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As search marketers, we are always looking for ways to improve our campaigns and get our money’s worth.

In order for an AdWords campaign to give you great results, you should look for ways to improve your Click-Through-Rate (CTR) and Conversion Rate (CR). This can easily be done by making a few simple adjustments to your campaign.

Why Improve CTR and CR?

CTR is very important because it normally indicates whether or not the traffic to your website is relevant or not.

A high CTR also usually indicates that your Cost-per-Click (CPC) will be lower due to a high Quality Score, which in turn can give you higher ad positions for a lower cost.

Assuming you’re basing your metric interpretations on optimal factors, then getting a higher Conversion Rate will directly increase the amount of conversions you receive. The combination of increasing CTR as well as your Conversion Rate is often the ultimate goal of an AdWords campaign.

10 Tips on how to Improve both Click-Through-Rates and Conversion Rates

1.       Add Negative Keywords

The best and easiest ways to improve your Clickthrough-Rate is by adding negative keywords. What this does is narrow down the audience you are targeting to an even more specific audience; the audience that you are interested in reaching, and vice versa.

2.       Analyze your Way to the Optimum Ad Position

If you don´t have your ads showing up at least on the first page, then most likely your CTR is quite low. You obviously want to make sure that your ads are being seen!

One way to do this is by increasing your maximum bid amounts. I usually include the column Estimated First Page Bid to give me an idea of how much I should bid in order to have my ads shown on the first page.

3.       Have Attractive and Well-Written Ad Copy

Make your ad copy catchy; make it really stand out from the competition.Don’t try to imitate your competitors as this will only yield temporary gains, but will quickly fade when your competitor finds you out and creates an even better ad!

Also remember to include the main keyword from your ad group in the actual ad copy – preferably once in the headline and once in one of the description lines. When a searcher sees your ad and you have their keyword within your ad copy, it gets bolded and draws extra attention.

4.       Always Test Ads to Achieve Maximum Success

It’s a best practice in AdWords to always be testing two ads in each ad group. This keeps you on top of your game and allows you to test various ads in order to find the ads with the highest combined conversion rates and click-through rates.

You don’t always have to completely rethink your ads. Simple changes like this can make all the difference in the world:

• • Changing from plural to singular
  • Using order instead of buy
  • Switching description line one and two
  • Using headline capitalization vs. paragraph capitalization

Sometimes the small changes will add up to a higher yield for you. Surprisingly for many new advertisers then it’s often when you start doing all the minor ad testing that you can really find out what works with your specific audience.

5.       Leave the Best Ad Copies Active

Once you have found the right formula for your ad copy, leave the best one running for a while.  This has proven to be the most appealing ad to your audience and therefore both your CTR and CR will naturally improve.

But remember to regularly test your best ad to make sure it still is indeed your best.

6.       Look for Assisted Conversions

Assisted conversions are a great way to improve both metrics. Through this data, you can check which keywords you should either leave running, increase bids for, or which keywords you should just pause so that money won´t be spent on something that´s simply not bringing in business.

7.       Increase Bids on Keywords that are Driving Profitable Conversions

By increasing your bids on these high-converting keywords, you will help your ads increase their average position, in effect giving the ad more exposure.

More exposure means there are more people seeing your ads and therefore more clicks, better CTR and CR.

8.       Include Rates or Pricing on Ads

Some advertisers are wary of adding this to their ad copy. I, however, feel that it is a great way of targeting folks that are looking for an item/service that you offer and are willing to spend the amount that your advertised product costs. Remember, the more appealing the ad, the better.

9.       Add Sitelinks, Location Extensions, and Product Extensions

You could say that these extensions add more “sex appeal” to your ads. Location extensions let the user know where your store is located exactly; if you are located closer than the competition, then more than likely, they´ll click on your ad.

Product extensions let the user see which products you offer, giving them an idea of what they may find on your website. Sitelinks give users insight into the versatility of your website.

10.   Review your See Search Terms Report

Looking through search terms is a great way to include negative keywords and new keywords that have been driving traffic and/or conversions.

Now Start Optimizing!

You now have 10 tips that you can use to optimize for higher Conversion Rates and Click-Through-Rates. I advise you to start optimizing today – The faster you start optimizing, the faster you will reap the rewards.