Converting PPC Traffic

Converting PPC Traffic:
How strategic keyword placement increased
conversion by 144%

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JOIN THE CONVERSATION ON TWITTER

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TODAY’S TEAM

Dr. Flint McGlaughlin – Director, MECLABS Group
Flint McGlaughlin is the Director of MECLABS Group. The organization has
partnered with key market leaders including The New York Times,
Microsoft Corporation, and Reuters Group.

Dr. McGlaughlin also serves as the Director of Enterprise Research at the
Transforming Business Institute, University of Cambridge (UK) and as a
Trustee for Westminster Theological Centre. Dr. McGlaughlin originally
studied Philosophy and Theology at the University of London’s Specialist
Jesuit College.

Today, his primary research is focused on enterprise as transformative
agent. His work has won multiple awards and has been quoted in more
than 13,000 online and offline sources.

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EXPERIMENT: BACKGROUND


Experiment ID: (Protected)
Location: MarketingExperiments Research Library
Test Protocol Number: TP1306(a)

Research Notes:
Background: Provides end-to-end market solutions for small- and medium-sized
businesses.

Goal: Increase the email capture rate of an online form.

Primary Research Question: Which page will obtain the most form
submissions?

Approach: A/B multi-factor split test

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EXPERIMENT: CONTROL Control

[Bankruptcy] Mailing Lists
Quality business mailing lists that
Get you results to increase sales!
[company-name].com

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EXPERIMENT: CONTROL
Control
C = 4m + 3v + 2(i-f) - 2a

Using the conversion heuristic above,
we were able to identify the following
potential issues:

• The headline is making qualitative,
hype-filled claims

• The two column structure of the page
impedes the eye-path.

• The tone of the call-to-action generates
unnecessary concern

• The credibility indicators are hidden in
headers and footers.

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EXPERIMENT: CONTROL
Control Treatment

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EXPERIMENT: CONTROL

188% Increase in Total Leads
The new form page increased lead rate by 188%

Design Conversion Rate
Control 1.71%
Treatment 4.93%
Relative Difference 188%

 What you need to understand: By applying aable to generate approach for
optimizing landing pages, the treatment was
methodological
a 188%
increase in total leads captured.

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EXPERIMENT: RESULTS Control – Keyword Present

[company-name].com

Treatment – Keyword Not Present
BUT, how did removing the
keyword from the headline
of the landing page impact
conversion?

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ITERATIVE TESTING CYCLE

Focused variable clusters: The Single variable testing: The objective
Radical Redesigns: The objective is objective is to test the highest is to determine relative impact by
to challenge the control enough to performing variables and increase isolating variables
generate a significant difference channel specificity

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
Experiment ID: (Protected)
Test Protocol Number: TP1306(b)

Research Notes:
Background: Provides end-to-end market solutions for small- and medium-sized
businesses.

Goal: Increase the email capture rate of an online form.

Primary Research Question: Which page will obtain the most form
submissions?

Approach: A/B multi-factor split test

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EXPERIMENT: CONTROL Control

[company-name].com

• The control utilizes a general
headline that doesn’t
reference the keyword used
in the PPC ad.

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EXPERIMENT: TREATMENT Treatment

[company-name].com

• The treatment simply
integrated the keyword
utilized in the PPC ad.

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EXPERIMENT: SIDE-BY-SIDE
Control – Keyword NOT Present Treatment – Keyword IS Present

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EXPERIMENT: RESULTS

The new form page increased lead rate by 144%

Design Conversion Rate
Control 4.93%
Treatment 12.05%
Relative Difference 144%

 What you need theunderstand: the strategically placing the keyword from
the PPC ad into
to
headline of
By
landing page, the treatment produced
144% more leads.

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EXPERIMENT: RESULTS

A compounding gain of
603% increase in lead rate

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CONVERTING PPC CLICKS

 1.
Key Principles

We do not optimize PPC campaigns; we optimize thought sequences. A
small change (keyword placement) can often have a big impact on the
prospect’s sequence of thought.

2. In order to understand the thought sequence of a prospect arriving from
a PPC ad, marketers must be able to see both the PATH TAKEN (route)
and PATTERN FOLLOWED (behavior) by the prospect.

