Domain1: aaaaaaa-bbbbbbb-ccccccc.com Domain2: aaaaaaabbbbbbbccccccc.com The nature of the domain name is that it's much easier to read/see Domain1. But users get weary of hyphenated domains due to all the spam keyword-hyphenated domains out there, and might be less inclined to click an ad with two hyphens, or even one. I know that I turn away from just about every ad that has a domain with a hyphen, but thats just me. My only exception for one hyphen ads, that I would click, are that one of the words in the domain is not a keyword, but rather something creative. In that case, I'm probably MORE inclined to click that ad. Has anyone noticed an effect on CTR in this scenario? Or am I giving the audience too much credit.
users don't look to click ads they are looking for the content they came to your site to get. If you have a crappy site and hyphenated domain theres more chance of your click rate going up as people are looking for a way out for a page that does have the information they are after. The side effect is your not going to get as many users to the site.
Hyphens matter little to general visitors. I have ran ads with both types and have not noticed any diff so far.
Just to clear it up a bit [it was late last night when I posted this] I'm talking about the Display URL of a Google AdWords ad, on the search results page.