As a smart business owner, you know your website is the most powerful marketing tool you have. It’s the first thing potential customers are likely to see, so it’s essential the graphics, branding, and wording convey the right image.
That’s why it’s important to attract as much traffic as possible, particularly to your sales landing pages. One powerful way to do this is through online advertisements, carefully targeted to appeal to the typical behavior of customers and their demographics in your sector.
You should keep a close eye on the data generated by your online ads, as this allows you to see which strategies are most effective and which provide the best return on investment. Perhaps the most important stat, however, is your click-through rate.
This guide will help you to understand the importance of click-through rates, and we’ll also provide six simple yet effective strategies to accelerate these and drive more traffic to your pages.
What Does Click-Through Rate Mean?
At the heart of any digital marketing strategy should be a desire to get more people to click on a landing page and carry out a call to action, such as making a purchase or signing up to a list. This action can be achieved organically or, usually with greater effect, via a targeted advert.
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Put simply, the click-through rate (CTR) is a calculation based on the number of people who have clicked through to your page and the number of people who saw your listing or ad. Here’s an example of the CTR calculation:
- A) 15 people clicked through to your page
B) 400 people saw your listing or ad
The click-through rate is A divided by B times by a hundred (in order to represent it as a percentage). In this example, the click-through rate is 3.75%.
What is a good click-through rate? That depends on the nature of your campaign and the sector you operate in, but one indisputable factor is that a higher click-through rate should lead to more calls to action being activated.
Six Powerful CTR Strategies
1. Create A High-Quality Website
Its website is the most important marketing tool a business has, but too many businesses create a website and then do little to maintain or improve it. A well-kept, up-to-date website will not only look great to those who visit it, but it can also help you climb search engine rankings organically.
Always ensure your content is relevant, well written, and grammatically correct. Avoid or remove duplicate content as this can lead to search engine punishments that can impact your click-through numbers.
2. Adopt SEO Strategies
Search engine optimization can make a huge difference to your click-through rates and then to your sales and profit margins. As long as it’s done correctly.
Investing in SEO professionals can be one of the best strategic decisions your business makes. They can ensure your copy and links are not only relevant and high quality but also keyword rich and designed to boost your standing with the latest search engine algorithm. This smart SEO can be especially useful for content marketing for SaaS or eCommerce companies.
3. Have A Strong Call To Action
Your landing page should have a strong call to action on it. This CTA could be as simple as ‘buy now’ or it could be an invitation to sign up to a mailing list.
Calls to action aren’t just for your website. By having them on your search engine listing or advert, you’re telling potential customers what will happen when they click your link. That means those who click on it are more likely to take the desired action.
4. Power Up Your Ads
Ads should be as powerful as your website itself, whatever medium they’re displayed on. It’s a competitive marketplace, so make sure your ad grabs attention for all the right reasons.
One way to do this is to use colorful graphics and bold lettering, but if your ad is based upon your search engine listing, you should still ensure it’s professional and compelling rather than dull and drab.
5. Build Trust With Consumers
Trust is one of the most powerful motivators for a consumer to make a purchase. It can lead to brand loyalty, resulting in repeat sales and personal recommendations. A study showed that 92% of consumers believed in word-of-mouth recommendations, so building trust can bring big rewards.
Selling great products or services can engender this trust, but so can your ads. Don’t be afraid to show your credentials in them and your trademarks when possible.
6. Make Your Copy Shine
The words you use, known as copy, are just as important as your graphics, if not more so. Well-crafted copy can boost click-through rates to a business or eCommerce website, bringing increased sales.
Regularly updating your copy through the use of blogs or adding new pages to your website can also help it climb the search engine rankings, which in turn will boost your click-through rates.
Unless you’re an experienced digital copywriter, it might be best to outsource this task. High-quality copy brings rewards from both customers and search engine compilers, so hiring copywriting experts can result in a significant return on investment.
The Benefits of Boosting Your CTR
Online sales have risen sharply in the last year, growing by nearly a third in 2020 compared to 2019. That means there’s never been a better time to sell or attract customers online, and accelerating your click-through rate will help you grab a greater share of the spoils.
Pay close attention to your online listings and ads and your social media posts. Consider how your business can appear on page one of search engine rankings or even in featured snippets at the top of the first page.
High search engine rankings and rising click-through rates complement each other, so raising your CTR can make a real difference to your company’s future.
Nick Brown is the founder & CEO of accelerate agency, an SEO agency based in Bristol. He has over 12 years of experience in digital marketing and works with large companies advising them on SEO, CRO, and content marketing. He has written for sites like Pandadoc and Hubspot.
Website CTR stock photo by ilikeyellow/Shutterstock
