Mercurythread » PPC Ad Writing http://www.mercurythread.co.uk The personal website of Michael Briggs : Professional SEO and Internet Geek Tue, 08 Nov 2011 22:31:46 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 3 reasons why your PPC traffic isn’t converting http://www.mercurythread.co.uk/blog/3-reasons-why-your-ppc-traffic-isnt-converting/2008/04/ http://www.mercurythread.co.uk/blog/3-reasons-why-your-ppc-traffic-isnt-converting/2008/04/#comments Mon, 21 Apr 2008 11:38:35 +0000 Michael http://www.mercurythread.co.uk/blog/?p=25 I could never do PPC for a living – the whole idea of bidding up & bidding down to earn a crust would drive me not only to distraction but also mad. One thing with PPC you can do with great accuracy, that its very difficult to do with other Internet Marketing channels, is predict a level of return that is likely to be achieveable. The best way to get the most out of your PPC budget is to target your onsite conversion after your initial three months testing process – getting conversion up will allow you to get the largets returns on your investment. This said during your first three months getting your bidding stratgey into shape should be your prime concern. So here are the three things I often find are causing problems in PPC campaigns.

Reason 1 – You’re PPC’s too generic

Please if you’re selling anything through PPC get your keywords as targetted as humanly possible. I know that the keyword ‘holiday’ may get a couple of hundred impressions every month but if you sell a cottage in South Wales don’t waste your money. Get your search terms as narrow as possible and expand out. By doing this you’ll find the niches that will give you ideas not only on ‘what’ people are searching for but also ‘how’ they are searching for them.

Reason 2 – Please talk ‘with’ not ‘at’ your customer

If you’re selling anything in PPC you need to know how people are searching for it and then use this effectively. This is the first step of your ‘scent trail‘ onsite. Make sure your PPC ad corresponds to what your target consumer is searching for – and make sure that your landing page reinforces this language. It all comes down to combining your Keyword Research with your onsite stats. Some people belive in analytics too much – some people use statistics like drunks use lamp posts (they use them for support rather than illumination), but they are useful. See which keyword patterns evolve from your conversions are they all using the same language or does it change about. Map your keywords to pages – do your succesful keywords point to pages which use the same words as your ads and the others don’t match up. Get your site matching your ads and get both using the words your consumers search with. It seems simple but can have a hge impact on your onsite conversion.

Reason 3 – your website sucks

Ok maybe it doesn’t suck. I am sure it looks really nice but don’t forget the basics. I’ve been hearing stories about a number of websites investing heavily in PPC and forgetting simple things like calls to action. A basic thing is to remember that customers ready to buy – those who really just want to get in and get out with their purchase in the post. Have a strong call to action in the first paragraph – make life easy for your consumer. Have a button that stands out – but doesn’t detract from your design.

What to do now?

Get down and dirty with your Pay Per Click and start making it bigger and stronger than ever before. If you have any tips please drop us a comment below.

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