the conversion rate optimization conspiracy

WEBINAR PRESENTED BY VERTICAL MEASURES & WORDSTREAM

P R E S E N T E R : A R M E N VA R TA N YA N

About Me

• I love search marketing in all shapes, forms & sizes (yes, this includes Bing)

• Digital marketing + search marketing is the way of the future

• Passionate in helping businesses and individuals realize their potential

I find most “experts” in the field sound disconnected and out of touch when presenting - usually talking about abstract concepts when most advertisers need sound advice & direction.

Not Me!

Why Are People Pessimistic About Conversion Rate Optimization? Marketers are taking advantage of the average advertiser and forcing click bait down everyone’s throat, since the field is very dynamic and average business owners can’t really keep up.

We’ve all heard about the crazy “hack” that will make you the next millionaire. However, we find that these are just crafty articles and fail when applied in a real world environment or to our real world situations.

WOW!

Let’s just call it for what it is

But Is Conversion Optimization An Actual Thing? YES, AND YOU ARE ALREADY DOING IT WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT

How many of you would click “I’m Feeling Lucky?” In fact, only 1% of all Google searches went through the “I’m feeling lucky” button, why?

Because you are a conversion optimizing machine, and you optimize your results before making a decision.

I know You Were Curious…..

Clearly not the best result we could hope for in finding that hot date

CRO is applicable to everyday life, just as it is applied to search marketing

We Can Measure, Track & Quantify Conversions By;

• Creating Conversion Funnels• Track On-Page Click Activity• Understand Our Target Market & Search Habits• Remarketing & Advanced Search Techniques• Be Relevant • Cover The Basics!

So What Are The Basic Conversions You Can Track…

What is important to your business?• Phone Calls• Email Addresses• Downloads• Form Fills/ Page Submissions• Shopping Cart Check-out/ Abandonment• Online Registrations• Sign-ups

First Take Away:

Conversions Are More Qualitative Than They Are Quantitative.

Meaning that quality is more important than quantity!

How Do We Track Conversions? TO UNDERSTAND CRO WE NEED TO ENSURE WE ARE TRACKING PROPERLY AND TRACKING THE CORRECT THING

Cover The Basics:GOOGLE ADWORDS GOOGLE ANALYTICSYou can cover conversions via AdWords Conversion tracking code that goes directly on landing page.

You can cover goals via Analytics which is installed on every page of your website.

Google AdWords (Pure PPC Approach)You can cover conversions via AdWords Conversion tracking code that goes directly on post conversion page. Advantages:

• Easy to setup• Don’t need a lot of technical knowledge• Intertwined with AdWords already

Disadvantages:

• Limited tools available• Only tracks conversion page• Fewer options – no ecommerce

Google Analytics (SEO + PPC Approach)You can cover goals via Analytics which is installed on every page of your website.

Advantages:

• Highly customizable • Powerful tools• Track everything

Disadvantages:

• Complex• More implementation issues• Managed outside AdWords

Case Review:Mysterious Case Of Benjamin ‘Where Are My Conversions??’

Client called in because conversions had dropped over the past 3 months from 325 leads to 75, however all other metrics had remained the same!

I reviewed all possible numbers to see if I can locate the drop in conversions to a correlation in another category like drop in impressions, clicks or spend, however everything was constant. After everything was exhausted I could do the only thing left, the thing I should have done from the start.

CHECK THE CONVERSION FUNNEL

Impressions Clicks

Spend

Conversions!

Click On Ad Complete Form Thank You Page (Conversion Page)

Basic Conversion Path

Client had many changes on his website around the time of the drop in conversions, with new landing pages setup for the ad’s. When I went on the landing pages and completed the required conversion funnel and clicked on the “submit” button I was left on the landing page without a redirect to a thank you page.

I also did not locate an event tracking code for Google Analytics to track clicks on the button. The client had forgot to setup his new landing pages to redirect to a thank you page and capture the conversion metrics!

