Converting PPC Visitors Into Customers
Last month we started off by stating, "If you are reading this
article while having a glass of wine (a beer or even a cup of
coffee) you can be sure that the store where you purchased the
wine knows how many bottles are left on their shelves and how
many bottles you have purchased, via your membership or club
card.
Do you know with the same precision, where each of your Pay Per
Click (PPC) keywords ended up and which resulted in revenue for
your company?" In this months article we will continue the
discussion on why to optimize your web pages for each of your
PPC keywords, which will result in increased revenue for your
site.
Fine Wine and Your Keywords
Imagine a store that sells fine wines. The store manager decides
to offer half-off on her favorite premium Chardonnay. She
expects to sell many bottles of this wine because it is such a
good value for a quality wine. Her wine store is extremely large
and literally offers hundreds and hundreds of different types of
wines.
The premium wines are all found in a special section near the
back of the store. The store manager assumes that new and
existing customers will find their way back to Chardonnay
location. Unknown to her, after the ad runs many customers come
in look about the store and cannot find this sale item and
rather than ask they simply leave or pick-up something else.
The store manager might not even know that many people have had
a hard time finding the sale item because when she looks at her
inventory report it shows that there have been quite a few
additional Chardonnay sales as some people have found the wine.
Then one day, as the manager is walking near the checkout lanes.
She overhears a customer who has bought a bottle of red wine,
saying that, "I came to buy a case of that Chardonnay but I
couldn't find it so I picked this Merlot for tonight." The store
manager walks over to this customer and replies, "It is where it
has always been, and then points to the location of the
Chardonnay." The customer thanks the manager (thinks to herself,
"How am I suppose to know where it is located?") but responds,
"Oh thank you. I don't have time right now, maybe be next time I
am here..."
The store manager recognizes a lost sale.
Make It Easy For Customers
Immediately the store manager begins to correct this error and
decides to "tune-up" the store by moving the featured Chardonnay
to the front of the store and adds a display sign. Now as the
customers walk in they can easily find the special sale. The
manager notes that while the sales of the Chardonnay were good
when it was in its normal location; that the sales actually
tripled when the Chardonnay was moved to the front of the store.
Now what does this story have to do with your web site? The same
way the store manager moved her Chardonnay to a convenient,
visible location, is what you should be doing with your PPC
keywords.
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Is Your Special Item at The Front Of Your Store?
Between search engine rankings and PPC entry pages, every web
page on your site is a front door. Visitors can enter at any
page as their first page so you must have every page tuned and
optimized. When your customers arrive at your web site you need
to make sure that they find EXACTLY what they're searching for
on the page they first see AND they do not have to click to
answer their basic questions. You are paying a premium for
keywords and getting customers to come inside your store. Yet,
if you make it difficult for them to find what they are looking
for, they will leave without what they want, and your
advertising money has been wasted.
One of the most common mistakes we see is mortgage companies
make all their PPC keywords go to their loan application page.
If someone is searching for "Florida VA loan" or for "Idaho
mortgage" they are seeking information on that product before
they go your application form. Make sure each PPC keyword links
to a specific page on your site relevant to the customer
selected keyword.
Six Clicks of Separation
You can use your web site statistic logs to see if you are
really meeting your customer's expectations. In example, you can
determine that a visitor typed in the keyword "Portland home
loans" and arrived at the main index page (click one), then
clicked on the map of the US to arrive at the Oregon rate
information web page (click two). Then the visitor visited the
page "Portland home loans" (click three). Subsequently the
visitor next went back to the Oregon page (click four), then to
the homepage (click five) and then clicked on the application
form (click six) because there was no link to the application
page on any page except the main page.
By following a customer's path through your site, you can gain
an understanding of what your visitor is seeking and if your web
site is easily providing that information.
One Degree of Separation
Six clicks on a site is a recipe for poor sales. All these
clicks are more than most customers will endure at a mortgage
company site. As you are aware, it takes just one click to visit
your site and one click to leave. Your site should offer exactly
what your visitor expected when they click on the PPC keyword.
If you look at your log reports and focus on the "Exit Page"
report, you may be surprised to see which pages actually is the
last page a visitor views before they depart. By reviewing these
exit pages, you can rework the content and information and
attempt to convert a departing visitor into a customer.
Many sophisticated mortgage companies are performing an in-depth
path analysis of visitor flow to better understand the expense,
and revenues, associated with their PPC campaigns. This allows
companies to actually spend $5-10 per click and make MORE money
per visitor because they have provided the exact content sought
by the visitor.
We will discuss this topic in next months article, "Converting
Pay Per Click Into Revenue Per Click."
Web site: www.mortgagepromote.com
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