Why such low conversion rates? (AdWords)

[acorn]

I am working on a site with very bad conversion rates. $30 to $80+ per conversion for some keywords. It's still making a profit but not on every sale. It's too expensive. $10 to $12 per conversion would be at the expensive side of reasonable.

The site takes 19.3 seconds to load at 56K, and 6 seconds at broadband speeds. My first thought was that people click on the AdWords and then get frustrated by the slow loading times and don't make the purchase (reservation). The person in charge of the web site doesn't believe that people still use 56K dialup connections anymore so I haven't been able to convince them to redo the site.

Another thing is that the AdWords were set to have the "budget optimizer" enabled and I read in the Google FAQs that budget optimizer is not ideal for people looking to track conversions. Does anyone know more about this? It's a $1000/month budget and the budget is always gone before the end of the day, meaning that the ads stop showing. I removed the budget optimizer and lowered the bids a little. The point is to make as many conversions as possible (property reservations).

Thanks

[DarkMatter]

Originally Posted by acorn

The site takes 19.3 seconds to load at 56K, and 6 seconds at broadband speeds. My first thought was that people click on the AdWords and then get frustrated by the slow loading times and don't make the purchase (reservation). The person in charge of the web site doesn't believe that people still use 56K dialup connections anymore so I haven't been able to convince them to redo the site.

The webmaster is dead wrong: I monitor a network of nationally focused sites and we get about 10% of our traffic from dial up connections. I can't think of any scenario where it is advantageous to exclude these people from your site. Sometimes a web designer will fall in love with their "vision" of the website and forget that the primary objective of the site is to make a profit...maybe you should "remind" him.

If you're using adwords, you should setup Google analytics as soon as possible. That will give you lots of good info on keyword conversions and tell you what kind of internet connection people are using to access your site.

[cline]

Re the Adwords Budget Optimizer, just think about what it does: It gives you the maximum number of clicks at the minimum price, but does so in a marketplace where the other players are bidding up click prices on the most valuable terms. Basically what you are getting is the junk the other advertisers don't want. Maybe you can turn it into something, but there is a reason the keywords you don't show on are so expensive.

[acorn]

Originally Posted by DarkMatter

If you're using adwords, you should setup Google analytics as soon as possible. That will give you lots of good info on keyword conversions and tell you what kind of internet connection people are using to access your site.

I tried to set it up but Google's site said that it is not being offered anymore. I signed up to be notified when they are accepting new sites for Google analyics, but never heard back from them.

[acorn]

Originally Posted by cline

Re the Adwords Budget Optimizer, just think about what it does: It gives you the maximum number of clicks at the minimum price, but does so in a marketplace where the other players are bidding up click prices on the most valuable terms. Basically what you are getting is the junk the other advertisers don't want. Maybe you can turn it into something, but there is a reason the keywords you don't show on are so expensive.

It's bringing a lot of clicks, but not a good conversion rate. With the budget optimizer, the ad shows very often (until the $33/day budget runs out in the evening).

If people are clicking through to the web site but not making a reservation, I suspect it is a problem with the web site. The ads are targeted well.

I lowered the main keyword from something like $1.40 (budget optimizer) to 70 cents and it's still at #1 in the AdWords. I thought that you only pay one penny more than the next-highest bidder, but if you increase the maximum CPC, the projected clicks go up.

[GuyFromChicago]

Originally Posted by acorn

If people are clicking through to the web site but not making a reservation, I suspect it is a problem with the web site. The ads are targeted well.

That is most likely the case. The majority of the time the conversion % is a result of the page, not a result of the ad.

Of course if the ad was misleading (i.e. says a product is free when it's not) that could impact conversions as well.

[ApogeeWebLLC]

Don't use the budget optimizer. Do set a daily budget, but optimize your ad so you never reach it. Make extensive use of negative keywords, bid separately on exact match vs broad match. If you're still maxing out your budget, either target a specific geographic location or narrow down your keyword list. Choose a more specific niche. For example someone running ads on "gifts" might try "anniversary gifts" and if that's too broad then try "1st year anniversary gifts" etc. You always want your ad displayed for your important keywords. Sounds like either your bids are too high or your keywords are too broad.

[webkidsan]

Does your ad takes the user to the site? not a good idea ... get a landing page and have your ads go to the landing page, it will work magic for your conversions ... there are lot of tutorials out there to make effective landing page ....

[Duncan Pollock]

If you're getting a healthy number of clicks but a less than acceptable rate of conversions, the problem, beyond all question, has to lie with either your landing page or your website as a whole.
One way or another, you must be selling something, even it's no more than a signup to a newsletter, but the key to success in selling anything is the well recognized AIDA formula.
If I assume you don't know what this is, then I'm reasonably certain that your landing page and/or website doesn't take advantage of it, either.
So allow me, if you will, to give you a quick rundown, as follows.
A is for Attention, which means you get someone to realize that they have a problem.
I is for Interest, which means you have to make them aware that you have the solution.
D is for Desire, which means a detailed account of what you offer, with the emphasis on all its benefits. In effect, the idea is to turn what they need into something they want.
A is for Action, which means a sign off line/paragraph that, in so many words, tells them to give you the conversion you're looking for -- i.e. Buy It!
Ever marketing guru knows this formula frontways, sideways, and backwards. Find the successful AdWord people and you'll come to see that they use the formula to the last letter.
Moreover, there's no reason whatsoever why you can't turn things around by simply learning and applying it.
Go for it, I say!

Duncan

PS. Once you do come/start to understand the AIDA idea, you should be able to realize that I've worked my way through its four steps in this post!!

[Black_Knight]

Originally Posted by acorn

I am working on a site with very bad conversion rates. $30 to $80+ per conversion for some keywords.

Which is telling you that not all keywords are equal. People use different keywords at different stages of the shopping process. For low-cost aquisitions, you really need to be bidding on the keywords that occur very late in the shopping process, the ones that indicate they already have commited to making a purchase online, and are now just looking for the best place to make that transaction.

Of course, that assumes that you are the best place to make that transaction. Check how competitive your offer really is, because you can bet your customers will do so.

[g7submit]

Have you tried to monitor the exact place where people drop their shopping carts or exit your site? If you can't get Google analytics, there are other very good analytics around, in fact, you can even take a peep at your raw logs to see what analytics your campaign is running.

Besides, visit your competition sites and navigate around to see what they're offering in comparison to yours. Don't stop at Google, check competition in the Yahoo's Overture and some other SEs; see their ad campaigns and compare those with yours.

Test, test, test, as one of my mentors used to say, to find the exact thing that really works best for you and your customers.