My SEO reported and am I paying to much?

[DoolallyTap]

I pay my SEO manager £100 per month, am I paying to much for my manager? My word ad is top of page 1 Google and my shop ad often knocks Amazon and others out. My website USP is 'Probably the UK's largest selection, Probably the UK's lowest price' (I actually know from much research my price is significantly lower than others)
This is his latest report for first half February. What I really don't understand is why my website visits are high but conversions are not.

Google Ads conversion are up a huge +123% which is driven by traffic uplift of +50% and a conversion rate uplift of +37% to 5.6% in total.
Traffic is up because of a reduction in the cost per click of -32% to just 11p per click on average and also the click through rate went up by +34% vs January.
So as a result the cost per sale is down -55% month on month to a crazy low £1.75.

These sales are SO CHEAP. I’ve never known a Google Ads account to perform like this

 

[Paul Carmen]

You're talking about two completely different things here, SEO and Google Ads are two largely unrelated things.

In terms of why your conversions are low and visits are high, I suspect because the campaigns are poorly optimised, with irrelevant clicks and therefore visits that won't convert. However, 5.6% conversion isn't terrible for ecommerce and no one can really answer without looking at the account in detail.

In terms of 'are you paying him too much' (I'm assuming he manages your ads, not SEO), unless its a really small simple account, then I doubt he does much at all, as £100 a month is very low and would only pay for a handful of hours work per month (unless they're in India or another very poor low hourly rate country, but that's a different story).

Most campaigns in Google Ads these days are setup with out of the box settings and are using Google's AI to optimise the campaigns.

 

[fisicx]

What is he actually doing for that £100?

As @Paul Carmen said, it’s not SEO. All they seem to be doing is managing your Google ads. If he isn’t constantly adjusting the campaign and the landing pages then they probably aren’t doing anything at all

And if the site isn’t converting the site needs fixing. Or you need to change the keywords and the adverts. All three need to align. Note also that adverts often need a different landing page to the one someone browsing the site sees.

 

[estwig]

The numbers your guy is quoting don’t look right to me, I can’t easily put my finger on why.

PPC is expensive, you ain’t gonna get much for £100, if you’re making money, why rock the boat!

 

[DoolallyTap]

OK so I used the wrong words! The guy looks after the Google ads. What does poorly optimised really mean.
If the ads are My word ad is top of page 1 Google and my shop ad often knocks Amazon and others out.
what else can we do?
However, 5.6% conversion isn't terrible, so what is the norm?

 

[Mr D]

OK so I used the wrong words! The guy looks after the Google ads. What does poorly optimised really mean.
If the ads are My word ad is top of page 1 Google and my shop ad often knocks Amazon and others out.
what else can we do?
However, 5.6% conversion isn't terrible, so what is the norm?

Probably not much time spent on the account.
You may be better learning how to do it and doing it yourself - a few hours a month isn't much optimisation, more time spent on it could work out better in terms of results for the spend.

 

[fisicx]

If the ads are performing well then it’s site that needs fixing.

Traffic coming from adverts needs different landing pages than those for normal browsing. If your chap hasn’t been tweaking these pages then they have been stealing your money.

 

[UKSBD]

If your ads are generating relevant traffic, your products are well displayed and well priced, they are products that people are happy to buy online, then it's probably a bad shopping cart issue or a lack of trust issue.

 

[fisicx]

@DoolallyTap - upgrade your membership and you can get a review of your website. I’d put money on there being some simple fixes you could do that would make a big difference.

 

[Paul Carmen]

OK so I used the wrong words! The guy looks after the Google ads. What does poorly optimised really mean.
If the ads are My word ad is top of page 1 Google and my shop ad often knocks Amazon and others out.
what else can we do?
However, 5.6% conversion isn't terrible, so what is the norm?

"Poorly optimised" - This means a large number of potential things (the flag here is £100 a month), but may mean nothing without analysing the Google Ads account. Things to look out for are:

• wasted ad spend; e.g. irrelevant keywords triggering search/shopping ads, money being spent on keywords/shopping ads that don't convert
• Poorly maintained campaigns; e.g. little account activity/changes, few negative keywords, low quality score for search ads etc

"If the ads are My word ad is top of page 1 Google and my shop ad often knocks Amazon and others out" - This means absolutely nothing, every Google search triggers a new live auction with hundreds or thousands of keyword variations, unless you have monitoring & reporting in place you're likely seeing a tiny snapshot. Equally if the ads/site don't convert well in many instances, being No 1 is a waste of money.

"However, 5.6% conversion isn't terrible, so what is the norm?" - There is no 'norm', some sites will convert at 2%, some at 50%. It depends on what you're selling, the market, price, shipping, the quality of the site pages & user journey etc.

"what else can we do?" - On a forum, with the information you've supplied, nothing. This is complex and should be fully data/insights driven. You either need to skill up on Google Ads, website usability and testing, then use this analysis against your marketing plan to asses and drive performance. None of this should be based on guesswork or a hunch.

If the above isn't realistic for you, you need to work with someone or a company who can do this for you. It's a service we, and a few others on this forum offer, but it's chargeable work and relies on analytics systems, data, plus years of experience and training to get good results.

 

[prateekshawebd]

If there is a good conversion rate and a good ROI then I think you are good. 100 pounds is not a lot of money.

 

[Mr D]

If there is a good conversion rate and a good ROI then I think you are good. 100 pounds is not a lot of money.

Depends if its wasted or not.

 

[Socio South West]

Maybe something the new owner of the business needs to be worrying about?

Recent thread....

 

[fisicx]

If there is a good conversion rate and a good ROI then I think you are good. 100 pounds is not a lot of money.

If you read the opening post you will see that the conversion rate isn’t good.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

It doesn't matter how good your SEO and adwords performance, if you have a crap site or products, people will not buy.

(I actually know from much research my price is significantly lower than others)

Increase your prices and invest the extra profit into someone to do the proper job you require/need.

 

[fantheflames]

Looks like there's a disconnect for the user when they land on your website. Like others have said on this thread, it'd be interesting to review your website to learn more about the potential issues. I find that most issues arise from lack of trust. I'm in the process of improving a sales page that currently comes across as a potential scam. If a potential customer has not heard of you previously, which probably is the case before landing on your website, you need to radiate trust to convert 'conversions' from Google ads or other sources.