Unnatural CTRs on Google Display Ads? Here’s what might be wrong

Has it ever happened to you that your Google display ads CTRs went crazy and there was practically no engagement at all on your landing pages? The novice would think that there is something wrong with your ads or Google is playing a trick on you. Well, apparently, it could be your mistake.

Just came across this classic mistake via this post by Aha. Where they were seeing abnormal CTRs with zero engagement on their display network. Consulting with the Google representative, they noticed that their ads were being shown on Games & Apps, that were irrelevant to the product. So, possibly kids clicking on ads while playing games creating that huge upward trend in CTRs.

This is a classic mistake many of us make when starting off display campaigns on Google.

Aha also suggests the solution.

High CTRs with zero engagement on Display Ads?

Here’s what to do.

1. Under the Campaigns tab, click the Display Network tab.
2. Scroll to the bottom of the page, and click the Exclusions link.
3. Click the Placements tab.
4. Click the Add exclusions button in the “Ad group level” or “Campaign level” section. A text field will open below.
   • To exclude all mobile apps, add adsenseformobileapps.com to the text field.
   • To exclude specific apps, you’ll need either the package name (for Android apps in Google Play) or the iTunes ID (for iOS apps in the App Store). Add this information to the beginning of the URL given above, in the form:packagename.adsenseformobileapps.com or itunesid.adsenseformobileapps.com.