Every time search habits are studied, they find 3 or 4 times as many people click on organic listings as on click ads. This despite the fact that click ads are the very first listings to appear.
There are two main reasons for this:
1. The click ads show less information (just fewer words). That gives a searcher less basis for deciding what to click on.
This has been reinforced even more by the appearance of “integrated place pages” for local listings. The map listing and organic search listing appear together, often with a thumbnail and a red balloon. You get one giant result that grabs the lion’s share of visitors’ eyeballs.
2. Most people know you can purchase position with click ads, but have to earn your position in organic listings. They have learned to trust Google because the high ranking organic results tend to deliver what they are looking for. That isn’t always the case with paid ads.
Last month Google launched Instant Previews for click ads. Meaning you can now see a preview of the page you will be taken to, BEFORE you click.
As this article explains, it gives searchers a better opportunity to scree click ads. That potentially increases click through rates – IF the landing page has an appropriate and professional look and content:
And, in fact, we have seen Click Through Rates (CTR) rising for many of our click ad campaigns.
Will click ads achieve complete equality with organic listings? I doubt it. But this can help.
