Most guides, gurus and experts will always tell you that the landing page should be specific and relevant to the ad and keyword. Why sure it should! Show the customers what they are looking for! Of course they are then more likely to convert, because its a shorter and simpler process – they don’t have to first find that relevant page.

But is it always appropriate? I argue no, sometimes its not.

Think of it like this. If you were booking a hotel room – and the hotel manager invited you to the hotel to take a look at the room – what would you prefer?

a) to be driven to the hotel, see the building, walk through the foyer, feel the atmosphere of the place, then go and see the room, or

b) be blindfolded and taken straight to the room.

Do you see my point?

I honestly think that for expensive purchases requiring reassurance or trust, people are more likely to want to get a feel of the company first, before seeing more about what they specifically want. This is where good user-friendliness and navigation comes in, as well as a site that is credible, professional, and designed for the target market.

Its not just a theory.

I tested this out for a holiday company. For some campaigns, longer page durations and lower bouncerates were found when the page was slightly more generic, allowing people to search for what they wanted, rather than taking them to a specific search result based on what they searched for.

For specific products, e.g. DVDs, appliances etc then a relevant landing page definately converts better.

But for things like cars, holidays, expensive services, I think a more generic landing page that gives the visitor some control of where they go next is better – it primes the all important reassurance and trust factor more effectively.

A positive mindset is essential for recognising opportunities, being confident about your decisions and attracting good ideas. Are you watching your customers or watching the pennies?

The Recession

The tough economic climate has justifiably made business owners very cautious about spending – and marketing budgets are often the first to go. This is actually counter-intuitive, because saving money is no way to make money – especially when you’re losing out on making new customers. This effect has actually reduced click prices in a number of industries, and improved the market for those with more confidence in their budget.

Its essential to have confidence in your business – and believe in your product or service. By this I don’t mean blind positivity and saying “my business is great” even if its completely flawed (as you regularly see on Dragon’s Den for example!) But its worth testing your business, your landing page, to build a statistical confidence that it works. You can then justify budgeting for the necessary clicks to get you the sales or enquiries that you need, or invest in experimenting with online marketing as a way to test your site, product or service. In this light, no money is wasted, because you are either buying valuable customers, or buying valuable information that will help steer you towards making more profit in the long term. Its all positive feedback – showing you where the bottlenecks are. When managing new AdWords accounts we’re always cautious to start slow – and see how things go before upping the budget. If lots of money is being spent before conversions come in, then something needs to be changed. Similarly, there’s no point in being too frugal – or you could be waiting far too long until the statistics bear any significance.

Is Cheaper Always Better?

Its not uncommon for our potential customers to find cheaper quotes elsewhere for AdWords management – which suits us fine! We’re aware that there is some very poor work out there because we have seen the horrors in peoples accounts who have switched to us from other agencies. We’d rather work with clients who value thoroughness and understand that the best return on investment isn’t always going for the cheapest option. If you don’t get the best results possible, then it could actually be a far more expensive option. Our prices are extremely reasonable based on the time we invest into accounts, the specialised processes and the one-to-one expert service that we provide.

Websites are just as complex and difficult to get right as AdWords accounts! More often than not, this is where the bottleneck lies, and it can be frustrating from your AdWords Guy’s point of view because websites aren’t always as flexible as they could be. Sites must obviously be credible and user-friendly, allowing customers to be able to easily navigate to find what they are looking for. The customer process is vital – everything they see and think from landing on your site through to making contact (or your ‘most wanted response’) is an opportunity for resistance. If you need assistance with building or modifying a site, contact me or see more on the services page.

The Customer Process

Is it clear what a customer should do next? Some customers won’t like using the phone, so its essential to have other means of easily contacting you. If they do phone, is the person who answers the phone going to sound credible, professional, and friendly? Its amazing how many people answer the phone in shockingly unprofessional ways! We once had a client with a great campaign, lots of great enquiries, but very poor conversions because his telephone manner was so awful! Poor receptionists are also common – each step in the customer chain is going to lose you customers, so it must be as water-tight as possible.

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Your target market will have its own characteristics that will shape your AdWords campaigns, ads and marketing strategies. It may for example that your target market usually shop in the evenings – where your exposure and positioning should be increased. Perhaps you offer a high-end product within a niche, and it might be worth filtering out unwanted customers with more specifically targeted ads (including pricing, for example).

AdWords is very maths driven:

• The demand needs to be high enough to generate the clicks
• The profit margins need to be high enough to afford the clicks
• The conversion rates need to be high enough to make use of the clicks
• The clicks needs to be cheap enough to bring in the conversions you need

Common barriers therefore will include too little demand for the product or service, too low a profit margin to afford the clicks to make a sale, too high click costs based on what the competition is bidding. If this is the case, then there is usually something to be learned from the competition in terms of how they are managing to make profits from such high bids.

Stand Above the Competition

If you’re being undermined by cheaper prices on bigger, better sites for the same product or service, then you’re in trouble. In the nervous economy, shoppers are comparison shopping more than ever. Its time to diversify, or explore unique selling points which your customers will find irresistable. Sometimes you may be able to afford more clicks for a conversion than it first seems – for example taking into account repeat business, word of mouth referrals, or life-time customers.

When taking on new clients, I take into account your competition on the AdWords listings, as well as their click spend and presence on AdWords. I may have some great ideas and techniques that they wouldn’t have thought of.