Conversion Room

Create your own festive themed image ads with Google AdWords

2009-11-16T13:57:00.006Z

Image ads are a great way to raise the profile of your business on relevant websites on the Google Content Network.

The holiday season is on the way and online businesses and retailers are looking for ways to make the most out of the upcoming opportunity. To help you reach more of your potential customers and take advantage of this opportunity, you can now create festive themed, animated image ads with Display Ad Builder for free within your AdWords account.

To access the Display Ad Builder, follow these simple steps:

Log in to your AdWords account at www.adwords.google.com
Select the campaign and the ad group in which you would like to build your image ads
On the 'Ad Variations' tab, click on the 'New Ad' button, then select the 'Display Ad Builder' option.

All you have to do to create your own image ads is select a design template from within your account. You write your own message just like with your text ads, change the fonts and colours if needed, and upload an image that represents your business - our tool does the rest.

As well as these seasonal specific themes you can also choose from over 150 different templates to find a format that suits your message and business.

Based on your choice, Display Ad Builder will generate up to 6 image ad versions with the standard sizes (120 x 600; 160 x 600; 468 x 60; 300 x 250; 728 x 90; 336 x 280 pixels) for you. Now your own animated image ads are ready to show on the Content Network. To make sure you're opted in into the Content Network, in you AdWords account go to the 'Campaign settings' page and look for the section called 'Networks, devices, and extensions'.

To learn more about creating and running display ads, please visit the Display Ads 101 tutorial.

If you are using Conversion Tracking, you could also check out the new View Through Conversion Tracking reports. With View Through Conversion reports you can see when a user looked at your image ad, did not immediately click, but later came back to your site and reached the conversion page.

Log into your AdWords account today to get started!

Posted by Zoli Stekkelpak, Google AdWords team

Setting up and using AdWords Conversion Tracking is now even easier

2009-11-12T14:43:00.007Z

Last week, our colleagues in the US posted on some changes which have been made to the AdWords interface. If you use AdWords Conversion Tracking, you may have already noticed that the interface for this tool has been redesigned so that it's easier for you to troubleshoot issues and monitor your results. If you are not already using Conversion Tracking, it's now easier than ever to implement! We wanted to discuss these changes on the Conversion Room too, just in case you missed them.

There are now 3 easy-to-use tabs - Conversions, Webpages, and Code - that help you manage your conversion data. Let's take a closer look at each of them:

Conversions: This is where you see information about the conversion actions you're tracking.

The "Tracking Status" column lets you know whether a conversion action is tracking properly. It shows you if a conversion has ever been recorded, if it has recently stopped recording, or if it's working just fine.
The "Value" column shows the accumulated value of the conversions you've received based on the value you've assigned to each action.
The "New Conversion" button allows you to easily create new conversion actions or import them from a linked Google Analytics account. (Note: In order to import Google Analytics goals, you'll first need to follow a few steps.

Webpages: Here, you'll see which pages on your site are getting conversions. You can also see a breakdown of the number of conversions per page on your site. This is useful for troubleshooting, as you can make sure conversions are coming from the pages you expect and identify pages that are not reporting conversion activity.

Code: This is where you get the tracking code for each conversion action. You can also change the value of an action, which helps you calculate ROI.

Custom Alerts*: You can now create custom alerts to monitor shifts in conversion volume, conversion rate, and cost per conversion. By setting alerts for your conversion data, you can make sure that you're quickly notified about fluctuations in your key metrics.

*Please note that we're still working to bring custom alerts to all linked accounts for My Client Center (MCC) users. In the meantime, you can still set custom alerts for your individual accounts if you're able to log into them directly.

Once you have set up Conversion Tracking you may then become eligible to use Conversion Optimiser. This is a free AdWords feature which uses Conversion Tracking data to get you more conversions at a lower cost-per-acquisition. You can find more Conversion Room blog posts on Conversion Optimser here.

We hope you enjoy the new Conversion Tracking interface!

Posted by Faustina Clifford, Google AdWords Team.

We've added more Seminars for Success to our calendar for London and Glasgow!

2009-11-10T12:25:00.002Z

Want to use Google Analytics data to improve your website and marketing?

Ready to boost your ROI and drive more business to your site?

Whether you're new to online marketing or a seasoned veteran, Seminars for Success can help you meet your goals. Led by independent and unbiased industry professionals, these full-day, in-person seminars will help you learn how to make the most out of the time and money you invest in AdWords, Analytics and Website Optimiser.

Sign up now for any seminar and we'll also give you a £50 credit to spend on AdWords advertising. Find out more about this free advertising credit, and how to register, by visiting our website today:

Seminars for Success

Posted by Alan Wrafter, Programme Manager

Is your website easy to buy from? Tips you can test to improve your site's checkout process

2009-11-09T09:37:00.011Z

We recently released the Make Your Website Work e-book to show common pitfalls of website design and show steps that can be taken to improve your website conversions. Today we'd like to delve further into the checkout process on websites, and give some suggestions on areas to test and ways to improve your conversion path.

Many e-commerce websites suffer from low conversion rates. We have compiled a list of e-commerce checkout tips that you may like to test on your own site.

Think about testing the following...

Product Images and Location

As a rule of thumb, the more expensive an online purchase is, the more detailed your product shots and information should be.
Place product images above the page fold (don't require users to scroll your pages).
Be creative. Make effective use of existing technologies (ajax, flash, video etc..)

