In New Zealand thousands of dollars are wasted on Adwords every hour of every day. You may well think this is a bit of an exaggeration but bear with me and you'll catch my drift. I would like to share with you some of the observations made when analysing the use of Adwords in New Zealand. Let's take a real life example and let's also agree that this example is a random choice and believe me, I could have picked many others for that matter. The only purpose is to illustrate the points made so let's try not to focus on this specific brand or campaign.

Right, so you have decided to go online and spend some marketing dollars on getting eyeballs to your web site by using Google Adwords as a channel. You have even prepared some specific content that somehow relates to the expectations raised in the Adword copy. The agency has been briefed, media recommendations on keywords and click costs have been approved. Great. Now let's have a look at what happens once the online part of the campaign kicks off.

In this example an ad for National Bank is appearing for keyword "Credit Cards" and shows as number 1 on top of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) for this keyword. Based on the Google Adword cost estimate we can assume the CPC is between 11 and 14.97 NZD.

Let's have a look at the Adword copy:

The call to action or the promise is a 60 seconds approval after your online application.

A click on the ad does 2 things. It takes over 10 dollars out of National Bank's account and in return it will send me to the landing page that was defined during the campaign set-up.

Here is where the click took me:

It looks like the landing page is set within the framework of the existing general National Bank Web site. It doesn't take a lot of research to notice this landing page is a standard content page. It is exactly the same page you would see after clicking through to Credit Card Info from the National Bank home page.

Some observations:

• The call-to-action and promise of a 60 seconds approval that created enough attention for me to click the ad in the first place is not repeated on this landing page.
• I am confronted with a myriad of choices and my attention can and will be diluted by the standard menus in the header, footer and left and right column areas of the landing page.
• The first closing argument on the page is finding out what card is best for me, followed by a call to transfer my current credit card balance to National Bank, information on what needs to happen when I lose my credit card (I have most probably not received one yet at this stage) and finally ways to apply for a card or get in touch with the Bank.

Although it is certainly not my intention to burn down this campaign I can't help wonder what the conversion rate would be if some key Landing Page principles had been applied. Which leads me to the next, and probably more constructive chapter...

4 Quick Fixes to Optimise the Landing Page Content.

The importance of optimised landing pages can not be underestimated. Adwords are expensive toys and budgets can melt away before you even notice you may have a problem. If your only aim is to send eyeballs on your site and you are not in the least interested in doing business with the people attached to them go ahead and have a ball. Would you ever consider doing that in the real world?

Make sure you repeat whatever it is you promote in the copy of your Adwords. It should be the first thing visitors notice. It should probably be the only thing they notice. Make it personal and very relevant. Landing Page copy has a lot in common with good Direct Marketing copy, so if anything, get your DM writers involved so the closing makes sense and is in direct relation to the desire to answer the interest you created.

General web site pages and home pages are notoriously hard to streamline and optimise for conversions. They serve a different purpose and are often burdened by demands put on them by every department or offerings within an organisation. Eliminate all unnecessary choices and un-clutter whatever remains. Take away all menu's and make sure the only options left are either asking for more information - ideally through text links - or close the deal. All elements should be considered against that backdrop. Anything else is probably clutter. What you see should be what you get.

Get out of the visitor's way. Don't force registrations if they are not absolutely necessary. Remove choices and simplify the transaction process. If at the end you come up with forms make sure these are ruthlessly edited. Measure abandonment rates and improve. Resist the temptation to come up with related offers and special deals once the visitor has entered the conversion cycle for whatever it is that tickled his fancy.

It is also critical to provide final assurance. A recap of the information provided, details on what will happens next, a walk through the fine print and some grateful words do miracles and avoid buyers remorse.

It goes without saying that the way to optimise results is to measure, review and improve this cycle. You will rarely get it all right the first time. I will cover some good examples in a future post and in the mean time I wish you a lot of success in improving your investments in Adwords, or in avoiding them completely from now on...