Searchers, Keywords, Google Adwords, & Landing Pages

We’ve discussed quite a bit about clicks from Google Adwords and how critical the number of clicks and click through rates are to any kind of success on the internet.

In particular the articles about affiliate difficulties, Clickbank and "Every Click’s a Killer" are all written around this critical success factor… CLICKS.

When a searcher and especially one in buying mood (see PDF white paper Adwords Start to Finish) types the keyword "LG 43 inch Plasma TV" into Google you can be pretty sure that the searcher knows exactly what he/she wants.

If you want to capture the attention of that searcher using Google Adwords and assuming you’ve bid on the relevant keywords then your ad should definitely let the searcher know that you can offer an "LG 43 inch Plasma TV". Ideally the headline should say "Panasonic 43 inch Plasma TV". If it does and if your ad is well written and caters to the searcher’s needs the chances are extremely high that you ad will be clicked before any other ad.

This congruence between the keyword (searcher need) and specifically targeted written ads makes the difference between getting a click and not getting a click.

Getting the click (to the landing page) is however only the start. What’s far more important is to get the conversion. In this case the merchant wants to sell an "LG 43 inch Plasma TV" by converting the click.

How Not to Convert the Click

If the above click is sent to the landing page which is the home page almost certainly the searcher will leave without buying. If the searcher is sent to page where there are LCD, Plasma, Wide Screen, HD Ready etc TVs stretching across more than one page (you’ve all seen the pages I mean) it’s probable the potential customer will leave.

What started off well in terms of congruence fell flat at the landing page stage.

How to Convert the Click

In all forms of PPC and especially Google Adwords it is vital to ensure congruence between keyword, displayed ad, and landing page content (and especially the landing page headline).

Why Many Adwords Campaigns Fail

Getting the click is relatively easy in most tangible product markets by paying more, writing great ads and so on. However if the landing page is the same for all products then the merchant is creating a real barrier to sales success.

Critical Success Factors… is this guy crazy?

In theory every specific product advertised on Google Adwords should have its own specific landing page. In practice this should be the ultimate objective.

I’m sure most of you are thinking … this guy’s crazy, how can it be possible to do this?

Well the fact of life is that not is it only possible it is in fact easy to achieve when you know how and you have the software to do it.

The starting point is to have a spreadsheet showing the fields for each important product variable eg Name, Bar Code, Model Number, Price, Description, Image URL etc and then to create a single line in the spreadsheet for each product.

In many accounting software package or ecommerce shopping cart programs it is possible to download this information, which has already been created, into a CSV file or text file which can then be converted to a basic spreadsheet file.

Once the information is in the spreadsheet and by using the special software I demonstrate at the workshop it takes less than 1 hour to do the following…

Meet these objectives in your Google Adwords campaigns and your conversions will skyrocket … assuming of course price and service are where they should be.

Making changes (eg price changes) is a simple as reloading the modified spreadsheet and automatically uploading the new database. No changes to the website or keywords or ads are necessary. You don’t even need to pause the campaign.

Sound like magic?… No but it’s internet marketing at its best.

Do consider keeping yourself informed about the advanced cutting edge Google Adwords workshop coming up in February 2008.