I had to ask: “Did you feel such a noticeable difference in your actual, real world business?”

“- No”

Now That We Established The Ground Rules….

What can I do to get more qualitative conversions coming in?

1.) Get Relevant Traffic

2.) Create Action

3.) Get Value

Relevant Traffic

Impressions: How many times your offer was viewed.

Clicks: How many times an impression got a click.

PPC: Pay-Per-Click, typically associated with Google AdWords or Bing advertising.

SEO: Search Engine Optimization, a practice to get your website to rank high on search results.

Create Action

Conversions: Getting your traffic to make meaning action on your page such as filling out a lead form, buying a product, signing up for a newsletter or visiting a # of pages.

Relevancy: Lining up your ‘offer’ with what a user is searching for.

Targeting: Reaching your relevant traffic when/where they are most likely to convert.

Get Value

CPA: Cost Per Acquisition (Conversion). What you paid to get a meaningful action.

ROI: Return on investment. What you made after expenses have been accounted for.

2nd Take Away: We Either Get More Conversions or We Simply Get Better Conversions!

Increase Conversions:

5 conversions 10 conversions

Optimize Our CPA:

CPA = $5ROI/Conversion = $10

CPA = $10ROI/Conversion = $5

Profit = $25Profit = $50

5 conversions Profit = $50

Ideally we would like both, but practically you need to start with. We can optimize our CPA by eliminating wasteful spending and getting more relevant searches coming in. We increase conversions with better landing pages & offers.

Searcher see’s ad/offer and

decides to click through

Potential lead observes offer,

evaluates information, compares price and value based on ad

Converts

So Let’s Recap That Process One More Time…

Leaves site

Once we have ensured that our traffic is very relevant and our clicks are authentic and ideal for our offer, we have to analyze our landing pages much deeper to find issues in our conversion funnels.

Landing Page EvaluationLETS ANALYZE WHY ONE PAGE CAN BE BETTER THAN ANOTHER

What Are Some Of The Most Common Landing Page Optimization Failures?

Headlines/Titles/Ad Copy On Page Text/Content

Trust Issues

Your Offer

Calls To Action

Navigation/Design/UX

• Misleading• Poorly Written• Not Relevant to Search

• Doesn’t Match Ad• Poorly Written• Poor Quality

• No Reviews• No Viable Contact Info• No Security/SSL

• Can’t Find Next Step• No Actionable Item• Wrong Pitch

• Not Competitive• Isn’t Easy To Understand• Not Relevant

• Hard To Navigate• Technical Issues• Outdated/Old

Getting The Micro-Yes

10 Form Fill Boxes!!!


A Note About Conversion FunnelsMost conversion rate optimization will occur through the required funnels to reach your desired action.

Lead

Becomes

Client

Convince Lead Your Offer Is For Them

Attract As Many People As Possible Who Are Looking For Your Offer

Regardless of how you look at the sales

funnel, the closer you get to the most

important metric, the fewer will remain on

the path

Lead

Becomes

Client



Most Of Our Conversion Issues Are Half Way ThroughWe can only lose clients who are already on our page, and converted clients leave our conversion funnel and/or process. Thisleaves the middle the place where most of our engagement occurs with potential clients. Clients can run into a number of different reasons why they didn’t choose you over your competition or anything at all.

What stopped them from taking action?

100 visitors

25 leads

2 conversions

Didn’t like the offer

Went with competitor

Ran into technical difficulty

Price/value issues/evaluating

This is typically where we lose most of our leads

Can I Figure Out Where I’m Losing Those Leads?USING GOOGLE ANALYTICS, WE CAN BUILD FUNNELING SYSTEMS AND VIEW ON-PAGE CLICK BEHAVIOR TO HELP PATCH UP OUR LEAKY BUCKET

Google Analytics Goal Path’sEVALUATE AT WHAT POINT PEOPLE LEAVE YOUR CONVERSION FUNNEL

1.) Go to “Admin”

2.) Select Goals

3.) Create A New Goal

Make sure to select funnel option “on”

Add your funnel steps!

