Google's changing results page has made click-through rate harder to win. In UK-focused reporting, AI Overviews appeared on an estimated 47% of desktop searches and 53% of mobile searches in Q1 2026, while informational searches triggered them 71% of the time. Where an AI Overview appeared, organic CTR fell by 34.5% for position one and up to 64.1% for positions six to ten, according to UK paid advertising benchmark reporting.
That changes the practical answer to how to improve click through rates. Better headlines still matter, but copy alone can't overcome a poor match between query, intent, offer and landing page. In live Google Ads accounts, the strongest gains usually come from segmenting demand first, then improving the message and the amount of SERP space each ad occupies.
Why Click Through Rates Are Harder to Win in 2026
Google's results page now answers more questions before a user reaches an organic listing. AI Overviews take attention away from publishers, comparison pages and early-stage guides, while paid ads compete with an answer that is already visible. The practical effect is a smaller reason to click for research-led searches and a higher premium on commercial relevance.
The difference shows up in the query itself. Someone searching for “how to choose running shoes” may get enough guidance without visiting a retailer. Someone searching for “buy running shoes online” has a clearer commercial need, so an ad with the right offer and landing page still has a stronger case for the click.
Practical rule: Treat CTR as an intent and visibility problem first, and a copywriting problem second.
The broader market data points in the same direction. Across UK industries, Google Search ads averaged 4.7% CTR, compared with 0.58% for Display and 0.82% for Shopping, according to UK advertising CTR benchmarks. The benchmark also reports a 6.4% average Search CTR across 2022, with arts and entertainment at 17.5%, sports and recreation and education around 11% to 12%, and career and employment and personal services closer to 3.2%.
These figures are reference points, not universal targets. An account-wide average can hide the core issue: a low-intent category may naturally attract fewer clicks, while urgent searches in a high-intent sector can produce much stronger engagement. Comparing unlike campaigns often leads teams to rewrite ads when the underlying problem is query mix.
AI Overviews make that comparison more important. Their reach is expected to affect desktop and mobile searches differently, and informational queries face the greatest exposure. Organic visibility can therefore lose value even when rankings remain unchanged, while paid coverage becomes more important for commercial searches where a click can lead directly to an enquiry, booking or purchase.
The response is not to chase a single CTR target. Separate informational demand from commercial investigation and transactional demand, then judge each segment against its role. Informational traffic may support assisted conversions or future demand, whereas transactional traffic should justify stronger bids, tighter ad relevance and more prominent landing-page alignment.
Winning clicks in 2026 requires intent segmentation before creative refinement. AI Overviews change how much attention remains on the page, but the account still controls the query selection, message, offer and destination. Those decisions determine whether the remaining attention is worth capturing.
Segmenting Campaigns by Intent Before Rewriting Ads
Rewriting every RSA in an account is usually the wrong starting point. First, export the search terms report and classify the queries by what the user wants to do, not just by the product or service mentioned.
A useful structure has four tiers:
- Navigational: The user is looking for a particular brand, website or destination.
- Informational: The user wants an answer, definition, guide or explanation.
- Commercial investigation: The user is comparing suppliers, features, prices or alternatives.
- Transactional: The user is ready to buy, enquire, book or take another direct action.
Search modifiers make the first pass faster. “Best”, “reviews”, “vs” and “alternatives” often indicate comparison behaviour. “Buy”, “price”, “quote”, “book” and “near me” usually signal a more immediate commercial requirement. The modifier isn't enough on its own, so check the full query, search term performance and landing page behaviour before moving keywords.
For a deeper explanation of the classification process, use this guide to understanding search intent.
Build ad groups around the query promise
Create tightly themed ad groups only where the difference in user intent changes the message or destination. A transactional “buy running shoes online” group needs headlines about stock, delivery, returns and purchase options. An informational “how to choose running shoes” group needs educational language, not a hard sales pitch.
The trade-off is real. More granular campaigns take longer to build, label and maintain, and they can fragment data if the account has limited search volume. The benefit is greater message control and a closer relationship between the query, ad and landing page. LOCALiQ's UK benchmark reporting shows why this matters: one 2026 cross-industry Search benchmark was around 4.7%, while its 2025 UK Search campaign average was reported at 9%, with category figures ranging from 4.2% in Technology to 5.8% in Travel and Hospitality. These figures appear in UK Google Ads benchmark analysis, and the spread is a reason to compare performance with the relevant sector rather than a generic account average.
