Adwords CTR

[r2d2]

I have started to advertise my plasma site on Adwords (good idea Emancipator), but have just had the thing which says your CTR rate isnt high enough...

What is a normal CTR for Adwords? Similar to adsense? What should I be aiming at?

[Shawn]

It depends on how competitive the keywords are that you're bidding on.

For example, a few days ago I bid on one keyword -- it got me 6 clicks with over 1,600 impressions, for a CTR of 0.3%. On the other hand, with another keyword, I received 269 clicks with 10,460 impressions, as I was the only bidder for the keyword. CTR was 2.5%.

[Westech]

I can't find much of a pattern to it in my campaigns. It seems like the mode is around 1.5% clickthrough for "strong" status, and .3% for "at risk" or "disabled". There are quite a few outliers, including a few listed as "moderate" at around 2%.

Upon closer inspection, it may also be driven by the number of impressions, i.e., it doesn't downgrade the status base on clickthrough % unless the impressions are above a certain threshold.

Can anyone else comment on this?

[r2d2]

At such low percentages, I would think they would only consider a reasonably high number of impressions to give a representative impression of the CTR. E.g. if the first few impression didnt get a click, giving 0% CTR, it would be unreasonable to chuck up an error.

It would appear they wait till around 1000 imp?

It would appear theres quite a range anyway, it just seems to me the minimum CTR is a bit high.

[Westech]

At such low percentages, I would think they would only consider a reasonably high number of impressions to give a representative impression of the CTR. E.g. if the first few impression didnt get a click, giving 0% CTR, it would be unreasonable to chuck up an error.

You're probably right.


My general strategy is to go for overly broad matches at first, for example television or plasma television. Then if (when) some of those terms are disabled I add narrower terms that include the disabled terms: discount plasma television, plasma television reviews, flat screen plasma television, etc.

[r2d2]

yeah, i guess that makes sense. 'plasma tv' is my problem one, 2 clicks from 1018 imp!


Edit: one other thing. Do you still get kicked off if you go under the CTR limit three times? I signed up last year, but didnt really use it after going under the limit then, and have just done it again straight away now! Do'h!

[Westech]

I think the trick is to know which low-CTR terms are worth fighting for. Some terms will have higher conversion rates than others. I just let most of them slide and replace them with more narrow keyword sets, but if one of your best performing keywords is at risk, it might be worth it to improve the max CPC for that keyword or change the ad text to attract more clicks. Of course my sites are a totally different category than yours, so your mileage may vary.

[r2d2]

Is there a minimum required clickthrough rate?

Yes. To protect the overall value of the AdWords program for Google users (and your potential customers), Google constantly monitors the clickthrough rates (CTR) of all accounts to ensure they're performing as well as they should.

Account performance:
Each account is evaluated after every 1,000 ad impressions are delivered on Google. If the CTR for your account falls below a minimum required CTR (which varies by ad position but is 0.5% for the top spot and slightly reduced for each subsequent position), we'll only show your ads occasionally on your underperforming keywords. (The status of each of your keywords will be clearly indicated in your keyword reports.)

If your keywords do notn't improve, we may disable them. You will 'll then need to refine your campaign to improve its performance and effectiveness. After editing your campaign, you may restore full ad delivery to your account.

Doh, forgot they might have an FAQ :)

It would appear it is a 1000 min imp to check CTR. Doesnt seem like you will get kicked off though... Maybe I dreamed that up...

[r2d2]

Arrrgghh. I must be rubbish at writing ads or something. Maybe not targetting keywords well enough. Got suspended again!

What keywords would people recommend for my plasma tv AWS site?

[AndyH]

plasma displays
cheap plasmas
plasma screens

Can't really think of much else, but remember that not everyone calls them a "plasma tv" :).

[Westech]

When you say suspended, do you mean that some of your keywords were disabled, or that your entire account was suspended?

If you want to increase your ctr, think about who would be likely to click your ad and target those people. If your ads state that your site sells plasma tv's, then you'll probably get higher ctr on phrases like
buy plasma tv
plasma sale
discount plasma
cheap flat screen tv
etc...

When you use generic phrases like "plasma screens" your ad will be displayed to a lot of searchers who don't want to buy, but just want to research plasma tv's. When they see your ad for a plasma tv store, they'll just ignore it.

Of course, it doesn't hurt to target generic "plasma tv" type searches too, just realize that your ctr will be lower for those phrases and they may be disabled.

[r2d2]

No, my entire account gets temporarily suspended. It says to optimise your keywords then 'restore full delivery'. I do restore it myself.

