The primary reason people join Google Ads is to drive traffic and sales conversions to their websites or apps. For any advertiser who wants to create sustainable campaigns, tweaking and improving the conversion rate is vital for success.
Consider these 24 conversion rate optimization (CRO) tactics to improve Google Ads performance.
Go Mobile or Go Home
Having a mobile-friendly website is no longer optional. Since most web users are searching on mobile devices, ignoring their requirements is dangerous to your conversion rate.
A fast-loading, mobile responsive website is a potent asset for marketers. It should serve as the foundation of your campaign to increase conversions. Ignoring the technical trends is always the way to fall behind competitors while irritating customers.
Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) receive preferred treatment in Google Search, so it’s worth implementing them. There’s no sign that smartphone usage is slowing down, so planning design around mobile-friendliness will remain standard practice going forward.
It’s All About the Pictures
People are more likely to buy when the product listing page they visit has an abundance of images and videos that demonstrate the product in use. For best results, your images should be crisp and detailed, and videos should be helpful. Helping a visitor visualize the product solving their problem makes a very strong selling point.
Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. They want to see proof that your solution is right for them. Give it to them, and they will buy from your business.
Don’t Guess When You Can Test
When launching an ad campaign, always use A/B testing to test your hypothesis. If you think an alternative landing page will perform better than the original, experiment!
There’s no other way to find out if changing things up will have a positive impact that you expect. Investing in an A/B testing tool makes running experiments more straightforward. While testing may seem challenging at first, it provides the only source of accurate conversion data.
Get as Personal as Possible
Personalizing pages is another way to boost a lagging conversion rate.
If you already collect visitor information, adding a personal touch in personalizing emails, web pages, and other communications help close more sales. In the marketing and advertising industry, personalization is one of the strongest of all CRO techniques. To jump-start sales, recommendation engines provide a compelling alternative.
Don’t you like it better when a company knows you at least a little? Your prospects feel the same and are more comfortable about purchasing when you show them you care.
Use Plain English Instead of Jargon
Keep your English readable and short. Too much jargon will go over the heads of some readers, causing them to lose interest quickly. It’s better to engage with your visitors at the most basic level, so they find your content relevant, helpful, and insightful.
Heat Maps and Mouse Tracking Tell the Tale
Sites with significant amounts of traffic benefit from tracking the mouse using heat maps. Heat maps are visualization tools that show detailed information about how visitors use and navigate the site.
Using this data, it becomes much easier to redesign a page to optimize for conversions.
Multiple solutions exist on the market for A/B testing, including built-in experiments using Google Analytics. It’s okay to start small and then expand to a more robust solution when needed.
Always Optimize Your Call-To-Action
Optimizing your CTA to increase conversions from Google Ad visitors is always a smart idea. It’s not only the text that matters but the placement that plays a significant factor in increasing conversions.
That’s another excellent reason to consider heatmap and mouse click tracking. With this data, you can adjust the text and location to optimize for conversions. This type of fine-tuning, in conjunction with optimized Google Ads, can increase sales substantially.
Show Your Price In Plain Sight
Never make the mistake of hiding your prices. When consumers can’t quickly find a product’s cost, they assume it’s super-expensive.
There’s no reason to make visitors wonder or guess about product costs. Instead, provide them with the data they need to make it easy to buy. People need to know your pricing before they move to the next step in the sales funnel.
Consider the Order of Conversion Goals
A website may have many conversion goals that lead up to the critical one. For most, that’s a purchase, and there are several other steps in the funnel that arrive first.
For example, some marketer’s funnels may go for the email signup first. After they collect the address, they send automated responses and watch the user’s interactions. If the person downloads a case study, for example, the company may email a discount for the user to redeem by purchasing.
In this more complex scenario, there are multiple conversions to monitor, and their order matters.
Leverage the Power of Google Optimize
Google provides plenty of tools to help ECommerce and business websites optimize their products. The leading tool is Google Optimize. For advertisers who use analytics, it’s worth the effort to configure Google Optimize to improve ad performance.
It’s generally an excellent idea to follow Google’s advice when tweaking their products. Their Ads and Analytics programs work with Optimize, so it’s a natural solution to squeeze better results from your advertising.
Follow Google Recommendations to Improve Quality Score
Google has specific recommendations to create high-quality ads that perform on their network. It’s worth following all of these suggestions to develop optimized ads.
Ads with poor scores cost more per click and get fewer conversions. That’s why direct Ad optimization should be front and center of your priority list. When utilizing optimized ads, Landing Pages, and relevant offers, a high conversion rate becomes more likely.
Monitoring Is a Must
Checking your tools and monitoring results is a requirement. If you’re making changes, that’s the only way to track your changes and identify what is working best.
When you fail to monitor, you’re essentially flying blind. It’s harder to understand the factors most crucial for increasing sales. Monitor every aspect of your campaigns to increase the value of ad optimization.
