High PPC Conversion Rates (part 3)

By James Lee

Continuing the discussion of the problem of low conversion rates, we’ll review the impact of our choice of keywords which are usually the most critical part of any PPC campaign.

Let’s look at some examples:
One possibility is the use of too broad a term. Let's say you relied on the keyword “loan.” There will be some viewers who will immediately click through, looking for a home loan, even though the following ad text clearly refers to auto loans. The more often this occurs, the further your conversion rate sinks.

Another example would be to use keywords that only indirectly refer to the target action. For example, suppose you want to sell auto insurance. You might use the keyword "DUI" to encourage visitors who has been ticketed for DUI and need to pay higher premiums. What may happen, however, is that those who click "DUI" may also include many who are only looking for a traffic school.

These examples may imply narrow keyword selection, yet we’ve been told the best strategy is to use a large number of keywords to lower our cost-per-click ratio. So, which is more important — cost-per-click or cost-per-conversion?
Since the “bottom line” can only come from conversions, when it’s a close call we’re better to tighten up the keyword selection, perhaps pay a little more, and maximize our conversion count.

High PPC Conversion Rates (part 2)

By James Lee

High PPC (pay-per-click) conversion rates cannot be achieved by luck. They result from PPC experience and a sound marketing approach. Let’s look at some basic ways you can improve a conversion rate.

But first, let's make sure you’ve run your campaign long enough to gather sufficient data. As conversion rates can range from 0.1 percent to over 10 percent, you’ll need at least a thousand clicks to really assess your campaign’s conversion rate. And if your product or service is an expensive ticket item and you can achieve a positive ROI with as little as 0.1% rate, you really need about 2,000 clicks to get accurate statistical data. If this is beyond your current click budget, you might want to temporarily suspend other campaigns to channel more resources into showing the high-ticket item so that you can get an accurate reading on its effectiveness.

Now it may be difficult to achieve a high conversion rate without experience in your market, but it’s not difficult to identify factors leading to a low rate. Here are some thoughts.

1. Insure that the PPC ad copy matches the content of its landing page. Become a user and enter a keyword into the search, then click on your ad when it appears. See how long it takes you to spot words in the landing page that match the keyword you started with.

Here are a few more tips to improve a landing page:
- Use a graphic that reinforces the solution offered on the page
- Use a headline that reminds a visitor of the subject of their search
- Include a testimonial or quote from someone satisfied with the results from the use of this specific product. Quantify these benefits if possible
- Make the terms of any special offer expire on a specific date

2. If there are multiple campaigns for the same product or service, compare the conversion rates among them. If other campaigns have higher conversion rates than the one being considered, you may want to tune your keyword choices or your ad copy. Details of a diagnostic process are too long to be described here, but this kind of analysis is available by consulting with a PPC marketing company like Varazo (www.varazo.com).

3. If the conversion rate is low for all your campaigns, check the websites of competitors whose bid ranking is higher than yours and decide how their offering may be more attractive. Don’t be reluctant to adopt a competitor’s good ideas.

4. If there is no obvious gap between your campaign and that of your competitors, try to find the average conversion rate in yours or similar industries. If nothing obvious emerges, it is worthwhile to have your campaign reviewed by a PPC marketing professional.

Scope of Pay Per Click Optimization(part 1)

By James Lee

As Google and Yahoo! have become household names for Internet Marketing, many are claiming to be experts in this field after only a few months of experience. However, when you have responsibility over a moderately sized advertising budget, you do not want to be pretending to be someone you are not.

I can say this; at Varazo we have been running pay-per-click marketing campaigns for over two years and are still learning to master the optimization process. Why does it take so long to master and what is involved in optimizing a pay-per-click campaign? At Varazo we have divided the PPC optimization process into 3 phases.

§ First, the campaign itself needs to be optimized. This means choosing the right keywords, campaign titles and descriptions. It also involves optimizing the scope of keyword matching and content matching for search-based or site-targeted campaigns.

§ Second, define a maximum bid amount which is effective and cost-efficient for each keyword – each day. This requires an automated process. Here at Varazo we believe we have developed one of the most sophisticated software tools (ClickSweeper) for doing just this.

§ The third, but most difficult optimization challenge is creating paths that are easy, intuitive and attractive from the landing page to the signup (conversion) pages.

Whether the landing page leads to a sales conversion or a product inquiry, it is important to know from which outside pages the visitors came and to which page did they go while on your site. This data can be captured by Google Analytics, but setting this up requires the insertion of tracking code on each of the site’s relevant pages. Conversion tracking on eCommerce pages can be especially complicated, since these pages may be located on other servers and may require interaction with several IT departments.

From our experience we know that proficiency in each area of the optimization processes takes time to master. Unless you or your staff have an advanced PPC skill-set, might be wise to outsource these services to a pay-per-click consulting company.

(http://www.varazo.com/)