Websites With Lower Google Rankings See Higher Ad CTR?

[djbaxter]

Websites With Lower Google Rankings See Higher Ad CTR [Study]
by Rob D. Young, Search Engine Watch
September 1, 2011

A study from Chitika shows that the lower your position is on the search engine results page, the higher the likelihood that visitors will click on ads on your page. The 10th position sites showed nearly double the click-through rate (CTR) of those sites ranking in first position.

The Chitika SERP/Ad CTR Study
The study was designed for sites that have on-page advertisements as their primary way of making money. While the increase in traffic from a higher position has long been seen, no one has checked on whether ad interaction behaviors change based on the precise SERP point of entry.

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Why would this be the case? User intentions is the simple answer. The more focused a user is on their query, the more likely they are to both choose the top entries and ignore all advertisements. The less focused, the more susceptible they are to ads and the more likely they are to explore further down the search results page.

Read more...

 

[Dan277]

True. When I click on the number 1 search result I have most likely found what I want and am uninterested in ads. When I have to scroll through lots of pages there's a good chance the page I click on won't have what I want, so out of desperation I may click on the ads in the hope that they have what I want. Still, I'd rather rank number 1 than number 10 any day because huge increase in traffic would be worth a lot more to me than having double the click through rate on my ads.

 

[bigcat1967]

#2 (permalink) 09-04-2011, 09:52 AM
Dan277
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True. When I click on the number 1 search result I have most likely found what I want and am uninterested in ads. When I have to scroll through lots of pages there's a good chance the page I click on won't have what I want, so out of desperation I may click on the ads in the hope that they have what I want. Still, I'd rather rank number 1 than number 10 any day because huge increase in traffic would be worth a lot more to me than having double the click through rate on my ads.

I guess I'm with you on that Dan. I'll take a chance on a lot of traffic coming through at #1 position than #10. Though - pretty interesting article to say the least.