Consider Using an Outside Consultant
If you feel overwhelmed by all the details in CRO, you may want to consult with or outsource the task to experts. While there are upfront costs, the money you save by not making costly mistakes is worth the investment.
Instead of wasting your entire ad budget and getting lackluster results, working with professionals who specialize in CRO optimization is one of the fastest ways to make improvements.
Understand Conversion Types
When running paid ads, it’s important to know the various conversion types and goals. There are seven primary objectives to understand and master.
- Signup
- Purchase
- Form Submission
- Account Creation
- Button Clicks
- Content Shares
- App Install
Some of these conversion types work in conjunction with others to create profitable sales funnels. Marketers need to have a firm understanding of all seven types to decide how to best structure offers so that they can meet campaign objectives.
Consider the Order of Conversions
While you might feel like you want to cut to the chase and go straight for the sale, sending Google Ad visitors directly to an order page is generally not recommended. Instead, you should consider the use of a comprehensive landing page that captures the lead information and then follow up with an email.
This conversion style is proven. However, it requires paying careful attention to the order of conversion objectives.
Things can become more challenging to follow as you add stages and steps in the conversion funnel. However, the same basic principle of all optimization applies. If you make adjustments to improve results, it will help your overall funnel conversion rate.
Match Your Ad and Landing Page
Another powerful method is to ensure that your ad, landing page, and offer all use consistent language. It’s crucial to use keywords that lead people to the page in the ad. Conversion goal tracking helps you determine your strongest markets.
People want to know they’re in the right place, especially when they click through from a Google Ad. Keep everything orderly, and there will be nothing to jar the visitor and block a sale.
Dig in With Multivariate Testing
Before beginning a significant ad spend, test every element of your ads and corresponding landing pages. Advertisers who want tight campaign control, an investment in a multivariate testing tool is worth considering.
Multivariate testing tools help you to isolate factors and record results, providing a snapshot of how people convert on your pages. It’s possible to raise conversion rates substantially by evaluating this data.
Multivariate testing goes beyond the more straightforward A/B form, allowing you to unleash more valuable information. Further, you’re able to test virtually any factor you want to segment and categorize your results.
Master Google Analytics
The top way to master CRO is to become proficient using Google Analytics. The enterprise-scale Analytics program provides in-depth information helpful for mastering the web. However, the downside is a steep learning curve.
Luckily, there are many tutorials and classes online to help you master Google Analytics. Once you feel confident in your knowledge and skills, a free certification test from Google helps you to prove your prowess.
Analytics gives you as much information as you need to raise your conversion, but understanding how to analyze it all is a science. Once you learn how to look at the reports the right way, you’ll see how your changes are impacting your conversion results.
Create Theories and Scrutinize Them With Experiments
It’s worth coming up with theories about how your traffic sources perform. Using experiments, it’s possible to debunk or embrace them. Never be afraid to run tests, because it plays an essential role in the advertising and conversion optimization process.
Keep an open mind because some of your theories won’t be accurate. Either way, you’ll learn tons about how to optimize correctly, which is always worth the investment of time and effort.
Embrace Conversion-Oriented Design
Any organization that wants to get more sales should center their web design around conversions. When directing live visitors to your site is central to your business plan, your website needs to back your play.
It’s much better to have a conversion-oriented website than one that just looks good. Naturally, an attractive website is important, however, don’t forget that CRO is a top priority. Blending aesthetics with Ecommerce gives you the best of both worlds.
Make Your Phone Number Big and Clickable
Mobile users are likely to call, so make it easy for them. A clickable phone number displayed prominently on the site helps to expedite incoming phone inquiries, which are always hotter leads than those who don’t call.
This technical detail can significantly impact results across the board, so be sure not to overlook this small, but mighty, detail.
Don’t Overwhelm Visitors
When your conversion goal is a micro-commitment from a visitor, keep the landing page simple.
The smaller the ask on the landing page, the less confusing it is for the visitor to complete the desired action. If collecting email addresses, a simple form with a summary of the benefits will likely be all that’s necessary.
Simplicity is the key since customers tend to hit the back button or lose interest if they feel overwhelmed.
Well-Written Copy Is a Big Advantage
Another fine detail not to get overlooked is solid copywriting. Poor web content has the opposite effect, pushing down sales and inquiries. It’s worth hiring professional copywriters to spruce things up.
Skilled digital copywriters write content in a way that appeals to the largest segment of visitors, helping to boost desired results.
Social Proof Helps Sell
If your products are popular, don’t forget to add social proof to your landing pages. Customer reviews and testimonials are one of the single best assets to highlight the benefits of the product or service.
There’s nothing more powerful than proof that others are satisfied with their purchase.
In Summary
The takeaway for ad optimization techniques is there’s always something you can do to get more sales. Never give up and accept an idea like “ads don’t work.”
Don’t be afraid to experiment with ad types or landing pages, as this is the only way to test your efforts. If you are searching for a cutting-edge ad technology that specifically targets prospects in a geographical area, contact Propellant Media to discuss our geo-fencing options today.