In order to get a positive return on investment with your pay-per-click (PPC) ad campaign, you need to pay attention to the numbers.
That’s really all PPC Online advertising is – a numbers game. And if you get the numbers right, you win.
But which numbers matter most? And how can you boost those numbers as much as possible to increase your success and revenue?
Well, it all starts with a good click-through rate (CTR).
In this article, we’re going to dive into the nitty-gritty of what click through rate is, why it’s important, what percentages you should be aiming for, and clever (somewhat random) ways you can get better results.
Let’s go all the way back to the basics and dig into what the Average click through rate(CTR) metric represents, how to calculate it, and all of the basic 101-level information that usually gets glossed over.
If you already know this stuff, great – consider it a quick refresher (or move on to the section below on benchmark PPC CTR rates). If you’re totally new to the PPC game, then this will give you a baseline understanding so that everything else we’re about to discuss will make sense.
So, without further ado, let’s get into the definition.
An Average click through rate(CTR), is basically the percentage of impressions that result in total number of clicks. In order to calculate this number, you simply take the number of clicks and divide it by the total number of impressions (people who saw the ad). Then you multiply that number by 100.
For example, let’s say your online ad got 5,000 impressions and 75 people clicked. The equation would look like this:
(75 / 5,000) x 100
The result is (.015) x (100). This comes out to 1.5 percent. This is your click-through rate. It means 1.5 percent of people who saw your online ad clicked.
Okay, great – but so what?
The simplest answer is that the click-throughs on paid ad platforms like Google and Facebook use Average click through rate CTR to quickly evaluate the health and value of an ad. If lots of people are clicking, then it tells the algorithm that this is an attractive ad that’s making them lots of money. And if the ad is making them lots of money, they want to make sure you keep serving the ad. This leads them to lower the cost per click (CPC) as a way of incentivizing you to continue online advertising on their network.
In the case of Google Ads management,(CTR) also impacts something known as a “Quality Score.” This score is awarded on a 1-10 scale and is determined by a mixture of factors like Average click through rate(CTR), landing page UX, and ad relevance.
An ad’s Quality Score impacts its “Ad Rank,” which Google uses to determine where ads show up on search results. A high CTR leads to a higher Quality Score, which in turn leads to a higher Ad Rank. This ends up putting your ad in front of more of your target customers at a lower price.
If that’s all a bit confusing, here’s a simple visual to make it easier:
CTR → Quality Score → Ad Rank → PPC Ad Placement → Higher CTR
It’s basically a self-feeding cycle. As your CTR increases, so do all of the other metrics. This usually leads to a higher CTR, which…well, you get the picture.
Once you understand what (CTR) is and why it’s important for PPC ads, the next logical question is, what’s a good click-through rate?
The answer is…it depends!
I know – that’s not the answer you’re looking for – but we’re going to take a deeper dive in just a moment. The point is that there’s no concrete figure. There are dozens of circumstantial variables that come into play based on your product, industry, creative, and the PPC platform (Google vs. Facebook vs. Others).
When evaluating baseline PPC CTR, there are a few quick factors you can take into account right from the start. This includes (a) how the ad is being displayed, and (b) the industry you’re in.
Let’s start with how the ad is being displayed. With Google ads, there are two different networks. You have the Google or other search engines network and the Google display network.
The search network includes text-based ads that pop up within Google search results (at the top and bottom of the page). The display network serves ads on other websites. These are typically image-based ads and banners.
Google search network ads tend to have a slightly better click through rate(CTR), simply because they appear within the search results. Averages across all industries are usually somewhere in the 1.75 – 2.00 percent range.
Ads in the Google display network are usually much lower – somewhere south of 0.50 percent. (This is due to the fact that many users use ad blockers and other plugins that make it less likely they’ll even see the ad.)
When it comes to the industry, the average click through rate(CTR) can change dramatically from one sector to another. Here are some examples pulled from recent reports:
As you can see, the standard from industry to industry is different. Achieving a 4 percent CTR in dating and personals might be extremely low, whereas it would be an incredible rate in technology. This just goes to show there are a lot of unique factors in play.
Even within specific industries, averages vary based on the offer, type of product, brand, etc.
The fact that click-through rates vary so much can actually be viewed as a good thing. It means you always have the ability to increase your numbers. And, sometimes, all it takes is a little creativity.
Now that we have some basic context established, let’s dig into the juicy stuff. How can you improve your PPC click-through rates so that you stand a better chance of producing conversion rate and increasing revenue?
