The initials “PPC” traditionally have referred to “pay per click.” However in these days of double digit inflation, agency (and in-house) clients are coming to expect a different rendering of these classic initials, “pay per per conversation” — to improve PPC ROI.
Every click is an opportunity to engage a potential customer. How do you demonstrate the defining values surrounding your services overall in your marketing pitch? An often overlooked answer is to market by savvy content planning, improved relevancy and tons of testing.
This SES San Jose session discussed the pathology of missed conversations and techniques for further engagement of PPC traffic. Moderator Anne Kennedy is founder and managing partner of BeyondInk SEO consulting firm. As a side note, Anne is a part time Portland resident (My home) & advisory board member of SEMpdx.I was fortunate to meet her at our last networking event.
The first speaker was Bryan Eisenberg, the co-founder of FutureNow, marketing optimization firm as well as a prominent internet marketing blogger/columnist.
Brian believes marketers shouldn’t be “focusing on getting clicks but on getting business.” We should change the definition of SEO to “Searcher Experience Optimization” and view customers as “toddlers with money”…they always are asking you “Why?”
Conversations are failing because are lack of trust. Also, good ads must have “scent”…they need to “smell” relevant to what the searcher is looking for. If the customer loses the “scent” of what they are looking for, they will leave your site. 80% of traffic has dropped off after the first three clicks.
Example: Search for Pink Roses and 3 of the top 4 landing pages don’t contain any pink roses. Recently a study showed that 67% of customers leave your website because you aren’t providing them enough product information. Conversion isn’t a linear process…different people have different needs as they take the long journey to the conversion point. Think of optimization from the conversion point of view.
The next speaker was Brett Cosby, Senior Manager at Google Analytics.
Brett have the audience a basic overview of Google analytics.Then he gave an overview on how to run Google Website Optimizer (as simple as copy and paste).
Then Brian too the podium again to identify the biggest problem with landing pages as relevancy. He feels that “every hyperlink is a contract between the advertiser and the visitor.” Keywords don’t fail to convert…it’s the fault of the marketer to not offer the right landing page experience.
Consider pulling the content from product reviews and making sure those keywords get into the landing page copy.Rewrite the page by using the voice of the customer:Powerful Stuff!
“Relevance is relative to buying mode” and it’s smart to optimize for different personality types which are reflected in Eyetracking studies.Product images are extremely powerful to help convert certain consumers and many sites fail to offer multiple views of the product or the ability to enlarge the product. Also, many websites have difficult to read fonts and few sites allow the customers to change the size of the font.
Credibility Issues
Give the customer information about who you are, contact information and presented in a professional rendering. Avoid hard to read and small type. Build confidence by point of action assurances, endorsements, and testimonials.
This is of critical importance: If you don’t respond to a contact lead quickly, conversion effectiveness drops off very quickly. Rectify shopping cart abandonment which stems from Lack of assurances, missing shipping information in the checkout process and lack of in-stock availability. Testimonials need to be specific and address “pain points. “This was an awesome presentation by a guy who really knows the topic cold and communicates effectively.
It’s not enough to simply drive traffic and accept average conversion. Engage your your PPC visitors in conversation to close the circle and increase ROI.
Todd Mintz is the Director of Internet Marketing & Information Systems for S.R. Clarke Inc., a Real Estate Development and Residential / Commercial Construction Executive Search / Recruiting Firm headquartered in Fairfax, VA with offices nationwide.
