yes we pretty much do the same where we dont have impressions data from active PPC campaigns. I guess it is all about expectation management, under promise and over deliver and your cleints will be happy!

Cheers
Alex

It’s a very interesting post, thank you for sharing your data. I’ve really tried to get away from using predicted clicks because I just cannot find a source or reliable (even vaguely reliable) data for impressions/searches (other than Adwords impression data which we don’t always have).

I currently rely mainly on the Google Keyword Tool but find actual clicks are never anywhere near those predicted using the suggested CTR’s above against search volume numbers.

For what it’s worth, I take Exact match as the Match Type and then I divide the figure by 50% (I’m convincing myself that 50% comes from the content network). I’m scared to share these numbers with clients because if they get top 3 positions and their clicks do not match the traffic estimates they invariably complain I’ve done something wrong – rarely do they question the data provided by Google Tools (

If I come across a more reliable source I’ll be so excited I’ll tell everyone!

bibi, cherryb

Hmm.. to be honest no i didn’t I’ll take a look at that and re run the figures.. interestingly assuming that on avegarge the positions were lower on google.com that would actually increase the CTR further when those impressions were removed.

Anyway I’ll revisit and update this post!

Cheers

Alex

It would be great to see some collarborative analysis of this kind to be honest – good point about the blended impressions from .com and .co.uk. Could be a nice project for you and Alex to fill the rest of today with

I’ve tried to do a little bit of analysis like this on google local CTR but never really got anything consistent, I might have to revisit that…

This is a great post – as you point out while it’s not revolatory is great to see some actual proof of the points you’ve made rather than the usual hot air and ‘it’s true honest;y’ posts you see elsewhere.

It will be interesting to see over the next couple of years how this is affected by more blended search results – or if engines such as Wolfram Alpha or Google Squared really take off – will we see a more even clickthrough down the first page? Or will people still hammer that first result?