when to expect clicks
In digital spaces, we’ve become a little conditioned to expect that all paid ads will lead to clicks. With CTR (click thru rate) as one of the most common and visible metrics available, it’s no surprise that many folks assume that clicks are king. While in some cases, this is absolutely true there are some digital vehicles or campaigns where clicks or a high CTR aren’t necessarily a measure of success.
what do the metrics mean?
Last year we shared a post with the goal of demystifying what the dozens of digital media acronyms mean. In simple terms, clicks are when users press on a designated link or ad and click thru rate is the percentage of impressions that resulted in clicks. To identify whether the number of clicks and total CTR accomplished what you want, we start by asking…
what’s the goal?
The old adage “begin with the end in mind” is apt here. To determine whether clicks are an important measurement in your campaign, you’ll want to ask what the overall campaign goals are. Are you after public awareness, brand awareness, conversions, or lead generation?
When running an awareness campaign, clicks don’t necessarily mean you’ve succeeded. If your goal is to get the message of the ad across to the end consumer, then reach and frequency are more important metrics to consider. Conversely, conversions and lead generation campaigns often do focus on clicks. However, depending on where that effort is within your sales funnel, clicks may not be front and center. For instance, if you have a long sales cycle that requires the consumer to gather information over a period of time before making a purchase, you might really value tracking a combination of clicks to site and time spent on page reading your content. If your goal is to bring in sales or leads, that’s the metric you’d want to focus on. Ads with the best CTR may not be ads with the most conversions or those we can attribute to sales at the cash register.
what’s the platform?
Another thing to consider is–where is your ad running? This matters, because the platform type dictates how users interact with it to a certain degree. For example, if someone is conducting a search you would naturally expect them to click on results they find relevant or helpful. You should not expect the same for an ad placed on a video or gaming platform. To understand this, consider why the user is on that platform in the first place. If on YouTube or gaming, the user is there to watch video content or play games. In most cases it’s unlikely they’ll click away from the content they originally sought out, especially when a lot of those placements don’t even provide a click opportunity..
At the end of the day, why are we discussing this? It’s important to know why you’re measuring what you’re measuring. Pursuing clicks when reach or frequency are most relevant, and vice versa, can send you down a path of optimizing toward the wrong metric, overspending in areas that don’t make sense for your goals, and ultimately lead to the success or failure of your campaign.
Go Forth. Go Digital.
-cohort.crew
