Getting the Click is Not Enough Even if it is a Low Cost Click

At the point of getting a click only one thing is certain namely your advertising is a cost. The charge made for a click is a function of many variables and will never exceed the maximum bid you chose to make when you set up the campaign. This click cost will vary even for the same keyword throughout the day.

In setting up your campaign it’s important to also set a maximum daily spend… in other words Google will not allow your ad to run after the daily budget has been met (allowing for minor over and under-runs).

Using the above example I clicked the ad displayed and was presented with the page shown below.

The above page was reached by clicking the number 2 ad as described above. This page is known as the "Landing Page"… ie the page on which the searcher arrived after completing the search and clicking a sponsored link.

This page has the vitally important job of trying to convert the searcher into buying a shark trip.

It’s not the intention to critique this page in any depth but much could be done to improve the chances of a sales conversion. What’s important to realise is that the landing page is where a cost can be transformed into a profit. It’s the place where all your advertising will succeed or fail.

The over-riding objective of any Google Adwords campaign is to maximise conversions at the lowest possible cost to ensure maximum total profits.

It’s true to say that the vast majority of Adwords sponsored links do not lead to a page that will convert well. Google certainly has an interest in seeing pages convert to a sale and is a reason for incorporating landing page structure into its Quality Score algorithm.

Summary…

To succeed with any Adwords campaign it is critical to ensure a continuity between searcher query through the ad display right through to a highly targeted landing page. Failure to ensure this continuity will not only reduce the number of conversions it will dramatically increase the cost per conversion and will probably make the difference between a losing Adwords campaign and a highly profitable one.

To be continued