Example above demonstrates that when a user mouses over part of the product image they can see the texture of the jacket in close detail. This is known as a "javascript image zoom" effect.

Buy Buttons

Also known as 'add to cart' buttons, these are possibly the most important call to action on your website.

Colour / Contrast - Eye catching use a different colour to the rest of your page.
Text - Make it large and easy to read (no fancy typography).
Icons - Icons aid usability (+ Add to Cart)
Position - Users expect to find your 'add to cart' button on the right hand side of your product image.
Make them BIGGER* - Large buttons grab attention, but also accommodate more users.
Long product descriptions? Try using 2 add to cart buttons (1 above the fold, 1 below)

*Large buttons accommodate users who may have poor motor movement. See Fitts Law.

Checkout Without Registration

Don't require customers to register before checkout.
Forms should only ask for essential information.
Tell customers why you need information. Especially personal details.

Form above clearly displays that you can login if you are a member already or checkout without registering.

Yes we ask for your email address, but here's why.

Progress Indicators

One of the most overlooked elements on many E-commerce websites is a progress indicator. This is the online equivalent of the shopping centre "You are here!". It also instantly answers:

Where am I?
How many more steps till I finish?
What can I expect next?
Do I get a chance to review my order?

You can easily see where you are in relation to completion of the task.

Forms Should Be Easy

So many forms on E-commerce websites are difficult to use and don't provide meaningful feedback to users. Believe it or not you can make forms a fun, rewarding customer experience.

The outcome can be amazing as your customers know exactly what information they need to provide to complete the purchase.

Here are some other form tips you could test

Provide clear labelling free from industry jargon / terms
Use a checkbox / radio button to reveal optional additional info you may require.

Eg: Different billing address / shipping address.

Avoid popup errors. Instead use inline errors that highlight the problem area.
Don't reset form data if an error occurs or the customer doesn't fill out the form the way you expect them to. Customers don't like repeating themselves. Allow them to correct their error but preserve already entered details.

Answer Customer Questions

There are often many unanswered questions a customer has before they complete a transaction. How well does your website answer the following?

Can I return this item within x amount of days?
Can I review my order before I confirm the purchase?
Can I easily contact support or customer service if something goes wrong?
If I hit the next button, will I be billed?
If I hit the next button, will I be able to make a revision still?
What is the total price with shipping to my address?
How many days before I get my item delivered?
Is this site secure, can I trust you with my credit card details?
What payment types other than credit card do you accept?
If I'm only making a booking, how much is due now and how much is due later?
What is your privacy policy?

Useful tip: If you don't want to include all the text necessary to answer questions like those above, link to relevant sections of your site that explain the details or show(+) / hide(-) the content with javascript or similar technology.

This example shows a javascript 'accordian' interface where clicking on the question, hides / shows the relevant answer. Great for use in compact spaces so it won't clutter your interface and it's user intuitive.

Permission Marketing

Many E-commerce websites ask for customers to opt-in to special promotional emails before checkout, but have you ever tested removing this step from your conversion process?

You can always politely ask them to sign up to your newsletter:

After checkout (on your receipt page)
Via email order confirmation (mail out)
After the item has been posted to the customer

Another popular question on E-commerce checkout pages is 'Where did you hear about us?'

If you are not already, you should start using Google Analytics to help you identify the best conversion sources on your website, thus eliminating the need to ask the customer how they found you. Not to mention that some users don't know the difference between a 'search engine' and a 'browser'. So you may find the data you collect from asking this question is not that useful anyway.

You can always test to see if removing this question improves your conversion rate using Google Website Optimiser

Trust Indicators

Trust indicators are badges, qualifications, affiliations or security assurances that can help customers feel at ease on your website. Some common trust indicators are:

Secure payment gateway badges
Brand names you sell
Places you have been seen or mentioned in the media (eg: As Seen on TV)
Money back guarantee
Industry standards / rating / qualification
Demonstrating your site is secure (highlight the secure symbol)

Where you place your trust indicators will depend on the context of your trust indicator itself.

For example: credit card payments, any secure payment gateway certificate or seal should be placed in close context to your credit card details form.

The padlock in the bottom of a users browser is a trust indicator, but you may sometimes want to point it out as this graphic does.

Certain payment gateway providers will give you trust indicators to work with. Google checkout provides several.

Test and Confirm

Still not sure if the tips above will help improve your checkout conversion rates?

Remember you should always test and confirm changes to your site with Google Website Optimiser. Website Optimiser is absolutely free to use, to learn more check out our previous Conversion Room post about testing with Google Website Optimiser.

Posted By Gavin Doolan, Google Analytics Team

New Website Optimiser features just launched

2009-10-27T09:37:00.004Z

Google Analytics is not the only product to announce some cool new features this week. The Website Optimiser team have also been busy introducing an Experiment API and a new reporting feature called over time charts. As you'll know from previous posts, Website Optimiser allows you to test page variations on your site to find out which content and design drives the most sales and leads for you. Read about new features below, and visit our resources to learn more.

Over time charts

If you've recently looked at your Website Optimiser reports you may have noticed something different. This week we launched another new feature designed to help you better understand the performance of your variations: over time charts.

With over time charts you can see the cumulative conversion rate of each combination over the life of an experiment. This can give you a better understanding of how your site is performing. The new charts are available for all Website Optimiser experiments, and you'll find them on the reports page.