Here are several suggestions:
Humans have a wide range of emotions. And while we like to assume that we’re fairly rational creatures who make logical decisions after having all of the facts laid out for us, the truth is that we typically act on emotion (then justify with logic after the fact).
As an advertiser, you can use this little bit of knowledge to your advantage. Avoid the logical plea and get emotional. Ethically leveraging love, fear, hope, belonging, shock, and surprise can help you get better click-through rates.
For example, let’s say you’re running an ad for roses during Valentine’s. Leading with something like “2 Dozen Roses for Just $29” is actually a fairly weak hook. You might make a few sales, but there’s nothing other than price at play. What about all of the buyers who are less price sensitive?
A better ad might read: “She Thinks You Forgot. Roses Delivered Same Day.” Do you see how much better this ad copy is? It makes an emotional appeal – not just a logical dollars and cents pitch.
Questions can be powerful when used appropriately in your PPC ads management. People are naturally curious and posing the right query can get people thinking about things through whatever filter or context you’d like.
When asking questions, try wording them in a way that the answer is obvious. (Not only that, but the answer should be obvious and certain to push them closer to clicking.)
Going back to our roses example, you could do something like this: “Miss Her Birthday Again? 2 Dozen Roses Will Do The Trick.”
Or if you’re a financial advisor: “Unprepared for Retirement? Learn How to Create a Guaranteed Stream of Income in Your Golden Years.”
A good question can save valuable space in your ad by letting your prospect tell themselves why they should click. This can be more powerful than using a direct command.
Humans have a huge, oversized fear of missing out on something. You might even say this is a distinctly human trait. Dogs don’t see other dogs walking with their owners as the sun goes down and think to themselves, “No! I hope I don’t miss out on a walk with my owner before the sun sets!” Now, if you tell a dog that you’re going on a walk, they might get really excited. (And they might even get sad if you’re then unable to take them out.) But they don’t have a fear of missing out.
With humans, we’re constantly fearful of being left out or missing the boat. In many cases, we’ll do anything to avoid this feeling – even if it means spending time or money on something we might not truly need.
In advertising, you can tap into FOMO by creating urgency and/or playing the scarcity card. You can do this by setting a deadline for a sale, releasing a limited order quantity, or using some sort of tiered discount based on when people place an order.
While not perfect for every brand, humor can be a very useful mechanism for increasing click through rate(CTR) and getting a better response. Having said that, it’s a somewhat risky play – simply because everyone has a unique sense of humor. You could easily miss the mark and drive your click through rate(CTR) close to zero.
If you’re going to attempt humor in your ads, we recommend running multiple variations. Have a humorous version and a non-humorous version and split test the same ad creative. This will give you a pretty good feel for the response. After gathering enough data, you can make a decision on whether to move forward with the funny ad or nix it.
We can talk all we want about ad creatives, copy, and other elements, but it all comes down to ad-audience fit. If you aren’t focusing on the right audience, you aren’t going to have high CTRs.
For Facebook in particular, where you have a massive amount of control over your audience, niching down to a very specific part of the market is going to give you the ability to create much more targeted ad copy and images that resonate.
For example, don’t just target business owners. Target restaurant owners. And then split your ad campaign up so that you can target South Carolina restaurant owners and California restaurant owners separately. This gives you so much more relevancy and control.
One school of thought says you should max out your ad by using every single character you’re allowed to use within the character limit. But is this really the best way to go?
There’s ample research to suggest shorter ads (particularly on Facebook) get more number of clicks and better engagement. In fact, as character count increases, response rates steadily fall off.
The fact that shorter ads do better is likely due to the fact that people have very small attention spans. An ad that can be consumed in three seconds is much more enticing than an ad that takes 90 seconds to read. Even if your copy is great and you can effortlessly compel people to read sentence after sentence with mouth-watering copy, there’s simply too much friction to attract a large percentage of your audience. Keep it short!
When dealing with Google display network ads and/or Facebook ads, the image is the most important part. People will process the image long before they read the copy or call-to-action. So when you run an ad, always split test at least three different images. This will give you a feel for what your customers respond to best.
PPC is both an art and a science. It requires equal parts creativity, technical competence, and experience. If you’re lacking in any of these three areas, you aren’t going to get the sort of results you need.
But there’s good news: We can help.
