Internet Marketing - Matt Bailey [242]
Don’t Bid Your Way to a Number-One Ranking
Another way to blow through your campaign budget in a hurry is to outbid every other advertiser for the number-one position in the PPC results. Bidding for the top spot may seem like a logical strategy, because it does have the most visible spot on the page; however, it has been shown consistently that the number-one ad receives the most clicks from searchers but also performs at a lower conversion rate than other ads.
The reasoning is simple; shoppers will click the number-one result, but then, if they are comparing, they will also click the other ads as well, and by that time, you may have lost the sale. It costs a significant amount of money to bid on the top position, and if your quality score is poor, buying your way to a better placement costs you much more than it’s costing other advertisers.
In the small-scale example in Figure 19-8, a report from Google Analytics shows the importance of understanding PPC ad positioning as it relates to click and conversion rates. Figure 19-8a shows the number of clicks based on the position of the ad on the page. The first position drew the most of clicks, which most advertisers bet on for visibility. On the surface, this seems like the logical place to be on the page. However, Figure 19-8b shows the conversion rate by ad position, which tells another story. In this report, the conversion rate is the highest in the lower ad positions. Granted, the lower ad positions received only a few clicks, but the trend is unmistakable.
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Figure 19-8: Click-through rates (a) vs. conversion rates (b) based on ad position in Google
This is where smart advertisers are able to find the “sweet spot,” the ideal ad positioning for both clicks and conversions. Ad clicks are not a measurement of success; profit is. The money saved by not bidding against high-budget advertisers for the top ad position but being visible enough to gain the maximum number of conversions for when those searchers click through multiple results. Working to find this sweet spot saves advertisers money in ad clicks and maximizes the conversion ability of the keyword group and the ad.
Thursday: Take People to the Right Page
The landing page is one of the most critical tools in the development of a PPC campaign. One of the biggest mistakes advertisers make is setting up a campaign and then sending all of the visitors who click the ad to the home page. Sending visitors to the home page, especially when the home page shows no signs of being related to the PPC ad, forces visitors to navigate to the correct page that has the information they want. Visitors simply do not stand for this, especially if the navigation is unclear. If the ad was targeted to a specific subject and a specific offer, then clicking the ad must send the visitor to a page that reflects both the content and the offer of the ad. If not, then the visitor will most likely leave.
This is one of the reasons that the landing page counts into the overall quality score with the search engines. The search engines want to be sure that the visitors will go from a relevant ad to a relevant page, and in doing so, the advertiser increases their quality score.
From a sales perspective, it is simply smart business to send the visitor to a specific page that accommodates their intent. By matching the intent of the search phrase and the ad and then the page, the searcher can be satisfied in the information they see and has a high probability of converting into a customer.
Today’s content will be focused on the two primary markets utilizing PPC: ecommerce and lead generation. Although many of the techniques are the