Again the Same Problem. I don't get even single sales

[uma]

Hi all,
I'm running my online apparel store throught united states. I'm running for both men and women. I've got good CTR for my keywords. But I don't get single sales per day. I don't know why. I've checked thoroughly n i've used proper keywords & proper ads for my site. I'm used seperate landing pages for each keywords. The price of the products are similar to my competitors. I have some good fashionable products. Can you please help me? Don't tell that i don't have good products and higher prices and all. its not true. I'm getting good sales in some other shopping sites. Help me out.

Thanks,
Uma

[Mel66]

Not having seen your site, here are some thought starters:

* Are your shipping rates comparable to the competition?
* Are your shipping times comparable?
* Do you offer express shipping?
* Do you have a good on-site search function?
* Do you have a 1-800 / toll-free customer service phone number displayed prominently on every page?
* Do you offer a wide variety of sizes?
* Do you have good, quality product photos and descriptions?
* Is it clear you're selling to the US market?
* Is your site copy clear and free of grammatical and spelling errors? (No offense intended, but I can tell you're not a native speaker of English, and broken English on a web site is a big red flag to US customers.)
* Is your site secure, with a clear and easy-to-find privacy policy?
* Do you offer multiple payment options?

There may be other reasons too - these are just what came to mind immediately.

Melissa

[AussieWebmaster]

Your keywords could be an issue... and just because your competitors are there does not mean the keywords are right - many people are not tracking through to sales and thus look at their PPC buy as an overall total.

Your ads may be good for getting people to click - too good - you may not be getting the customers just other people.

Does your landing page allow an automatic purchase? How many clicks does it take to complete the sale? How much information are you collecting beyond the minimum for a credit card sale?

[clickagent75]

Seems like you might be able to benefit from my pain

Here's a link to a similar string:

http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/...ad.php?t=15071

[Gooner151078]

It is important not just to focus on the key terms that drive traffic to your site but to look at the ones that are going to drive conversions. This means using exact and phrase match options rather than broad match on brand terms.

You could focus your bids on specific products with titles and descriptions that contain a call to action, product information and price. The more qualified a customer is before they click more likely they are to actually buy from you as long as you are accurate and honest in your title.

You will have fewer visitors for these terms but a higher number of conversions. It is important not to simply concentrate on CTR and the number of visitors your site gets but also to look at the sales and the CTC (Click to conversion).

We all know that the Google algorithm considers CTR as an important metric when determining your cpc and position. Therefore, if you are not confident of getting the clicks, you would only do this on specific keyphrases where there is less competetion, else your cpc may rise.

I am not saying do not bid on the more generic terms but it is important to remember that a user will go on a search journey rather than one click and buy. If you consider that your PPC campaign has to tick boxes in as many of the buyer behaviour processes as possible. I am sure we are all aware of the old AIDA marketing principle, but I think this is evident in todays search marketing environment.

AWARENESS - The user sees your advert on a search for a product they are interested in. EG Sports Shoes.
INTEREST - Attracted by the title and description the user clicks to see
EG Buy Great Sports shoes here.
DESIRE - This is the tricky bit. Your site has to generate a need for the user to buy.
ACTION - The user type the specific product into the engine.

What I am saying is, by bidding on the more specific terms with good titles and descriptions, you can intercept users at the action point that may have decided to buy elsewhere.

Hope this helps and apologies for the rant,

Gooner

[AussieWebmaster]

Good points Gooner....

[dangdatkat]

Sounds like it's a problem with your landing pages and not driving traffic to your site.

Checkout the book "Don't Make Me Think" for basics in navigation and layout.

You may want to check out landingpagecashmachine.com for links to Mark Widawer's book about generating conversions.

If you don't have A/B testing setup, maybe you'll want to take a stab at using Googles Web Site Optimizer to test what works. I don't think it will be a lot of help if you don't get ANY conversions but you maybe able to use the Optimizer or Google Analytic to setup a funnel system to see where users are jumping off.

I've had a lot of people asking me about driving traffic to their site but if your content is garbage, it's just a waste of time and money.

JP

[clickagent75]

Good points all around.

Its really getting out of the realm of PPC ad management and getting into Conversion Analysis.

Some points for conversion analysis:

- minimize exit points from the page
- give them enough information to make an informed decision
- ensure your copy is selling. ABC - "Always Be Closing"
- if possible, land them on pages that is the final destination before checking out or registering...don't make them navigate. or at the very least land them on the page related to the subject matter.

Any other points on conversion anyone would like to share is welcome....

[dangdatkat]

How about a link to your landing page?

[clickagent75]

Sure, I'm open to some objective feedback.

