Here at PPC Rescue, we constantly bang on about how AdWords is only part of the secret to gaining a healthy conversion rate, a simple gear in the vast engine of online marketing solutions – and we can prove it.

Google Analytics is a highly versatile tool that enables you to observe and measure data about your website traffic at a very granular level. One of the most fascinating elements of this is the observation of paths taken by visitors leading into a conversion. If you thought that it was simply a case of users clicking on an advert and then making a purchase or clicking away never to return, you couldn’t be more wrong.

If you explore Top Conversion Paths within the Multi-Channel Funnels section of Analytics Conversions tab, you’ll find an array of paths taken by users who have converted on your site. As you’ll find out, the majority of consumers visit your site at least twice before buying.  “Check out this guy…”

Often, your SEO, social media and remarketing campaigns can have a huge influence on whether they come back to buy. If a user finds your site using AdWords, they will most often do a search on your brand, and re-visit to purchase through organic search, referral, or a direct link. As such, it is important to utilise all of the weapons within your marketing arsenal to gain the conversion.

Whilst days of one-click conversions aren’t strictly dead, we’re dealing with a far more savvy and knowledge-hungry consumer who’s armed with reviews and ratings galore. They know what they want and they won’t pay more than they have to for the privilege. Factoring an ROI based on users researching products is a prerequisite for the modern AdWords advertiser and we strongly recommend that you make allowances for the omnipresent research shoppers’ visits.

We’d like to extend warm greetings to all of our friends and drop you a message to inform you that you can find PPC Rescue on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+. We’ll be rolling out informative articles and news snippets as they become available and we’ve some tantalising news in the pipeline! All will be revealed soon.

Winter has been a busy time here at PPC Rescue and we’re evolving the more advanced elements of our programs to embrace the myriad changes in the way AdWords works. In light of this, our final training sessions will now focus on the aforementioned changes and how to capitalise on new opportunities, a scheme that we’d also like offer to previous customers at a special rate. Contact your mentor for more details!

Stay tuned for more news coming soon.

Here’s to a productive and prosperous 2012 for all.

Best wishes,

The PPC Rescue Team

AdWords PPC Response Rates

One of the biggest problems facing advertisers is that of PPC Response rates. How do you know if your AdWords click-through (CTR) is performing or underperforming? After all, you’re sitting there as probably the only person in the company who even understands AdWords. It’s a lonely place, not as lonely as starting business in this climate, but as a loyal follower, we’re here to shed some light and help you.

Typically Google see a PPC response in a click-through rate (CTR) of 1.5% as reasonable performance. However, in our experience of working with over 600 clients last year it’s too low. Any PPC response rate below 1.5% is a sure sign of problems in your account, even with a position near the bottom of the page. It’s a classic indicator that you are attracting the poor traffic and require a well thought-out filtering strategy.

At the other end of the spectrum, I hear clients telling me that they’ve been told that they should be achieving a 10% CTR overall. It’s unlikely that many can achieve such figures for the overall account. If you’ve been achieving 1% to even 2% response rates then it is possible to achieve an overall 7% but it’s going require guidance from an experienced AdWords Professional with considerable marketing experience. As a tip, I’d avoid technical background types as they lack marketing creativity. They tend to get bogged down in technical details and can’t see the bigger picture.

Advert position does play a critical role in the CTR. The higher your advert is up the page, the better the CTR, as a rule of thumb. CTR has to be considered in relation to the market you’re operating in. Horse bridles tend to attract clicks from keen teenage riders and dreamers at an incredible rate of 40% to 60%. It’s similar for very niche markets such as ball bearings. No one goes looking for 618052Z unless they have a need to buy such a deep groove bearing, and as a result the CTRs are all past 10% and the conversion rates are over 20%.

In summary, a PPC response rate below 1.5% CTR does sound alarm bells. However, establishing what should be your response rate is considerably more difficult – warning signs would a mixed bag of response rates at campaign level. Of course, your own brand should always have a very high CTR. There are many out there who would have you believe their view of ppc response rates are correct and will try to convince you anything below 10% is poor performance. Stay away from these ppc response charlatans and snake oil types, they give the industry a poor name.

I’d take advice on CTR from a trusted source. I appreciate that’s easier said than done. AdWords agencies will paint the situation black and if engaged to help rarely deliver the results expected. Your trusted SEO companies very often lack the knowledge and experience, but won’t admit it to you. More SEO is often the solution, but if you need sales now, even today, SEO is not the rescue you seek.

Of course I am going to recommend AdWords mentoring. We are the founders of AdWords Mentoring in the UK and the market leader. I believe the combination of an AdWords Mentor and your business experience will deliver great results. Nothing beats one-on-one mentoring. I feel like the Robert Duvall character from Apocalypse Now when he utters the line “I love the smell of napalm in the morning….smelled like victory’. I get that excited about AdWords and helping small businesses beat the system.

But should you seek to travel further down the narrow road, my advice is always to find a company who are an AdWords Certified Partner (Check for the AdWords logo and click it to confirm the details) company with several AdWords professionals so you’ll have a depth experience to call on. Look for genuine testimonials and referral sites, and be alert. Look for an agency or company that’s been in business for a while – there’s no point in paying a Network Engineer to retain AdWords at your expense!