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THE CUSTOMER PATH AND PATTERN
Search Engine

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Landing Page #1

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Landing Page #2

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TODAY’S FOCUS

For this clinic, we are going to walk through the
THREE MOST IMPORTANT FACTORS that impact a
prospect’s probability of conversion on a landing page

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Factor #1: Channel Momentum

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FACTOR #1
BUILDING CHANNEL MOMENTUM

 Key Principles
1. The probability of conversion on landing page is directly related to the
degree of momentum (customer expectation) generated from the PPC ad.

2. The goal of the PPC ad is not to sell the product, but rather to initiate
momentum by converting attention into interest into action (click).

3. We do this by answering the derivative value proposition question, “If I
am your ideal prospect, why should I click on this PPC ad rather than any
other PPC ad?”

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FACTOR #1

 Experiment ID: (Protected)
Test Protocol Number: TP1214

Research Notes:
Background: A leading software provider

Goal: To increase total leads captured

Primary research question: Which process will generate the most leads?

Approach: A/B multifactorial split test. The experiment ran for 18 weeks,
testing 16 different ads (control PPC ad above) and observing more than
950,000 unique impressions.

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FACTOR #1
EXPERIMENT: EXAMPLE TREATMENTS

{KeyWord} Business Solutions {KeyWord} Business Solutions
Run Your Entire Business with One Support the Entire Company with One
System. Accounting + CRM. Free Trial. Low Cost Solution. [Company].
www.[Company].com/Business-Solutions www.[Company].com/Business-Solutions

Business Software Suite #1 Business Software
#1 On-Demand. 6459+ World Clients 6459+ Clients. On-Demand Access.
Award-Winning Solution. Free Trial One System for the Entire Company.
www.[Company].com/BusinessSoftware www.[Company].com/BusinessSoftware

Small Business Software Small Business Software
6459+ Clients Worldwide Free Trial Worlds #1 On-Demand Suite.
Software You Won't Outgrow. 6459+ Clients. Free Trial Today.
www.[Company].com/BusinessSoftware www.[Company}.com/BusinessSoftware

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FACTOR #1
EXPERIMENT: RESULTS

21% Increase in Clickthrough
The new ad generated 20.9% more clicks than the original

Original Ad Best Performing Ad

{Keyword} Business Software Business Software Suite
Award-Winning Business Software. #1 On-Demand. 6459+ World Clients
Fully Integrated. Free Trial Award-Winning Solution. Free Trial
www.[Company].com/Business www.[Company].com/BusinessSoftware

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FACTOR #1
BUILDING CHANNEL MOMENTUM

Not this But this

Event Management Software Event Management Software
Over 9 Million People Registered!
Online Event Management Software
www.[Company].com
32 easy to use, customizable tools
120,000+ planners use it, Try Free
[Company].com/Back_Pain
118%
Increase in Clicks

Not this But this
Relief From Back Pain

47%
Avoid open back surgery
Reclaim your life with a 30-minute Try AccuraScope back pain treatment
Groundbreaking back pain procedure One micro incision for pain relief
[Company].com/Back_Pain Increase in Clicks
[Company].com/Back_Pain

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Factor #2: Transition Orientation

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FACTOR #2
MOMENT OF ORIENTATION
Visitor Experience Timeline

What can I do here?

Why should I do it?
Where am I?

Moment of
Orientation Conversation Value
Exchange

First Seconds Subsequent minutes (or days) depending on sales cycle

• You have approximately 7 seconds to orientate the visitor. If you fail to do
this, you will mitigate the momentum built within the channel.

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FACTOR #2
NOT THIS…
Generic Homepage

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FACTOR #2
BUT THIS…
Specific Landing Page

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FACTOR #2
AUDIENCE EXAMPLE

Bitdefender Safepay - Protect your online
transactions
Award winning antivirus software on sale now
http://bitdefender-internet-security.com/

Are you able to discern the
following questions?
• Where am I?
• What can I do here?
• Why should I do it?

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Factor #3: Value Transfer

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FACTOR #3
TRANSFERRING VALUE Previous Example

[company-name].com

• With the simple, yet
strategically placement of a
144%
INCREASE IN CONVERSION

keyword, we were able to
better transfer the value of
the PPC ad to the Landing
page.

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FACTOR #3
TRANSFERRING VALUE

 Key Principles
1. In order to effectively transfer value from the PPC ad to the landing
page, one must ensure the holistic expression of the value
proposition. This involves two key elements :

• Congruence – Ensuring that every element of a page either expresses
or supports the value proposition

• Continuity – Ensuring that every step of the conversion process either
expresses or supports the value proposition

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FACTOR #3

 Experiment ID: (Protected)

Research Notes:
Background: A leading software provider

Goal: To increase total leads captured

Primary research question: Which process will generate the most leads?

