
While some of these solutions (like fresh ad copy) may be simpler to adopt, others, like landing page optimization, may need additional time and effort. Here you can find a detailed explanation of how to raise your Quality Score.
New ads on your website
You’ve finally penned some fresh ads and rolled them out company-wide. You can’t wait to watch the results of your updated ad copy perform better than the old ones. Instead, you’ve seen that the opposite occurs, and your clickthrough rate drops dramatically. Just what is going on here?
When you make changes to your campaigns, especially ad wording, you restart the campaign’s learning process. The performance may fluctuate throughout this time. While Google’s algorithm learns what connects best with users, you may experience a decrease in CTR.
Any advertiser would be disappointed by this, of course. You’ve made an effort to produce a flawless new copy, only to decline its performance. Therefore, what do we take away from this situation?
Make sure to split-test your new ads before putting the “old” ones on hold. As stopping all adverts and starting fresh is bound to cause performance fluctuations, this can help smooth things out.
4 tips to improve CTR
There are various aspects to consider when attempting to boost CTR across different digital marketing channels. If you want to boost CTR on a particular page, you’ll need to tweak the page’s design accordingly.
Include CTAs
You should compose an urgent and convincing appeal to action. Your call to action (CTA) should be engaging and encourage readers to take action.
Optimize your headline and copy
Emphasize a single or two keywords in the headline and body material. Take advantage of the audience’s empathy and resolve a problem they’re experiencing to win them over.
Try using hashtags
You can use hashtags on numerous social media and professional networking sites. If you want your content to be viewed by more people in your target audience, you should incorporate trending or popular hashtags in your industry and sprinkle them throughout your writing.
Use images
To improve click-through rates, pictures work wonders. Some photos may perform better than others in a given marketing channel. Find out what works best for your business by doing A/B tests using a variety of picture kinds.
Conclusion
If your clickthrough rate unexpectedly drops, it’s best not to panic but to take a step back and assess the situation. The solutions to this issue are typically hidden in plain sight.
In most cases, you may uncover the roots of a campaign’s lackluster performance with some careful data analysis. You may start using these ideas right away to boost the effectiveness of your Google Ads campaign.