Those of you who have been around Adwords for quite some time probably know the challenges of keeping your CTRs high to avoid Google slapping your campaigns. Google Adwords may be expensive for a lot of business, but Google does reward campaigns that have more relevant ads and get more clicks. I have seen many creative ways used by marketers to increase their CTR (the guys behind Rich Jerk have pulled off some amazing lines0. It turns out Google SiteLinks already provide advertisers with a chance to get better results using Adwords.

If you are unlucky, you Sitelinks show up at the top with your sharing the top spots with 2 other ads. The best case scenario is to have the top spot all to yourself (which is most likely the case with branded terms so it’s not about luck after all).

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Your click through rate is one of the most important factors that can be the difference between you running a successful pay per click marketing business Google or achieve utter failure on Adwords. Google’s ranking system is sophisticated. There is no question about that, and while you can burn your money through the first position by putting up an obscenely high amount for your Max CPC, you should try to optimize your Quality score to pay less to Google.

Your ad CTR is a big part of your quality score. Google wants to take your money and a low CPR means they are leaving money on the table. So what they do is raise your min bids to either make you optimize your ads or pay the penalty for your negligence. While increasing your CTR dramatically will depend on many factors, there are simple steps that you can take to gradually increase your click through rate. Here is how:

• Call to action: you should try to use call to action phrases in your ads. Google does put limitations on what you can use in your ads. For instance, Google frowns up using the word “click here” in your ads. But you can use the word “apply now” or similar words, and that usually does the job.
• Keyword Phrases: make sure you have your keywords in the ad. Google emboldens phrases that folks have searched for on Google if you have them in your ads.
• Keyword Insertion: going back to the previous point, if you have an Adwords with more than a few keyword phrases, you can’t possibly fit your exact keyword inside your ad. That’s why you should use Google keyword insertion to automatically show the keywords in your ads that are relevant to what people are searching for. Use {keyword: keywords phrase} in your title, your body, or your URL. You can read more about it here.
• Symbols: Google is not comfortable with folks who use symbols such as “@” or “!” in their ads to attract the searchers’ attention. Having said that, you can still use “!” in your ads body (one time). So you should take advantage of it to set yourself apart from your competitors and attract the searcher’s attention.
• Unique Feature/Benefit: you have heard it before. Being unique can make you stand out in a crowd. Google Adwords has enabled lots of folks to come online and participate, which means in most niches the competition has intensified. What that means for you is that you should provide a unique benefit/feature in your ad to make people want to click on your ad. I would put a major feature or benefit on the first line of the add to grab the attention of the searcher as quickly as possible. Make sure your benefit is relevant to the product you are advertising.

Your CTR on Adwords is only a part of the equation but is a big part of it. In fact, without a good CTR, you are not going to be able to compete effectively. But you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to be able to achieve respectable CTR with your ads. And don’t forget to test your ads! That’s all that matters in the end.