Google Adwords CTRs Up But Paid Search Down

This is an extract from TWIS SEO News & Updates 21 July 2017.

Read about Google Adwords CTRs being up, but overall paid search click-throughs being down, sending up to 85% of clicks to organic search results. There’s a lot you can do with that that 85% of traffic.

If you would like to discuss how to capture organic clicks and drive traffic, conversions and revenue through organic search, please feel free to contact me.

#SEO #GoogleAdwords #ClickThroughRates

Google Adwords CTR Summary:

• A UK based digital marketing agency, Accuracast has analysed 2 million paid search ads to discover the impact of Google dropping ads on the right-hand side of the screen and only listing ads above and below the search results.
• They found that click-through-rates for the ad positions have increased by about 50% as a result of this change, with the individual positions each changing substantially.
• Interestingly, overall CTR is about 15%. This means 85% of clicks go to Organic (or nowhere, as a lot of searches do not generate a click).
• The other part of the puzzle which isn’t answered is whether overall clicks have gone up – eg for 100 searches are the total ad clicks for the new layout bigger or smaller than before.
• It should also be noted that the clicks were compared on desktop only. You would think that there would be little impact on mobile (aside from Google taking clicks from real estate dominance), but you never know.

Actions to take:

1. These stats are interesting but should be taken with a dash of salt, as they miss out a little on pre / post comparison.
2. The interesting stat is that Google Adwords accounts for around 15% of clicks (CTR) on searches. This means that effort should be put into capturing that 85% of clicks available.
3. Whenever you see data like this, always check the maths. There are occasions when the headline doesn’t match the substance.
4. Contact me if you would like to discuss how to capture organic clicks and drive traffic, conversions and revenue through organic search.

Discussion:

Wow. Only 15% of clicks goes through paid search. That’s quite low. The accepted figure used to be a 70/30 split with 30% going through paid search. It’s hard to believe that figure has halved in the intervening years – reduced, maybe, but halved?

What is also interesting is that the shift from right-sidebar to top and bottom ads appears to have driving higher CTR through those ads, although whether the total number of clicks is up, is up for debate.

You have to remember that mixed in with those figures, will be a bunch of searches where nobody clicked, a bunch where people multi-clicked and some where the user searched, clicked and then went away happy as Larry.

Overall, this is a decent investigation into Google Adwords CTR, but it does lead to a few more questions!

More info:

• Accuracast Google Adwords CTR Study

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I recently wrote about how Google’s Mobile First is Not Mobile Friendly. Read it now.

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• Google Adwords CTRs are up since ditching the right hand side bar.
• Not known if the increase means overall clicks are up, or down.
• Only 15% click on an ad, leaving up to 85% of clicks for organic traffic.
• Read The State of SEO in mid-2017.
• Read about how Google’s Mobile First Index is not Mobile Friendly.

Thanks for reading. If you would like to discuss what these changes to Google Adwords CTR could mean for your web property, or would like to know how to claim organic traffic, please feel free to contact me.

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