Conversion Rates

[bigfork]

Hi

Does anyone have any views on what is acceptable ecommerce conversion rates. I have been using adwords to drive traffic to my site and currently achieve a 1-2% conversion rate on click throughs. Is this too low? Or do I just need to spend more on adwords. Our prices are very competitive and we have carefully designed the pages. Appreciate any comments or advice.

Mark:|

 

[kulture]

Conversion rates depend on what you are selling and the type of visitors you are marketing. On some campaigns a conversion rate of less than 50% would be a failure whilst on others 0.5% can be a success. Without any information this is not possible to accurately answer.

I assume that you ensure that the adwords click through to properly designed landing pages that match the keywords. That the call to action is clear and easy. That the subsequent checkout is simple and does not cause any concern. That the price is clear and nothing is subsequently added in the process?
At the end of the day, why spend more on adwords? getting more visitors less well targeted will simply decease your conversion rate. If you look at your costs in running adwords and the profit generated from the campaigns, then you will know if the adwords are worth it or not. If with your current conversion rate you are making a profit then just make sure your adwords are displayed all the time and not disappearing due to a daily spending limit.

Then look carefully at your path through the site and see if you can stop the leaks.

 

[jamie1183]

It may well be worth letting someone do a review of your campaign to check its well configured etc.

Was it setup by an experience adwords person/company?

 

[AdWords_Adviser]

I have been using adwords to drive traffic to my site and currently achieve a 1-2% conversion rate on click throughs. Is this too low? Or do I just need to spend more on adwords.

Yes, conversion rates are important, but they should not be the main statistic you use to judge the success or failure of your AdWords advertising.

For instance, lets say you are selling a £5.00 ebook. I would rather have a keyword that got clicked on 10 times a day at a CPC of £0.15 and converted at 1% than a keyword that was clicked on 100 times a day at a CPC of £0.50 and converted at 10%.

Why?

Well in the first instance I am making a small profit, but in the second, I am only breaking even.

The point is that the success of an AdWords campaign is not in the number of conversions, but the cost of those conversions compared to your costs in supplying your product.

Hope this helps!

Regards

Adrian Key
Editor of AdWords Adviser, making AdWords profitable for small business

 

[Golf Tee Warehouse]

Adrian, I think you have the maths wrong in your example, although agree with the general idea you were making.

I agree that you would break even with 100 clicks costing £50 (£0.50 per click) and 10% conversion giving you 10 sales totalling £50.

In the first example with just a 1% conversion you would make one sale every 100 clicks (1 every 10 days), but that 1 sale (£5.00) would cost 100 x £0.15 = £15.

 

[Scott-Copywriter]

Have a look at your sales copy in terms of the product descriptions for each item. It can play a very important role in the sales conversion rate.

 

[fisicx]

Adrian, I think you have the maths wrong in your example, although agree with the general idea you were making.

Agree with you GTW, the maths is all wrong - that one sale would lose you £10.

As Scott suggest the sales copy can make all the difference.

Remember as well that a PPC landing page needs to be structured differently to a 'normal' page. A PPC visitor has different needs and expectations to someone just browsing.

 

[ChampagneGold]

Yes, that is way to low - even for comp keywords. If the KW is competitive go for variations on it .

As the above says you need to get the right mix of good conversion at a price level which provides ROI. That is what it all boils down to ROI !!!. Without knowing your KW or profits per item etc it is hard to give examples. Again without the KW and competition its is hard to give a acceptable level of conversation.

Some people I know have adword conv of 20% but they are in niche ind. Others are happy at 3-4%.

Forget about click-though-rate . You to find out what your actual conversion rate is and then you can find out what your ROI is - then you can see if it worth it etc.