One of the great things about online marketing is that you can measure click-through rate. You can quickly review many types of statistics after you run your marketing campaign. Whether you’re doing pay-per-click (PPC), email marketing, or social media ads, you can review your click through rate daily or even hourly to see your progress.
But what should you expect your click through rate to be, after all your SEO work and online ad efforts? Sources say that the industry average is about 1.9%. However, the rate varies by industry. And for best results, your team should shoot for a higher quality scores click-through rate.
Below, we discuss click through rate overall, industry averages, plus ways you can up your click through rate and achieve better marketing success.
Below are the click-through-rates for some of the biggest online industries (Search Network CTR):
For 16 industries monitored by Google for its ad business, the average click through rate is 3.17%. For the Google Display Network, the 16-industry average is .46%.
What makes an excellent click through rate, then? There is no precise number that we can state for every business. But you want it to be as high as possible! A higher click through rate means more people viewing your product and services, which is always good.
Some marketing experts recommend having a click through rate that is at least as high as your industry average. Aim for a bit higher for best search results page.
Now you understand more about what a good click through rate is for your industry, but how to get there? Keep reading!
If you want to have a massive influence on your click-through rates, focus on keywords and match-type.
Ad copy matters, too, but that doesn’t matter unless the ad appears on a search engine result page (SERP).
If you have advertisements that have many broad match keywords, the odds are high that your copy could appear for irrelevant queries. One of the biggest culprits for broad ad groups is the keyword suggestion tool offered by Google or other search engines.
It can help you see your options, but it’s not recommended to go with their recommended match-types automatically. If you go with their recommendations, make sure to use their key at the bottom so you pick the right match type.
Signals for every match-type are:
It’s essential to practice vigilance if you can describe your product or service in ways that can net trigger queries in other industries.
Let’s say you’re a patent attorney and you love wearing patent leather shoes. But you’re probably not gunning for people viewing shoes to click on your legal ad, right?
You don’t want the word “patent” to be for any match-type – except exact.
Remember to use negative keywords to avoid queries that could come from other match-types and other keyword meanings.
For instance, cat rehabilitation can be interpreted as cat training or taking kitty to the veterinarian. The prices for each of those search results are much different. Depending on your ad budget, you may not want to use those terms that could trigger unrelated results and money down the drain.
Note that keywords that are in your advertisement groups need to be very likely to produce good queries.
If you have a shot that a long-tail keyword of 3 or more words is better, use it. However, if your specific niche has a lower search volume, you may want to choose a broad concept, as long as you have a long negative list.
Advertisement copy isn’t just a tired formulaic blurb anymore. Now we have three headlines, a couple of descriptions, and a growing list of extensions to entice our prospects to contact us.
But it’s easy to fall back into old habits and use copy backed by ‘data,’ and not take full advantage of the tools at our digital fingertips.
When humans craft your ads, you have a higher click through ratewhen the ad includes an H3 and D2 – about 8%. When there is no H3 and no D2, the click through rate falls to about 5%.
Mobile devices usually only give two headlines but usually do list both descriptions. Also, using the description provides the ad with more beef. The larger ad usually produces a better click through rate.
Also, note that ads that have all descriptions in headlines get a high CTR, studies show. So, please use them.
You’d be surprised to learn how many suitable ads lack a strong CTA or call-to-action. If your advertisement doesn’t have a strong CTA, you’re tossing your money away. Remember to use one of these:
The purpose of paying for paid search ad is to get prospects to act – go to your website. Some experienced hands say CTAs work great in H2. Others like to lead the ad with the CTA. You can test both in your industry and see which produces.
Note that having repetitive language in your ad will ding your Click through rate. For example, using a single word three times or more in an ad generally lowers engagement.
Who is seeing your online advertising, where and on which device are big deals for a high Click through rate. If you’re going after more than one region, remember that people around the country think and search differently.
Putting every region in your country makes the ppc account easy to manage, but it could hurt/effect click through rate(CTR).
