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All clicks are equal, but some clicks are more equal than others.
What do digital advertising teams look for?
For too long, the digital advertising teams’ mindset has been: “Get the most clicks.” A click means someone has seen the offer. A bunch of clicks means lots of people have seen that offer. Unfortunately, the pursuit of clicks doesn't always produce the desired results. Instead of a “get more clicks” mentality, the digital advertiser’s goal should be to win more conversions. It seems obvious, but many advertisers continue to spend ad dollars on one-click wonders when they should be pursuing the conversion.
When the prevailing belief is that more clicks mean more potential sales, aiming for more clicks isn’t that surprising. What may be shocking to learn is that there is a very low chance that any of your paid ad clicks will result in a purchase. Clicks don’t equal conversions, and digital advertising data proves that. On Google’s search network, the average Cost Per Click (CPC) is $2.41, and average Conversion Rate (CVR) is a dismal 4.40%.
This means that more than 95% of Google search network clicks are just that — clicks.
You got the click. Now what?
Advertisers bid and fight their way to the top of page one search results to earn the most impressions. Here, countless hours are dedicated to targeting so that advertisers reach the right prospect who will take the desired action. Being at the top earns the most attention, so now the focus turns to getting clicks, followed by conversion.
Brands also spend considerable time setting up their retargeting campaigns to convert users who interacted with them, but didn’t convert. Either way, money has been spent for the click, but it’s important to make it worth it. Look at this Google search query example and the landing page connected to the ad:
A specific search query is matched by the top Google search ad. Should the person click the ad, they would see Nice inContact’s landing page, where the ad narrative continues. Having achieved their first goal — the click — the advertiser turns their attention to earning the conversion. Here on the landing page, their mindset is to make it easy for prospects to request a sales quote, so they design the page with:
- Persuasive copy offering five reasons why their software helps contact centers around the world create profitable customer experiences.
- Lots of white space, which draws attention to the form and clicking the CTA button.
- Contrasting CTA button that draws attention.
- Using the man’s eye gaze as a visual cue to draw attention to the form.
- Four proof points that speak to the credibility of NICEinContact’s service.
Chances of conversion? Very high.
A digital advertising example spending scenario
Let’s run some numbers in a hypothetical scenario for an automotive dealership since they enjoy the highest average CVR at 7.98%:
From 1,000 Google search ad clicks, the dealership would convert 79.8 of prospects (for simplicity, let’s round up to 80) and spend $2,030 for those clicks.
If that same dealership had a 10% conversion rate, they would only need to spend $1,619.94 to get the same number of conversions (80), saving more than $400. At a 20% conversion rate, the dealership only spends $809.97 for 80 conversions, saving $1,220.03. A small or sizable increase in conversion rate enables digital advertising teams to save budget to reinvest elsewhere. This scenario considers a relatively small sample size of 1,000 clicks. The dollar amounts go up considerably with larger sample sizes.
Visibility with cross-channel metrics for conversion marketing
There is more data available to marketers than at any point in history. Data is everywhere around us, yet sometimes the lack of uniformity makes it more challenging to analyze campaign results across channels. Advertisers need this quantitative data to make better campaign decisions, spend smarter, and win more conversions. With an abundance of digital marketing activity taking place via advertising platforms, email marketing, and social media, there’s bound to be overlapping metrics making it tough for teams to agree on what to call certain data points.
Take LinkedIn and YouTube, for example. Both have audience-following metrics: "Followers" and "Subscribers," respectively. It’s the same baseline metric, but when looking at the data, they would be classified separately.
Then consider that teams are siloed in how they gather data due to lack of software access or specialization required to analyze results. Social media teams likely don’t use marketing automation software. Conversely, marketing operations isn’t reviewing social media metrics. SEO specialists pour over Google Analytics data but aren’t looking at campaigns in Marketo. What if everyone could have real-time visibility into over 50 platforms across digital advertising, email marketing, web analytics, and social media without requiring BI tools or data analysts?
Imagine the possibilities of digital advertising teams making smarter campaign decisions faster by having all of your digital campaign data in a unified dashboard focused on conversion marketing.
Shift your mindset towards conversion marketing
For digital advertising teams, focusing conversions over clicks should be a top priority. Implementing a few best practices like hyper-targeting ads along with relevant landing pages can increase your conversion rate. As your campaign data rolls in, having access to real-time data will help you optimize your conversion marketing campaigns and maximize results.
But digital advertising teams can’t iterate on the fly without access to all their cross-channel campaign data in a centralized location where everyone has visibility. Granting access to this data in a secure format is not a pipe dream. Many companies have secure access to their data and use it to maximize campaign performance.
Start here with our new eBook, CMOs: The Formula to 3X Your Digital Strategy, that answers the three biggest problems with data today and the five most pressing questions CMOs and marketing leaders face. Or, contact us for more on Wrike Insights, the only solution of its kind to offer cross-channel marketing insights and data curation from over 50 Martech, ad tech, and social media applications without requiring BI tools or data analysts.
