Five quick and easy ways to increase your click-through rate (CTR)

You've spent time and money creating an ad to gain visibility, boost sales or simply increase traffic to your website, but your click through rate (CTR) is floundering. Here are five quick and easy ways to jumpstart your ad and improve results.

1. Improve your copy

If your ad has a low CTR, you may be able to give it a boost by improving the ad copy, messaging or design to make it more appealing to your audience. Not sure where to start? Take a look at previous ads that have performed well and make a note of particular words or phrases you used as well as the tone of voice, call to action and anything that stands out about the design. If it ain't broke don't fix it, right? Replicate the things that make your ads work to achieve better results.

2. Focus your keywords

It's not just your copy that needs to be convincing. Your keywords count a lot too. Let's say you're a florist looking to target people searching for floral arrangements for special occasions. Using the keyword 'flower' is too broad. Narrow it down to 'special flower arrangements' or similar and you'll reach a far more targeted audience. By focusing your keywords, you might sacrifice a few impressions and likes, but you'll likely achieve a higher CTR because you're attracting more qualified traffic to begin with.

3. Set a deadline

Countdowns can generate a sense of urgency for clicks. Where possible, use visible timers to encourage your audience to interact with your ad before it ends.

4. Use Calls To Action

In order to have a highly effective ad that encourages people to take action you may need to, you know, actually tell them what you want them to do. Don't be vague, or polite either. Phrases like 'Learn more' and 'Register now' will give your CTR a boost because an action is required.

5. Add an emoji

According to Hubspot, using emojis in a tweet can increase engagement by 25.4%, and in a Facebook post can increase the number of likes by 57%, and the number of comments and shares by 33%. If emojis can so drastically increase engagement, there's no reason you shouldn't be using them.

Interesting in learning more about how to nail your social media advertising? Let's chat.