22% CTR Classified as "Low Click Index"

On 149 impressions?!

[cline]

I've got a bunch of terms running on Overture UK with pretty respectable-looking CTRs that have been put into the Low Click Index penalty box. One of them even has a CTR of 22% (on 149 impressions in December. January results are similar).

What could be causing this?

And what can be done about it? (The ad copy and the targeting look fine to me. I'm talking about ads here that are getting what look to me like above-average CTRs).

(And don't suggest I ask Overture. I have. Five times. Every time they send me some boilerplate with a newbie explanation of how their Click Index system works.)

[eWhisper]

This is complete speculation, but I do have the data to back it up.

When I get ads with 25% ctr rates in the low click index, they are usually ads that get very few clicks (under $100/month) or the spending for them is under $5/month. Sometimes these words are disabled, and other times they end up back with more bars. These words don't make a lot of money for OV, and I don't think they care if they exist or not.

I've had a few KWs that have been in the low click index for several months, but never disabled. These ads run a 2-4% CTR rate, but end up costing over $3k month each. It seems that high costing KWs are never disabled (at least from what I've seen)

For KWs between $5-$1k/month spending, the formula is based on your competition's CTR, your CTR, and what position you're in. Overture has some extrapalation formula for determining your position, your CTR, and what CTR they think that word should get per position.

On many occasions, I've seen words with 10% CTRs that were low click index in 1st position, but 3-4 bars (with the same CTR) in 2nd-3rd position.

There are many days I think the low click index is purely there so you will increase your bid to position 1 and spend more so the KW doesn't get disabled.

[bird]

I have given up on Overture quite some time ago, but if they understand the english language the same way as I do, then "Low Click" shouldn't be the same thing as "Low CTR". Only they could tell you which formula they really apply, though, and whether such a designation has any consequences besides exerting psychological pressure on the advertiser.

[cline]

After a most frustrating series of emails with Overture, I finally got a straight answer. Their Click Index system is insensitive to the absolute number of clicks and it only reacts to the relative number of clicks of the adjacent ads. My 22% CTR ad is next to a 50% CTR ad, and because of this the Click Index calculates that my ad is not attractive to users because its CTR is less than half that of the adjacent ad.

The math is easy to follow, but does the outcome make sense for the user? The advertiser? Overture? ;)

[eWhisper]

Thanks for the follow up.

This makes me wonder about listings that have 25%-35% ctrs and 10 advertisers. How can any of the other advertisers not have low click index - which technically means ads are disabled after so long if they don't increase their click index(at least OV says so - it doesn't always happen).

[Tropical Island]

We wrote support about 6 months ago complaining that one of our main keywords was showing a "Low Click Index" when the CTR was over 5%.

They replied with the example given above and assured me that the ad would not be disabled unless the actual CTR fell considerably lower.

In other words don't sweat it if your CTR is healthy.