How do I increase my CTR (click-through rate) in Google Ads?

Click-through rate (CTR) is the percentage of people who see your ad and click it. If 100 people see it and 5 click, your CTR is 5%.

Beyond the clicks themselves, CTR matters for one main reason: Google charges less per click to ads it expects to be clicked more than the competition's, so a better CTR can bring your cost per click down.

Most people treat a higher CTR as better, and Google likes to encourage that. It's more complicated than that, for three reasons.

Your ad position affects it. If your ad shows low on the page, it can count as an impression even if the person never scrolled far enough to see it. That drags your CTR down. It isn't necessarily bad. If paying double to show at the top would make your ads unprofitable, then showing lower is a sensible choice.

It varies by industry and keyword. A good CTR for one business or keyword is a bad one for another, so comparing yourself against a general benchmark tells you very little.

A higher CTR can mean worse clicks. Impulse clicks from low-intent people, or from people who didn't read your ad properly, push your CTR up and your results down.

Here's an example. Say your business runs first aid training for workplaces, and you bid on "first aid training". If your ad just says "First Aid Training" instead of "Workplace First Aid Training", you'd probably get more clicks, because it appeals to everyone searching. But many of them would be from people who aren't businesses, and you'd pay for every one.

Example 1: a very specific keyword

Say your business runs workplace first aid training, and your keyword is "workplace first aid training". Almost nobody typing that is the wrong person, so here you do want the highest CTR you can get.

• Headline 1: the service, as the keyword says it. "Workplace First Aid Training" fits comfortably in the 30-character limit.
• Headline 2: a call to action, such as "Get Your Free Quote".
• Description 1: explain the service in more detail.
• Description 2: trust signals, such as "Rated 4.9 on Google" or "Trusted by thousands of businesses". Only use claims that are true and that you can back up.

If your goal truly were a higher CTR, and nothing else mattered, you'd probably get one with an informational headline 2, such as "How It Works" or "Tips and Advice". Most people searching aren't ready to act yet and just want information, so more of them would click.

But that's not a good idea. Those extra clicks come from people who only wanted information, and you pay for every one of them. You don't want a high CTR from anyone. You want it from people willing to pay you.

The same logic applies to cheap clicks. You'd rather pay double for someone likely to convert than half the price for someone a tenth as likely to. The maths doesn't work the other way.

Example 2: a broader keyword

A specific keyword like the one above only attracts a small number of searches. Once your budget is more than a tiny one, you can't spend all of it on keywords like that, because there simply aren't enough people searching them. So most budgets end up mostly on broader keywords, where far more people are searching.

That's where CTR gets trickier. A broader keyword attracts people you want and people you don't, so the question isn't how to get a high CTR. It's how to get a high CTR from the right people.

Say your keyword is "first aid training", but you only sell to workplaces. Your ad should still say "Workplace First Aid Training" in headline 1, even though the searcher didn't type it. The wrong people see it and don't click, so your CTR dips for them. The right people see exactly what they need and are more likely to click than if the ad had just said "First Aid Training".

Shoes work the same way. If you only sell women's shoes and bid on "shoes", an ad that says "Women's Shoes" will get fewer clicks than one that says "Shoes". That's fine, because you're not paying for clicks from people who wanted men's shoes.

Headline 2 stays the same as before: a call to action, to put off people who aren't ready to enquire and draw in people who are.

Everything above depends on the right headlines showing in the right places. Google builds your ad by mixing the headlines you give it, and unless you tell it otherwise, it chooses which ones appear and in what order.

Pinning locks a headline into a position. Pin the headline with your service in position 1 and your call to action in position 2. Otherwise Google might show your call to action first, leave out the qualifier that puts off the wrong people, or repeat the same words twice.

Google will rate a pinned ad as having a lower ad strength and suggest you unpin. You can ignore that. Google says ad strength doesn't directly affect where your ad ranks.

If you follow the advice above (the service in headline 1, a call to action in headline 2, and any qualifier that puts off the wrong people), here's what usually happens.

In my experience, it usually means a higher CTR, not a lower one. You get more clicks from people who want to take action and fewer from people who don't, and it usually balances out or comes out ahead.

And even if it didn't, and your CTR dipped a little, you'd get a much higher conversion rate in return. That's the number that pays your bills.

Here's an illustrative example. Before, 1,000 people see your ad, 50 click (a 5% CTR) and 2 enquire. After, 1,000 people see your ad, 55 click (a 5.5% CTR) and 7 enquire. The extra clicks came from people who wanted to act, and the clicks lost came from people who were only browsing.

Don't try to get a higher CTR. Try to get a higher CTR from the right people. Put the service in headline 1, add any qualifier that puts off the wrong clicks, put a call to action in headline 2, and let your CTR land where it lands. A high CTR is what Google wants. A high conversion rate is what you want.