I have read on this forum that a fairly average ctr is around 5%. Our ctr is less than 1%. Our ads are placed prominently in a good location. Any thoughts on why we have such a horrible ctr? Can Google magically predetermine your ctr or somehow limit your ctr?
Yes, the people visiting your site are not coming to look at ads. That's what analytics are for... figure out where they come from, what they look at, and where they leave. Then you can get to work on conversions.
No, google can't change your CTR. 5% is pretty high in my opinion. Well, depending on the sort of traffic your site gets. Social traffic (blogs forums) normally has a lower CTR than say traffic coming from a search engine. You should always be testing different ad colors, locations, etc and keeping records. As you tweak, CTR can go up and down. Always keep testing till you find what works.
I just wrote a huge post that will definitely help you out. http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1155572
ctr entirely depends on the type of site is is (blog, site, or forums), niche, and ad placement. some site will have less than 1% ctr and some will have 10% or even more ctr. not possible to say why your ctr is low and how to improve without looking at your site
5% is achievable, given the right niche, site, etc. However, I assume it's far from being the average. Most people I've talked with are in the 0.5-3% range.
Yeah, 1% seems to be normal, but I know that CTRs can top 40% depending on what kind of site/traffic you have.
If your website is strictly a niche site built to generate adsense revenue then you would want to see ctr's of 5% or more. If adsense is just a way to make a little revenue from your site but not the focal point then you really don't want high click through rates because it means your visitors are not engaged enough in your site to keep coming back. What I find is that on my sites where I am developing a loyal readership that the ctr's are very low because after a while they seem to just tune the ads out. When they keep coming back and not clicking ads it really pushes my ctr down. My suggestion is to look at your traffic source and specifically whether or not it is all or mostly unique visitors. If it is then either they are not seeing your ads or they are not well targeted to what they came their looking for. If you have a high number of repeat visitors or "direct" traffic then you should expect your ctr to be low because they are there to see what you have to say.
on some sites I have just 2-3%, on others 5-15%, all are well optimized, so depends on many things I guess. Ads should be relevant also.
I agree with you. To be concise, there is an inverse relationship with CTR and the quality of the site. Poor quality sites are more likely to have someone want to leave. High quality sites will have people wanting to stay.
1% is good CTR you shud place ads on better location. I Have reviewed Your Site. Try Pplacings 760X60 something like that banner on top. With both Image Ads And Text ADs. And Create Channels To Analyse Them.
That's a very good post. Well researched with useful links. I am trying out your favourite link color. Let me see how it goes. I think CTR of 5% is not a practical long term target for popular sites. My sites which get that sort of CTR are the ones with impressions less than 2000 a day. The more popular ones have CTR around 2%
5% is consider a good CTR, average will be around 3%. Try to optimize your ads placement/format, and put more quality content. This will drive the CTR up