SEM ideas please

[samanthacoleman]

Hi

I'm in charge of selling our products online. To do this I use PPC [Google, MSN, Yahoo] and SEO to cover all the organic side of things. Everything is working fine - the orders are coming in on a regular basis, etc.

The problem:
We are a reseller for a major cell phone provider. We get given some money for each unit we sell. Our price is heavily dictated by their price and the amount of money they give us to sell each unit.

To cut a long story short the provider is forcing us to increase our prices because they are reducing the amount of money we receive each time we sell an item. At present our prices are about the same as our competitors but we have the added advantage of offering a 12 month contract rather than an 18 month contract. This preferable contract will also have to come to an end.

I suggested they look at affiliates but the setup fees are too high [that was only £500!]. They are unwilling to spend money unless they can see that it works – hence all of our budget goes on PPC. I do as much SEO as I can, but once the cost of a unit goes up any increase in SEO activity unlikely to offset the decline in customers.

Has anyone got any suggestions as to what we might be able to do?

[dgkwong]

What kind of analytics do you currently use for the site? How much of your business comes from PPC vs. Organic? The answer to this question may help you to understand if you have room to grow organically. Do you have a range of results for your SERPs?

[seminhouse]

While focusing getting more traffic, also address conversion optimization for once a user lands on your site. Sounds like your hands are tied and you must work with what you have, so you'll want to make the most of what traffic you're getting.

Make sure the site evokes trust, answers every possible question, has stellar customer service, great pictures, possibly videos, etc. You need to figure out what would make a customer pay more for your product versus going to the competition.

Reasons I've paid more: better specs and functionality details (because I didn't have to go look elsewhere), better customer service, more professional site (compared to cheap looking affiliate sites that look like it could be gone next week), etc.

Also, focus on tail terms, they typically convert better.

[samanthacoleman]

This sounds like good advice - and on the lines of what I was thinking. Taking on this advice I was thinking of the following....

At present we are getting quite a few conversions from one particular broad match keyword. The problem is it's expensive and we are not showing up in the organic listings for this word. The obvious solution would therefore be to get a few choice links and see if we can start appearing on the first/second page in the Google SERPS.

Originally Posted by seminhouse

While focusing getting more traffic, also address conversion optimization for once a user lands on your site. Sounds like your hands are tied and you must work with what you have, so you'll want to make the most of what traffic you're getting.

Make sure the site evokes trust, answers every possible question, has stellar customer service, great pictures, possibly videos, etc. You need to figure out what would make a customer pay more for your product versus going to the competition.

Reasons I've paid more: better specs and functionality details (because I didn't have to go look elsewhere), better customer service, more professional site (compared to cheap looking affiliate sites that look like it could be gone next week), etc.

Also, focus on tail terms, they typically convert better.