Website Optimiser Experiment Management API

The Experiment Management API allows for the creation and management of experiments outside of the Website Optimiser interface. Creating and launching a Website Optimiser experiment involves a series of steps. Depending on the design of your website, the content you want to test, and how technical you are, these steps can be easy and quick or potentially difficult.

One of the most important steps in creating an experiment is adding the Website Optimiser tags to the test pages. This step can be problematic if your website uses a content management system or a third party shopping cart since it can be difficult to directly access the code for these pages.

With the Website optimiser Experiment Management API, these platforms can integrate Website Optimiser directly into their services. This week two platforms have launched their integrations: CrownPeak and Blast Advanced Media's Motivity CMS.

Both integrations allow you to create and launch Website Optimiser experiments without touching your website's code. Many other platforms are working on integrating with Website Optimiser, and we're excited about helping more businesses increase their conversion rates through website testing.

We also have set up a special Google Group for the Website Optimiser Experiment Management API. It's a place where you can discuss implementations and get questions answered. Visit the group here.

If you'd like to learn more about using the Website Optimiser API, we've got a number of resources for you. First and foremost is the Website Optimiser API site on Google Code. There you'll find complete documentation on the API and our Getting Started guide.

Free webinar
Hear about the new API from an expert, sign up for our free webinar run by the Google Website Optimiser team on Wednesday, 28th October at 5pm GMT (10AM PDT). Register here.

To learn more about Website Optimiser you can read our previous posts on the Conversion Room:

Website Optimiser - Identifying high value pages to test

Introducing the Beginners Guide to Website Optimiser

You could also check out the Website Optimiser YouTube channel.

Posted by Evelyn O'Keeffe, Google Analytics Team.

Google Analytics now more Powerful, Flexible and Intelligent

2009-10-21T13:34:00.007+01:00

Yesterday our colleagues in the US announced a range of new features for Google Analytics. Just in case you missed their announcement, we wanted to highlight these new features on the Conversion Room too.

Each feature will offer you increased flexibility to customise and adapt Google Analytics for your business. We are also really excited about Analytics Intelligence - but you can find out more about this later in the post!

Check out the overview of each new feature below, written by Dai Pham from our US Google Analytics team in yesterday's announcement on analytics.blogspot.com.

Powerful.

Power users have asked us to add even more data manipulation and analysis features to Google Analytics. We've been listening, and are adding the latest power features to expand Google Analytics enterprise-class capabilities.

• Engagement Goals...and more of them! Two new goal types allow you to measure user engagement and branding success on your site. The new goal types allow you to set thresholds for Time on Site and Pages per Visit. Furthermore, you can now define up to 20 goals per profile. Watch this short video on goals to learn more.

• Expanded Mobile Reporting: Google Analytics now tracks mobile websites and mobile apps so you can measure your mobile marketing efforts more effectively. If you're optimising content for mobile users and have created a mobile website, Google Analytics can track traffic to your mobile website from all web-enabled devices, whether or not the device runs JavaScript. This is made possible by adding a server side code snippet to your mobile website which will become available to all accounts in the coming weeks. (download snippet instructions). We will be supporting PHP, Perl, JSP and ASPX sites in this release. Of course, you can still track visits to your normal website coming from high-end, Javascript-enabled phones.

iPhone and Android mobile application developers can now also track how users engage with apps, just as with tracking engagement on a website. What's more, for apps on Android devices, usage can be tied back to ad campaigns: from ad to marketplace to download to engagement. Take a look at the SDKs (software development kits) and technical documentation on mobile apps tracking to get started. And coming soon, you'll be able to see breakdown data on mobile devices and operators in the new Mobile reports in the Visitors section!

• Advanced Analysis Features: Advanced Table Filtering feature is being added to the arsenal of power tools that you can use to perform advanced data analysis. Earlier this year, we announced Pivoting and Secondary Dimensions. Using Secondary Dimensions, you could, for example, see revenue metrics for city + keyword combinations. So, you could see how much revenue your site received from visitors in London who searched for "bean bag". You could then "pivot" by source and see revenue by search engine for each of these city+keyword combinations. Here's a quick tutorial video.

Now we're adding Advanced Table Filtering. This allows you to filter the rows in a table based on different metric conditions. Watch this video to see an example of how you could filter thousands of keywords to identify just the keywords with a bounce rate less than 30%, and that referred at least 25 visits.

Together, these three power features let you perform in-depth, on-the-fly analysis without having to export your data to spreadsheet tools.

• Unique Visitor Metric: Now when you create a Custom Report, you can select Unique Visitors as a metric against any dimensions in Google Analytics. This allows marketers to see how many actual visitors (unique cookies) make up any user-defined segment.

Flexible.

Every enterprise has unique web analytics tracking and reporting needs. Today, we're enhancing two of the tools that organisations use to adapt and customise Google Analytics. We're adding multiple customised variables to the tracking API and making it easy to share Custom reports and Advanced Segments.

• Multiple Customised Variables: Multiple Customised Variables provide you the power and flexibility to customise Google Analytics and collect the unique site data most important to your business. If you've used the _setVar() function, the concept of customised variables will be familiar, but we've taken it a step further and added visitor, session and page-level scoping. You can use customised variables to classify any number of interactions and behaviours on your site. For example, you can now define and track visitors according to visitor attributes (e.g. member vs. non-member), session attributes (e.g. logged in or not logged in) and by page-level attributes (e.g. viewed Sports section). This incredibly powerful customisation capability makes Google Analytics even more flexible and able to meet the needs of the most demanding enterprises. Multiple customised variables will become available to all accounts in the coming weeks but you can start learning more about them now.

