The Ideal Conversion Rate for AdWords

If you call the Google AdWords support team for insight into what your ideal conversion rate should be, you will be informed that anything above a 1.00% click-through rate is ideal.  Ideal conversion rate varies with different industries based on competition but the AdWords representative will share this benchmark with all advertisers as a standard response.

I think we should aim higher than 1%.

When it comes to a solid conversion rate percentage within AdWords, there is actually very little information on this topic even though the conversion rate percentage is one of the most important elements for a PPC campaign. Nobody cares if they have a 5.00% click-through rate if there are no leads being generated!

What counts as a conversion

The tough aspect of conversion tracking is that every business will classify a conversion differently. If you are an e-commerce company, the ideal conversion will be someone placing an order. If you are a B2B company like an attorney or apartment community, and users were to fill out a contact form on your site or call into the office, this would likely classify as a conversion. That being said, if someone were to enter an email address or downloads a coupon, this could be very important to a business and they can justify counting this as a conversion.

Before diving into any PPC campaign, the advertiser should list out every possible scenario of what they would consider a conversion on their website. This should align with the goals that can be created in Google Analytics. If AdWords and Analytics are synced, the advertiser will be able to see both the source of all of their conversions.

Ideal Conversion Rate

Every advertiser should strive for a conversion rate above a 2.00%. If 100 people were to visit your website, there should be at least 2 contact forms that come through for a B2B company or 2 orders placed for an e-commerce company.  Keep in mind, the conversion can still count if someone were to come back through a display retargeting advertisement. It all depends on how you choose to report on this.

Improving conversion rates

When it comes to obtaining a high click-to-conversion rate percentage, it essential that you follow the steps listed out below:

  • Create a landing page for various campaigns
  • Make sure all of the keywords align perfectly with the advertising copy
  • Strive for a quality score on Adwords of at least an 8/10
  • Track your conversion rate percentage and make adjustments to campaigns with a low conversion rate percentage
  • Optimize your campaigns based off of conversions

Some industries will be tougher than others to obtain that 2.00% click to conversion rate percentage. For instance, personal Injury is an extremely tough field to obtain a high conversion rate. If you at least strive to hit this benchmark in your AdWords account and make all of the necessary adjustments listed above, you will generate more leads, which will ultimately lead to more business.

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Jason Parks

Jason Parks

Jason Parks is the President and Founder of The Media Captain and Cleveland Marketing King, two digital marketing and development agencies based in Ohio. He's a VIP Contributor for Entrepreneur.com and has been featured in the New York Times, Yahoo News and Search Engine Watch on digital-marketing topics. Jason's agencies have helped hundreds of businesses increase their online exposure.

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