EDU SERIES – PPC: Part 5 of 6 – Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO)

Conversion rate optimisation (CRO) is the process of optimising your ads, pages, and website design. The goal is for the highest possible percentage of visitors to your site to convert. CRO is quickly gaining in popularity because it’s seen as a way to increase profits without raising your spend.

Conversion Rates

Conversion rates can vary widely depending on your industry and business model, but regardless, everybody wants a better one! Here are some things to look out for that you can use to further optimise your PPC advertising.

Naturally, even if your conversion rate is average, a higher rate is better for business. Why settle for average?

Conversion rate optimisation requires time and resources and, if you’re doing it right, a lot of testing. It’s worth your while to familiarise yourself with website conversion optimisation, so you can maximise the chances of lead conversion.

Conversion Rate Tricks

There are a number of things you can do to increase your conversion rate, among them:

  • Write compelling, clickable PPC ads that are highly relevant to the keyword/search query and your intended audience. All the better if you’re targeting high-intent mid-tail and long-tail keywords that indicate a searcher who is late in the buying cycle, as those consumers are more likely to convert.
  • Maintain a high degree of relevance between your ads and corresponding landing pages. Your landing page should deliver on the promise of your ad (the call to action) and make it easy for the searcher to complete that action, be it signing up for a newsletter, downloading a white paper or making a purchase.
  • Test your landing page design. Conduct A/B testing to find the right layout, copy, and colours that push the highest percentage of site visitors to fill out your form, call in, or otherwise convert to a valuable lead or customer.

Optimising PPC Conversions: Start with the Right Keywords

When you start thinking about conversion rate optimisation, it’s tempting to fiddle around with buttons and forms and other low-in-the-funnel design elements that might make or break the sale. But remember that part of optimising conversions is getting the right visitors to your site in the first place:

  • High web traffic is useless if none of those people convert.
  • With search marketing, increasing your qualified traffic is a matter of bidding on and optimising for the right keywords.
  • Better keyword traffic data means you can make better decisions about your website and ad copy and better target the right customers.

Landing Pages and Conversion Rate Optimisation

The quality of your individual landing pages can have a dramatic effect on conversion rates. Imagine a prospective client stumbles across your page as the result of a specific search query. If the content of that page isn’t what they were looking for, they will return to their search. Poorly constructed landing pages cause your Quality Score to drop. This will raise your cost per click, cost per action, and reduce your ad rank so that it’s harder to win spots in Google’s ad auction process.

Landing Page Tricks

So, what makes a good landing page?  Common best practices for page design include few key elements:

  • Compelling headline – Create a striking headline that is relevant to your keyword and compels prospective clients to remain on your page.
  • Concise, targeted copy – The content of your page should communicate your offering. Speaking directly to the keywords associated with that ad group.
  • Eye-catching, clickable call-to-action (CTA) – Make sure your CTA button stands out visually, appears clickable and uses short, gain-focused text.
  • User-friendly lead capture form – A good form includes all the fields needed to fulfill your offer, but not so many that prospective clients are visually overwhelmed. Think carefully about what information is truly necessary to capture as you build your form.
  • Attractive overall design – Landing pages should be clean and uncluttered, which conveys both trustworthiness and professionalism to prospective clients.  Design should also be consistent with your brand in order to prevent a disjointed browsing experience for visitors.

These best practices will keep your landing pages relevant and of a high-quality, which will lead to a valuable boost in both Conversion Rate Optimisation and Quality Score. This is crucial in order to gain the maximum possible benefits from PPC advertising.

Find out more

We’ve been in the Sales and Marketing Strategy game for longer than we care to remember, but we pride ourselves on the combined exposure our team has had to different B2B markets globally, and the strategic services we offer your business as a result.

If you are looking for Salesforce / Pardot Support with an existing Org or want to know if Salesforce or Pardot is right for you, get in touch with us for a free consultation or simply a chat. We work alongside Start-ups and Enterprises alike, we’re certain we will find you a path to growth, whatever your plans.

We are open Monday-Friday 9-6pm and have open channels for communication either on our LinkedIn, Twitter or you can simply give us a call on 020 8106 8500.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.