Click-through-rate (CTR) has long been the go-to optimization metric for PPC advertisers. It’s easy to track and provides a good baseline for gauging ad quality. However, focusing solely on driving up CTR can cause you to miss other vital indicators of campaign health and customer experience.
Advanced PPC marketers know that metrics like bounce rate, pages/session and conversions paint a much fuller picture of real-world campaign performance. Optimizing your PPC campaigns for these metrics leads to happier customers and more qualified traffic. In this post, we’ll highlight three key metrics beyond CTR that savvy advertisers analyze to improve both conversion rate and return on ad spend.
Understanding Bounce Rate
Bounce rate measures the percentage of visitors who “bounce” away from your site after viewing only one page. A high bounce rate signals that users aren’t engaged by your content or happy with their landing page experience. This frustrates visitors and leads to lost potential conversions.
Analyzing bounce rate by keyword, campaign and landing page allows you to uncover problem areas where experience and relevancy could improve. Simple changes like adding more informative headlines, an explainer video or engaging images can drastically reduce bounce rates. Streamlining navigation from landing pages to conversion goals is also key. Optimizing to lower bounce rates leads to visitors viewing more pages per session and converting at higher rates.
Monitoring Pages/Session
Along with bounce rate, average pages/session viewed per visitor is a strong indicator of engagement. Since the ultimate goal of PPC is driving conversions, if visitors are quickly leaving your site after a single page, you won’t achieve results. Monitoring pages/session reveals whether your ads and landing pages are leading visitors into an exploratory experience of your content.
Ideally, visitors should view 3-5 pages from paid traffic sources. If pages/session drops below this benchmark for certain campaigns, do some further analysis into why. Improve content quality, site navigation or offers on key landing pages to boost exploratory behavior. Increasing pages/session translates directly into higher on-site conversion rates over the long run.
Prioritizing Actual Conversions
At the end of the day – no matter the customer journey — conversions drive the entire results of your PPC campaigns. CTR may capture attention, but real conversions indicate you’ve achieved your performance marketing goals. This means acquiring an email address, selling a product, users clicking on a desired CTA or other marketing funnel goals.
Carefully evaluate conversion performance by ad group and landing page, not just overall impressions and clicks. Discover which specific groups of keywords, ads and landing experiences are generating conversions. Allocate more spend budget to high-performing areas driving real conversions. Identify weak points failing to convert and make strategic changes to copy, landing pages or audience targeting. Maintaining laser focus on real conversions ensures you generate true ROI from paid ads.
Moving Beyond CTR for Better Optimization
While never ignoring CTR entirely, smart PPC marketers analyze additional behavioral metrics like bounce rate, pages/session and conversions to make strategic optimizations. Using these metrics transforms your paid ads into a powerful channel delivering truly relevant traffic ready to convert once on your site. The better experience drives more qualified customers into your funnel.