• Sharing Segments and Custom Report Templates: You may have recently noticed in your accounts the ability to administer and share Custom Reports and Advanced Segments, features that we announced earlier this year. Have a Custom Report that you created just for the Sales Team? Simply share the URL link for that report to anyone who has an Analytics account, and a pre-formatted Sales report template will be imported automatically. You can also now select the profiles with which you want to share or hide your Advanced Segments and Custom Reports.

Intelligent.

Wouldn't it be great if Google Analytics could tell you what to pay attention to? Starting today, it can!

• Analytics Intelligence: We're launching the initial phase of an algorithmic-driven Intelligence engine to Google Analytics. Analytics Intelligence will provide automatic alerts of significant changes in the data patterns of your site metrics and dimensions over daily, weekly and monthly periods. For instance, Intelligence could call out a 300% surge in visits from YouTube referrals last Tuesday, or let you know that bounce rates of visitors from Manchester dropped by 70% two weeks ago.

Instead of you having to monitor reports and comb through data, Analytics Intelligence alerts you to the most significant information to pay attention to, saving you time and surfacing traffic insights that could affect your business. Now, you can spend your time actually taking action, instead of trying to figure out what needs to be done.

• Customised Alerts make it possible for you to tell Google Analytics what to watch for. You can set daily, weekly and monthly triggers on different dimensions & metrics, and be notified by email or directly in the user interface when the changes actually occur.

Watch this video on Analytics Intelligence and then keep an eye out for the feature to appear in your account in the coming weeks!

We hope you're looking forward to trying out these new features in your account. We will focus on some of these features in more detail on the Conversion Room in our upcoming posts, showing examples of how and when to use each feature. In the meantime, let us know what you think of our Powerful, Flexible and Intelligent new features - leave a comment or send a mail.

Posted by Evelyn O'Keeffe, Google Analytics Team

Get involved in Google trainings and events in the UK

2009-10-15T17:23:00.007+01:00

There are lots of different ways to learn more about Google AdWords, Google Analytics and Website Optimiser (in addition to visiting the Conversion Room!)

If you'd like to listen to an expert explain practical ways to get better results from your advertising or find out how to get the most from Google analysis tools, check out the resources below....

Google AdWords webinars:

Webinars are online trainings you can access from your computer. You can find full details of all our UK webinars here. If you would like to sign up for webinars in another language you can check out what is available here.

We've picked out some upcoming webinars that you may find interesting:

Conversion Optimiser
Learn how you can get more conversions at a lower cost per conversion from your AdWords search and content campaigns.
11/11/09 3pm Register now

Make your website work: 10 ways to turn visitors into buyers
Explore the common website design pitfalls and techniques to avoid them.
18/11/09 3pm Register now

Tracking your AdWords return on investment
Learn how to better convert online clicks into profit for your business using AdWords Conversion Tracking and Google Analytics.
02/12/09 3pm Register now

Trainings:

Seminars for Success are in depth trainings run by Google accredited organisations. You can find some upcoming Google Analytics sessions being held in Glasgow by visiting this website. You can also see where other seminars are taking place around the world.

Events:

Google will be hosting AdWords and Google Analytics sessions at the eCommerce Expo, London, October 20th and 21st. Find out more about these sessions here and register for the event for free.

We hope you can make it to some of these trainings. If you do, let us know what you think - leave a comment below or send an email.

Posted by Evelyn O'Keeffe, Google Analytics Team.

View-through conversion reporting on the Google Content Network

2009-10-13T15:07:00.002+01:00

In our previous posts on the Google Content Network we discussed the importance of tracking your performance using conversion tracking, the networks tab and other easy to use tools within AdWords.

Today, to help you better measure the value of your display advertising campaigns, we're announcing a new feature called View-through conversion reporting on the Google Content Network.

Display ads are influential in driving purchase consideration and the overall awareness for your product or service, and with View-through conversion reporting, you can better measure the impact of your display ad campaign for those instances where your ad is seen, but not immediately clicked on. More specifically, View-through conversion reporting measures the number of conversions that occurred within 30 days of a display ad impression for which there was no ad click generated.

By using View-through conversion reporting, you can more easily compare the performance of your Google Content Network campaign with the performance of your other display advertising campaigns. This feature can also help you determine the best ways and places to advertise, how best to optimise your display ad campaigns, and, ultimately, how to spend your advertising budget more effectively.

Here is an example of how View-through conversion reporting works: Let's say you're selling pet food online and you're measuring conversions on your site's shopping cart "Thank You" pages. You've been testing running an image ad with a cute cat in it on the Google Content Network. Previously, you could only see if a visitor clicked on your ad and went on to purchase on your site. But if a user saw your colourful image ad, and later thought to visit and buy from your site, you had no way of knowing that your cat image ad had generated this business.

Now, if a visitor sees your display ad, does not click on it but then visits your site within the next 30 days to purchase cans of cat food, you'll see a View-through conversion reported on your Campaigns tab in AdWords. With this feature you can much more clearly assess how your display campaigns are impacting visitor behaviour.