Use this workflow:
- Group by intent: Separate navigational, informational, investigative and transactional queries.
- Match the headline: Reflect the wording and urgency of each cluster.
- Choose the destination: Send users to a relevant category, comparison or enquiry page.
- Review the baseline: Compare CTR by intent and vertical before deciding whether a test has underperformed.
- Add negatives: Prevent informational searches from entering a sales-focused ad group when the landing experience doesn't answer the need.
The account should make it difficult for a ready-to-buy user to see an advert written for someone still researching. That alignment usually matters more than adding another clever headline.
Writing Ad Copy and Extensions That Earn More Clicks
Strong ad copy answers the user's immediate question: why should I choose this result rather than the others around it? Start with the query language, then add a specific reason to act. “Shop Now” describes an action, but it doesn't explain the value of taking it.
A more useful sitelink could read “Free Next-Day Delivery | 60-Day Returns” where those benefits are available. The first version asks for a click. The second gives the user a reason to expect a useful outcome after clicking.
Give each RSA asset a job
Responsive Search Ads work best when the asset set contains distinct ideas rather than several variations of the same vague promise. Use one group of headlines for the query theme, another for the value proposition, and another for reassurance such as delivery, service coverage, guarantees or transparent pricing.
Pinning can help when a message must appear in a particular position, but it reduces Google's ability to combine assets. For brand campaigns, pinning the brand term in the first headline can protect recognition and stop the ad from looking generic. For non-brand campaigns, leave more assets unpinned unless legal wording, pricing or a core proposition must always appear.
Descriptions should mirror the searcher's vocabulary without mechanically repeating the keyword. A user searching for “emergency boiler repair London” needs evidence of availability, location and response, not a general description of heating services.
For more practical guidance, see these ad copy best practices.
Use extensions to occupy useful space
Extensions aren't decoration. They give the user more routes into the account and more information to assess before clicking.
- Sitelinks: Send users to meaningful destinations such as delivery information, service areas, product collections or booking pages. Add descriptive lines where the benefit is clear.
- Callouts: Address objections with concise points such as “No Hidden Fees”, “UK-Wide Service” or “Flexible Appointments”, provided each statement is accurate.
- Structured snippets: Show categories, services or product types so users can judge relevance quickly.
- Image extensions: Use suitable, high-quality imagery where visual context helps, particularly for mobile product searches.
- Promotion assets: Use them when an offer is genuine and the landing page reflects the same terms. Countdown elements can create urgency, but constant or artificial urgency damages trust.
Avoid stuffing an RSA with near-identical headlines. That makes it harder to understand which proposition is doing the work and can give the system a weaker range of meaningful combinations. A smaller set of clearly differentiated assets is easier to evaluate, even if it feels less impressive in the interface.
The best test isn't “which headline sounds nicest?” It's whether the complete advert makes the next step feel relevant, credible and easy.
Choosing the Right Campaign Types for Higher CTR
Campaign type sets the level of control you have over intent, placement and the reason someone clicks. Choose it according to the decision stage you need to influence, rather than treating CTR as a universal target.
Use Search when intent is explicit
Search is the clearest choice for qualified clicks when users describe a problem, product or service in their query. Separate informational, investigative and transactional themes so the advert can match the need behind each search. Tightly grouped keywords, specific commercial benefits and dedicated landing pages make weak relevance easier to diagnose.
Search also gives the clearest query-level feedback. Review search terms alongside conversion quality, then exclude irrelevant demand or create a more suitable ad group where a valuable theme is being diluted.
Use Shopping when the product can sell visually
Shopping suits ecommerce searches where image, price and product details influence the initial decision. A strong feed title can align the listing with the query, while an accurate image and competitive offer give users useful information before the click.
Feed quality comes first. Fix titles, product categories, attributes, availability and pricing before concluding that Shopping is failing. A campaign cannot compensate for incomplete or misleading product data. Separate product groups when margins, stock levels or commercial priorities differ, because a blended result can hide where clicks are profitable.
Use Display and YouTube for assisted demand
Display and YouTube are better suited to awareness, consideration and remarketing than to direct-response efficiency across every impression. They can re-engage previous visitors or introduce a proposition before someone searches for it, but broad targeting may produce engagement without meaningful commercial intent.
