Gas Costs How Much These Days?

I pulled into a gas station last week to fill up my tank and marveled at the fact that gas was down to $2.02 a gallon. Or was it?
The price indicator directly above the ’89 Octane’ selection button showed the price as $2.02 a gallon, but the sign above the gas pump itself listed the same product as costing $2.13 a gallon? To further confuse the issue, the giant road-side sign advertised the gasoline for $2.09 a gallon. Three different signs, three different prices for the same product. Nothing like a little clarity in your advertising.
As I was pulling away from the station (the actual price was $2.02 by the way), I thought about a recent conversation we had with a client regarding search engine Pay-Per-Click campaigns and the need for clarity in that type of advertising.
The conversation was about landing pages and when I think about it, the concept is all about clarity in advertising. It breaks down like this:
You have a term you decide to bid on as part of your Pay-Per-Click efforts, typically a term centered on a specific service or product you offer. A user types that search term in the search engine and your sponsored link appears front and center. This is great – your link (along with an appropriate title and short description for that link) is now in front of someone actively seeking what you offer! So where do you send them when they click your link? If you answered your home page – sorry, but in all likelihood you just lost that lead (and paid for the click to boot).

Your Web site is more than just your home page

Many companies view their Web site’s home page AS their Web site. When they think about their Web presence, they inevitably think about that single home page rather than all the subsequent pages that make up the bulk of their site. That being the case, it makes sense that they would want to target Pay-Per-Click links to their home page. But that doesn’t make for a successful Pay-Per-Click strategy or an enjoyable user experience.
Think about your site’s home page for a minute. It already has a lot of work to do. When done correctly, your home page needs to welcome new visitors to the site and quickly let them know:

1. What the company does
2. What sets the company apart
3. What the site offers
4. What they need to do next

It also needs to establish the site’s visual identity and, consequently, the online identity of your company. It needs to do all these things quickly and effectively without overwhelming your site’s visitors. That’s a tall order as it is, so the home page can not be expected to also focus on every single individual service or product that your company offers. That’s where the sub-pages come in.
The sub-pages are the rest of the site. Where as the home page is somewhat broad and general, the sub-pages are more focused, concentrating on key areas as users drill down deeper into the site. These sub-pages that are focused on individual services or products are what can become landing pages. You can optimize these pages for specific keywords that are then presented to search engine users via your Pay-Per-Click campaigns.

What do you want to see when you hit ‘Search’

Think about the process when you conduct a Web search yourself. You fire up Google or Yahoo or your search engine of choice, you type in a term and hit ‘search’. You then see the results of that search laid out before you, likely with the sponsored links prominently displayed on the page, you make a choice and click one that looks good to you. What do you want to see next? Do you want to see a company’s home page and have to find the specific information you are looking for by clicking through the various pages of their site? Or would you rather skip that maze-like exercise and be brought directly to the page on their site that deals specifically with the information you were searching for in the first place? I know which one I’d prefer and I know which one makes for a more effective Pay-Per-Click strategy.
Getting users to your site is important, but it’s only half the battle. Paying for sponsored links will give you exposure atop the search engine results pages, but sending searchers to a page not relevant to their immediate needs (meaning what they just searched for) will ultimately result in lots of clicks to your site, but few will turn into actual leads for your organization.

An informed approach to Web marketing results in qualified leads for your business

It’s all about that aforementioned clarity in your messaging – from the message of the Pay-Per-Click ad itself right through to the landing page you send a search engine user to once they click that ad. It needs to all be consistent and related to attract qualified traffic that will result in actual business.
I’ve talked to many companies in the past who have tried Pay-Per-Click campaigns and weren’t happy with the results. Those results, or lack thereof, can almost always be traced back to an improperly managed approach to the campaign itself. Realizing that online marketing can benefit your business is great, but you need to make sure you are doing it correctly for it to be effective. Envision Technology Advisors works with our online traffic generation clients to ensure that the Pay-Per-Click traffic you get is qualified traffic that leads to increased business.

Will your customers 'fill up' or will they drive away?

On my way into the office today I need to fill up again and I saw that gas was down to $1.87 a gallon, or at least that’s what the road sign said. The little sign above the pump still said $2.13 and the digital display (and actual price) was $1.85. Despite this lack of clarity in the station’s advertising, I still filled my gas tank, but would visitors to your Web site be as forgiving if you had a similar lack of clarity in your site’s advertising? Or would they drive off and take their business elsewhere?

Labels: Jeremy G, Pay-Per-Click, PPC, search engines, SEM, SEO, Web design

posted by Jeremy Girard