Visit the Campaigns tab in AdWords to activate the optional View-through conversion reporting column. You'll need to have AdWords Conversion Tracking installed for View-through conversion reporting to work for your campaigns. However, the good news is if you have conversion tracking enabled in your AdWords account, View-through conversion tracking will automatically work for your display ads.

To learn more about View-through conversion reporting on the Google Content Network, you can visit our Help Centre. We hope this feature will provide you with better information about your campaigns and help you get the most out of your display advertising campaigns.

Posted by Ciaran Russell, Google AdWords Team.

New additions to the Google Conversion Professional network

2009-10-08T10:39:00.006+01:00

Today, we’re very delighted to unveil our latest wave of Google Conversion Professionals.

Our network of GCPs operate across the UK and Ireland and can help you to define your business and website goals and gain valuable insights into your customers.

Here are some of the services they provide:

Full implementation of analytics and site optimisation tools
Improvement of marketing effectiveness
Website enhancement through analysis and testing
Help tailoring your product & service proposition for maximum results

The latest additions to our network include:

Vivaki (part of the Publicis Group)
Latitude Group
Epiphany Solutions
iSpy Search Marketing

You can read more about our partners and how to contact them from the 'expert help' tab, where you can also read case studies showing the impact our GCPs have had on different businesses.

To hear tips and advice from our partners you can also check out this YouTube video.

Posted by Alan Wrafter, Programme Manager

Managing CPAs for maximum results

2009-10-05T10:44:00.008+01:00

In August, we posted a Conversion Optimiser case study and Patrick left a comment asking how to manage campaigns effectively once you have enabled Conversion Optimiser. So today we are responding with tips on how to manage your bids to find the most cost-effective solution for your business. Thank you all for your comments to date, keep them coming!

On average, advertisers using Conversion Optimiser see a 21% increase in conversions while decreasing their CPA by 14%*. However, to get the best results for your business, you will need to set your maximum CPA (cost-per-acquisition) carefully, potentially trying a few different CPAs before deciding what level works best for you.

*This analysis compares the performance of Conversion Optimiser campaigns with a control set of campaigns and represents the average impact of Conversion Optimiser. The actual impact will vary from campaign to campaign

How do I decide on a maximum CPA?
In order for your business to be profitable, you will have a maximum amount that you can spend on each sale or lead before advertising costs exceed the value from the successful conversion. This is your break even point.

Take time to work out how much you can, or are willing to, spend securing conversions, while still returning a profit. Once you know this, you can set a maximum cost-per-acquisition (CPA) bid and Conversion Optimiser will manage your CPCs for maximum results. There's no hard and fast rule when setting CPAs - but you will know your business best.

How can I maximise conversions and ROI?

Setting a maximum CPA is similar to setting a maximum CPC in that you can restrict the traffic you are getting for a campaign if your CPA is set too low. If you find that you are getting fewer conversions than you would like, try increasing your maximum CPA in small increments. Let Conversion Optimiser run for a few days at a CPA level that you want to try and monitor the results by seeing how many conversions you get at this new cost, and how much profit you make at this new level.

Remember, the lowest cost-per-acquisition may not always lead to maximum profits for your business. If you can get more conversions at a higher price-per-conversion, do the total additional profits outweigh the additional costs?

A simple example...
Say you make €10 profit on each t-shirt you sell before AdWords costs. If your average cost-per-conversion is €2, and you are getting 100 conversions per week at this cost, then you would make €800 profit on the sale of t-shirts after advertising costs.

However, if you raise your maximum CPA to get an average cost-per-conversion of €3 you get 200 conversions per week, because by bidding more you get more conversions. You would then make a profit of €1,400 after advertising costs.

Let Conversion Optimiser run for a few days at each CPA level that you want to try, then monitor the results.

Do I focus on specific problem areas?
As CPAs are set at the ad group level, changes to the maximum will affect all keywords in the group. If you find that some of your keywords are performing well at your current CPA, but you would like to improve the performance of others, you may consider breaking out your ad group into smaller groups.

Try leaving your top performers in the current ad group and placing some of the weaker keywords into a new ad group within the same campaign. Now you can adjust your CPA on your top performers to get additional conversions, while monitoring and tweaking keywords with less traffic to ensure that they are profitable for you.

I need a lower CPA to remain profitable, what impact will this have?

Say you need to lower your current cost-per-conversion for some products to maintain profitability. In this case, gradually reduce the Ad Group max CPA over time and monitor the results. You should expect to see a decrease in traffic, clicks and conversions as you lower your max CPA. However, each conversion should fall to or below your desired cost level.

I want to make the most out of my budget

If you are not meeting your campaign's daily budget, but are willing to do so, then you can try raising the max CPA for some of your ad groups. This lets you see how many more conversions are available at the higher CPA level.

Alternatively, create a new ad group, with new keywords, for your campaign. Conversion Optimiser allows you to test broad match keywords to see what your potential customers are searching for, while still looking to only show your ads when a conversion is likely. Using the search query report, find out what specific keywords are leading to conversions and add these directly to your campaign for maximum results.

To learn more about Conversion Optimiser visit this website, where you can find out how to activate Conversion Optimiser in your AdWords account today.

Posted by Faustina Clifford, Google AdWords Team.

Find new converting keywords more efficiently with the Search-based Keyword Tool

2009-09-28T11:09:00.004+01:00

Trying to think all of the possible keyword variations that your potential customers could be using to find your site can sometimes be an inexact science. But did you know that you can leverage the power of search to discover these missed keyword opportunities? By logging into the Search-based Keyword Tool and entering your website’s URL, you can quickly and easily discover search queries that are relevant to your site, but that are not currently in your AdWords campaigns.

