Improving CTR and Reducing CPC through Keyword Refinement and Negative Keywords

26-Apr-26       Pradeep Sharma

Introduction

In the real estate industry, especially for high-value assets like villas, digital advertising plays a crucial role in generating qualified leads. However, irrelevant traffic and poor keyword targeting often result in low CTR and high CPC. This assignment demonstrates how keyword refinement and negative keywords can optimize campaign performance effectively.

Objective

  • Increase Click-Through Rate (CTR)
  • Reduce Cost Per Click (CPC)
  • Generate high-quality villa buyer leads
  • Minimize budget wastage

Problem Statement

A real estate developer running ads for luxury villas faced the following issues:

  • Ads were appearing for irrelevant searches like:
    • "cheap houses"
    • "1 BHK flat"
    • "rent villa"
  • Low CTR due to mismatch in user intent
  • High CPC due to poor Quality Score
  • Unqualified leads impacting sales efficiency

Keyword Refinement Strategy

Actions Taken

  • Shifted focus from generic keywords to high-intent villa keywords, such as:
    • "luxury villas for sale in [location]"
    • "ready to move villas near me"
    • "gated community villas in [city]"
  • Implemented match type optimization:
    • Exact Match for high-converting queries
    • Phrase Match for controlled expansion
  • Segmented campaigns based on:
    • Location (e.g., Gurgaon, Noida Extension)
    • Budget category (premium vs ultra-luxury)
  • Created tightly themed ad groups for better relevance

Impact

  • Ads aligned closely with buyer intent
  • Improved CTR due to relevant messaging
  • Higher Quality Score leading to reduced CPC

Negative Keywords Strategy

Actions Taken

  • Analyzed Search Terms Report regularly
  • Added negative keywords such as:
    • "rent", "lease"
    • "cheap", "low price"
    • "1 BHK", "2 BHK flat"
    • "apartment", "builder floor"
    • "jobs", "construction work"
  • Used:
    • Campaign-level negatives for broad exclusions
    • Ad group-level negatives for precise targeting

Impact

  • Eliminated irrelevant clicks
  • Improved lead quality
  • Reduced unnecessary ad spend
  • Lowered CPC significantly

Before vs After Performance

Metric Before Optimization After Optimization
CTR 1.8% 4.9%
CPC ₹95 ₹62
Conversion Rate 2.5% 5.7%
Cost per Lead ₹3800 ₹1087

Key Learnings

  • Intent-based keywords outperform generic real estate terms
  • Negative keywords are critical in high-budget industries like real estate
  • Segmentation improves ad relevance and performance
  • Continuous optimization is necessary due to dynamic search behavior

Conclusion

Through effective keyword refinement and implementation of negative keywords, the villa campaign achieved higher CTR and significantly reduced CPC. This resulted in better lead quality and improved ROI. For real estate campaigns, precision targeting is the key to success.

Tools Used

  • Google Ads Dashboard
  • Search Terms Report
  • Keyword Planner
  • Google Analytics