Conversion rates and adwords position

do conversions vary according to your position?

[David_M]

Although the number of impressions and CTR rate has remained steady over the past few days, the number of adwords competitors has increased from about 4 to 8. This has pushed my ad from about 3-4 to 5-7 and my conversion rate has fallen.

Possible reasons:
1) People are popping in and out of the advertisers sites, reading about each one, becoming overloaded and confused, and not making the impulse decision to buy.
2) Competitor sites are gaining a greater level of trust, or meeting the customers needs and are able to close the sale.
3) People see top ads as more trustworthy and therefore are more likely to make a purchase with them.
4) Natural fluctuations in orders. Lots of orders one day, few the next.

Possible solutions:
1) Increase the bid. Will ranking higher make a difference since I'm still getting the same impressions/CTR?
2) Go for more specific terms "new blue widgets". But my competitors will still be listed for "widgets" and the problem remains.
3) Increase the number of alternative keywords no one is bidding on.
4) Improve my site to increase conversion rates.
5) Wait it out for a few more days. Maybe the competitors will drop out, and conversions will return.

Any other ideas, or solutions to the problem?

[martinibuster]

My experience with AdWords is that things bounce around a lot and that a few days does not make a trend. One week I spend next to nothing and make great sales, the next I'm getting great traffic but not much sales.

The fact that your CTR is holding steady is good, that usually doesn't happen to me. Are the other bidders not relevant to what you are selling, or is your ad copy that good?

I chalk it up to several factors, like whether it's the end of the month. For some reason the end of the month (in one of my client's industy), seems to be good. I think some people have to have to talk it over before they buy, and so on.

It's great that you are tracking your ROI. It's my feeling that it's responsible bidders like you that are able to reap the benefits and stay in for the long ride. Some others become frustrated with the results and drop out.

[onlineleben]

Since your CTR is stable, try to improve conversion (solution 4).
Regarding position in Adwords (or other PPC) I think it is not always useful to be #1. Many click on the ads from top to bottom and although #1 may be the best choice, #3 or #4 gets the sale. So when you have stable traffic from your ads, stick with your ranking, save some money from not being #1 and improve your conversion.

Good luck!

[Rossie]

My experience in an extremely competitive sector is that the less popular phrases return almost zero conversions and that No 1 position is a must.

Every time I've experimented with lower rankings the click thrus and sales have fallen; and every time I've experimented with less popular phrases the click thrus have fallen slightly but the conversion to sales has plummeted.

It can be a little galling to be paying £10 per click sometimes but it works out in the long run.