When you have ads, you are setting specific expectations to the user. I click on the ad because something connected with me. But to get to a page that then had nothing to do with what was promised on the ad only makes me want to leave. If they would just state something to the effect of “5 logo comps! Packages starting at $175″ they would not only see more conversions but also save money in people clicking on the link, not finding what they wanted and leaving.

Michael Bowen is the Performance Analyst at GearyPMG.

Like any advertising/marketing professional, I keep an eye on what goes on in different verticals. What aggravates me the most is seeing people doing their advertising WRONG. We’re not talking about just WRONG, but about as WRONG as it can be.

In this particular instance, I am referring to an education-focused PPC ad campaign. Most of the paid search ads I was served for a particular query were written well, but one seemed to stand out. It addressed searchers queries and paint points. It was dead on. After viewing the page of the ad, I was sent to a homepage. A HOMEPAGE!?!?!?! This is a BIG mistake that could driving up CPLs for the entire campaign.

They are missing a prime opportunity to connect with their users. They developed a great PPC ad that relates to searchers (based on their needs and pain points), but instead of driving users to a page where they can speak to the ad content that captured their attention, users end up on a home page–a page that has no connection to the ad.

Don’t let this happen to you. Check your campaigns. Make sure you are delivering on the message. Make sure you are holding up the promise of your ad on the page you are driving people to.

Michael Bowen is the Performance Analyst at Geary +PMG.

By how much? An un-optimized website typically has a meager 3.1% conversion rate (verticals vary of course). When conversion rate optimization is executed correctly, it can increase conversion rates between 50 and 200 percent, and there are occasions when resultant increases are higher (King). GearyPMG has your quick tips and a whitepaper to help optimize your site and dramatically increase your conversion rates.

Why it matters to your business

Generating more qualified leads from website traffic makes good business sense
Continuous testing reduces bounce rates
A solid CRO strategy results in increased sales, revenue, leads, page views and engagement

Three targets for CRO

There are three types of web properties to work with during a CRO process: landing pages, microsites and conversion paths.

Testing

During the testing process, landing pages, microsites and conversion paths will be classified as one of the following states:  control, challenger or champion.

Control: The page with the original design and baseline data
Challenger: The new design that you are putting up against the control
Champion: The design that performs best during testing

Look beyond the obvious

Every website is unique, so CRO requires a clear picture of a site’s goal, an integrated strategy, cross-functional input and analysis throughout the optimization process. Conversion rate optimization is not:

Minor tweaks in text size or color
Blind implementation of best practices
Relying on guess and check temethodology

For more information Click here to download a complimentary copy of the whitepaper.

Michael Bowen is the Performance Analyst at Geary +PMG.

Other areas of focus include:

• Innovation and iteration testing
• Testing thresholds and timeframes
• GearyPMG case study examples

Click here to download a complimentary copy of the whitepaper. 

“If someone is not intimately familiar with the ins and outs of paid search management, it is easy to misinterpret data when agencies report unnecessary information without much context. It makes it difficult to understand cause-and-effect optimizations and the true value of hiring an agency or expert.

To minimize confusion, it is essential for paid search professionals to sort through the performance data and provide a framework to summarize reports. This way, clients are not blindly reporting a sheet of numbers/metrics back to their organizations. They should have the data they need to address C-level executives and present a clear understanding of how their campaigns are performing. While clients do range in paid search knowledge, an agency should never assume that everyone can fill in the context around a paid search campaign and the implications of performance fluctuation” (iMedia Connection, 10/20/10).

Click here to read the  entire article that investigates how clicks, impressions, #1 rankings, click thru rates and keyword strategies should be viewed so marketers can succeed in their paid search efforts.

]]> http://www.gearypmg.com/paid-search-metrics-marketers-should-forget/feed/ 0 http://www.gearypmg.com/espn-com-ad-blunder/ http://www.gearypmg.com/espn-com-ad-blunder/#comments Thu, 26 Aug 2010 17:35:56 +0000 Michael Bowen http://www.gearypmg.com/?p=736

ESPN.com Ad Blunder

Once again how important are details? Or better stated, how important is it to pay attention to details? When trying to optimize digital marketing campaigns, I like to look at the whole funnel. Two points of interest are where traffic comes from and where it converts; it’s not just the lead for that matters when optimizing a conversion funnel.

The image to the right is an example of what happens when marketers do not pay attention to detail. The advertisement is promoting an outdated event. I am not trying to cast blame on one party (as both the marketer and ad network could be at fault), but still, this is a waste of valuable ad space that drives me nuts.

Remember with all of your media campaigns to focus on the entire conversion process. Pay attention to where the user ENTERS your funnel (like the display ad seen here). Monitor users as they MOVE through the process, and then optimize the end RESULT. Do this, and you can be sure that you’re always maximizing your media and supporting a holistic conversion funnel.

