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Beware the Click Without the Conversion
By Kevin Gold
It is a funny thing with pay-per-click marketing.
Marketers spend significant time and money increasing their
traffic volume (click-throughs) while focusing less on the
website conversion strategies that produce results from the
click-throughs.
Why is this funny?
Because in essence, a ?click-through? places money in the pocket
of the pay-per-click search engine --- only a ?conversion? like
a sale or sales lead creates money for the marketer.
Under a practical perspective, a ?click-through rate? is the
percentage of times your ?FREE LISTING? (called an ?impression?)
is clicked on to generate a ?PAID? visitor. Until your website
conversion strategies ?convert? the PAID visitor into a valued
action, the visitor is an expense.
The higher your click-through rate the greater your expense and
the more revenue you create for the paid search engines. Thus by
increasing traffic volume, you fuel the search engine?s growth,
not yours.
Another perspective is to envision a ?click-through? as placing
coins into a slot machine. You cannot win the jackpot without
inserting coins yet your preference is winning with fewer coins
than with more. Likewise, you need click-throughs from your paid
search ads to your website to generate sales or sales leads;
however, your preference should be winning with fewer
click-throughs than with more. If your not focused on increasing
your website conversion strategies than this gambling metaphor
makes a great deal of sense, right?
The BIG Question is ?How to Focus on Maximizing Your Website
Conversion Strategies??
How do you win the ?jackpot? with less click-throughs? There are
a few different website conversion strategies to increase your
results from your paid search marketing. Some of the strategies
are managed at the paid search engine level, while the others at
handled at the website level (or referred to as your ?landing
page?).
Here is a quick list of website conversion strategies for
turning more paid search engine visitors into sales or sales
leads with less click-throughs?
1. Negatively Qualify Visitors in Ad Titles and Descriptions:
Your objective is to ?negatively-qualify? potential visitors by
explicitly stating major product or service attributes, using
words that connect with qualified buyers versus non-qualified
ones and setting ?click roadblocks? like prices to divert
?out-of-your-market? searchers from clicking on your ad simply
out of curiosity or false pretenses.
Ideally, you want to give the potential visitor the most
important information at the ?impression? level before you pay
for them after a click-through. Consider these elements when
writing your ad?s titles and/or descriptions.
? Always use the keyword in your title (and if possible,
description). Industry research indicates that the ?perceived?
quality is approximately 60% higher in listings where the search
term is included.
? In the description, include short, concise statements
communicating your customer benefits. If you have limited room,
then prioritize you customer benefits and list only the most
important ones. ? Because you have limited character space, you
must choose your words wisely. Certain words like, ?Maximize?,
?Exclusive? and ?Indulge? have a positive persuasive impact on
potential visitors versus negative ones like ?Difficult? or
?Expensive?.
? If you have an e-commerce website Include a product?s model
number, your shipping incentives and shipping reach (nationwide
or international), any guarantees, the price, potential
inventory restrictions or other specific product or service
information that customers require (or expect) to read and
review before making a buying decision.
One important ?experience? note ? you will never divert all
non-qualified click-throughs. It is human nature to not always
read the print and simply click through an ad. Unfortunately,
logic does not always apply to behavior. 2. Track Performance
for the Individual Keyword:
Track your paid search marketing at the keyword-level. It is
essential that you know your ?per click? results from the money
you spend.
For example, if you have 1,000 keywords active in your paid
search marketing program and you spend a total of $3,000 a month
? do you know which of the 1,000 keywords produce the best
results?
What if 80% of your sales stem from 20% of your keywords?
Moreover, what if this 20% accounted for just a small percentage
of your $3,000 monthly cost? If you do not have keyword-level
tracking you will not be able to make these financially
beneficial assessments. Time-tested experience shows that
tracking your keywords generates higher returns on investment
and enable greater leverage of your website conversion
strategies.
Be careful though of matching options (i.e. broad, advanced,
exact, phrase and so on) offered by Google Adwords, Overture and
other pay-per-click search engines. They provide ?convenience?
but unfortunately they skew your keyword performance results.
If you setup a ?broad-match? for the keyword ?real estate?, you
will attract visitors who have entered any possible variation of
the term ?real estate? including geographically specific ?real
estate? keywords that may have absolutely no relevance to your
product or service.