When you enter your URL, you will not only receive potentially valuable new keyword ideas, but also:

The average number of searches on each query per month
The competitive bidding level for each term
The estimated bid to appear in the top three ad positions
The % of time with which an ad for your website appeared for the given query
The % of time which your site appeared in the first page of search results for the query
The suggested landing page for each keyword

Read how a South African travel services company, Accommodation Direct, increased their conversions and reduced cost per conversion by 34 percent with the Search-based Keyword Tool (SbKT) here.

To see your keyword ideas, just go to www.google.com/sktool, sign in to your AdWords account, and enter your website URL.

You can also check out this short introductory video on the Search-based Keyword Tool:

Post by David O'Donovan, Google AdWords Team.

Make Your Website Work - Free guide launched today

2009-09-22T12:44:00.004+01:00

We've just launched a brand new guide to improving website performance called 'Make Your Website Work', and we wanted our Conversion Room readers to be the first to see it! The guide can be viewed online from the 'e-book' tab above, and you can also download it in PDF format to read later.

The booklet focuses on common website design pitfalls from the point of view of a potential customer and uses real case study examples to show how you can improve your own website conversion performance.

We've also partnered with our Google Conversion Professionals to offer three lucky companies a free website health check from one of our experts. To be in with a chance of winning this service simply fill in our feedback form after you've read the guide.

Check out the e-book tab today and read our online guide, or download to read later or pass to a colleague. And as always please let us know what you think, send us an email or leave a comment below.

Posted By Edward Jackson, Google Website Optimiser Team

New Internet Stats site from Google

2009-09-21T19:34:00.004+01:00

Today we wanted to share a cool new website that can help your business by giving insights into what's going on online. The Google Internet Stats site offers stats on the economic environment, consumer behaviour and current media trends. (Please note this site is currently only available in English and covers mostly UK statistics)

The stats are split into five sections:

Technology
Macro Economic Trends
Media Landscape
Media Consumption
Consumer Trends

The information will be updated regularly with up to date research, but if you have an interesting insight you'd like to share you can Submit a Stat to appear on the site.

We think the Consumer Trends section will be particularly useful for Conversion Room readers. Take a look at what your website visitors and customers are doing online and think about adapting your site design/advertising to suit their behaviours.

Did you know...

In mid-2008, social networking accounted for around 10% of worldwide online time. This is a category that didn't exist 3 years ago.Nielsen, March 2009

76% of UK adult Internet users find out about local services online. Ofcom, August 2008

There are 1.5 million business searches daily on YouTube, making it the second-most-visited destination for business searches, behind Google. Google, Forbes, BtoB, June 2009, June 2009

33% of shoppers in the UK shop a lot more online since the recession. Media & Marketing, March 2009

Don't forget to also try out Insights for Search to look for up to date search trends. Check out these previous Conversion Room posts to learn more:

Capitalise on search trends using Insights for Search

Insights for Search iGoogle Gadget

Let us know what you think about the Internet Stats site, drop us an email or leave a comment.

You could also check out the Google Barometer Blog, where the Internet Stats site was recently announced. This blog is a useful resource for tips and advice on planning your marketing campaigns.

Posted By Evelyn O'Keeffe, Google Analytics Team

Don't Rely on Conversion Rate Alone

2009-09-16T18:15:00.015+01:00

Most website owners focus a lot on conversion rate. This is understandable. They want to see how many visits they can convert into paying customers and try to improve this ratio over time. After all that is what this blog is all about. However focusing on just conversion rate can be a dangerous thing to do. This is especially true when it comes to evaluating your sources of traffic.

Let's pretend we are an online marketer for a travel company, 'Watersports Holidays'. The strategy we have adopted is to review our Google Analytics data and invest more money in the sources that convert well, while taking money away from or optimising those that convert poorly. On the surface it sounds like a sensible strategy. So we log in to our Google Analytics account and we start reviewing our traffic sources. We are going to focus on our AdWords keywords but really this can apply to any traffic source.

In the report Traffic Sources > Keywords > Goal tab/ecommerce tab paid keywords we find two contrasting keywords. "Windsurfing holiday Fuerteventura" is doing great, it has a conversion rate of 1.4%, twice the average conversion rate for this site. It is one of our top performers so we decide to up it cost-per-click in order to push it higher in the ad auction and get more traffic to it. On the other hand we have "Watersports holidays Europe" which has a conversion rate of 0% for this period. It seems clear to us that this keyword is a poor performer and we immediately delete it.

We continue this process over time and we find that although the conversion rates of the remaining keywords are relatively high they are generating less revenue and overall sales are down. What have we done wrong?

Let's step back and put ourselves in the shoes of one of our customers. We are considering a holiday. We are going with two friends and want to go somewhere sunny that is great for watersports. So we do a search on the keyword "Windsurfing holiday Fuerteventura", go on to the Watersports Holidays website and buy immediately, right? Of course not, almost nobody is this impulsive in the real world. We start by researching a few possible destinations, we pick a destination and at that point find the Watersports Holidays site. We show our friends the site, decide on our package and make sure our dates are available. The next day at lunch we go on to the site and buy the holiday package for the three of us. At this point we've been to the site a number of times but Analytics attributes the conversion to our most recent source. If we judged our other keywords by their conversion rate alone we'd be removing keywords that albeit don't often contribute to the final conversion, are important in sparking initial user interest.