Google lets you make the target location a choice in an ad campaign, so you could need to limit the first campaign to one or two markets. When you have hard data on which ad works best, you may expand to more markets, change up the ads and keywords per the local search methods.
All it can take is to alter your ad’s copy to ‘request a call back’ after hours. It shows you’re a human thinking about the person reading the ad.
Now you should know more about the ideal/good CTR and how to boost yours. We can help you with our PPC management services, including help with your suspended Google Ads account. Contact us today!
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If you’re running an e-commerce or retail business, you already know that visibility is everything. The best product in the world won’t sell if no one sees it. That’s where paid ads for ecommerce comes in.
Done right, they drive traffic, conversions, and repeat customers.
Done wrong, they drain your budget and leave you wondering what went wrong.
Whether you’re spending $500 a month or $50,000, your goal is the same: profitability. Not just clicks, and certainly not just impressions. You want to turn ad dollars into real, predictable revenue.
So how do top-performing e-commerce and retail brands make their paid ads work?
What are they doing that you’re not?
This guide breaks it down step-by-step, so you can start running profitable ads with confidence.
Before you launch a single campaign, you need clarity on your audience and goals. Are you trying to boost first-time sales? Increase average order value? Each objective requires a different strategy and metrics for success.
Don’t fall into the trap of launching ads just to “see what happens.” Paid media works best when it’s part of a bigger strategy. So before you log in to Google Ads or Meta Ads Manager, get specific about what success looks like.
If you want to run profitable paid ads, knowing your numbers is the foundation of your entire strategy. Without a clear understanding of your margins, break-even points, and how much you can afford to spend to acquire a customer, you’re essentially gambling with your ad budget.
And in e-commerce, that can get expensive fast.
Let’s start with the most critical numbers you need to know:
Your break-even ROAS tells you the minimum return you need on your ad spend to not lose money. It’s calculated by dividing 1 by your gross profit margin.
So if your margin is 50 percent, your break-even ROAS is 2.0. That means for every $1 you spend on ads, you need to make $2 in sales just to break even.
For example, let’s say you’re running Facebook Ads and spending $1,000 on a campaign. If your break-even ROAS is 2.0, you need to generate at least $2,000 in revenue to avoid losing money. Anything above that is profit. Anything below that eats into your cash.
Once you know your numbers, you can reverse-engineer your ad strategy instead of throwing money into the void and hoping for results. For instance, if your AOV is low (say $25), you might struggle to profit from ads unless you have a very low COGS or high conversion rates. In that case, you might want to:
On the other hand, if your AOV is $150 and your margins are strong, you have more room to compete in ad auctions, bid more aggressively, and test multiple audiences and creatives without instantly wiping out your profit.
A lot of beginner advertisers focus entirely on immediate return from ads. That’s understandable – but short-sighted. If you’re breaking even or slightly losing on the first sale, that might still be a smart move if you’re building long-term customer relationships.
That’s where Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) comes in. If you know that your average customer places three orders a year, each worth $60, then their LTV is $180. If you spend $40 to acquire that customer with your first ad, but earn $140 more over the next 12 months, that ad was extremely profitable in the long run.
Top e-commerce brands build their paid strategies around LTV-to-CAC ratio – how much they earn over time compared to what they paid to acquire the customer.
A healthy ratio is usually 3:1 or higher. So if you’re spending $50 to acquire a customer, you want to earn at least $150 from that customer over time.
Once you understand your numbers, you can plan your ad spend with precision. You’ll know exactly:
Let’s say you want to make $5,000 in profit this month, and your product has a 50 percent gross margin. That means you need $10,000 in sales. If your target ROAS is 2.5, you can spend up to $4,000 in ad spend to hit that goal. With those numbers in hand, you now have a roadmap for campaign budgeting, not just a shot in the dark.
Every ad platform has strengths. But if you try to use them all at once, you’ll burn through your budget without learning much. Instead, pick one or two that align best with your business model and customer behavior.
