As you are aware, Google Adwords is one of the most popular PPC avenues because of several features.

* Low signup cost (only $5)
* Instant activation of your account
* Instant activation of your ad campaign
* Provision to set daily spending limits

As the Click-Through-Rate (CTR) goes up, your ad position improves and Cost-Per-Click (CPC) goes down. This really puts Google Adwords in a different league.

Here are some simple tips to improve your CTR --
1) Specific matching along with broad matching

Generally when you want to advertise for, say, online dating, you put online dating in the keywords list. I suggest that you all of these in the keywords list -

* [online dating]
* "online dating"
* online dating

This way, when a searcher types just online dating, the click is credited to the 1st keyword. If the searcher types a keyphrase including online dating in that order but as part of a bigger term like free online dating, it is credited to the 2nd keyword. And if both online and dating are present but not together and in that order, like online singles dating, it is credited to the 3rd keyword.

This improves the CTR for certain specific keywords and helps to lower your CPC and also improves your ad position.
2) Use a variable title

Did you know that your clickthrough rate (CTR) goes up when the searcher sees his keywords (that he searched for) in your ad? This is because Google shows these words in bold.

But you don't know what term this searcher has used. So how can you put the term in the title? Try this.

Put this string in the title field on the Adwords screen -

{KeyWord: Default Title} where you replace "Default Title" with a suitable text. Now Google will show the search term as the ad title if the searched term fits within the 25 character limit and your default title if the search term won't fit.

Example - say you use {KeyWord: Online Dating} as the title and dating as the keyword.

If someone searches for dating help, the shown title will be Dating Help. However if one searches for free online dating resources, Google will show Online Dating because the search term won't fit in the title space (25 characters).

Did you notice the capitalization? If you use Keyword, then only the first word would be capitalized. If you use keyword, all the letters will be in small case.

This tip alone can boost your CTR by 157% or more.
3) Variable destination URL

Did you know that Google now allows variable destination URLs? Why do you need that? Variable destination URL can help you identify the terms that the searchers are using and you can alter your page content to suit those terms for a much better conversion.

Let's see the syntax to get the search term in the destination URL --

http://www.articlestop10.com/pam.php?kw={keyword}

Here we are sending the searcher to a PHP program (you can use a Perl program also), which then stores the terms in a database for easy analysis. You can plan for yourself how you want to put this information to your advantage.

Frankly this tip does not increase your clickthrough rate directly but once you know what the searches were searching for, when they arrived at your site, you can change your message for a much better response.

    

Great advice! Thanks!

a very great advice. thanks a bunch

Great article. I know I am digging through it a couple of times to really explore these gems!

Really excellent article. I have been getting slapped left and right by Google because of low clickthrough rates. And clickthrough rates are the name of the game with Adwords not the keyword quality score they talk about. I do not always agree that I want everyone to click my ad. Sometimes I want to put my price in the ad to keep the freebie lookers away. But if I want to use Google I think you gave some great tips. Thank you.

Thanks for the info!
How many keywords should I put for each ad?
And how often guys do you change them?

Another great way to increase CTR is simply to make people want to click on your ads, by making them more attractive than those offered by your competitors.

See what your rivals are doing and aim to do better.

Thanks for the advice. We have been struggling to raise our CTR, I think its our text, just not eye catching enough.

Optimizations like the ones you mentioned help, but many times CTR is most affected by your positions and your niche. Some niches have far lower CTR than others, and there's a huge different between having your at #1 and #15.

Thank you for sharing your tips. Here are five examples of ways you can increase your CTR without doing anything technical

1) Trademark Symbol/Registered Symbol.
2) Price In Headline
3) Seasonal Headlines
4) Trademark in Display URL Subdomain
5) The exact Keyword in the Headline