AdWords conversion better than SERPS

Much better

[Widestrides]

My conversion rate for AdWords ads is much better than for my regular SERPS shoppers. Much better!

Is this a foregone conclusion with everyone here? Perhaps this has been discussed and concluded some time ago.

Is it because serious, ready-to-buy shoppers go right to the AdWords rather than the SERPS? Are SERPS people more browsers and info gatherers?

Thanks for any feedback.

[pmkpmk]

What's the price range for your widgets?

[Frequent]

Just my opinion of course, but I would guess that this is because your site descriptions and text are optimized for search engine placement and your adwords ads are (one would hope) optimized to sell product and minimize simply curious clickers.

[Widestrides]

My widgets (products) have a price range from $10 to $1,000.

True, my AdWords are geared more towards selling than my SERPS Title and Description, but the landing pages for both are pretty much the same.

So, it must be that AdWords clickers are more serious buyers than SERPS clickers - at least in my line of business.

[pmkpmk]

That's why I asked about the pricetag. From $10 to a couple of hundred dollars, people are happy to buy the stuff online. And clicking the ads implies that there is a commercial interest behind it.

My widgets are in the 10K$-25K$ range, and both ads as well as naturals provide about the same results.

[MLHmptn]

No, the reason your conversion rates are better is because Google's results are utter crap anymore! 8 out of the top 10 sites are either directory sites, adsense driven so called "Content Sites", forums, amazon, bizrate, or some other worthless site that has very little to do with what your really after.

Google should realistically just start putting advertisers sites in positions 1 through however many advertisers there are and then put their free serp's behind the advertisers.

Of course this is just my opinion as it pertains to my industry.

Take it for what its worth in your industry!

[Robsp]

Research of last year shows that sponsored listing conversion rates are twice the SERP conversion rates (do not have the URL). With great ad text this can even be better.

Simply said, info seekers stay left and buyers hang right :)

[edit_g]

One of my friends' (would you believe that he's a usability consultant) email signature is "it depends"...

It depends on your industry, how well your ads are written etc etc. Sometimes you'll see better conversion rates on paid ads because the landing pages are exactly what you want them to be (rather than what Google's algo thinks it should be).

There's no rule of thumb in this case as far as my experience goes.

[eWhisper]

If your talking all SERPs vs All AdWords visitors - your advertising should always convert better.

With SERPs, you rank for what people are looking for - info, some random term you happen to show up for, etc - less control.

With AdWords (or any advertising) you rank only when certain criteria are met - since this is controllable - your conversions should be higher across the board.

If your advertising converts less than SERPs, then you need to think about your audience and the buying cycle and rethink your advertising strategy.