Amazon Click Through Rate: Everything You Need to Know

Overview

On Amazon there are a lot of metrics you can use to track the performance your Sponsored ads. One of these metrics is the Amazon click through rate. Click through rate is a good indicator of how much real traffic your ad is getting, and how effective it is at drawing in customers. In this article we will cover the definition of click through rate, what a good click through rate is as well as what factors impact it. We will also recommend some strategies to improve your Amazon click through rate.

What is Click Through Rate?

Click through rate is commonly abbreviated to CTR, and it is measured as a percentage. What exactly is CTR?

Essentially, click through rate is the amount of shoppers who clicked on your ad out of the total amount of impressions it received. For Amazon Sellers, since Amazon PPC is “pay-per-click” this is an important metric! Your clickthrough rate is directly proportional to your ad spending. This is why tracking CTR for your products is absolutely vital towards PPC campaign optimization.

What is a good Click Through Rate?

What is a good click through rate?

Well, on Amazon, the average CTR is about 0.4%, including all types of ad placements. Generally speaking, a CTR above this average, at 0.5% or higher is considered a good CTR. A high CTR means your product listings are getting more traffic, and it indicates a strong listing. A CTR above 0.5% means that your price, value, ratings combined make an offering that is attractive enough to customers that they are clicking on it.

This begs the question, what is a bad CTR?

A click through rate that is below 0.3% is seen as a worrying sign. If your Amazon click through rate is less than 0.3% then you need to start giving that ad campaign more attention.

Why does Click Through Rate matter?

Yes, it’s true the higher your CTR is the better, especially one that crosses the 2-3% threshold….

Still, remember that a high CTR doesn’t mean high sales!

Even if a customer is clicking on your ad, this doesn’t automatically mean they ordered your product. If you have a high CTR but a low CVR and high ACoS, this means that something on your product listing is driving customers away. This is why CTR is so important. When CTR is analyzed in conjunction with other metrics like CVR, you can pinpoint where exactly the issues are cropping up!

What factors impact Click Through Rate?

There is a multitude of factors that directly & indirectly impact your Amazon click through rate. If you have a consistently low CTR then one of these factors might be the culprit!

Relevancy

Relevancy is one of the top factors that influence CTR on Amazon. Ads that are highly relevant to a shopper’s search get clicked on the most, leading to a higher CTR %.

e.g. Your product is a “wallet”, you may target the keyword “purse” or “pouch” since it seems like a similar product. This is actually going to tank your CTR for your wallets, because shoppers looking for purses aren’t looking for wallets. They won’t click on a product they don’t want.

Basically, if you want a high CTR for your products then you need to make sure you’re targeting the most relevant keywords.

Listing Quality

Your listing is what shoppers click on. If your listing quality is poor, your CTR will be poor. The two most important parts of a listing that affect click through rate:

• Image
• Title

You need a main image that’s high quality, that describes and portrays your product perfectly. e.g. Out of those 3 product photos, 2 of them show how the dog harness looks, and one doesn’t.

You also need a title that perfectly summarizes the key details of your product. e.g. “Camera Mount compatible with Infant Optics DXR-8” is much better than “Camera Mount.”

Ad Type

Yes, ad type does affect CTR, quite a lot actually. As you know, there are three main types of ads on Amazon – Sponsored Products (SP), Sponsored Brand (SB) and Sponsored Display (SD). Overall, SP ads have a higher CTR than SB.

The median CTR for Sponsored Products is 0.42%, for Sponsored Brands it’s 0.38%. Both SP and SB produce much higher click through rates than SD ads. Obviously, the way to maximize your CTR is to run all 3 types of ads for your product but not every seller’s ad budget will permit that.

If you have a limited daily ad budget and you want to get more bang for your buck… We suggest to focus on SP ads for your bestsellers, so that you can get a higher CTR overall.

Ad Placement

Naturally, ad placement, much like the ad type, will also affect click through rate. A low CTR might not necessarily mean your product offering is not attractive or compelling enough. It might actually be because of your listing’s ad placement.

Top of Search always get a higher CTR than any other. Not a lot of customers scroll down past the middle of the page. So if your sponsored ad is at the bottom… tough luck.

This is why it’s so important to optimize your PPC and adjust bids higher so that you always get Top of Search.

How can you improve your Click Through Rate?

Based on the factors that affect CTR, there are some obvious steps you can take to improve your CTR.

Use Relevant KW

The first and foremost is to use relevant keywords in your ad campaigns. Use keyword research tools to filer out the most relevant keywords. These tools can help you narrow a list of 1000 keywords down to a list of 100 highly relevant keywords. Read our article on keyword research tools for tips on how to find relevant keywords.

Even better, you can also set some negative keywords. These are the keywords you absolutely don’t want your product to show up for, i.e. highly irrelevant keywords.

For example, like our previous example. If you’re selling a wallet, you can put in “purse” in your ad campaign’s negative targeting section. This will make sure you don’t lose clicks to an irrelevant keyword.

Optimize Your Listing

Next, optimize your product listing – photo & title. Make sure the first thing shoppers see on the search page is a high quality, perfect photo with a descriptive title.

Does your product have color variations? Show them in the main product photo like above. Is your product a certain width, length? Is it compatible with other products? Absolutely ensure these things are in the listing title!

The more information a shopper can get from your listing at first glance, the more likely they will click it when it meets their shopping criteria.

Use Coupons & Discounts

Amazon discounts, coupons and limited time offers will boost your click through rates. Amazon is a unique marketplace – it’s always “customer first.” Amazon shoppers know this, and that’s why most use the platform to find the best possible deals.

A listing with a crossed off original price with a new one that’s “50% off “, or a “deal of the day” badge or a “save $20 with this coupon” badge will immediately catch a shopper’s eye.

But one thing to bear in mind is that the CTR increase from sales promotions is temporary. Once that promotion is off, it will settle down to your regular CTR. Still, this is a good short-term strategy to boost CTR.

Increase Positive Reviews

The more positive reviews and the higher rating your product has, the better. Shoppers ALWAYS click a 5 star rating product over a 3 star. Another thing shoppers look at is the number of reviews.

Even better, if your listing is popular enough to get Amazon’s various promotional badges, it will increase your CTR fast. The more “guarantees” you can provide your shoppers at first glance, the more clicks you get. It’s simple psychology! So make sure you’re consistently racking up good reviews.

Final Thoughts

Amazon click through rate is a key performance metric, the more ad traffic and clicks you get, the more likely sales are. We hope this article was informative on what CTR is and what factors influence it. We hope that our recommendations let struggling Amazon Sellers give their click through rates a much needed boost.