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Ok, So Let’s Play A Game Called Find The Leaky Bucket

This Is Your Enemy

Google Analytics Goal Funnel VisualizationHow the funnel looks once it has been setup properly and is taking in traffic. Very easy now to identify where we are losing our potential conversions.

5 Clicks

1 Potential Lead

0 Conversions

When analyzing this type of funnel you want to be able to identify where you are losing your conversions. This will tell you what area needs optimizing. FIND THE LEAKY BUCKET.

Google Analytics On-Page Click ReportBREAK DOWN HOW/WHERE PEOPLE CLICK ON YOUR PAGES

In-Page Analytics

Most Popular Product

No traffic at all!

Quick Page Metrics

These metrics help us understand where users are clicking/not

clicking. This is used to understand what kind of behavior

and calls to action our page is promoting or people find useful.

Goal Funneling + On Page Reports = Critical DataGOAL FUNNELING SHOWS US WHAT PAGES ARE CAUSING US TO LOSE LEADS/CONVERSIONS

Landing Page

Contact Us Page

Product Page

Checkout Page

Blog

ON PAGE METRICS ALLOWS US TO SEE ON PAGE BEHAVIOR AND POTENTIAL PROBLEMS

Ad Text Didn’t Reflect Page Content

Form Too Long/No Contact Info

Didn’t Find What They Were Looking For/No Info

Technical Issues/Hard To Use

Not Clear/Mixed Signals

Example Problem Pages Example Reasons

Can We Do Anything To Capture These Lost Leads? EXTENDED MARKETING STRATEGIES LIKE REMARKETING CAN BECOME A BIG FACTOR IN LEADING CONVERSIONS

Enter: Remarketing

Lead

Becomes

Client



100 visitors

25 leads

2 conversions

Didn’t like the offer

Went with competitor

Ran into technical difficulty

Price/value issues/evaluating

This is typically where we lose most of our leads

Remarketing is a process that allows us to track users who have visited our website and cater ad’s directly to them in the future

Remarketing Funnel

How It Works:

User visits websiteCode tracks pages

visited, adds cookie

To enable remarketing, you need to add a special remarketing tracking code to your website via Analytics or AdWords

Your ad appears on website that user visits via display

network (typically)

Remarketing becomes a powerful tool to attract back those clients who visited your website but didn’t convert. Sometimes people just need another reminder. This marketing strategy is best used on the display network – a separate Google network that shows display (visual) ad’s through the internet, as well as on the Search Network (google.com) which allows for more targeted ad’s.

Lead

Becomes

Client


Attract As Many People As Possible Who Are Looking For

Your Offer

Remarketing Funnel

Search NetworkGoogle.com Display Network

Millions of WebsitesVisual Ad’s

YoutubeYoutube.com

Lost Leads

Send Lost Lead Back To Website

Remarketing Cycle

In Other Words….

This Is You This Is Your Client

But it works!

Additional Conversion Optimization Resources

I have many clients who get more conversions simply by advertising with Bing.

Google Shopping campaigns are great for people who sell products.

YouTube ad’s are best paired with a remarketing campaign to keep your brand in view.

One of Larry Kim’s favorite AdWords innovations, click to call campaigns are perfect for industries that rely mostly on

calls and have really bad landing pages. (cut out the leaky bucket all together!)

Final Takeaway:

1.) Get Relevant Traffic

2.) Optimize Current Conversions

3.) Evaluate Your Landing Pages (and don’t be afraid to start from scratch)

4.) Take advantage of advanced tracking & marketing techniques

Welcome To Conversion Land

Questions?

@AEV_insights@WordStream

@VerticalMeasure

the conversion rate optimization conspiracy

Marketing