What I currently run is a single ad group with a single ad pointing to a base product listing URL of widgets for:
STEEL WIDGETS
STAINLESS STEEL WIDGETS
GREEN STEEL WIDGETS
RED STEEL WIDGETS
... the user has to click on a specific WIDGET to get more information and a better image. I think this is were I lose most of my conversion.
Would I not be better served by keeping the above ad for:
STEEL WIDGETS so my competitor has to maintain a high CPC. It has CTR of 7.5% and most of my shoppers don't look for other combinations all that often. (so says my logs)
And run a separate ad group with a unique ad for each additional keyword phrase and point the URL directly to the online catalog item. Hopefully delivering a better sell rate.
Our STEEL WIDGETS are very expensive because of the quality of the steel and production techniques, would we be better off indicating the price in the ads? Will this reduce the click-through from bargain hunters or will this increase it due to the curiosity? I know the answer... try it and see (budget?). But does anyone list high prices to discourage bargain hunters?
I welcome any ideas.
It's pretty standardly reccomended by the PPC pros here that giving the price is a good idea. It filters out the not serious and so you only for clicks who really want to buy.
To which I'd add that my theory:
giving the price indicates to the searcher very covincingly that you're selling steel widgets, that they can buy them online right here, right now, one click, no wading through pages more sites to find what they're looking for. It's like you're tempting them with the ease of ending the search-hassle and being able to buy what they're looking for straightaway and easily. A serious buyer wants to buy so he wants to see the $ tage and so may be more likely to click because of it. The people put off by it are the ones who are just browsing, not really wanting to buy.
Caveat: This thinking only makes sense for non-impulse purchases of boring things. If your steel widget is really something like a collectible stamp or porn video, where there is pleasure in shopping (not just wearisome searching) or your depending on impulse purchases, then you'd want to attract them to your site with a tasty free goody and try to spring the sale on them there.
But if they're searching to but then it makes sense to make to bring out the $ sign. The line of thinking above also suggest other messages you can add to give that sense of 1-stop shopping and convenience: for example, mention buying, mention delivery. So: "Buy steel widgets now, $99, next day delivery."
- Create a seperate adgroup for each of the products/keywords with different drop pages. Your conversion rate should improve because it is one click less for the visitor.
so my competitor has to maintain a high CPC. It has CTR of 7.5%
- Excellent. You have a very good CTR for this particular keyword. Now forget your competitors for a moment and REDUCE your keyword CPC so that you can start making profits (rather than just breaking even). Make sure you do NOT go below the third listing though.
- I do not advocate putting prices in your advertisement. Your CTR may go down sharply if price is really the issue. Remember that once you manage to get a visitor to your website, you have a great opportunity to sell your product to your prospects - with pictures, feature list etc. And you will be able to justify your price effectively through your website.
Now try justifying the price of your products through a 100 character text advertisement! :)
It sounds like you are using once removed deep linking and you should seperate the ads as vibgyor79 says and try not to make it a "one size fits all" ad. Go deep, remove as many of the clicks between the landing page and where the good stuff is, ideally make the landing page where the good stuff is.
The good thing about Adwords is you can run two (or more) ads in tandem with the same keywords. I'd suggest using price in one ad and not in another, run them for a week or so and see the difference between the two in terms of CTR.
Points missing from what you mention, how long do people spend on the site, how many pages do they look at, how many take a newsletter or some marketing info.
If price is your USP then it may work, if it isn't then maybe rethink it. We use price a lot for clients, because it helps to deter those looking for freebies, but also because they are competitive in the marketplace, study your position (online that is), and if price is a good thing for you then use it as a call to action, but as I said above try it.
I've noticed a lot of advertisers saying they have high CTR but poor conversion rate. My take on this, and it's just a personal opinion, is that the reason for the high CTR is the expectation of the searcher has been met by your words, which is great, but the action doesn't live up to expectations. You either need to change the action or change the words, but high CTR and low conversion = low ROI and high expenditure.
Yes I left out page views and other stats as I know the conversion problem is more than just getting the right customer to our site. The site is new and the old site was simpler to navigate so I suspect that most of our right clients may be having problems on our site (I know they are, the phone rings more than usual). I'm working on simplifying, and as all of you pointed out landing them on the product that they wanted in the first place.
Man, I wish I could tie demographic data to those anonymous IP addresses in the log file... who's looking at what... for how long! Maybe I need to get them to register for something, ummm... good data in.
I will try reworking the ad into ad groups with proper landing pages. Thanks.