At PPC.co, we partner with entrepreneurs, digital marketers & email marketers/ email marketing professionals, agencies, startups, small businesses, and established enterprises to make PPC advertising a smooth, seamless experience that ultimately results in more clicks and conversion rate.
Want to learn more about whether we’re a good fit for each other? Let’s chat!
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Launching an online course is easy once you’ve created your content. Filling your virtual classroom with motivated, paying learners is a little more challenging. Advertising strategies aren’t intuitive no matter how user-friendly a platform might be, and trying to guess at how to market your courses online can feel like you’re shouting into the void. But with a little knowledge and some expert PPC ad strategies, you can get your courses in front of people who are hungry to learn what you teach.
With precise targeting, a professional strategy, budget control, and regular tracking, a PPC ad campaign can transform your course into a thriving program. The key is knowing how to structure your ad campaigns for both clicks and hot leads that convert.
Unlike search engine optimization (SEO), which can take months to gain even a little traction, PPC provides you with immediate visibility right where your target users are hanging out. SEO is important but it’s a long-term game that should be executed alongside PPC ads for the best results. While you’re waiting, PPC generates immediate clicks and drives traffic to your website on the spot.
The best part is that when done right, PPC ads offer a high ROI compared to many other advertising methods. According to the data, businesses earn an average of $2 for every $1 they spend on Google Ads, making PPC a powerful resource for course providers. Here’s everything you need to know about mastering PPC to generate hot leads for your online courses.
1. Understand the learner’s journey
If you want your PPC ads to generate leads ready to buy and not just curious clicks, you need to align your ad strategy with how learners make decisions. Signing up for an online course is not an impulse purchase. It’s a journey that usually starts with curiosity and then moves to research and comparison. When successful, that journey ends with enrollment.
A one-size-fits-all ad won’t work because a student who is just browsing isn’t ready for the same pitch as someone about to hand over their credit card. Understanding the different parts of the funnel, and tailoring your ad campaigns to match each stage, is what will make your course successful. A typical buyer’s journey for learners involves the following stages:
At this stage, your potential students are still exploring broad ideas related to the courses you’re offering. They may not know exactly which course or platform is right for them, but they’re actively looking for options. You’ll need to use a certain type of keyword phrase to capture their attention.
Searches like “learn coding online,” “how to get TEFL certified,” and “language courses for beginners” will work well at this stage. PPC ads in this phase shouldn’t hard-sell enrollment, but rather, focus on positioning your course as credible and informative.
Think free guides, introductory webinars, and blog posts that answer frequently asked questions about your topic. By nurturing your leads’ interests and providing value right off the bat, you’ll have an easier time becoming a trusted brand that people keep in mind as they move deeper into the journey.
During the consideration state prospects know what they want but they’re comparing their options. They’ve narrowed down their choices and are considering factors like price, flexibility, depth, instructor quality, platform, and accreditation. Ideal search terms in this phase are related to specific things that your prospects value or want to achieve like “affordable Python bootcamp,” “online MBA with scholarships,” or “best UX design course with certification.”
Your PPC ads should also highlight unique selling points for your course like “self-paced learning,” “industry-recognized certificate,” or “job placement success.” It’s at this stage where comparison charts, testimonials, and detailed course previews are highly effective. The goal is to show your prospects why your program beats the competition.
At this point, hesitation is minimal. Prospects are ready to sign up but might need one last push. This is where urgency, social proof, and simplicity make all the difference. Ads should feature strong calls to action like “Enroll Today,” limited-time incentives like “Save 20% - Ends Sunday.” This is the perfect time to showcase real student success stories. Landing pages for ads in the decision stage should remove all friction. Avoid long forms and distracting links. Just provide a clear and simple path to enrollment.
Keep in mind that most of your ideal market will encounter your brand multiple times along their journey across different devices and platforms, like Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. Mapping your PPC ad campaigns to these three stages ensures you’re showing up with the right message at the right time. When done correctly, focusing on all three stages with separate messages will turn casual searchers into qualified leads ready to buy your course.
The backbone of every PPC campaign is your keyword selection. You can write the most convincing ad copy in the world, but if you’re bidding on the wrong phrases you’ll either waste your budget or attract people who have no intention of enrolling.
Your goal isn’t just to drive traffic to your site. You need to drive qualified traffic – people who are serious about learning what you teach and are ready to invest in themselves. This requires targeting a mix of high-intent keywords, longtail phrases, and negative keywords.
