Conversion Rates: High Traffic, Low Conversions?

You’ve done your advertising – pay per click ads, banner ads and even placed your product on affiliate sites. You have a strong Twitter and Facebook presence and you’re getting plenty of clicks. But despite all your efforts in getting people to your site, you have a small conversion rate. If you’re struggling to meet your targets, here are a number of steps to diagnose and solve the problem:

What should the conversion rate be?

First of all, let’s determine what a strong conversion rate is. For most sites, a 2-3% conversion rate is considered average, so anything above that is an indicator that you’re doing well. If the conversion rate is around average but product isn’t making you enough money, perhaps you need to consider the retention rates, pricing and upselling aspects of your business.

Is the problem referral advertising?

 If users are clicking through from affiliate sites or banner ads but aren’t following through to purchase, re-evaluate where your advertising is being placed. Is the host site a match for your demographic? What is the ad promising – does your site deliver it? Look at your bounce rate: if people are being referred but clicking straight off, this means you’re not delivering what you’ve promised – this site is either not engaging or not what they expected. It could be as simple a fix as having consistent branding across your website and banner advertising. Make sure your landing page is a logical progression from the advert you were running to improve your conversion rate.

Is the problem your PPC advertising?

Do you find that you’re paying for people’s clicks but you’re not getting a return on that investment? It could be that you are targeting the wrong keywords. Your analytics will tell you what your best converting keywords are – use this information to chase PPC advertising. The problem may also be the wording of your advertisement. Run A/B tests – ie, keep all other variables the same but run two slightly different adverts at the same time, to find out which works better.

To ensure you maintain a high conversion rate I re-iterate that your ad must be congruent with your offer/product/opportunity. Some marketers choose wording that they believe entices the viewer to click on the ad and often its just not relevant to the offer The ad must arouse curiosity and must be congruent with the capture page or website.

I also strongly recommend not using other people’s brand or images in your ads if they do not endorse your product/offer or give you permission to do so. Often people click these types of ads but rarely buy when they realize that they have been deceived and that hurts their conversion rate. It’s bad marketing to do this and could also potentially result in a legal claim against you. So avoid creating such ads as “X Guru Loves This” etc.

Remember that ads can always be refined and updated – and will need to be as customers’ needs and your products and business change, so never rest on your laurels.

Is the conversion rate problem on your website/capture page?

The point at which your users are clicking out will reveal a lot about why they aren’t converting. Consider the following:

• Is your website/capture page design simple and intuitive? You’d be surprised at how often sites/pages just aren’t designed to best aid the conversion rate process. Carry out user testing to ensure that your website has a logical flow and a satisfying user journey: you are the worst person to test a website. Someone with no knowledge of the product and website needs to tell you where the inevitable glitches are.

• Is your copy selling your product properly? It is worth investing in a professional copywriter to energize your content to make sure that all the key selling points are coming across succinctly. You can learn a lot from the end result. You can also learn copy-writing in many books available on Amazon. Its definitely one of the most important skills you can learn as an online marketer.

• Do you have a clear call to action? Does it have enough space? A call to action is what rallies users to buy, or to sign up for a newsletter, or to book an appointment after they’ve browsed your site and decided that this product is for them. If it isn’t clear (either visually or in its expression), it will fail you.

• Is the checkout/sign up process easy? Once you’ve got the customer to buying temperature, don’t hit them with a detailed checkout process – if you have to sign up, verify an account, or enter details like address or telephone number (unless strictly necessary), you risk losing your potential buyer – particularly if they grow frustrated with the process.

Is the problem your product?

If you have ironed out all of the above problems and your customers are still not biting, revisit your offering. Is the price too high? Does the product need further refining or testing?

If its an affiliate offer and you are not seeing results with the standard affiliate website/page, don’t be afraid to create your own page. Add video and show who you are so people connect with you. It might be that people are getting tired of the same commonly used page so try a new angle. Change the copy, personalize it more and bring your own personality into it. Make sure you have strong testimonials from existing customers to encourage people who are in two minds to commit. Run tests to see which pages convert better.

Conversion Rate Take Away..

The worst thing that you can do for your conversion rate is not test and keep proceeding blindly. You should always be testing and tweaking to seek to improve your conversion rate. Always be congruent from the first contact the customer has with you to the very end sign up process and beyond. Make it as easy as possible for them to proceed from the ad click, to where they buy/join you. Don’t be afraid to do what others aren’t doing and try new things. If your conversion rate is low despite good traffic then there is a problem. Don’t stick your head in the sand, do nothing and expect it to change. Often, minor changes and tweaks can create big results. Please do contact me if you want any advice on your conversion rate and how to improve it.