The Clicks and Conversions in Pay Per Click Marketing
June 22, 2009 by Sean Galusha
Filed under SEO Business
One of the main objectives of business owners in using pay per click marketing is to get to the top position of the search engine results page. This is so because ranking high in the listing means getting very good chances of being seen by internet users who will eventually click their ads and visit their website. The higher the volume of traffic going to their website, the closer they will be to getting sales.
But pay per click is not just about getting that high volume of traffic to your site. The very essence of pay per click does not end in getting traffic to your site but it is about conversion. So, what is conversion and what is its main role in the pay per click marketing?
Conversion happens when an online surfer visits your website and takes some actions you are expecting him to do. In pay per click, you do not want site visitors to just click on your ad, take a short glimpse of your site and leave without doing anything on the site.
If for example you have an online store, then the conversions that may happen in the site will involve the users making a direct purchase, the user downloading a service or the user completing the sales inquiry form. Simple visits will mean that the user enters and leaves unnoticed.
It should be remembered that the conversion doesn’t actually mean that it is a sale. Conversion may have other meanings too, and this will include user activities that may be worth something to the business and to you.
It is along this line that you should also think about what to expect out of your site visitors. Before engaging into pay per click, it is also wise to determine the target results that you want to get out of these online visitors. If that cannot be established, investing in PPC might not be a good idea.
To assess how pay per click works for your business, it is recommended to keep track and monitor conversion from pay per click sources. Major search engines like Google however provide tools that you can use in tracking. Google Analytics is one. With this tool, you can determine the conversions of pay per click in your site.
Even if you do not have tracking tools, you can always make use of a spreadsheet and keep track total conversions in a day. You can then assess if there has been a change in the conversions after adopting pay per click. If none, it could be a sign to revise strategies.