Broad keywords like “data science” and “coding” cast a net that’s too wide. You’ll get clicks but most will be from people who are just curious or looking for free resources. To reach people who are committed, you need to target high-intent keywords that show purchase intent. Phrases like “enroll in our data science course” and “online JavaScript certification with ongoing support” will attract users who are actively seeking instruction.
You’ll pay more for high-intent keywords but they deliver more value and higher conversion rates, and that will increase your ROI when you choose the right ones.
Longtail keywords are used to target a smaller pool of people and that’s a good thing. Since these keywords are more focused, the traffic they generate is more valuable. Instead of competing for saturated, general terms like “learn graphic design online,” you target specific phrases like “best graphic design program for working professionals with evening classes.” The people searching with this level of specificity already know what they want, which means they’re more likely to convert.
If you skip targeting longtail keywords you’re leaving money on the table. Data shows that 70% of all online searches involve longtail phrases – it’s just how people naturally search when they know what they want.
Your negative keyword list is how you’ll preserve your budget and prevent wasting money on irrelevant clicks. Without a list of words you don’t want your ads to show up for, you’ll end up paying for clicks that never convert.
Build a negative keyword list of words that indicate someone is looking for something free or irrelevant to your course. For example, words like “free,” “PDF,” “torrent,” and “Reddit” are usually used in searches when someone is looking for shortcuts and freebies. Adding these and similar words to your negative keyword list will filter out tire-kickers and boost ROI by preserving your ad budget for relevant prospects.
Once you have the right keywords that generate impressions, your ad copy has to do the work to get clicks. Your ads need to grab people right away to prevent them from scrolling and possibly clicking on another course provider’s ad. For e-learning, your ads need to inspire people. Instead of talking about your course you want to highlight what your course will do for the learner. This is accomplished with benefit-driven messaging, emotional triggers, and strong calls-to-action (CTAs).
· Benefit-driven messaging. Most course providers list features like “40 hours of video content” and “downloadable PDFs,” but these details aren’t going to capture attention at first glance. In fact, telling learners they’re going to need to sit through 40 hours of content right off the bat might be a deterrent.
Instead, your ads should highlight tangible outcomes like “land high-paying clients with our program,” or “start a new career as a web developer in just 12 weeks.” Benefits speak directly to a person’s goals and aspirations, which is far more compelling than a list of specs.
· Emotional triggers. Emotional triggers are the heart of every marketing strategy, including PPC ads. People make emotional buying decisions and buy courses because they’re chasing a dream, avoiding a fear, or seeking transformation.
Great ad copy taps into these emotions and creates a sense of urgency. For instance, “Don’t miss the enrollment deadline” plays into the fear of missing out, while “Join 10,000 successful graduates” leverages social proof. The right emotional triggers will give people a good reason to act now rather than bookmarking your page and forgetting about it.
· Clear CTAs. Irresistible ad copy includes a direct, compelling call-to-action that tells the prospect what to do next. Generic instructions don’t cut it. “Learn more,” “Click here,” and similar phrases don’t communicate urgency or value. Choose CTAs that direct prospects to sign up for your course. For example, “Start your free trial” and “Reserve your seat today” work well.
In a crowded marketplace where hundreds of course creators are competing for the same attention, clarity and emotion will generate better results. Lead with benefits and tap into people’s emotions and your ad copy will generate serious leads.
Generating clicks from your ads is only the first half of the equation. Once a prospect clicks your landing page needs to convert them to a paying customer or your ad spend goes to waste. Your landing page is like the final pitch where prospective students choose whether to enroll in your course or move on. If your landing pages create any confusion, friction, or distrust, your prospects will lean toward other course creators. On the other hand, an optimized landing page can become a conversion generating machine.
Your landing pages should be simple and clean without too much information. The page content should be specifically designed to direct people to sign up for your course. You want to eliminate navigation menus and sidebars to prevent people from clicking away from the page and getting distracted. Each landing page should have one end goal, either to get sign-ups/purchases or apply for acceptance if required. Too many options will create cognitive overload and reduce the chance of any action.
It’s crucial to include trust elements on your landing pages. When people are thinking about investing their time and money in an online course, they’re naturally going to be skeptical. This is where trust signals can help. Testimonials, instructor bios, refund guarantees, and case studies will help build your course credibility. The goal here is to reassure people that your program is legitimate and worth their investment.
Clicks are important but they’re somewhat of a vanity metric when measured on their own. The only time clicks matter is when you’re looking at your conversion rate. If you generate 100 clicks and get 40 people to enroll that’s much better than generating 1,000 clicks and only getting one person to enroll in your course.
