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The ROI Revolution Blog

Articles Tagged with 'Improving Conversion'

Why You Shouldn't Use the Top Landing Pages Report in Google Analytics

March 18, 2010

If you're trying to get landing pages that really grab your visitors, there's one Google Analytics report you absolutely cannot live without. And guess what?

It's not Top Landing Pages.

Before I unveil the report that ROIers use to do quick landing page analysis, let's find out why we're not big fans of the built-in Top Landing Pages report:

• It only shows entrances, bounces, and bounce rate
• It doesn't tell us conversion data for our landing pages
• It can't show the revenue generated by our landing pages

Thankfully, there is a way to get what we need for robust landing page analysis out of GA. Hit the jump to find out how.

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Are Long Page Load Times Driving Your Visitors Away?

November 25, 2009

You're always checking on your landing pages, right? You read the blogs, run experiments, and generally try to make your site as user-friendly as possible.

But chances are, if you're reading the ROI Revolution blog, you're on a high speed internet connection. If your webpages are loading in nanoseconds with your T1, how are they faring for those visitors who aren't as lucky as you? You know, the ones on crappy cable modems and DSL and (gasp!) the dreaded dial-up?

Does it matter? Well, it depends. If you're a gaming website or Internet marketing blog, most of your audience is probably on broadband. But if you're running a site for a retirement community in Florida, then my grandma is hitting your Flash-encrusted site in her AOL browser and she's waiting. And waiting. And waiting. She's a patient old gal, my Meemaw, but she's not going to wait all day. She's going to point her browser and her pension elsewhere.

Aside from your visitors, your site's load time is also important to Google. Not only does page load time affect your AdWords Quality Score, but according to Matt Cutts, it's going to be playing a bigger role in the organic search ranking.

So read on to learn how to optimize your landing pages' load times, and maybe make a few bucks off my Meemaw.

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New Webinar for Ecommerce Sites ONLY: Optimize Your Product Listings on Shopping Engines

September 5, 2009

Wouldn't you like to know how to optimize your product listings on shopping engines? With today's economy every little bit helps. If you're not already listed on comparison shopping engines such as Amazon and Shopping.com, we'll cover the basics and for those of you who are listed, wouldn't you like to get more out of it?

On Thursday, September 10th, 2009 at 4:00 pm Eastern (1:00 pm Pacific) Timothy Seward, CEO of ROI Revolution, Inc. will host with guest presenters John Kleven, CEO of Versafeed.com (pictured left with his Senior Feed Engineer, Andy Hund) a 45 minute presentation detailing how to get your products optimized and listed on comparison shopping engines and marketplaces.

This webinar is ideal for online retailers looking to expand sales. Every day, thousands of consumers visit these popular shopping portals to search for products. Don't miss out on this source of income.

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Power Using the New AdWords Interface, Part 2: Integrated Placement Performance Reports

June 8, 2009

A few weeks ago, I posted an article outlining the benefits of the new integrated search query reporting feature built into the updated AdWords user interface.

I covered in depth how the Search Query Report (SQR) could be used to capitalize on new keyword opportunities, previously hidden in the depths of the report center.

I also covered how the new interface's integrated SQR makes finding money-hemorrhaging search queries you're matching on easier than ever to identify and exclude from your account.

Today, I'll be covering the other advertising power tool provided to advertisers in the new interface, the Integrated Placement Performance Report (PPR).

The SQR is only half of the equation for successful micromanagement of your AdWords account since it is only used on the search network.

While most advertisers start their AdWords campaigns on the search network, many continue to neglect the content network. The AdWords content network can be the biggest and most profitable source of traffic for many accounts. As such, using the Placement Performance Report has given us the ability to see which content network websites (placements) our ads are showing on, as well as how they are performing.

While we've had the ability to run PPRs in the AdWords report center for some time now, like the Search Query Report, Google has recognized its usefulness and integrated it into the interface for easier use.