Approach: Radical redesign of the complete lead-generation process focusing
on strengthening the communication of the value proposition

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FACTOR #3
EXPERIMENT: PPC AD TEST RESULTS

Original
{Keyword} Business Software
Award-Winning Business Software.
Fully Integrated. Free Trial
21%
INCREASE IN CLICKS

www.XXXXXXXXXX.com/Business

Optimized
Business Software Suite
#1 On-Demand. 6459+ World Clients
Award-Winning Solution. Free Trial

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FACTOR #3
EXPERIMENT: ORIGINAL LANDING PAGE
Control Landing Page


• Value from the PPC is not
being transferred to the
landing page

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FACTOR #3
Treatment Landing Page


• Value from the PPC is being
specifically mentioned on
the landing page

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FACTOR #3

54% increase in overall conversion
The optimized landing page conversion rate increased by 54.26%

Relative Diff. Statistical
Landing Page Conversion Rate
vs. Control Significance
Original 7.17% - -
Optimized 11.06% 54.26% 95%

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FACTOR #3
EXPERIMENT: ORIGINAL FORM
97%
54%
CLICK-THROUGH
FORM SUBMISSIONS

21%
CLICK-THROUGH


• In summary, we ensured that the value was being transferred from
the PPC ad all the way through the entire conversion process.

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FACTOR #3
EXPERIMENT: ORIGINAL FORM
272% Increase in Overall Conversion
The optimized path’s conversion rate increased by 272.2%

Relative
Metric Control Treatment
Difference
PPC Advertisement 0.89% 1.08 20.9%

Landing Page Clickthrough 7.17% 11.06% 54.26%

Form Completion 15.84% 31.25% 97.27%

Impression-to-lead Conversion .009% .033% 272.2%

 What you needto 268% more projectedexperiment, a 272% increase inwith
conversion led
to understand: In this
revenue and, when combined
the corresponding 66% reduction in cost-per-acquisition, the optimized
path produced more than 4 times the monthly profit (302% increase).
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 Experiment ID: REGOnline Landing page test

Research Notes:

Background: A technology and media company specializing in online registration and
event management software.

Goal: To increase the amount of completed leads.

Primary research question: Which capture process will generate the highest
completed lead rate?

Approach: A/B multifactor split test

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EXPERIMENT: CONTROL
Control
Congruence:

• Headline conveys
little to no
meaning

• Image does not
support the value
of the product

• Copy buries most
important points of
value

• Call-to-action fails
to build the value
of the click

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EXPERIMENT: TREATMENT
Treatment
Congruence:

• Headline directly
states value of
product

• Copy pulls out
most important
points of value

• Call-to-action
builds value of click

• Image shows
location of a real
customer

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EXPERIMENT: CONTROL

Control - Step 1 Control - Step 2

You are almost done!

Does each step of the buy process either state or
support the value proposition?

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Control - Step 2
Continuity:

• No value is being expressed in
You are almost done!
step two of the process.

Treatment - Step 2

• Callout-image and
CTA reminds
prospect of the
offer’s value.

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Treatment - Step 1 Treatment - Step 2

• The treatment has been designed to ensure the value proposition
is being expressed with both congruence and continuity.

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EXPERIMENT: RESULTS

The new page’s conversion rate increased by 548.46%

Conversion Rate Relative Statistical Level
Design (%) Difference of Confidence

Original Page 0.7% - -

Treatment 4.8% 548% 99%

 methodologies to the landing page,applying key optimizationto
What you need to understand: By
the treatment was able
improve step-level clickthrough rates by 1,312%, and total conversion
rate by 548%.

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SUMMARY: PPC CHECK LIST
PPC Campaign Checklist

Are the claims in your PPC ad specific? Do they use qualitative or hype-
filled language? How can you quantify your claims?

Is your PPC ad focused on generating a click? Have you provided a
compelling reason to click your ad over the other options?

Are you utilizing the headline of your page to immediately inform the
prospect where they have arrived?

Is your landing page objective clear? Is your eye-path a simple, single-
column flow? Do you have an easy-to-see call to action?

Is every element of you page (headline, images, copy, CTAs) expressing
the value proposition?

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Converting PPC Traffic

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