Your ad campaigns should bring you closer to new prospects and clients. But how well are you able to judge their success? Yourconversion rate in AdWords is yoursuccess rateat persuading consumers to click on your ads and carry outa particular action, such as a product purchase. It is estimated that the average conversion rate for an Adwords account is just 2.35%. According toanalysis carried out by WordStream on more than 2,000 client accounts, the top 25% of accounts had conversion rates of 5.31% or higher, while the bottom 25% of accounts had a conversion rate of 0-1%. Where on the performance scale do your ads sit? An alarmingly high proportion of PPC campaign managers and marketers dont know how well their ads are performing. Or maybe you do know, but arent sure what to do to improve your conversion rate. In this article, well outline three areas where you should focus your efforts to improve your AdWords conversion, and give practical tips on how you can nudge the scale in the right direction. First: Establishwhich conversions youre trackingThe first step to improving your conversion rate is to know how your campaigns are performing. Thus, you will need to set up conversion tracking to keep track of your ads performance. According to a report by Disrupt Advertising, only 57.7% of Adwords accounts have set up conversion tracking. This means that 42.3% of the respondents are not able to tell if their campaigns are successful. Conversion tracking allows you to analyse the performance of your ads, your ad groups and your campaigns. This makes it easier to find the ROI for each investment, while it also makes it easier to measure the exact number of conversions. So far, so good; but in order to track conversions, you need to have established which outcomes youwant to achieve with your PPC campaign.For example, for an ecommerce company, a conversion is usually interpreted as a product sale. However, you many be interested in tracking: The number of new subscriptions to your email newsletterThe number of downloads of an ebook or whitepaperThe number of new product demo requests made to your site Not all of these actions directly produce revenue, butif your aim is to increase engagement and awareness, then these are viable conversion goals for your business.
3 tips to improve your Adwords conversion rate Improve Quality ScoreImproving your Adwords Quality Scorecan significantly impact your conversion rate in two ways: one, by lowering your campaign Cost Per Click (CPC), allowing you to get your ads in front of a wider audience for the same budget; and two, by serving as a metric for how good your ad experience is for the consumer. The best ways to improve it are to: Focus on quality and relevant ads for your target audienceOrganise your ad groupsPay attention to your ad copyKeep your Adwords profile organisedFocus on the right keywordsImprove the landing page experienceImproving the wider experience of your Adwords campaigns will improve your Quality Score,and by the same token,increase the chances of seeing a higher number of clicks and conversions. According to Google, the three main components that define how your Quality Score can affect a real-time auction are:
Overall, the Quality Score is Googles attempt to reward quality and relevant ads, and a focus on improving it can lead to more successful Adwords campaigns. Share this article Related articles Optimize your landing pagesThe design of your landing page plays a key role in your number of conversions. A good ad campaign may bring more people to your landing page, but if its not optimized to facilitate conversions, then youre likely to lose those potential customers before they convert. A high-converting landing page is: appealingrelevanteasy to navigateEvery element should be tested, from the CTA to the colour of the buttons and their placement. Carrying out A/B testing allows you to minimize the risk of wasting your budget on a low-converting page. Optimization should start by ensuring thatyour landing page facilitates the customer journey. Think like a user to spot the problems that can affect your pages performance. A good way to increase your chances of conversion is to align the ad copy with the landing page. You dont want your ad copy to be misleading, as it risks losing the users trust. Similarly, you dont want the copy to be vague, as this will affect the number of clicks. The copy of your ads should align with the content of your landing pages. You need to live up to the expectations to increase the conversion rate and this can also improve your quality score. Overall, the optimisation of your landing page should include:
Appealing and targeted copy A good headline along with relevant content can make a landing page more interesting for your target audience. Eye-catching visual content As with the copy, images and videos can grab the audiences attention and facilitate the conversion. The type of image, the size, the design can all affect the outcome of a visit. A well-tested CTA One of the most important elements to test on your landing page is the CTA. Your call-to-action button will affect the conversion rate and thats why you need to test the ideal colour, size, placement for it. Good user experience User experience can significantly affect the conversion rate of your landing page although it can still be overlooked during the A/B testing. Your visitors expect a good user experience when visiting a landing page with a fast loading speed, a fully functional page and a properly tested form. Every element of your landing page appeals to UX and accessibility can also be part of it. Conversion becomes easier when you ensure that your landing page is optimized for every single visitor. Responsiveness across all devices As with user experience, a responsive page that is equally well-presented across all devices maximizes the chances of conversion. The increased number of mobile users calls for a fully functional mobile page that takes into consideration a good user experience. Except for the page speed, the copy should be also short and engaging, while the form has to be limited to a set number of fields to avoid losing the visitors interest. For more tips on how todesign a high-converting AdWords landing page, check out these guides: Adjust yourkeyword matching typeAdwords allows you to add keywords that are: broad matchphrase matchexact matchA broad match keyword shows your ads to anyone searching for your selected keyword. For example, if you add black iPhone price, your ad will show up to anyone searching for it, no matter what order the words show up. This increases the reach of your ad campaign, bringing more clicks to it. A phrase match keyword shows your ads to anyone searching for the specific phrase, either the way it is or as part of a sentence, such as how to find black iPhone price. This type of keywords allows you to filter your ads to a more specific audience, while still maintaining a significant reach. An exact match keyword is the most specific type, onlydisplaying your ad to anyone searching for the exact keyword you input, and in the same way that youve structured it. If the search is not an exact match, then your ad will not show up.
Ad campaigns that focus on exact match keywords can have a higher conversion rate as they attract a smaller, more highly-targeted audience. If your goal is to narrow down your audience then this can be a useful option. However, if you want to cast as wide a net as possible in the hopes of attracting different types of consumers who might convert, a phrase match or broad match keyword might be more suitable. Its a good idea to test all the variations in order todetermine which one works better for your campaign and your target audience. You can start by focusing on narrow results through exact matches and then scale up your efforts to expand your campaign reach if you dont achieve your desired conversion rate. For more detail on the different types of PPC keyword matching and how to set them up, dont miss Amanda DiSilvestros guide: Common PPC keyword mistakes (Understanding broad match vs. phrase match vs. exact match). OverviewConversion is akey metric for measuring the effectiveness of your ad campaigns. The higher the conversion rate, the better the chances of meeting your business goals and driving ROI. However, its useful to remember that there also needs to be an evaluation of the quality of the conversions and whether they match your target audience. Its tempting to reach a wider audience and see the conversion rate improving, but do they really serve as leads and prospect clients? This depends on your goals and your expectations from every campaign and thats why its useful to keep analyzing the performance of your ads. The most important tips for improving your conversion rates are to: Stay focused on your goalBe relevant Alignyour ad copyand landing pageOptimize your landing pageA/B testeach element of the campaignExperiment with keyword matches to find what works best for youFocus on improving your Quality Score
Tereza Litsa is a Writer at Search Engine Watch. Want to stay on top of the latest search trends?Get top insights and news from our search experts.
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