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Power Using the New AdWords Interface, Part 1: Integrated Search Query Reports

May 13, 2009

As many of you are probably aware, whether through your own experiences with AdWords or from my colleague Katherine Anderson's article last month, AdWords has recently launched a shiny new user interface (UI), and with it several new toys for advertisers to play with.

All of the added features in the new UI are aimed at making the day-to-day work involved with managing an AdWords account faster, simpler, and better integrated. And while the list of changes made from the old AdWords interface is pretty comprehensive, there are 2 new features that warrant special mention: Integrated Search Query Reports and its content network cousin, Integrated Placement Performance Reports.

These two tools work together as a one-two punch that allows you to micro manage your ads' presence on both the AdWords search and content networks. Essentially, they provide you with on the fly insight into how AdWords is matching your keywords to search queries and website content in the interface itself, without forcing you to the reports tab, leaving your work on a separate page. With these updates, Google has taken 2 of the most powerful reports available in the reports center, and integrated them directly into the interface's control bar.

Over the course of this two part series, I'll show you how to use both of these reports in the new UI to increase traffic, decrease wasteful spend, and get you more bang for your AdWords buck.

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Google's new 'First Page Bid' - strategies to stay on page one without bidding higher

September 13, 2008

A couple of weeks ago Google announced a number of changes to the user interface. One of the changes that is slowly rolling out across all AdWords accounts is the change from 'Minimum Bid' to 'First Page Bid.'

This particular change certainly has its benefits, primarily greater transparency on what you must bid to acquire the maximum number of impressions and clicks available based on your daily budget. Ideally you want to drive as much traffic to your website as possible while remaining profitable. There is no question that if your advertising is not showing on the first page of search results, you are passing up the majority of available traffic for your product or service.

With this increased transparency, advertisers will now be able to determine very easily what they must bid to display their ads on page one and acquire those much desired impressions and clicks. Inevitably, this will produce more competition to display your ad in one of the top 8 positions simply because it is easier for advertisers to manage their AdWords accounts.

Now, of course, one way to continue serving your ads on page one would be to increase your keyword and ad group default bid amounts if you see an increase in competition. However, there are many other ways to remain on page one without increasing your bid amounts and also to maximize customer value.

• Ad Creative: The more relevant you can draft your ad headlines, body copy, and display URLs to that of the user's search query, the greater your quality score will increase, which will reward you by driving down your average CPC. By constantly conducting A/B split testing with your ad creative, you become more and more relevant, allowing you to display on page one for less than your competitors who may not be testing ads and are holding onto one of the top 8 spots by constantly increasing their bid amounts
• Landing Pages: Again, just like your ad creative, the more relevant your landing page is to what the user has searched for, the greater your Quality Score will increase and therefore lower your average CPC. Relevancy reigns supreme in paid search and this does not just span your AdWords account. From your keyword lists to your ad creative and ultimately where you send your traffic all plays an integral part in the overall performance of your PPC campaigns. Constantly test new landing page formats and content to match as closely as possible what the initial search query was on Google.com in order to maximize relevancy and to keep your ads displaying in those most coveted spots.
• Up-Sells and Back-End Offers: For practically all products and services there is potential to drive traffic for not only the immediate desired action, but also for subsequent signups and purchases, sometimes at the exact moment your customer is making their first conversion. Once you have your customer in your sales funnel and they are checking out, offer them another product or service that relates to this initial purchase.
  

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Google Analytics Keyword Sleuth vs Search Query Performance Report

March 24, 2008

If you've been following this blog, you've likely heard several references to the Google Analytics Keyword Sleuth that Michael Harrison wrote back in April of 2007. This is a tool that anyone in paid search should be using. Basically, it captures and displays an ongoing list of new keywords and phrases straight from your customer's mind. We're often advised to "imagine what your customers are typing before they see your ads, then bid on those keywords." With the Keyword Sleuth in place, you don't have to imagine anything. They've already told you.