Here's a couple of my landing pages. Most of the landing pages are for general keywords and not necessarily a "model number" or specific item b/c there's hardly any traffic for those specific terms...

For a couple of these pages, initially the exit rate was much higher. After some re-work, now I've got it down to under 6% of traffic.

Here it goes (be gentle):

http://64.40.96.195/products_diaperbags.php

http://64.40.96.195/skip_hop_diaper_bags.php

[I've excluded the domain to ensure spiders don't crawl and index this post for it].

[AussieWebmaster]

what is this link doing?
http://www.pinkyandcompany.com/prodd...aby_001&cat=68

I don't get the pic or info....

[clickagent75]

Which browser and platform are you using?

Safari/Mac users (less than 5% of visitors) report that the site's css layout doesn't render correctly.

[AussieWebmaster]

Originally Posted by clickagent75

Which browser and platform are you using?

Safari/Mac users (less than 5% of visitors) report that the site's css layout doesn't render correctly.

Was using FireFox but it seems to be loading now... did you tweak it?

[dangdatkat]

I like your site and I don't see an obvious reason why it is not converting. Are you sure the tracking code is correct?

[AWEugene]

Can I ask you why your prices are in CAD? You said that you're catering to the US market and displaying prices in CAD (even with USD prices in parenthesis below) may cause US customers to leave your website. Why would I want to buy something from a merchant located in another country. What if there's a problem, where am I going to look for you?

Keep in mind that the audience you're catering to may not be comfortable with giving their credit card info to a foreign merchant.

[AussieWebmaster]

Yeah I would stick with USD

[farees]

Hi Uma,
Do you have any stats on your shopping cart abandonment rate, from the links you posted here, looks like optimizing the checkout process can definitely help.

1. For example on this page http://64.40.96.195/products_diaperbags.phpwhy not add the Add to Cart button right under the item picture, that's one less click out of 8 clicks I have to do to complete a purchase.

2. You can improve the copy on the landing page

The Most Popular Designer Diaper Bags for Baby

might be true, but why should your potential customers trust you when you say that, can you back it up with a magazine referral or a testimonial?

3. Free shipping is an added incentive, why not display it more prominently- say right under the item name here http://64.40.96.195/proddetail.php?prod=skip_hop_012

4. Unless I'm wrong your ideal target audience are women with considerably deep pockets, why not add more product pictures- remember they like to touch things before they make a decision, so adding more product pictures preferably larger in size which they can toggle, will give them the closest similar experience. If your commerce suite cannot do this, change the vendor or if it's a home grown system - modify it. It's just code and it can be modified.

5. Get rid of the <<Previous | Next >> under the Add to Cart button - it does NOT work anyways (Previous doesn't really take me to the previously displayed item- meaning I have to search for the item I was looking initially all over again). It's just a distraction if nothing else. The objective of the page is to convince the end user to add the item to cart and check out, anything else on the page should be considered a potential roadblock.

6. Add a Add to Cart button in the description of the item as well. If I decide the purchase the product, I don't want to scroll all the way up. Don't forget we are all lazy and want things to be much easier.

7. Do some analysis on your existing customers, such as how often do they visit your website to make a purchase, maybe you can get more business out of them. A decent web analytics package talking to your CRM (or the excel sheet you are maintaining ) will do the trick.

There are more things ...but I gotta get back to work

- Farees

[Mel66]

Originally Posted by farees

1. For example on this page http://64.40.96.195/products_diaperbags.phpwhy not add the Add to Cart button right under the item picture, that's one less click out of 8 clicks I have to do to complete a purchase.

Along the same lines, on this page, move the pictures up above the fold. As the cliche goes, "a picture is worth a thousand words." I didn't even realize there were pictures of the items on this page - I had to re-read Farees's comment and then scroll down. Your average visitor won't do that. The item pictures are great and very appealing, but they're buried on the page right now. I'd put the pictures right below the headline, then the descriptive copy, then the "shop by brand" etc. at the very bottom.

HTH

Melissa

[andrewgoodman]

First, have you told us how many clicks you've sent from your core keywords (diaper bags)?

A lot of good suggestions above, but the Canadian flag, dollars stuff has to be considered total tunnel vision here and I believe must be the main culprit. It's not like there's any shortage of retailers out there... so...

And this:
Note: This item is shipped direct from the manufacturer's Toronto warehouse via UPS Ground. It will be shipped separately from other items in your order.

I really don't know how I'd respond if I were south of the border but it's just adding more confusion that U.S. shoppers aren't used to.

Apologies if I've made the wrong assumption and you're targeting locally.

Actually, that might be worth trying - bid higher, and run a separate campaign for BC traffic to see if locals buy...