The metrics that matter most are your conversion rate, your cost per lead (CPL), and lifetime customer value (LTV). For instance, you’ll want to track completed signups, demo requests, and enrollments rather than overall clicks.
Cost per lead is a simple measurement that can tell you how efficient your campaign is. For instance, if you’re paying $50 per lead but your average enrollment fee is $500, your margins are good. If your CPL is too close to your revenue then your course might be priced too low or you need to adjust your targeted keywords.
For e-learning, many students invest in more than one course or renew their subscription, which increases their lifetime value to your business. Tracking LTV will help you determine how much you can afford to spend acquiring each new student. For example, if your LTV average is $1,500, it makes sense to spend $200 to acquire each lead. This long-term view helps you maintain profitability and allows you to outbid your competitors who aren’t willing to spend much.
PPC ads require fine-tuning and you can’t just “set it and forget it.” What works today might underperform tomorrow or not perform at all on other platforms. Even small changes can make a huge difference in conversions and that’s why it’s important to test variations. For example, Dell is just one example of a company that saw a 300% increase in conversions from A/B testing.
By running experiments to test different elements you can identify what resonates most with your target audience and optimize your ads based on those results. The most important elements to test are your headlines, CTAs, and images.
· Testing headlines. Your ad headline is usually the first thing a prospect sees. Testing different headlines can help identify which promises resonate most. For example, “Land your dream job” might appeal to people looking for a new career, while “Get certified in 12 weeks” might hook people in a hurry. If you get more conversions from the former, your main audience is likely people looking for a new career, and you can tailor your ads to that group.
· Testing CTAs. A strong CTA can generate more clicks, but what works will depend on your audience. For example, “Get started today” might work for some courses while “Reserve your spot” works better for others. Avoid vague CTAs like “Learn more” that don’t instruct people to take action.
· Testing visuals. Images can put people off or draw them closer. Visuals are processed faster than text and are perceived in a split-second. A single image can make or break an ad. For instance, sometimes a photo of an instructor works well, but other times it’s better to use abstract graphics.
Split testing isn’t optional when you’re running PPC ads. It’s the only way to know which elements make your ads more effective.
At the end of the day, PPC is a great way to build a pipeline of motivated students who want to enroll in your courses. By aligning your campaign with the learner’s journey and optimizing your ads and landing pages for conversions, you can turn your PPC campaign into a reliable growth engine. As the e-learning market becomes more competitive, ads that hit hard are a must.
If you’re ready to stop wasting ad spend and start filling your online classrooms with qualified leads, it’s time to bring in PPC experts. At PPC.co, we specialize in turning clicks into enrollments through high-converting campaigns that deliver qualified leads for online course creators . Contact our team today and let’s build campaigns that fill your classroom.
Pay-per-click (PPC) remains one of the fastest paths to pipeline, but the economics vary widely by industry and are shifting as AI reshapes the SERP. CPCs are up versus prior years, conversion rates have improved in many categories, and lead quality is increasingly a function of how well advertisers feed first-party data into bidding models.
The table below summarizes 2025 search-PPC benchmarks by sector—CPC, conversion rate (CVR), and cost per lead (CPL)—so you can compare what “good” looks like in your niche and calibrate ROI assumptions.
Use these numbers as directional guardrails, then layer in your own close rates and LTV to get to the only metric that matters: profitable growth.
In short, AI is changing the way PPC campaign management is occurring, and it's happening FAST.
ROI ≈ (Close-Rate × Avg Customer LTV ÷ CPL) − 1
Example (legal): if close-rate 12% and LTV $6,000 on CPL $132 → ROI ≈ (0.12×6000 / 132) −1 ≈ 4.45x (345% net). Improve any one input (faster intake bumps close-rate; better routing lowers CPL) and ROI jumps. Benchmarks for CPL/CVR above provide solid starting points. LocaliQ
PPC will keep paying when two things are true:
(1) you can convert and qualify leads quickly, and
(2) your bidding models are trained on the outcomes that actually make you money.
As AI compresses differences in targeting, the edge shifts to first-party data, creative velocity, and value-based bidding.
Treat the benchmarks above as starting points, then rebuild your ROI math from the ground up: ROI ≈ (Close Rate × LTV ÷ CPL).
Contact us today for your customized PPC audit to see how we can improve your search engine marketing ad spend.