For a long time, Google, Yahoo!, MSN and others would not reveal exact search queries, and still don't for the most part. They'll tell you the bid keyword, but not the exact search query. In May 2007, Google stepped up and created the Search Query Performance Report (SQPR), which now shows this data within the Adwords reporting tab. There was a wave of excitement when Google released the SQPR, and it's become a popular report for Adwords users.

Both the Keyword Sleuth and the SQPR were developed to do essentially the same thing, but in reality, they can be worlds apart for the PPC manager. In explaining the Keyword Sleuth to other PPC professionals, I'm often asked how it's different than the Adwords SQPR. There is a lot that is different. A side-by-side comparison between these two tools is long overdue.

Speed
First, I'll run Google's SQPR. When that's done, I'll retrieve the same data using Michael's Exact Keyword Sleuth. In summary, I'm gathering the same data from the same Adwords campaign and the same time frame (one month), using two different methods. My teammate Matt will time it from the moment I touch the keyboard to the moment the report is viewable on screen.

The results...

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Website Optimizer Integration in the New Analytics Interface

June 5, 2007

You may have read my previous article on the subject of combining Google Website Optimizer with Google Analytics. With the new Google Analytics interface, of course, there are some changes I'd like to address.

First things first, the integration remains unchanged. You can refer back to my previous post for these instructions.

Finding the information, however, is now a little different. Since there is no more Dynamic Content report (*sniff*), finding the data takes a couple steps. But don't fret, it's not too bad.

Here's how:

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Weekend "Summer Camp" for an Online Mom or Dad Entrepreneur?

May 25, 2007

Ahhhh, the glory days of late spring are here in the Carolinas: sunny skies with longer days, bright green leaves filling the trees and warm breezes. You can feel the excitement in the air as summer is almost upon us.

In the next few weeks, kids will finish school for the summer and parents will send many of their offspring to summer camps...some will be recreational: swimming, hiking, crafting...while others will focus on skill development: soccer, basketball, cheerleading, etc.

Mom and Dad may need a little help this summer, too, if they are one of several thousand Google AdWords customers who successfully use PPC advertising and spend at least $1,000/month with Google.

If you've been using Google AdWords for any length of time, you know the fundamental Google AdWords and Internet Marketing strategies:

* Uncovering your market's hidden desires through comprehensive keyword research

* Getting Google Conversion Tracker and Google Analytics correctly configured to leverage the ultimate in free website tracking and ROI analysis

* Constantly split testing and improving Ad copy and landing page conversion

* Focusing your ad groups tightly around keywords and targeted landing pages

* Building comprehensive autoresponder sequences to increase conversion and visitor value

And every year a whole bunch of people make huge amounts of money just by doing these basic things consistently.

And these things aren't that hard...

And yet I'm guessing that you aren't doing them all. Maybe not even most... Maybe not even half...

For almost everyone, there's a GIANT GAP between knowing what to do and actually doing it. And that gap is the biggest obstacle to success in the world.

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Exact Keyword Tracking with Google Analytics, Revisited

April 23, 2007

UPDATE: We have posted a new version of the script mentioned in this article at Exact Keyword Tracking for ga.js.

Last November, Jim Newsome of Omega Digital Media and the
GA Experts blog, posted a really clever trick on how to view detailed keyword information within Google Analytics. If you've ever searched through your AdWords Bid Terms and wondered what the actual Search Terms were, then you know why such a filter was in great demand. For PPC marketers, it's a great opportunity to weed out ineffectual broad match keyword phrases, and hone in on the most popular user search queries.

Here's an example: you've got a shoe store and you're running Broad Match AdWords ads for "shoes". When a visitor searches Google for "blue suede shoes", your ad shows up. This is all well and good, but what if you don't sell blue suede shoes?

Read on to find out how to track exactly what your visitors are searching for before they see your PPC ad and click on over to your site...

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