Expected CTR

What is expected CTR?

Expected CTR is Google’s estimate of how likely it is that someone clicks your ad when your keyword is searched. It is one of the three components of Quality Score and is rated below average, average or above average, compared with other advertisers for the same keyword.

Why is expected CTR important?

• Part of Quality Score: a weak expected CTR pulls the score down.
• Points to your ad copy: does your message match what the searcher wants?
• Concrete improvement point: you can fix it with better headlines and assets.

Examples of expected CTR

• A keyword for which your ad only has generic headlines gets “below average”.
• The same ad with a headline that mentions the keyword and a concrete benefit can get “average” or “above average”.
• A web shop tests two headlines, one with the price and one without, and keeps the one that is clicked more often.

How do you improve expected CTR?

Write headlines with the keyword and a clear benefit, group keywords by theme and test variants in your responsive search ads. Read more about this approach on our Google Ads page.