Always Be Optimizing

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There are many different reasons why you may want to optimize your account and there are many different places you can get started.
Optimizing your account for increased click through rate (CTR) is a good idea.
A keyword’s Quality Score
https://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=10215
is determined by its: clickthrough rate (CTR),
relevance to its ad group,
historical performance,
and other relevancy factors.
The higher the Quality Score of your keyword, the less you pay for each click (or impression, for certain placement-targeted campaign) on your ad.
A good click-through rate can vary depending on the industry you are in, but you can certainly work on increasing your CTR regardless of the percentage you are receiving today.
When optimizing for CTR, you need to be sure that your keyword list is comprised of highly relevant terms.  You can increase your CTR through more targeted messaging.  You should develop a well-thought out ad copy plan and stick to it for the amount of time needed to develop a clear ‘winner’.  Having highly relevant keywords with highly relevant ads will help to increase your CTR.  Last, you should also apply negatives from your search query report.  Negatives will help to ensure that your keywords – especially, broad-matched keywords.

There are many different reasons why you may want to optimize your account and there are many different places you can get started.

Optimizing your account for increased click through rate (CTR) is a good idea.

A keyword’s Quality Score

  • is determined largely by its: click through rate (CTR),
  • relevance to its ad group,
  • historical performance,
  • and other relevancy factors.

The higher the Quality Score of your keyword, the less you pay for each click (or impression, for certain placement-targeted campaign) on your ad.

A good click-through rate can vary depending on the industry you are in, but you can certainly work on increasing your CTR regardless of the percentage you are receiving today.

When optimizing for CTR, you need to be sure that your keyword list is comprised of highly relevant terms. You can increase your CTR through more targeted messaging.   In addition, your team should develop a well-thought out ad copy plan and stick to it for the amount of time needed to develop a clear ‘winner’.

Having highly relevant keywords with highly relevant ads will also help to increase your CTR. Last, you should apply negatives from your search query report.  Negatives will help to ensure that your keywords – especially, broad-matched keywords aren’t triggered for queries that are contrary to the products you offer.

Google Announces Product Search with Local Inventory

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In stock nearby?

After years of talk, Google announced yesterday a new capability of it’s mobile search that allows users to see if a product is in stock directly in the search results.  This is a major step ahead for Google to continue to be the leading source that drives business to retailers websites.

Now, when a mobile user searches for a product in Google, a tiny blue dot appears in some of the search results. This blue dot links the user to the sellers page which will show if the item is In Stock or has Limited Availability near them.  Major participating retailers include Best Buy, Sears, Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, and West Elm.  Local merchants, who depend on Google to send business their way, will soon also participate in the program.

Google has offered a form for retailers who would like to be considered to participate. As always, retailers are encouraged to make sure that their Local Business Center data and their Product Search data is up to date.

Why is All That Stuff Still in Your Cart?

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We have visited this topic before, but it is certainly worth repeating.  A great way to pick up additional shoppers is to understand why shoppers are abandoning their carts before completing a purchase.  Of course, in order to understand why people abandon their carts – you must first contact them.  Depending on what your cart abandonment rate is – even picking up a small percentage of these abandoned carts could do wonders for your bottom line.

The 7th Annual Merchant Survey released by the E-tailing group recently addressed this ever-growing concern of cart abandonment among E-tailers.  Commentary on the E-tailing Groups survey stated that:

  • In order “to save the sale, communicate with customers once abandonment has occurred.”
  • Only 14% of websites studied sent an email to follow up with those shoppers who abandoned their carts.
  • The numbers dwindled even further to only 7% for those retailers that called the cart abandoner.

In order for your business to follow up with shoppers that abandon their shopping cart you will need to have a shopping cart that actually saves the information needed for following up.  This information is normally collected when consumers add items to their shopping carts and create a username/password.

I think it’s fair to say that abandoned shopping carts are a goldmine when it comes to lead generation efforts – this is a person that went to your site and made a majority of the steps necessary to make a purchase.  Wouldn’t it be a great idea to ensure your shopping cart can keep track of shopping cart abandonment data so your business can get a sales/customer service person involved with following-up to find out why the sale wasn’t completed?

A great way to pick up additional shoppers is to understand why shoppers are abandoning their carts before completing a purchase.  Of course, in order to understand why people abandon their carts – you must first contact them.  Depending on what your cart abandonment rate is – even picking up a small percentage of these abandoned carts could do wonders for your bottom line.
The 7th Annual Merchant Survey released by the E-tailing group recently addressed this ever-growing concern of cart abandonment among E-tailers.  Commentary on the E-tailing Groups survey stated that in order “to save the sale, communicate with customers once abandonment has occurred.”  Sounds simple enough, but unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at this statistic), only 14% of websites studied sent an email to follow up with those shoppers who abandoned their carts.  The numbers dwindled even further to only 7% for those retailers that called the cart abandoner.  In order for your business to follow up with shoppers that abandon their shopping cart you will need to have a shopping cart that actually saves the information needed for following up.  This information is normally collected when consumers add items to their shopping carts and create a username/password.
Here at Leverage Marketing, we consider updating your website with the most up to date options that customers’ desire pretty high. (It’s also worth noting that customers rate the existence of perpetual shopping carts highly in terms of importance of shopping online for gifts.)
I think it’s fair to say that abandoned shopping carts are a goldmine when it comes to lead generation efforts – this is a person that went to your site and made a majority of the steps necessary to make a purchase.  Wouldn’t it be a great idea to ensure your shopping cart can keep track of shopping cart abandonment data so your business can get a sales/customer service person involved with following-up to find out why the sale wasn’t completed?

Improve Your Site’s Checkout Process

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It can be an expensive and time consuming process to lead prospective customers to your website, so I am in agreement with Google that making your website work well should be one of your main objectives to help people buy your products.

Ads that customers click on should have products or features displayed clearly on the landing page.  It should not take the customer 3 clicks to figure out that indeed you are offering free shipping for the next 24 hours for all online orders.

  • Link ads to the right page,
  • Mirror your ad title, and
  • Ensure selling points are visible.

Make sure that if a customer clicks into your website that they can clearly navigate through your site.  Make it easy for your customer to find what they are looking for and also to go back should they have the need.

  • Make product/service categories visible,
  • Use easy-to-understand terms, and
  • Highlight where to go next.

This is a good use of Google Analytics, to ensure that you can see where customers are falling off of the buying process.

A customer should only have to go to their wallet to get their credit card number to make a purchase on your website.  If your site requires a user enter a password or other information that may not be readily available – you may lose the opportunity to make the sell.

  • Don’t ask for unnecessary details,
  • Show a status bar throughout the check out process.
  • Expedite the process, and
  • Avoid distractions such as in shopping cart advertising.

Google also lists some common questions that customers want answered before they place an order on your site.  Make sure you have answered them.

  1. Can I return this item within x amount of days?
  2. Can I review my order before I confirm the purchase?
  3. Can I easily contact support or customer service if something goes wrong?
  4. If I hit the next button, will I be billed?
  5. If I hit the next button, will I be able to make a revision still?
  6. What is the total price with shipping to my address?
  7. How many days before I get my item delivered?
  8. Is this site secure, can I trust you with my credit card details?
  9. What payment types other than credit card do you accept?
  10. VERY important for travel/hotel sites – If I’m only making a booking, how much is due now and how much is due later?

Google should definitely be applauded for making the great data available above for all to view, but just like with any new venture it is still a good idea to have marketing guru’s on your side to ensure that the tips and tactics Google shares above and at make your website work – are applicable to your businesses unique situation.