Set audiences, placements and exclusions carefully. Judge these campaigns by qualified visits, assisted behaviour and conversions, not CTR in isolation. A high click rate from weak placements is not progress if users leave quickly or never return.
Consolidate only when the trade-off is clear
Performance Max can access multiple Google inventory sources and reduce manual campaign management. It can also blend placements, making it harder to identify which queries or surfaces generated engagement. Use it where tracking is reliable and conversion quality can be checked, while retaining focused Search campaigns when query-level control matters.
For practical guidance on how to control Performance Max campaigns, compare consolidation against the diagnosis you lose. Before moving budget, check search terms, placement quality, assisted behaviour and conversion rate. The right campaign type is the one that produces useful clicks and lets the account team explain why they happened.
Protecting Clicks When AI Overviews Dominate Results
The response to AI Overviews shouldn't be to bid aggressively on every affected keyword. That can increase exposure to users who get their answer without needing your product or service. A better approach is to identify where the search has commercial value and make the advert answer a need that an overview can't fully satisfy.
Start with query-level comparison. In Google Ads, review CTR, impressions and conversion behaviour for informational, investigative and transactional clusters. In Search Console, compare queries and pages over time, then look for terms where impressions remain relevant but clicks have weakened. The supplied UK reporting indicates that organic CTR losses are most severe on lower-ranking results when an AI Overview appears, so relying on lower-page organic visibility alone is risky.
Redirect budget towards action-ready demand
For transactional searches, strengthen the reasons to choose your business now. Use availability, service area, delivery, price clarity, appointment access or returns policy where those details are accurate. Extensions can help occupy more of the page and offer alternate routes, while a specific landing page confirms the promise after the click.
Informational content still has a role, especially when it introduces a brand or supports later comparison. Structure important pages clearly with authoritative explanations, useful FAQs and appropriate schema markup. The aim isn't to manipulate an AI answer. It's to make the page easy for users and search systems to understand, while giving the visitor a reason to continue beyond a basic definition.
Don't defend every impression equally. Defend the queries that connect to a valuable next action.
A useful audit should record the query, intent tier, AI Overview presence where observed, paid position, organic position, CTR and conversion quality. That record lets you decide whether to improve the message, change the destination, reduce exposure or move budget to a stronger intent cluster.
You can also explore AI Overviews and the future of paid search for further context.
Building a Repeatable CTR Testing and Optimisation Workflow
CTR improvement becomes sustainable when the account follows a repeatable testing routine. Don't change headlines, landing pages, bids and extensions at the same time, then claim the result came from one copy edit. That approach creates activity without learning.
Begin at query level. Find clusters with enough impression volume to matter, then separate poor relevance from weak demand. A low CTR on a transactional term may justify a new message or landing page. A low CTR on a broad informational term may indicate that the traffic belongs in a different campaign or shouldn't receive the same budget.
Use a disciplined testing loop
- Audit: Review search terms, intent groups, assets, extensions and landing-page alignment.
- Hypothesise: State what should change and why. For example, “Adding delivery and returns language to product-led ads should make the offer more compelling for shoppers.”
- Test: Use Google Ads Experiments where the account structure allows a controlled comparison. Change one major variable at a time.
- Analyse: Compare CTR alongside conversion rate, cost per conversion and lead quality. A click increase isn't a win if the traffic becomes less valuable.
- Iterate: Keep the useful insight, update the asset set and return to the next unresolved query cluster.
Make the monthly review actionable
A marketing manager should receive more than a list of ads with low CTR. The review should identify which intent segments are losing clicks, which search terms need negatives, which assets attract engagement and whether the landing page delivers the advertised value.
Set targets against the relevant industry and intent baseline rather than an arbitrary account-wide number. The benchmark differences between sectors show why a single target can encourage the wrong behaviour. For example, an agency might raise CTR by broadening keywords, but that can reduce lead quality and increase wasted spend.
Document every test with its audience, hypothesis, dates, result and decision. Over time, that record prevents the team from repeating failed ideas and turns individual campaign work into an account-level operating system.
PPC Geeks can audit your Google Ads account, segment campaigns by intent, improve ad and feed relevance, and build a testing plan that protects valuable clicks as search results change. Visit PPC Geeks to discuss a practical CTR review for your UK SME, ecommerce account or lead-generation campaign.
