Healthy Data Tracking 

Websites save user data to better personalize and improve the customer experiences with first party cookies. These are small data files placed in web browsers to remember your language, layout preferences, or the contents of a shopping cart. This helps maintain a positive user experience by keeping important and relevant elements intact. There are also third parties that work with websites to insert additional tracking methods like their own cookies and web beacons such as analytics and page tagging. 

Companies use third parties to record what users read, click, and visit online. This method of collecting data is ethical if it involves giving users the ability and opportunity to opt out your company tracking using third party cookies, usually in the form of a pop-up box that contains settings and data preferences. Remember you want to have the user to have the power to control their info. If they feel you are abusing their private info it can hurt your company’s reputation and at worst get you into legal trouble. You want to give users the choice of giving you information freely. You can use subscription or contact forms, quizzes, and surveys for your company website or email marketing. Make it easy to unsubscribe from your email list if you use email mail marketing. The data you gather from these methods, should assist in your marketing and advertising plans. You don’t have to have all these methods going at once. Apply data collection methods based on your business goals.     

Unhealthy Data Tracking 

While data collection isn’t inherently bad, what you do with the data you collect is important. Sometimes data collection for advertising can veer away from its true purpose. Using ads through Google Ads and on social media platforms should have the goal of showing user the most relevant and useful ad. Track only what is relevant to help you sell your product or service. Never sell the data you collect to data brokers. Data brokers are companies that can merge anonymized online data (like from a public record) with personally identifiable information to build a detailed profile of you and sell it to other companies that don’t have your information. Avoid purchasing from brokers as well. Pause and think about how you feel when you get an email or ad from a company you never were in contact with. This can demolish any organic relationship building with potential customers. 

Researchers at the University of Washington have shown that mobile ad networks tracking capabilities could be manipulated for highly targeted surveillance. Some banks can also use data collection to determine your creditworthiness. Insurers can use data to assess your premiums. These ways of using data collection, are examples of controversial and potentially damaging ways to use data. This is causing many users to turn to private browsing and ad blocking software causing a loss of revenue of content creators. As a business make sure when you collect your data keep it safe and come up with an ad strategy that is ethical and brings value to your customer. 

We can help with healthy data collection for your website and ads. Call 248.528.3600 or visit our Google Analytics page for more info. 

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What Affects Click-Through Rate?

• Relevancy 

Your content should be relevant to the channel and landing page. Any ad, email, or campaign should contain the same message as its landing page to avoid confusion for the user. This is important for CRTs, bounce rate, and conversion. 

• Ad Rank 

PPC click-through rate will be affected by where your ad will show on a results page. This can be at the top on mobile or desktop or the right column on desktop. Ad rank depends on your quality score, relevance, and the amount you’re willing to bid (CPC budget). 

• Device

According to Web Marketing Pros, mobile CTRs are higher than on desktop. Filter your target audience by device, especially if your budget is limited. If you are not limited by budget, create content that works for both devices and monitor the CTRs for both. The more clicks you have the higher chance that user becomes a customer. 

What is Good CTR? How Do You Improve It?

While there is no set number that indicates a good CTR, organic click-through rate in position 1 averages are typically around 30%. According to Wordstream, a good PPC search ad hovers around 1.91% and for display 0.35%. Average email click-through rate stops around 2.5%. There are many factors that can influence the CTR of each marketing channel. Focus on using your click-through rate to determine which content your users consider relevant and important.

If your rates are not where they need to be, here are several ways you can improve your CTRs: 

1. Use Ad Extensions 

For PPC campaigns, Google has announced using ad extensions can lead to an increase in your CTR. Ad extensions can include reviews, locations, sitelinks, and call buttons. Ad extensions cover more space on the SERP, so you will increase the chance to catch more views.

2. Use Symbols 

Symbols or emojis in an ad title or email subject line can bring attention to your campaign. Special characters in your content make copy easier to read and breakdown. A word for caution, make sure you apply strategically and do not go overboard, otherwise your ad may be view as spam or a scam.  

3. Use CTAs

CTA, or call-to-action, tells users what steps they need to take next. Add a verb and a sense of urgency to these actions, then link the CTA to the matching landing page. For example, you want the user to learn more about your services. A CTA you might use is “Learn More Now” and link it you your company’s services page on its website. 

4. Understand Your Audience 

You may think you now you user, but maybe you are missing some key info. To help with ad targeting, do as much research as possible. What platform has the most engagement and what style draws in more views. Use the Organic Traffic Insights tool to view your most important data from your Google Analytics & Google Search Console data to help you as well. organic traffic can tell you about how your current audience finds and interacts with your website, which you can use to develop better ads similar to the appeal of your website. 

5. A/B Test

Test every step of the user journey, including the copy and landing pages you use.

To make A/B testing easier, try an A/B testing tool. Look for one designed specifically for SEO professionals or hire an agency that provides these services. This will help you quickly determine which optimizations increase organic growth. 

6. Do Keyword Research

Do keyword research before you create a PPC or paid social ad. The correct keywords to target can save time and money. For PPC campaigns, use a PPC Keyword Tool to organize your target keywords for Google Ads. Plan out ad groups and automatically generate cross-group negative keywords for your campaigns. Then export the plan to a file for future integration with Google Ads. Keyword CPC and search volume on a local level for a specific city or region can also help businesses who have a certain audience in a town they want to target.  

Need help with your click-through rates? Call 248.528.360 

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