Any advice would greatly be appreciated.
Thanks,
CompWorld
Hard to comment without knowing what the ads say and what your pages say.
Basically, the ads are targeted to the particular item. For example, if someone types in "widget", our ad would say Find widgets @ mysite.com. They are then taken to that particular category to view those items. If they choose to make a purchase, they click on register and after that (approx. 30 seconds or so) they can purchase that item. The thing is, I can understand if they do not register, then they leave. Fine. That is all good and such. But they register (all legit information, I had checked), but do not complete the sale. Makes no sense. I cannot understand what is wrong. First they view all of the items information, then they register, then they leave without purchasing.
I am at my wits end. I do not know what else to do. I could understand looking at the item, and then leaving. But, I cannot understand why they look at the item, register, and then leave. This is very bewildering. If they were not interested in the item, why register. If they were interested in the item, why register and do not complete the purchase?
Completely disheveled and confused,
CompWorld
How about an 'exit survey' on the post-register-pre-purchase page which triggers when they exit your site. "We noticed that you registered but did not complete your purchase. We'd love to know how we failed you....."
Advertising is a numbers game. More traffic usually means more sales. (assuming everything on your site is working correctly and your product is something that someone would want). You could try to drastically increase traffic and see what happens.
Yes. Everything is working fine. Its not a security issue cause once they click on the buy button, they are taken to the order page via a new window. I made sure that it is stated right near the buy button that a new window will open. I do not have any pop up or under advertising on the site either. The only pop is when the user clicks on the buy button. Our steady customers are puchasing, but the people who are arriving via Google are not. They look, register, and then leave. I do not know why. If they were not interested in the product or our site, then why did they register in the first place?
Makes no sense, and is completely bewildering.
CompWorld
[edited by: Shak at 1:02 pm (utc) on Jan. 4, 2004]
[edit reason] no sticky requests please. [/edit]
But they register (all legit information, I had checked), but do not complete the sale. Makes no sense.
Since they've registered, perhaps you could email/call them back offering a small extra discount or something?
Seems a shame to let them go if they've come so close :)
wow! could not disagree more. "Things get tough -- so Quit?" Successful business are BUILT by HAND over the LONG HAUL!
Don't give up just Be Better!
Since they registered, and I'd assume you now have your email, and know if they bought something or not.
Since they registered, I'd assume you have their email address. I'd put a delay on sending that email of 1 hour. Then, before the confirmation email goes out, have a system check to see if they bought something or not.
If not, send the email with a coupon code for 10% off their purchase if they answer a simple survey. Make a survey page with a list of questions about what they liked and what could be improved about your site.
You might also want to do this for people who bought something, although I'd put it at a week+ after purchase, so you also get details from people who did buy things, and also increases your odds of repeat sales.
From the information you have provided, I can equate my kind of business with yours. As per my statistics, approximately 2 or 3 out of 10 people actually pay money after registration.
I believe, people do not care much until everything is going smooth and doesn't demand money but as soon as they see "$" sign, they just don't want to go past that sign easily :)
I will recommend you to send an email decorated with some catchy offer. Sometime leven ittle offers may ring bells (again) in our customers mind.
Just my 2 cents.. Thanks for reading.
Whilst my own ROI on Adwords has worsened slightly since the Florida update, which I tend to attribute to people whose "natural" SERPS were nuked increasing the competition for most "money" terms, I don't think your own problems can be purely down to this.
First they view all of the items information, then they register, then they leave without purchasing.
Have you walked through that process yourself, recently? Start on an AdWords page and go all the way to the end of the acknowledgement screen after purchase? Something may have broken.
I sometimes forget how important a hands on inspection is and rely on stats only. But especially when stats shift noticably, do the obvious. Maybe even ask someone else, unfamiliar with the site, to go through the process while you watch (saying nothing at all!)
I have thought about contacting everyone after they register to see how the process was and what their likes or dislikes are/were. That has already been implemented, and will start to be sent out tomorrow. In terms of going through the process, yes I have. The ROI has been going down on both major PPC's steadily for the past few months. I do not know why. I am thinking that it might be time to get a company that just focuses on PPC ad optimization to com on in and look at our keyword list of 500 plus keywords. I also never enabled broad reach either. So, I still do not know why the ROI has gotten worse instead of better.
As more things get more in common, the more the things get strange.
CompWorld
Hope it helps.
Is there some reason they have to do this - for example they need to register in order to see the full cost of their order including shipping and taxes?
The leads from adwords have been going down since late October. So, it has nothing to do with the time of year. If it was only a few weeks, we can mange it. But, it makes no sense for us to pay Google well over $1000.00 per month for leads that do not convert. It may not be a lot of money, but if you are getting nothing for the lead, then it is something. I might as well purchase CPM impressions on MSFT or C¦Net, but I get a better ROI from them than the current status of the Adwords.
Just do not know.. I hate to suspend marketing with Google, but its not converting at all. Yes, it is true we are in a very competitive industry, but a 0% ROI is unacceptable. Of course, it is possible that our competitors are clicking on the ads, but I would assume that Google's "fraud protection" would pick it up. Guess I will never know. The only response I get from Google is, we have the highest standards for our advertisers. If there was any fraud on our account, their system would have already picked it up. So, getting no help from Google either. This is why I think the services from Google are getting worse and not better. They used to be much more helpful before the "IPO" craze had started. Now, its just standard operating procedure from them.
CompWorld
Why would someone register (name, address, email/telephone) and then not follow through on the order?
I did this just the other day with a very big online store. I had to register to add goods to the basket. Once I registered and realised the shipping charges I just went to another store.
Why don't you try suspending AdWords for a couple of days or a week and see what happens? However, I would only do this if you also receive enough traffic from other sources.
CompWorld
If you're keen to resolve it, it may be worth reinstating the adwords campaign with a very low daily maximum budget and setting up a special landing page that will allow you to capture the IP of the fraudster. Perhaps even ask Google to assist, they can only say no.
As mentioned before, also check the ecommerce forum and the advertising forum here on webmasterworld.
Don't know why someone would spend time to register, and then leave. Makes no sense.
CompWorld
If there's not need to register until the decision to buy has been made, then you have to look at the whole registration and checkout process. Someone has probably suggested this already, but go through the whole purchase process yourself to make sure it works smoothly. P.S. If users are forced to wait around for an email before registration can be confirmed, look VERY closely at this part of the process.
Then sit down with someone who doesn't know the site and ask THEM to make a purchase. Resist the urge to give them little "cues" about what to do next. Write those things down on paper, and make sure they get addressed properly.
Re click fraud: I wouldn't say that's necessarily the answer, but you should have some way to track the visitors coming in from different sources. If you don't, then even a look at your raw log files might yield some useful info.
Makes no sense.
Not to ask a stupid question, but is your tracking system broken?
Have you run a test order via AdWords to make sure it's not?
Yes, I had tried the adwords directly to one section of the site only and cut all other advertising means to that section, no dice. Nothing converted.
CompWorld
When you did this, did you check the logs to see if the clicks were all coming from the same place?
CompWorld
