Using Adwords To Achieve High Relevance and Higher Conversion Rates

There are many methods and strategies to achieving a successful PPC campaign, but there is one guiding principle that should be the cornerstone of any PPC initiative. This is the overlap of the customers’ desire and the offering of the business. In a word – RELEVANCE. The chart used in the previous article brings to light the importance of achieving a good conversion rate when implementing a PPC campaign and it is the overlap of the customer’s desire and business’ offering that becomes a key contributor in achieving the required conversion rate. Let’s take a look at what it takes to obtain a high level of relevance, ultimately leading to a higher conversion rate, and what this means to attributing value to specific areas of a campaign.

 

The following is a demonstration of how different landing pages achieve different levels of relevance for a searcher.

 

 

In this example, the searcher is looking for a 2006 Volkswagen golf engine. He’s offered several levels of detail including the make, the model, the year and the specific part. After having several ads presented to him, here are the three sites he saw along with their respective ads:

 

 

 

In this example, the advertiser has bid on the broad phrase “Volkswagen.” When the search was performed, Google acknowledged the advertiser’s desire to show for any search including “Volkswagen” and subsequently showed their ad. The problem is there is nothing on the page to address what the searcher was looking for in the first place - including the word “Volkswagen!” The massively over-targeted campaign has done a door job of showing the searcher what they asked to see. Having no overlap between the customer’s desire and the site’s offering means zero relevance and zero chance for a conversion.

 

 

Here’s a look at what the next advertiser had to show the searcher upon clicking through:

 

 

Suddenly we’re starting to see more relevance, but it’s not perfect. This site clearly offers Volkswagen parts, however it is requesting additional information at the bottom of the page in order to display the selection. What’s particularly frustrating for the search visitor is that this information has already been disclosed (refer to the original Google search). To their credit, the massive body of text on the landing page is full of interesting information regarding Volkswagen’s history. Interesting, yes. But it may not be very relevant in someone’s quest to find a used part. Also, implementing Google Checkout on their site has also allowed for the blue Google “decoration” underneath the ad. This helps both distinguish the ad as well as add credibility. Overall, this site‘s ad and offering achieves some level of overlap with the customer’s desire, but could probably use some improvement.

 

 

Finally, the third advertiser:

 

 

In this case, the ad displays differently from the previous two because it is located in the first position of the Google search result page while the previous two ads were located along the right panel of the page. For the searcher, the experience is a significant overlap between their original desire and the offering of the advertiser because the landing page (the page that is linked from the PPC ad) is highly relevant.

 

The careful setup employed by the third advertiser accomplishes many wonderful things in achieving relevance and full accountability in their PPC program. First and foremost, they have shown the searcher exactly what they asked to see. “You wanted it, here it is.” This is PPC harmony. Secondly, in order to obtain full accountability for advertising spend, we have to be able to associate effectiveness on a detailed level. The first advertiser will have a near-impossible time determining which advertising dollars were put to good use. Their poor campaign structure    will report a low ROI on the Volkswagen keyphrase, but it doesn’t mean people are less likely to buy Volkswagens. Unfortunately, their data can’t help but suggest this scenario. With the third advertiser however, the dollars spent on the phrase “2006 Volkswagen golf engine” can be compared directly to the sales of 2006 Volkswagen golf engines to determine if this particular part is worth advertising. This becomes a data-driven decision supported by the proper structure of their PPC campaign.

 

If the third advertiser has employed the first stage in our process of configuring their Google Analytics, they’ll obtain even more insight. In this example, analytics could be configured to record the click-stream data based on the make, model, part and year. With this kind of advanced implementation in place, the advertiser may discover Volkswagen parts made before 2006 and after 1999 are profitable, whereas parts from 2006 and later are only profitable for the New Beetle model. This kind of actionable data can be immediately implemented in the PPC program and in time across other traffic building channels.

 

 

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