TECHNOLOGY
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lthough the cost of ‘pay-per-click’ advertising had a wobbly start in 2020, it has only grown in popularity over the last year. One guess as to why that might be! However, simply investing in pay-per-click, might not be the best place to put your money, especially if you don’t have the staff, time and expertise to back it up. Peppered Moth Marketing joined the BITA community in 2021, and given my own marketing background I was excited to talk to their founder, Jonathan Slobom, about his experience in this area, and where he thinks the solutions might lie.
stores. These will be driving their sales through paid clicks and other online marketing.” In my experience as a marketing strategist, I have seen many businesses rely solely on the bottom-line figures – outlay and outcomes – whilst failing to investigate their pipelines for insights and sales advantages that could help them expand. Jonathan confirms that this holds true for businesses online as well. “Even businesses that are sophisticated enough to effectively measure their analytics and growth opportunities aren’t immune to the pressure to hit sales targets. They often succumb to the temptation of spending all their budget increasing traffic and sales but spend little to no time or money increasing their conversion rate or retention”.
THE COST OF A CLICK Diane Birch talks to Jonathan Slobom on how to increase your marketing conversion rate, and why paying for clicks might not be a bargain
Why is this so difficult? People who work in this area are often very detail oriented and have a head for strategy and analysis – spotting chokepoints in your pipeline and hurdles to converting a follower to I HAVE SEEN MANY BUSINESSES RELY a customer. Even if the staff have these skills, it can still prove difficult. ON BOTTOM-LINE FIGURES, WHILST “The problem with improving conversion IGNORING PIPELINES FOR INSIGHTS rates quickly is a lack of data” Jonathan explains. AND SALES ADVANTAGES. “To be successful, businesses need to run many tests concurrently and harvest enough data to make statistically robust decisions. This requires intelligent software, highly experienced people, relentless focus and of course, hours of effort.” Pay-Per-Click These difficulties are why it pays to bring in an expert. Thousands of businesses rushed online in 2020, to counter There are many specialist agencies or individuals that operate the negative effects of Covid. Many of these invested more exclusively in the online area, and who are never happier than time and attention into already-established sales channels in when sifting through vast piles of data that would daunt even the order to convert extra online sales, filling the gap left by most stalwart employee that isn’t an expert in this field. in-store spending. Many others hastily erected new platforms Even better, there are now agencies that only charge for and channels online, where they had previously had no, or successful campaigns! “Demonstrable, measurable outcomes a minimal presence. form the basis of their remuneration” explains Jonathan. “Many They urgently needed traffic. so-called CRO (Click Rate Optimisation) specialists ask to be paid Many of these businesses lacked the deep digital marketing upfront on the hope of a positive outcome. Some even ask for a experience required to establish and grow these channels long-term contract before they have proven ability to increase themselves and were willing to pay for those coveted online your sales. Of course, every business needs to find the right clicks. This resulted in a smaller market share, and an eversolution for them but working with an agency that operates with increasing cost per click to these digital newcomers. a ‘no win, no fee’ model can mean that everyone is a winner.” “The issue is that many of the companies we saw weren’t The idea of hiring experts and only paying a fee if they are putting in enough of the quality groundwork” says Jonathan; successful will definitely sound enticing to many businesses, and “they weren’t improving their SEO which meant that the holy it is a great way of ensuring you don’t spend your entire budget grail of online marketing – organic reach and conversions – in an area that gets you nothing in return. Perhaps even more weren’t materialising”. importantly from my point of view, is that when you work with It would be reasonable to assume that with the relaxation experts, you will be able to access those insights that help you of lock-down and successful vaccine drive, the costs would soon increase conversion rates, create more loyal customers, target start going down. Not so says Jonathan. new customers, and find new markets for your product. Doing this “Many of these businesses are desperate to recover their risk free? Sounds like a no-brainer! losses and may have let go or downsized their ‘bricks and mortar’
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