Lots of Impressions and no clicks?

From time to time, our colleagues over on the AdWords Help group send us questions of wide-ranging interest from their group, along with the suggestion that we answer them for a larger audience here in our blog. One such question (slightly edited for clarity) is quoted below:

I have a lot of impressions but no one is clicking my ad. I think my site looks good and is easy to read. Can someone help me? I am new so I don't fully understand.

Just so we're all on the same page, let's first define our terms:

An impression occurs when a user searches on one of your keywords, causing your ad to appear. It is important to note that, at this point, the user has only seen your ad and not your site -- thus everything they know about your business is based solely on what your ad tells them.

A click occurs when a user sees your ad, finds that it meets their needs & expectations, and then clicks on the title of the ad. This, of course, sends them to the your website, where the site itself has a chance to do its stuff.

With this in mind, if an advertiser finds that they are getting lots of impressions but no clicks, it almost always points to one thing: users are simply not finding the ad relevant to their search.

The solution to this dilemma is rather straightforward in principle, but can be quite an art in practice. Essentially, it is very much to your advantage to ensure that your ads are carefully targeted to the keywords which cause those ads to appear -- so that when a user searches for 'robot cleaner' or 'robot polish' you show them an ad that clearly (and compellingly) says you have those exact products available.

Likewise, let the crisp and carefully crafted writing of your ad subtly tell the user that you are a quality business that can be trusted and relied upon to deliver.

Do these things, and the clicks should follow.

Posted by Blake, Inside AdWords crew