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
website conversion strategies that produce results from
click-throughs.
Why is this funny?
Because in essence, a “click-through” places money in
pocket of
pay-per-click search engine --- only a “conversion” like a sale or sales lead creates money for
marketer.
Under a practical perspective, a “click-through rate” is
percentage of times your “FREE LISTING” (called an “impression”) is clicked on to generate a “PAID” visitor. Until your website conversion strategies “convert”
PAID visitor into a valued action,
visitor is an expense.
The higher your click-through rate
greater your expense and
more revenue you create for
paid search engines. Thus by increasing traffic volume, you fuel
search engine’s growth, not yours.
Another perspective is to envision a “click-through” as placing coins into a slot machine. You cannot win
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
“jackpot” with less click-throughs? There are a few different website conversion strategies to increase your results from your paid search marketing. Some of
strategies are managed at
paid search engine level, while
others at handled at
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
potential visitor
most important information at
“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
keyword in your title (and if possible, description). Industry research indicates that
“perceived” quality is approximately 60% higher in listings where
search term is included.
• In
description, include short, concise statements communicating your customer benefits. If you have limited room, then prioritize you customer benefits and list only
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,
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
print and simply click through an ad. Unfortunately, logic does not always apply to behavior. 2. Track Performance for
Individual Keyword:
Track your paid search marketing at
keyword-level. It is essential that you know your “per click” results from
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
1,000 keywords produce
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.