The second danger in looking at conversion rate alone is that we focus on high conversion rate but low volume keywords. Often our most important keywords have a conversion rate that is OK or worse when compared to the average but deliver a large portion of the revenue. When we focus on rates (or percentages) at the expense of the actual volume numbers, we sometimes miss the bigger picture.

So what is the solution? We need to focus on more than just conversion rate when evaluating our traffic sources. When we see a keyword or source that has a low conversion rate we need to do three things.

Firstly and most importantly check the margin and revenue metrics for this keyword. Is it making a positive contribution towards revenue? If so, by how much? Keywords that bring in revenue and make us a profit should be valued whatever the conversion rate (and all the more so if they generate high volumes of conversions).

Secondly we need to evaluate based on multiple metrics rather than conversion rate alone. If we take our "Watersports holidays Europe" keyword let us take a look at how it performed for two other key metrics; Bounce Rate and Average Time on Site.

When we evaluate our report we can see that 'Watersports holidays Europe' actually performed pretty well in terms of both bounce rate and time on site. It has a Bounce Rate considerably lower than average and a Average Time on Site double that of the average. Given this and the nature of the keyword itself (it is quite general and more likely to find prospects who later come back to buy) it would make sense to retain this keyword despite the low conversion rate.

Thirdly if we find our keyword has a low conversion rate and also underperforms in terms of other metrics such as time on site and bounce rate we need to look at optimising this keyword. Is it relevant to our products/services? If so is it matched with a relevant ad landing page? The more we preserve a consistency from keyword, through ad to landing page the more likely we are to pull users deeper in to our site.

In conclusion, there's no doubting conversion rate is a useful metric to understand the proportion of visitors who become buyers / leads on a site. However, it should not be used in isolation.

If you have feedback on this post or any other posts please drop us an email.

Posted by Brian O'Sullivan, Google Analytics Team.

New look Conversion Room blog!

2009-09-10T11:37:00.004+01:00

This morning we're delighted to launch our revamped Conversion Room blog, along with some cool new additions to the site.

Learn
Check out the 'Learn' tab to find information on examining the various components of your website to ensure you are maximising the profitability you get from your existing traffic. You can download case studies from companies who have improved site performance and conversions, and apply the learnings to your site. Don't forget to sign up to our free webinar here too.

Expert help
Looking for an expert to help you improve your website profitability? Take a look at the Expert Help page to hear from our Google Conversion Professionals and find a company to suit your needs. If you're part of a company that would like to become a Google Conversion Professional, you can learn more about the application process here too.

We hope you enjoy the new additions to Conversion Room. Don't forget to sign up to our site feed to ensure you never miss a post. And if you have any feedback on the new look blog or topics you'd like to see covered in the future drop us an email:

conversionroomfeedback@googlegroups.com

Posted By Evelyn O'Keeffe, Google Analytics Team

Companies & Conversions: How EMC Conchango optimise websites based on user behaviour

2009-09-10T09:38:00.004+01:00

EMC Conchango has recently become part of the Google Conversion Professionals programme. In this final post in our current series of Companies & Conversions, David Ellis, Head of Performance Measurement at EMC Conchango considers how website optimisation services will impact user centered design (UCD), but also what attitudes need to shift before this revolution in website design really takes off.

Earlier this week, I announced the result of our most recent website optimisation test. I was very excited - the results were outstanding - but what was most interesting was colleagues’ reactions to the results.

The initial reaction from a colleague was “Will the business believe the results?” And this, I believe, is the curious position that website optimisation services find themselves in at the moment. Because the results are often so impressive that businesses sometimes find them literally unbelievable – they can’t understand how they can be so good. This is particularly the case as the investment is so reasonable – after all, many thousands (or, indeed, hundreds of thousands) of pounds can be spent getting sites or applications up and running and they never seem to get such results.

And yet, there is no catch; these are real increases and improvements. This most recent test will add millions of revenue to the bottom line of the business and so the real benefits of the programme are indisputable.

I think there are two reasons for people finding website optimisation unbelievable, one of which in particular reflects a fundamental change in how we approach user centered design.

The return of the entrepreneur

Firstly, I think many businesses expect that only major levels of investment can deliver significant uplift and that these changes require significant back end work. In other words, they understand the limitation of their existing infrastructure – that is, the site design and structure, the back-end systems and the content management system and processes. They accept that, whilst they may be able to improve some things, these are essentially tweaks until they can completely rebuild their web site and ecommerce operations. But the point about website optimisation techniques is they focus on how the individual site visitor behaves, so any back-end infrastructure issues do not need to be a limiting factor, if the business is willing to work around them.

Those businesses who “get” optimisation have a more entrepreneurial attitude and are prepared to take risks. They tend to look beyond immediate limitations and want to learn and improve. They understand that in order to deliver big improvements, they need to take risks and are confident enough to accept these. Indeed, one of the great advantages of website optimisation techniques is that they manage risk by testing out all the options and demonstrating the most effective, thereby actually reducing the ongoing risk.

The changing face of User Centered Design

The second big point is that many businesses, and agencies, think they know best when it comes to designing interfaces. Agencies, in particular, focus their skills and their services on designing beautiful interfaces in the first place, and as a result very often they regard any alterations to or deviations from these interfaces as a threat. Businesses and agencies don’t always have the combination of analytical and business skills to reassess and then optimise their site’s performance.