3. Employ Custom Landing Pages:
This is an absolute for all paid search marketing campaigns.
Pay-per-click marketing is unique compared to other mainstream
forms of online marketing. In part because marketers have the
opportunity to select specific keywords, write specific ads and
direct the click-through to a specific web page. This
?connect-the-dots? process creates the need to develop
consistency among the visitor?s expectation from the keyword
they enter to the ad that draws their attention and down to the
web page they ?land-on?. Relevancy and consistency are essential
for an effective pay-per-click marketing program.
One of the reportedly major reasons why pay-per-click marketing
programs fall short of their intended goal is because businesses
direct all of their click-throughs to their home page or to a
poorly developed ?contact us? form or product page. Since most
businesses? websites are designed to serve mutliple audiences
(i.e. media relations, investors, current clients, potential
prospects, customer services, etc.) they do not provide the
level of relevancy and consistency expected from the visitor to
get them to act confidently.
What are ?landing pages?? Landing pages are simply web pages
designed specifically for a keyword or related group of
keywords. They are highly relevant to the keyword searched and
consistent with the ad?s claim. They immediately focus a
visitor?s attention on a primary call-to-action (most wanted
response). In essence ? landing pages ask your visitors to take
an action.
If your paid search marketing is not living up to your
expectations, consider which web pages you are sending visitors
to. Are they relevant and consistent with your paid ads and
keywords? Do they offer too many calls-to-action? Do they ?fit?
the expectations of the visitor searching on the particular
keyword?
4. Consider Branding; Direct Response Objectives: Branding has
significant value for a web business and advertisers certainly
prioritize it as the ?golden egg? of their efforts. However,
associating branding objectives with paid search marketing is
questionable. Studies show that search users attribute less
relevancy to paid search ads then natural search listings. Also
considering the ?click cost? associated with paid search, it is
preferable to use natural search for branding purposes.
Paid search is an excellent direct response channel since it can
be maximized to provoke an immediate ?desired action?. Unlike
natural search where the web page variables (which are not
always human-friendly) are tweaked to attain effective search
engine ranking, paid search enables you to direct click-throughs
to a custom landing page and to split-test the landing page to
incrementally increase its direct response rates.
Ideally, only use paid search to ?fill? any essential ?branding
keyword? gaps that your natural search is not able to represent
effectively in the search listings. That way, at least your
brand is presented as an option for a search users? keyword
inquiry. Remember, if your not listed, then you are not an
option to fulfill the user?s perceived need.
Focus your paid search campaigns on direct response efforts
through continuously split-testing your landing pages to
increase your close rates.
5. Don?t Forget ?Latent? Buyers:
A study conducted by DoubleClick/comScore in March 2005 reported
that ?in half of all cases studied shoppers performed searches
related to the category of their purchase at some time in the
three months before buying.? The study also found that, ?on
average five searches in a category come before an online
purchase.?
What this means to you, is even though a paid search keyword
appears not to convert immediately ? be patient. The average
search user performs five searchers before buying online and the
five searches may be across five different keywords. So before
removing any non-performing keywords from your paid search
marketing, consider its brand and direct response value. It may
have a low ?scoring? value but be the biggest ?assist? to sales.
In summary, focus on ?qualifying? your keyword clicks BEFORE
buying a visitor who has little or no intention of putting money
into your pocketbook. By focusing your efforts on ?conversion?
rather than ?click-throughs? you will increase your website
sales and reduce your expenses ? a sure bet for hitting the
jackpot. As a client of ours recently stated, ?Give me the
campaign with 100 click thru's and 30 sales over 1000 click
thru's and 10 sales any day!?
Best of Luck!
Author Info:
Kevin Gold is a writer, speaker and co-founder of Enhanced
Concepts, Inc. Enhanced Concepts specializes in turning website
visitors into leads or sales through web conversion strategies
and ROI-driven search engine marketing. If you want to increase
your leads or sales and get, a free copy of ?Understanding Your
Conversion Rate? and ?12 Surefire Ways to Increase Your Website
Conversion? visit www.enhancedconcepts.com. |
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