For instance, if the same advertisers, same ads, same general time of year, time of day, etc.... were able to control running their ads across each page #1 position (1,2,3...8), do you think the conversion rates would inherently differ per position?
If so, do you believe that conversion would a.) increase the lower the position was... or, would the conversion b.) decrease?
However, like everything on the web, user intent and user needs are critical when considering this topic. That needs to be tempered with conversion rates vs cost.
It's possible to have high conversion rates, but the positions are so expensive, the profit margin is lower.
First off, what does the buying cycle look like?
In service based industries, it's often very needs based and the top positions often receive very quick click which lead to phone calls.
For a plasma tv, the shopping cycle is long, comparison shopping happens - so what is the conversion?
If the conversion is the sale, then often a bit lower position may be better (you can measure conversion rate by position w/ G analytics). If the conversion rate is user engagement (i.e. sign up for the 'specials' newsletter), then position often doesn't matter a huge amount if the offer is correct. However, often the top positions are more sought after because of total visitors.
For a sales cycle of 3-6+ months (enterprise software which can be $50k+), then the conversion is often a whitepaper download. As the diligence process is often long, the actual position might not matter a huge amount as every potential seller should be evaluated.
For short sales cycle, price comparison shopping (computer memory), the middle to low positions commonly (again, these are averages - every business will differ from the average) as high converting as the top positions as the offer and price determine the conversion rate as much as the position.
The items to consider when looking at conversion rates by position is the actual conversion, the sales process, the research process, user intent, tempered with costs and consumer engagement.
An old, related thread, [webmasterworld.com...]
I've recently had issues with folk bidding $2 per click for a sevice who commissionable value is well known to be say $20
An , the conversion rates also well known to be say 20 clicks to the order.
I thought i might confirm the conversion by bidding all the profit at say $1, an to my astonishment was no higher than 20th
I am assuming they where bidding $2 thereabouts cos thats the level of bidding I had to get to, to top the keywords list.
All the figures I am giving are obviously anonymised to an extent :)
Things conversions are averages, could the $2 bidders concievably be convering at say 8 clicks to the sale?
Things conversions are averages, could the $2 bidders concievably be convering at say 8 clicks to the sale?
Absolutely.
If you can change a conversion rate from 1% to 2% you can double your bids and maintain the same ROI.
If there's a metric that's used in pretty much every calculation for ROI, ROAS, CPA, etc - it's conversion rate.
I know for a fact that one of my competitors is payin $5 a click and is appearing just below me. I am only payin 0.11cents.
It could be that your competitor has an excellent QS with adwords, and is therefore not having to pay as much.
