When you’re first getting into Pay Per Click (PPC) marketing, the search for clicks can become obsessive. You’re following our guide to PPC for running your campaign but every day that goes by you can’t help but wonder how to get more clicks. If I do this, will my clicks go up? Could it make my clicks go down? I. Need. More. Clicks!
One day though you’ll have an epiphany. What if rather than increasing your number of clicks, you increase your PPC conversions instead?
Congratulations, what you’ve just discovered is the equivalent of gravity! It’s absolutely massive to your business. What’s the point in having all these people visit your website (each one you’re paying for, may I add) if all they’re going to do is look around and then leave?
If this were the real world you could single each person out personally, work a little bit of sales magic and then they’ll be walking out the door with two bags full of goods or a diary full of appointments for your services. But this isn’t the real world. This is digital. And you need a different approach if you want to keep up.
PPC benchmarks
Before you start worrying about your numbers, it’s worth figuring out whether you’re underperforming or not.
The average PPC conversion rate across all industries (so don’t fear if yours falls below this) is 3.75% for search ads. Every industry is different, so there’s no point in stressing if your conversion rate is a lowly 2.35% when you work in real estate and the average for your industry is 2.47%.
Even in the same industry, there will be a conversion rate discrepancy between businesses. According to research, the top 10% of all advertisers using Google Ads have conversion rates of over 11%. This just goes to show that there will always be big businesses out there that can convert like a maniac. There’s nothing stopping you aspiring to be like them!
The first step to improve your PPC conversion rate should be to work out all your relevant stats and benchmarks and then go from there.
If you’re worrying that you have no conversions in Google Ads then it’s definitely time to mix it up. Likewise, if your PPC advertising cost is working out too expensive for you, then you desperately need to make a change before your marketing plan becomes unsustainable. Time to get to work!
How to improve PPC conversions
Getting clicks on your ads is the first stage of your Google Ads sales funnel. The period following a successful click on one of your ads is called the post-click stage, and this is where you make your money as an online business.
You should make your landing pages super clear and responsive. Every second that goes by you risk losing your customer, so you want to make it as easy for them as possible to continue through your sales funnel.
Make sure you provide value to your customers. Not only does this give your customer the knowledge that they might need to make an informed decision, but offering them something of value is the first step in cultivating a transactional relationship built on trust.
Finally, keep your branding on point. This includes fonts, colours, images, the works. Everything from your ad to your landing page to the email your customer receives after signing up for a newsletter should stick to brand values. If you’re wondering why this is important, check out our blog on brand consistency to find out more.
So if you’re sat there wondering ‘I think I’ve got some pretty good ideas to improve my landing pages, what ones do I go with?’ then let me introduce you to a little thing called Conversion Rate Optimisation, or CRO.
PPC and CRO
CRO is essentially a fancy form of split testing or A/B testing.
Split testing is where you run two versions of something side by side with half of your traffic going to test A and the other half going to test B. When you analyse the results and metrics from each test site, you’ll be able to see which one performed better.
CRO landing pages follow this exact same principle. If you’re caught in two minds about what copy to use on your pages, or what layout is better for moving customers along the sales funnel, you can try both and see what works the best for your conversion rate!
This doesn’t just apply to the post-click stage either, you can use CRO to test out ad variations in Google Ads and then monitor their progress using Google Optimise.
If you want an experienced PPC Liverpool agency with knowledge of applying CRO then get in touch with us here at Blaze Media!
Best CRO software
Like we mentioned earlier, Google Optimise is a good free tool that you can use to run CRO experiments either in page or on your ads.
There are countless other pieces of software you can use to run you’re A/B tests though, with some of the highest rated services being Google Analytics, ClickFunnels, and Unbounce.