I have been using Google Adwords for some time. I am able to get a decent clickthrough and conversion rate regarding new account trials for my web application. However, new trials from leads generated from Adwords do not convert into new subscribers as often as new trials from leads generated from organic search. The quality of the leads generated from Adwords are not as good as leads from organic search. Have others experienced this? Do I need to tweak the targeting more? Is Adwords even worth it when using it to generating trials for a software application?
In my experience and others I've talked to, PPC has better quality than organic. That doesn't make it a universal truth however. One reason it should be however is that you are in charge and you can use very targeted keywords. If you have irrelevant or less relevant keywords, you'll have less relevant impressions and clicks. So maybe that is part of your problem. Ads go a long way as well to help pre-sell. But the landing page is the one that does the conversion. Ask yourself what is it that gets people on your page organically and why are they converting more. How are they getting there in the first place (keywords)? What made them click your organic listing? Figure that out and replicate with Adwords.
Hey thanks for the reply. In the past, I did tests with the same keywords that were clicked through organic search results going to the same landing page and leads were always awful via Adwords. The only conclusion I was able to come up with is that people searching via organic traffic are taking the time to read through the search results as opposed to people clicking Adwords links without thinking.
That doesn't make too much sense to me. If they are searching for something, there's no reason NOT to click an ad that appeals to them. Yes, I know some people say they never click on ads and "trust" the organics more. I think they may be a small minority. Some even suggest not to position yourself as the first ad because you'll get more clicks of the "click on the first listing without reading" variety. My data does not support that notion. I don't know the details of your campaign but you may not be targeting properly. That could be your keywords, settings (are you opted in to search partners? using display (or worse mixing with search)?). Do you know your stats for desktop vs mobiles? That could be a reason and a real eye-opener. Or it may just simply be that your organic listing is more attractive than your ads. Usually, high-CTR ads and listings also have higher conversion rates, they often go hand in hand.
My client is a transmission repair shop and is using PPC at $100/day budget. She also gets high organic rankings. What amazes me is the amount of time the Google AdWords Help staff will spend with you to optimize the campaigns. In the past few weeks, I've spoken with 3 'specialists' for about 3.5 hours of advice. This is a really valuable resource that most companies haven't used. This experience certainly was an eye opener for me and I would never put another client on AdWords without calling for this free advice. As to people being more likely to click on an ad or on an organic listing, I've asked this question frequently in a workshop I teach on 'Driving Traffic To Your Website'. Less than 1/3 of the people in the class (small business owners) report clicking on PPC ads. When asked why, they say they figure the businesses with the ads are paying for their ranking so they don't trust the results as much as the organic.
What you should tell them is that the organics should also not be trusted because the owner of the site is trying to get his listed first above others. They are not paying (at least no the search engine directly) but manipulating the listings to their advantage. So I don't see much of a difference. My view is, when you do a search, especially a shopping kind of search, you would expect the sites in listings, whether organic or paid, to try to sell you something. If an ad looks promising, why would you not click it? Doing so does not force you to commit to anything. It may turn out to be just what you want and need, just like an organic listing which is trying to sell you the same thing. The level of trust should be the same. The organic listing is there because it was better at getting there, they just didn't pay for it which should be irrelevant. As long as they found what they are searching for, it shouldn't matter.
It depends on what kind of campaigns - media or search - is being used. And even not taking this into account, according to my experience organic is better than ppc. It'd be 'cause people are usually more loyal then they find something by theirselves than by clicking on the ad. Hope you understand what I'm talking about.
It took me a minute to figure out what you meant by a media or search campaign. We are, I believe, talking about search here since we are comparing it to organic listings. I think by media you mean what Google and most others call the display network. Not search ads but banner as well as text ads one sees on many sites, including DP. No, I don't understand what you are saying. "finding something by themselves"? If you find your organic traffic to be better (meaning converts better), then great. I would apply that to PPC. In my experience, most people do PPC wrong (SEO too in many cases) and it affects their results negatively. Of course, they think PPC has poor quality. It does but not because of PPC, because of the way the tool is used. You can hammer a nail with a rock but that's using it in the wrong way and getting a less than satisfactory result.
Not hard to check for an expert, they'll tell you what you may doing wrong. Or learn more how to best take advantage of the tool.
anytime searchers browse Google" the first thing they look for are sponsored links" why" they are marked in GOLD" moreover its googles advertisement im my opinion that sparks the lead to click .................. im wondering why yould consider seo better?
One of the biggest revenue drivers in search engine marketing is pay per click. Google has formed a capability to see the search queries in the conversation from much better than before. Each recommended PPC company has solid internal methodology guiding their success in paid search.