What Is A Good CTR On The Google Search Network?

One of the most common questions that newcomers ask when they start using Google for their advertising is “What is a good CTR”?

Google splits it’s networks into two separate networks – the Google Search Network and the Google Content Network. So when asking the question about CTR, one needs to specify which of these two networks is being referred to, as CTR results vary greatly between them.

The Search network is the most well known network and is essentially the network people search when using a typical Google search engine. In this case, the CTRs on the ads that people click on as a result of their searches can go as high as 20%+ if the ads are located at the top of the search results. This percentage rapidly decreases the further down an ad is positioned in the search results, so that by the time your ad is at the bottom of the page, your CTR is down to around 1% or even lower.

It doesn’t take an Einstein to realise that to get a good CTR, you want to ensure that your ad is in as high a position as possible for a given search result. Furthermore, getting a top position is in a lot of ways a lot more important than how good your ad copy is.

When you’re looking at the Content Network on Google’s partner sites, the CTR has an entirely different meaning. The CTR will drop dramatically when compared with Search network CTR figures. You might see CTR figures of 0.05% which is whole lot less than typical Search network results.

The numbers can be miniscule, however, the traffic being generated is many times larger. So, just because the CTR figures are much lower in the Content network doesn’t mean that you can’t achieve excellent results.

Nevertheless, if should always be everyone’s goal to get as high a CTR as possible in both the Search and Content Networks. Any CTRs of 1% or less will more than likely raise a red flag to Google and you could quite possibly end up getting Google slapped. This is when Google actively penalises you for having a poorly-performing ad by raising your CPC until you either leave or improve your ad’s CTR.

By keeping your ads in the top search positions, your CTRs will invariably remain in the high single to double digits – and Google will reward your hard work by gradually reducing your minimum CPC – which is always a good thing.

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