When thinking about your digital ad strategy and your over-arching online marketing strategy, common wisdom says you need to focus on results, i.e. click through rates on ads. Only now, that advice is rapidly changing, even though many feel it should not have been about the CTRs all along.

Why? Well, it all boils down to the bottom line, and with your online marketing strategy, and even more so with your digital ad strategy, it is not about clicks but about sales. A recent article noted just that, saying “Don’t overly fixate on metrics like click-through rate (CTR) and conversion rate… A high CTR isn’t the end goal; it should be more sales for your business.”

Yes, ROI and the cost of acquiring a new customer have to be major factors, but there are always those averages to consider. As an example, it is often noted that it costs more to acquire new customers than maintain existing ones. What that cost can or should be varies, and depends entirely on your firm’s budget and needs.

Digital Ad Strategy = Confusion

Of course, many marketers admit that developing a digital ad strategy and broader online marketing strategy can get complicated because of the ever changing flood of advice from all of the experts. As an example, CTRs were once considered benchmarks not to be ignored or overlooked. They were important in gauging how to tweak everything from graphics to language and content.

Now, a digital ad strategy does not have to focus on those indicators. As that same article indicated, there are just too many variables to make all of the general advice worthwhile.

CTR and Your Online Marketing Strategy

So, your online marketing strategy shouldn’t consider CTRs at all? That’s not necessarily true. In fact, you do have to use the ads and monitor their impact. The point, though, is to  use the analytics and feedback to steer your marketing strategies. Most especially, to steer your ad copy and content, as well as that ad’s performance over time.

And what about conversion rates with your clickable ads? Again, we can hearken back to what we said earlier – it is about what works with your specific budget. What is an acceptable conversion rate for your firm? What is an acceptable price paid for each click that leads to conversion?

Yes, CTRs and conversion rates matter, but not in the ways we have been told for the past few years. If you are eager to figure out how to best use ads to meet your goals, partner with Organically, and allow their team of experts to support your efforts in an optimal online marketing strategy.