Michael Bowen is the Performance Analyst at Geary +PMG.

1. Value Propositions - These are the key to winning over users. The best value propositions will appeal to prospective students’ emotional and logical sides. Answer questions like “What do I need?” or  “What do I like?”

2. Call to Action – Don’t confuse students about what their next step is. Instead, aim to direct them to where you want them to go on a given page.

3. Content Simplicity – Content needs to be easy to remember and scan. Your user’s attention span is short, so make the most of it by using bullet points and staying away from long paragraphs. (case and point: this blog post)

4. Form Length and amount of required fields – Sometimes people get carried away with the amount of information that they want to collect. Ask only for what you need. Remember prospective students are providing information before they get anything from your institution. Make it easy.

5. Layout / Style – There are thousands of schools of thought about web design. However in my experience, sites work best with a strong banner headers, text to the left with a form to the right. It’s a classic for a reason.

6. Shuffle Different Promotional Offers – Try different offers to see what converts best.

7. Imagery - Some images work better than others. When selecting a visual for a site, think about how it will make students feel. Can they relate? Does it portray your brand in its best light?

8. Test, Test, Oh Yeah, Then Test Again – After implementing these steps, don’t forget to test everything. What works this month, may be passé next month, and vice versa.

We think there should be a guide for how universities can design their websites. It would cover how to build a useful website with a focus on successful home pages. The goal would be to present useful information, not just the most impressive.

This funny cartoon appeared on the website XKCD, addressing the challenges University marketers face when trying to create the best home page.

http://xkcd.com/773/

While tongue in cheek, this depicts a common problem education marketers face. They have several distinct groups visiting their websites that range from students to prospective students and alumni to the media. In many cases, the school clutters the homepage with information aimed to reach each group or they choose which to feature.

A better solution is to allow site visitors select the information they are interested in. On the homepage, clearly designate user paths that align with key audience segments. For example, have a button calling out “Member of the media? Click here.” This removes the clutter of a homepage and creates intuitive paths for users to follow that leads them to the information they’re actually interested in.

I was watching Blue Chips the other day, the movie with Nick Nolte and Shaquille O’Neill.  As an aside, he never should  have signed on with the Celtics. Back to the film, it contains one of the most clichéd sports analogies. To paraphrase, it went something like:

“I’ll give them the play book. They can know our offense, they can know our defense, all that matters is how we execute.”

This quote can be applied into many aspects of our professional and personal lives.

By way of example, I’m applying it to conversion rate optimization since it’s what a performance analyst does best.

Typical questions around conversion rate optimization are: “What are your top tips for improving a site,” “Do I need to change my button colors,” “Should I put different images on my website,” or “What font is best?”

What people fail to understand is that it’s not just one thing, it’s about the overall execution. It’s an over simplifaction to think that one can make random tweaks to a site, and have it magically improve conversion rates. There is a method to the madness, and an execution of the method. When I’m working on a client’s conversion rate optimization, I go through the following steps:

1. Make sure tracking is set up, as this is the crux of your data. Without it, you can’t make any educated recommendations on which changes to test.

2. Remember and focus on the user. What brings them to your website? What needs or problems do they want solutions for?

3. Analyze the data and how people found your site. What are the hot keywords that attracted the most visits?

4. Work off of a check list of what you should consider testing on the site. This can include content, calls to action and value props. Then run the tests, and analyze the data before making a test recommendation.

Each conversion professional has his or her own process. This is just my way of channeling my own conversion rate madness into a methodology that delivers the results my clients expect.

Michael Bowen is the Performance Analyst at Geary +PMG

Now I can only imagine how much money was wasted. But I wonder if any one ever looked at the conversion rates and asked “Hmm, why aren’t we converting?” I wonder how many people build campaigns and forget about them?

Michael Bowen is the Performance Analyst at Geary +PMG.

This Monday, I noticed in my data that two sites had drastically dropped off on lead volume. I began to investigate, and what I found has caused me to go back and look further into sites and the analytics that are in use. I will say it was a little startling; a couple sites had inconsistent link names. As an example my goal funnel would look for school_name-step-1 but at times would appear as school_name_-step-1.

I found this trend to be consistent with all the pages in the goal funnel that I had set up. So each time the funnel encountered the incorrect name it treated it as though the visitor had left the funnel. The quick solution was to build two separate funnels that tracked each version of the link name. The long-term solution would be to have the programmers dig in and find why the pages are changing.

So just because your conversions may seem off, don’t jump to conclusions and start a whole conversion rate audit right away. You or your analytics may be missing something. Make sure that you check to see that nothing was overlooked, or that there aren’t pages that are mistakingly called one thing, when they are really another.

I will say that playing sleuth,  has really improved my conversion rates!

Michael Bowen is the Performance Analyst at Geary +PMG.