If you’re selling visually appealing products like apparel, skincare, or home goods, platforms like Instagram and TikTok can deliver strong returns – especially with the right creative. If you’re focused on high-intent buyers, Google Search and Shopping Ads are goldmines. And if you’re targeting professionals or B2B retail buyers, LinkedIn may offer surprising results.
Test channels strategically. Start with the one that matches where your customers spend their time and scale from there. The best platform for you is the one where your ideal customers are already shopping, scrolling, or searching.
One of the biggest mistakes retailers make is casting too wide a net. You don’t want everyone to see your ad – you want the right people to see it.
On Google, this means targeting high-intent keywords that signal buying behavior. Focus on terms like “buy,” “best,” “free shipping,” or product-specific searches. On Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok, you’ll want to dial in your custom audiences using demographic data, lookalikes, interests, and behavior.
Don’t forget retargeting. Most people won’t buy the first time they visit your site, but retargeting brings them back when they’re ready. Set up ads that follow people who viewed a product, added to cart, or engaged with your brand but didn’t check out.
The more relevant your targeting, the more efficient your spend and the higher your return.
Creative is the make-or-break factor in most e-commerce ad campaigns. You can have perfect targeting and the right product, but if your ad doesn’t grab attention in the first two seconds, it won’t convert.
Your creative needs to do three things quickly:
Use high-quality product photos or videos. Show your product in action. Highlight a clear benefit or solve a specific problem. Incorporate customer reviews or user-generated content to build trust.
For paid social, test multiple creatives at once – video vs. image, UGC vs. branded, short-form vs. long-form – and let performance data guide your iterations. On search platforms like Google, focus on copy that’s compelling and packed with relevant keywords. Test different headlines and descriptions to see what gets the best click-through rate.
Sending paid traffic to your homepage is a rookie mistake. You want every click to land on a page that’s designed to convert. That means fast load times, mobile optimization, and a clear call-to-action.
If you’re promoting a specific product, send users to that product page and not your full catalog. If you’re offering a bundle or a seasonal deal, create a dedicated landing page with copy, visuals, and layout tailored to that offer.
Remove distractions. Reduce friction. Make it stupid-easy for people to buy. The less effort it takes, the more sales you’ll see. And don’t forget to A/B test. Sometimes a simple tweak to your headline or CTA can double your conversion rate overnight.
Once your ads are live, your job isn’t done. In fact, this is where it really begins. You need to monitor performance regularly, looking at more than just the surface-level metrics.
Click-through rate (CTR) tells you how well your ad is capturing attention. Conversion rate shows how well your landing page is sealing the deal. ROAS tells you how profitable your campaign is. And CPA helps you compare efficiency across different products or audiences.
Watch for early indicators of success – or failure.
Treat your campaigns like living systems. Tweak, test, and improve them continuously.
Once you find a winning combination – an ad, offer, and audience that works – it’s time to scale. Increase your budget gradually while keeping an eye on performance. Scaling too fast can tank your results, so go step by step.
Duplicate high-performing campaigns to test new audiences or creatives. Experiment with upsells, bundles, or time-limited offers to increase AOV. Layer in email or SMS marketing to retarget paid traffic and drive repeat sales.
And just as importantly, don’t be afraid to kill underperforming ads. If something isn’t working after a reasonable test period, cut it. Your budget should be flowing to what works – not what you hope will work.
One of the biggest mistakes in paid advertising is chasing one-off sales without thinking about the bigger picture. Winning e-commerce brands think in terms of customer lifetime value.
If your first sale breaks even, that’s fine. (As long as you have a plan to turn that customer into a repeat buyer. ) You can use post-purchase emails, loyalty programs, and retargeting ads to bring people back.
At the end of the day, when you view paid ads as the beginning of a customer relationship – not the end – you unlock real long-term profitability. And at PPC.co, that’s where we want to help you! We offer industry-leading PPC management services for ecommerce and retail brands who want to stop wasting ad spend and start generating real ROI.
Contact us today to learn more!
