A lot of times marketers can get wrapped around the details and forget to see the big picture. If you have a low CTR, does that mean your pay per click campaigns are failing? If you’re not converting visitors, does that mean it’s not working? Let’s take a look at some indicators of pay per click failure and see if we can nail down just what it means for a campaign to be “working”.
- First, are you getting click-throughs? CTR is important, but if you have a high number of click-throughs and below average CTR then you might want to rethink your ad content.
- Is your traffic targeted traffic? I’m talking about landing page traffic here. Are those clicks coming from your PPC ad targeted traffic? If not then you need to rewrite your ad and that’s even (especially) if you have a high CTR.
- Is your traffic converting? A low conversion rate likely means that your landing page isn’t doing its job. Try testing a few variations of your landing page to see if it is truly conversion ready.
- What is your landing page bounce rate? A high bounce rate could be an indicator of a couple of issues. It may mean that your landing page needs to be rewritten or redesigned, or it could mean that visitors are being mislead by your ad content. Perform some A/B tests on your ads then test your landing pages. Work toward getting the optimal combination. Sometimes a high bounce rate means that you’re targeting the wrong keywords for your audience.
- High opt-in rate with low conversion rate. If your landing page is a lead generator for your newsletter or e-zine and you are getting a high number of opt-ins then your PPC campaign is obviously working. If your conversion rate is low from your newsletter’s subscription base then the problem is with your sales pitches in the newsletter or e-zine.
- What are the trends? It’s hard to judge success on mere numbers alone. Know the trends. Be familiar with the trends in your industry as well as your company’s own historic trends. If you are a new advertiser then you’ll have to develop some history. Otherwise, know industry trends going in would help.
Running a pay per click campaign is a numbers game. Define success before you begin and measure everything. Then keep testing.
