Conversion Optimization

While not necessarily a sub-category of Search Marketing, Conversion Optimization is one of the most important contributions to any web marketing strategy. There is a tendency in marketing – especially online – to focus primarily on the message and how it is delivered. From flashy roll-over videos to interactive social media efforts, it always feels much more satisfying to put your latest and greatest ideas on screen than than to painfully tweak the marketing you already have in place.

While it is certainly true that a great deal of time should be invested in creating strong, effective advertisements, an equal – if not greater – focus should be on gathering and analyzing conversion statistics. It isn’t always as pretty or fun as coming up with a brand new ad, but all the creative material in the world cannot perform at its optimal level without the raw statistics to back it up.

Without conversion tracking, you are essentially believing that your company’s campaign is performing at its full potential right from the start.

Unfortunately, this is never the case – no campaign ever reaches full potential without tracking and optimization. It is possible to get there, but not without precise, data-driven improvements that conversion statistics can provide.

Conversion Statistics Reveal:

• Which of the people who saw your ad actually became paying customers who bought something from your company.
• Which of your ads are wasting money every time they are shown.
• Which markets/blogs/search engines deserve your biggest budget investments, and which are just sucking up ad dollars without producing a return.
• Continuous improvement and upward progress.

This is the true measure of a successful campaign. Catchy slogans and eye popping visuals aside, success in advertising all comes down to one central question: Do the ads actually produce sales?

Many advertisers are content to see that their ads get a good amount of clicks and that sales are higher than ad spend. From this, they conclude that their campaign is a success. However, if these managers dove a little deeper and kept track of their statistics, they might find that only one of their ads is driving over 90% of the sales while the others are just wasting money.

With this data, the manager has the power to make changes to the campaign, either doing away with the failed ads or changing them to increase sales and squeeze more profit from the campaigns. Without it, he has no choice but to smile when he sees a higher number in the “sales” column than the “spend” one, and allow the unseen waste to continue unabated.

To help our clients begin tracking their conversions with ease, The Excedra implements an advanced analytic system and compiles detailed monthly reports that contain the following:

• Sources of Customers: Where exactly are your customers coming from? You may have a keyword list with over 100 keywords, or a vast network of blogs displaying your graphic ads, but chances are each one is not contributing an equal amount. In fact, many of them may not be contributing any sales at all. The Excedra Group can determine and fix this.
• Wasted Money: Very few advertisers use the same ad for their entire campaign. Generally, you will have two or more ads competing against each other for clicks, but a high number of clicks does not necessarily mean a high number of sales. Ad 1 might get twice the clicks as ad 2, leading you to believe it is a better ad. However, tracking might reveal that ad 2 produces more new customers than ad 1. Excedra can find this data and help you make sense of it.
• Points of Customer Loss: Of course, not everyone who visits your website becomes a customer, but why not? Where exactly are would-be-buyers getting hung out on your page and leaving? The Excedra can determine confusing and displeasing aspects of your sales funnel and recommend changes that decrease customer drop-off.
• Return on Investment Figures: Not all advertising costs are created equal, and what you pay for bidding on keyword A may not be the same as what you are charged to display on blog B. Excedra can determine where your ad dollars are best invested for the highest return.

The following is a real life example of the power of conversion tracking on your bottom line. Excedra performed a 7 day analysis and optimization of the client’s paid search campaign and observed the following results.

Isn’t it time your company becomes bottom line accountable for where its adverting dollars are spent? Let Excedra take care of your conversion tracking and optimization while you focus on what you do best – creating great advertisements to grow your business. Get a free professional marketing evaluation now, and let us show you how we can maximize your web presence.