Clickthrough rate -- what time period does Adwords use?

[Cassie]

I've been working on our adwords campaign over the past few weeks after reading a great article on it by Andrew Goodman at [url removed] It wasn't free -- but I think it was definitely worth the price. Anyway...one big question I have is how does Google figure the Clickthrough rate -- do they look at your clickthrough rate for your entire history on a certain key word or phrase? -- or the rate on that phrase for the past 24 hours? or since you last changed your ad? If that's the case, then I guess you start out at zero when you do a brand new ad -- and if you have an ad that has a higher CTR, then maybe it's best to leave it running the way it is, lest you risk going back down to zero and having to pay sky high rates to get a top listing. Any thoughts on that from Adwords users or experts? Thanks! :hi:

[Advisor]

I believe each new ad you start restarts your clickthrough rate.

However, you can still check your clickthrough rate for your entire campaign length, or by week, month, day or any period of time you want to. Just click the right things in your account and you should be able to figure out how to calcuate different reports for different time periods, etc.

Good luck!

Jill

[Cassie]

Thank so much for the help, Jill. I thought that's what happens. We used to have all of our key phrases in one group, but then decided to divide them up, emphasizing the corresponding key phrases in each much smaller group. For some of our well-performing key phrases this meant that when we started a new adwords group for that phrase we had to start over from scratch with our CTR calculations. Going back to zero means that we have to pay more initially for a higher ranking than we used to...but then once the CTR is back up, we are more competitive. It's all a bit mystical! -- ha! But from what I understand, if our CTR on a term is 4%, and a competitor has a CTR of 2% for the same term, then they have to pay twice as much to be in the same spot we are. So, if you move a keyword to a new group it seems to me that you go back to 0% and at least initially you're going to have to pay much more to get back in the same position you were in before, until your CTR gets back up to where it was. In fact, it seems that if you are say in spot #5 and you want to move up to spot #3, all other things being equal -- meaning that your ad is good and would do just as well as a competitor if it was in the #3 spot, then you're going to have to pay more initially to get up into that higher spot....and then just stick with it till the CTR rises. I'm just wondering if there any other folks who have grappled with these questions of how the CTR formula works for ad placement. Thanks again for all the help -- I sure am glad I found this forum. It's been a real help!

[Advisor]

Hi Cassie,

Sounds like you have a pretty good handle on it. I only dabble in Adwords myself, for my own site, and have all my bids down to 5c.

I'm sure if you email Andrew with your questions, seeing as you purchased his report and all, he'd be happy to let you know if you were on the right track. He's the guy I go to with all my Adwords questions!

Jill

[thinkfuture]

Hi Cassie:

In my experience the CTR seems to be on a sliding scale with the last 1000 impressions. So while the reports are done by day, week or month, the real CTR can actually be very different

for example, lets say that your report could say 4% over time, it could say 10% over one day, but then still be disabled if it doesnt hit .5% over the latest 1000 impressions. This is especially true for high impression keywords.

If you rack up a ton of impressions quickly, Google kind of freaks out and counts every iteration of 1000 impressions as a disable point and could re-disable your account immediately after you enable it. I did that and regretted it - had to discard that campaign...(that'll teach me to buy the word Thanksgiving the monday before!)

Thanks...Chris

[Javi]

Hey Cassie, do you think the report is worth the $50 it costs? I might purchase it, but want to make sure it's more than just an ebook with worthless tips.

Javi :)

[Cassie]

I definitely think it was worth the price. I'd guess that we recouped the cost of the book the first day we tried it -- easily. It was very helpful for me, because -- to be honest -- the whole Google Adwords program is somewhat mystical to me. It's not like Overture where you see what each of your competitors is bidding. So the whole CTR situation is what makes it hard to figure out how to run a successful campaign on Google Adwords. By reading Andrew's book I found out (sadly) that we hadn't been following a very wise approach to Google Adwords -- but things are going much better now. Anyway, maybe it was just extremely helpful to me because I'm not a professional -- and every bit of information helps a lot. But I'd recommend the book to anyone who wants to know the in's and out's of the Google Adwords program. BTW -- we cut our spending on Overture way, way down because we found that our ads on Google had a much higher ROI. Thanks for all the help on this forum -- it's been great! PS: When I wrote to Andrew with a question about his book, he answered me right away and was very helpful. Wish I could keep on top of my email like that!

[Advisor]

That's great to hear, Cassie! And what a great plug for Andrew's book. I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks it's great! :D

Jill