Using Adwords PPC BUT have bad results

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panamerican

Joined: Sep 20, 2006

# Posts: 2

Posted: 09/20/2006 10:26 pm

First let me extend a warm hello to everyone here.

I will now cut to the chase...
I have recently completed my website and in order to get immediate traffic have started my PPC campaign. After just one week of being "live", here are the results:

www.emiliooneto.com

148,375 Ad Impressions (using both search and content placement)
799 Clicks
0 Sales (I'm crying)

According to consensus, based on just a 2% conversion ratio, I should have sold approx 16 items by now so I cannot figure out why i have not made any sale.

This is what i have done to isolate the problem...
1) lowered my prices to determine if it was a pricing issue. Since noone bought, pricing isnt an issue.
2) tweaked my keywords and have gotten higher click through ratios as a result
3) Added landing pages for specific products that are searched for.

I am now beginning to think i need to add much more variety and show much better styles.
I would be extremely greatful if the gurus here can add anysight into my dismal results. How can i improve things?

thanks to everyone
Cheers

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flyingrose

Moderator

Joined: Oct 30, 2003

# Posts: 3361

Website

Posted: 09/21/2006 12:01 pm

Welcome to the forums. I'll be happy to point you in a direction that will help you make money online.

I have much information that will assist you and probably a lot of things you (and many other Web site owners who are in the same boat with you) will not really want to hear.

First some basics. Impressions, CTR and conversions are best explained separately.

High impressions with less than a 1-2% CTR usually result from keywords that are too general or ads that do not include the keywords.

Clicks are primarily a function of having ads that fit the keywords searched and offer something of interest to those searchers.

It is your ad's "job" to get people to your site. It is your site's "job" to turn visitors into buyers. Many sites have issues that are very bad for sales. Some are very common.

You have a combination of multiple issues. One thing to understand is that conversion rate is the most important factor in determining whether your business makes money. It is extremely difficult to generate profits with a poor conversion rate.

A major issue that kills conversions is not providing the total cost early in the shopping process. Buyers want to know how much it costs to ship an item so they can make a decision. Until they make that decision, they do NOT want to provide any personal information.

Sites that expect customers to create an account and put everything into the shopping cart and then get shipping cost and options during the checkout process are going to have very disappointing sales.

Any ecommerce platform, design or hosting solution, or site designer that is still doing this doesn't know enough about Web site usability and what actually works. They may know how to get a site up on the Internet but not how to build a profitable site.

This is an extremely common issue. I see it constantly. I cannot stress enough that except in very lucky niches with high demand and little competition (which is a situation that is usually short-lived online) that the conversions on such a site will not be high enough to support PPC advertising.

It appears that many do not believe this no matter how many books, research studies, and experienced marketers write about it. And this is just the starting point to achieving true online success.

I have created and managed so many PPC campaigns for so many different types of businesses that I can usually tell in advance that most will struggle to generate more sales than they spend in advertising if they're not willing to improve their sites.

For those who aren't believers yet, please do yourselves a favor and read these other threads:

Survey: Would you buy from a site if...

Why Most Online Businesses Fail

Designing Web Sites for Higher Sales

Only 1-2% of all the advertisers I have ever assisted are running viable online businesses. Those few are generating ever more profitable sales. If there is sufficient market demand, PPC can be used to continually double and triple sales.

Here is a truth about life:

The top 1-2% in every industry - in every activity - whether we're talking about sports, acting, business, sales - you name it - are VERY, VERY successful.

The top 10% are very comfortable.

The other 90% are struggling and will keep struggling until they decide to be part of at least the top 10% and preferably the top 1-2%.

The difference between success and failure is not measured in miles. It is measured in fractions of an inch. The difference between a winning racehorse and the worst racehorses is measured in fractions of a second.

Only those willing to continually improve will taste success. Although I help everyone I can, I actively seek out those who will commit to truly succeed.

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flyingrose

Moderator

Joined: Oct 30, 2003

# Posts: 3361

Website

Posted: 09/21/2006 12:24 pm

Member amoebamarketing found an excellent article on Improving Shopping Cart Abandonment. It makes many excellent points on improving the online buying process.

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