I think I do need to specifically target phrases like 'buy plasma', 'plasma sale' etc

latest campaign effort:

plasma Moderate 2 542
discount plasma Moderate 1 51
plasma screen Moderate 0 387
flat panel tv Moderate 0 82

imp. in red and clicks in black. 3 clicks for over 1000 imp!

Back to the drawing board I guess. I think Westech is right with the need to target better. Cheers for the advice guys.

[Emancipator]

good luck with it R2, i am sure once you find the right target it will pay off :)

[LuckyShima]

Another thing you could consider is having specific ads for as many separate search terms as possible. So rather than capturing all searches for "plasma" with one generic ad, you might need to target "Sony plasma" "Zenith plasma" "Gateway Plasma" and have a specific ad title for each of these. The number of impressions should be the same, because the search term contains "plasma", but CTR might improve because of having a targeted ad. How far you take this depends on your energy level.

[r2d2]

I have refined my keywords to specifically target plasma buying now. CTR is looking better now, 1 click from just over 100 imp.s in about 24hours. Just annoying its so slow now, but I guess its ok.

Will see how it goes with doing things like those you suggested LuckyShima, at 1 click a day though, its doesnt look that worthwhile though. I get many more free from Yahoo.

[ozgression]

And do the free ones convert to sales?
________
Chrysler J platform (http://www.dodge-wiki.com/wiki/Chrysler_J_platform)

[r2d2]

Sold two plasmas and two dvds (somehow!) before advertising. And have sold one plasma during advertising. This one was for $1900, but not sure how much I will get yet.

3 clicks after 520 imp. for my new campaign now. Looking better :)

[Mike]

I'd be happy getting over $100 for every three clicks on an ad. A good roi that

[r2d2]

No, I guess not :)

I have been looking at other ad networks, and in particular Overture, but wonder whether I could satisfy the $20 min per month with so few clicks. (I am paying about 10c a click, so would need over 200 clicks.) Any other ad networks anyone can recommend?

[ozgression]

Hmmm... I think you should try Search123 or FindWhat. Although, they tend to have less searches than Google/Overture, so your traffic will be delivered even slower.
________
BA Falcon (http://www.ford-wiki.com/wiki/Ford_BA_Falcon)

[r2d2]

Cool, will check those out later.

On 5 clicks for ~780 imp. now, so looks like I just needed to refine the keywords better.

I suspect the CTR for overture on stuff like Yahoo would be higher with the ads appearing at the top, rather than over to the right? Maybe I will give it a try any way.

[r2d2]

Update:

After a coupla weeks I now have:

49 clicks 5,478 imps 0.8% CTR

Much better :) cheers for the help.

But! Just got a notice at the top of my account about some keywords 'on hold' etc, and one of them is this:

plasma sale On hold 1 68 1.4%

1 click in 68 impressions... Whats wrong with that? Low impressions? I have other keywords that are ok with imps lower than that.. Anyone have any ideas?

[Westech]

I recently ran into the same thing. The only answer I got from Google that makes sense is that the ctr % shown on the adsense site is calculated based on ads on Google, the partner network, and the content (adsense) network if you've enabled it. The ctr they base the (slowed || on_hold || disabled) status on is based only on the ctr from ads displayed on the actual Google site.

What I've started doing is unchecking the option to display on the partner and content networks for keywords that show a high ctr but are still slowed or at risk. Then I can start to get an accurate picture of what the Google-only ctr (the one that actually counts) is.

Pretty messed up system, no? I've started using Overture lately, and actually like it better than adwords. I'm getting a lower conversion rate from Overture visitors than from adsense, but still turning a profit from them. To me it's worth it to have a steady stream of visitors and not have to worry about watching and tweaking my Adwords campaign several times a day.

I have no trouble spending $20 per month on Overture, in fact, it will suck up as much money as I want to spend and keep sending visitors. Based on your keywords, your mileage may vary.

[r2d2]

Yeah, it doesnt seem a bit strange...

I was thinking about setting up an Overture account too, but didnt like the $20 a month minimum. Dont mind spending it, but concerned whether I could get 200 10c clicks a month.

How does your clicks/day compare with Adwords and Overture?

[Westech]

In looking at a keyword group that is the same across both networks, I have about 30% more clicks from Overture than from Adwords so far this month. This is with an average cpc of .11 across both networks. Average ctr of .78 on Overture, .9 on Google. Most of the keywords rank in the top 2-3 on Overture, which means they display at the top of MSN and Yahoo, greatly increasing the number of impressions.

[Chris Choi]

Try to be more specific in your keywords such as ...

14" sony plasma TV or 18" panasonic plasma TV

This can lead to more sales and higher clickthroughs

edit: some people might be even looking for certain
models like 14" sony plasma T1000 etc.