Walk Before You Run: Complete the Small Tasks in Order to Convert

There are a lot of advertisers I deal with who may be suffering from tunnel vision. They receive some activity after a week of being active, and received clicks with low conversion. They want answers.

I would posit that they are looking too far down the line, when they should be looking at the immediate. Conversions are the goal, but they are not everything. It certainly isn’t a formula of A + B = C. More often, it would better serve the advertiser to focus on the myriad small tasks that can eventually lead to a higher conversion rate.

Here are some ideas to consider if you are operating your campaigns or just created a new campaign.

Check the keywords. The traffic you get comes from your keywords. Your keywords can come from your AdWords account or from other platforms, or they can come from our keyword suggestion tool. If you choose to import keywords from another network, consider running them through our keyword tool. The traffic numbers your keywords may have on other platforms may not be the same on 7Search.

By cross referencing your keywords, you can determine how they can potentially perform in your 7Search campaign. This also lets you discover options for keywords from our tool that can serve you in your campaign. Experiment by creating two different campaigns; one with your imported keywords and a second campaign using strictly 7Search keywords. Add keywords from both platforms that are relevant to your content in the two separate campaigns. Run a test for a period of time (5-7 business days), and then compare results.

Use all the tools you can add. We have a great many tools that can help you achieve the best possible return on your investment. The campaign(s) that you run are best served when they have integrated features that bring visitors to your site pages more quickly, filter away irrelevant searches and superior ad copy is placed at the keyword level. I’ve written extensively on these, so be sure to check out the resources.

Check your stats. The keywords report in your account allows you to see your click through rate, average cost per click, average rank and the actual searched terms your keywords are receiving. Determine how your campaign is functioning by checking how long your visitors are on your page (use a tool like Google Analytics for this). If you have a high click through rate for some of your keywords, ask yourself why. Is the keyword not targeted to your content? Is your website’s content not compelling enough for visitors to delve more deeply?

Is your average rank rather high? Are you showing up lower in our results pages, causing visitors to click into your site only to bounce away quickly to find what they are looking for? What keywords are affected and why?

What terms are you receiving? Are you getting searches that are not relevant to your content? Are they completely off the mark? Why? Are there opportunities to add negative keywords here?

Conversion is one goal, for sure. A campaign has to receive the attention it deserves in order to get to that place. Consider smaller goals strung together to make a profitable campaign, like “I’ll test two different landing pages and ad copy,” or “I will lower my bounce rate and my average rank.” These little victories can help move you towards the greater goal.