However, the very best designers realise that the ultimate measure of how good an interface is, is the sales performance; how many conversions (sales, leads, or whatever) it generated for the business. They are fascinated by how they can learn and improve their understanding of how users really behave and respond to their designs. Our designers and user experience architects at EMC Conchango have really taken to our website optimisation services, because they realise that the best designs “live” once they are launched, and then evolve to respond to customer behaviour; they also realise that a site is never truly “finished” and set in stone, and they also get very excited when we outline just what an impact their work has had on the client’s business.

And this is the most interesting part, because this changes the nature of how we design web sites. No site is complete as it goes live and no matter how talented the design team, optimal rework adds real value. And this means that website optimisation services in general are currently changing the way that user centred design works. UCD no longer ends with a complete and final answer when the site goes live, but it enters a new phase with a site that is “born” and that will grow and evolve to be even better as we learn how it best can work in its particular ecosystem. UCD used to deliver sites that performed well, but from now on, with website optimisation services, the two complement each other to deliver best performing sites.

Tips for website optimisation

Embrace your limitations - Look to optimise what you can, rather than look at all the things that you can’t change because they require significant investment; you may be surprised with how much you can alter – and improve

Rediscover your inner entrepreneur – Website optimisation services offer genuine returns for those that back themselves, but you have to be confident enough to manage some risks, even if they are comparatively small

Test your designs - Consider how multivariate techniques could improve your design processes. For example, use the 80/20 rule to get most of the site ready, but then look to use optimisation techniques to establish the answers for the final 20%.

By David Ellis, Head of Performance Measurement, EMC Conchango

EMC Conchango are part of the Google Conversion Professionals Network, learn more about this programme and find an expert to help you to improve your online profitability here.

How to manage your ads effectively across the web

2009-09-01T09:33:00.020+01:00

In our previous posts on the Google Content Network, we talked about the value of reaching buying customers across the web. Customers spend 95% of their time browsing sites beyond search engines, and you can achieve CPAs on the Content Network that are comparable to Search*. What are the best ways to get great conversion results?

Let's look at some simple steps that will help ensure your ads show on the most relevant websites possible and result in more sales and conversions for you.

Step 1: Ensure your ads are eligible to show on relevant websites

Step 2: Build a strong campaign

Step 3: Monitor your performance

Step 4: Focus your advertising

Step 1: Ensure your ads are eligible to show on relevant websites

To get your ads showing on relevant websites now, ensure that your campaigns are opted in to the Content Network. You can do this through your AdWords account.

Here's how to do it:

Sign in to your AdWords account at http://adwords.google.com.
Click the name of the campaign you want to adjust.
On the 'Settings' tab, locate the "Networks and devices" section, and click "Edit."
Opt in to showing your ads across the network.
Click "Save" when you're done making your selection.

Step 2: Build a strong campaign

Just like with Search, the performance of your ads on the Content Network is linked closely to the content and structure of your campaign.

Create specific keywords and ad texts in separate ad groups for each product or service you want to advertise. Then we'll place your ads on web pages that are relevant to your business and your customers. By creating themed and specific ad groups, you get the best performance on Search and the Content Network.

Step 3: Monitor your performance

Once you've opted in to showing campaigns on the Content Network, Google will match your advertising, by theme, to relevant websites. You can monitor how these 'automatic placements' perform for you in your AdWords account. To do this, simply follow the instructions below.

Select the 'Networks' tab within your campaign.
Click ''show details" beside your automatic placements.

Use this view to compare the performance of your ads on the different sites they've shown on. Metrics include clicks, impressions, cost and conversions / sales generated when your ads showed on each site. You can then see which sites are most profitable for your business.

Step 4: Focus your advertising budget

You also have the ability to select individual sites that are performing well and focus your budget on these by adding them as managed placements. Here's how:

Select the 'Networks' tab within your campaign.
Click ''show details' beside 'automatic placements'.
Select the sites you wish to manage separately.
Click 'Manage placement and bid'.

Similarly you can reduce your bids on certain sites or even exclude sites altogether if you feel this will make your advertising more successful overall.

Follow these simple steps to get the exposure and results you want, as you reach customers across the web. You can also learn more about advertising on the Content Network here.

* 'CPA Performance Trends on the Google Content Network' - Google white paper 2009

Posted by Ciarán Russell, Google AdWords Team.

Companies and conversions: Schuh increases conversions by 6% using Website Optimiser

2009-08-24T10:49:00.015+01:00

In this week's instalment of 'Companies and Conversions', we look at how Schuh tested their product pages using Website Optimiser to increase conversions (sales) by 6%.

Testing the product category layout

Schuh’s Web Developer, Patrick Timmons, wanted to increase the profitability of the Schuh website. With Website Optimiser, he knew he could run different versions of a single page and see what led to a better response (i.e. conversion rate) from visitors. He decided to concentrate his efforts on the product category pages of the site.

Looking at his original page design, there were a number of things Patrick could test. Would customers respond best to have more products to compare on the page? Or fewer products, but with bigger graphics and more detail? Would including a male model on each page appeal, or was it a waste of valuable page space? In order to stop guessing about website design and to learn more about their visitors' behaviour, Patrick decided to launch an A/B test with Website Optimiser.

Winning page increased 'add to baskets' by 10% After leaving the test to run just a couple of weeks in Website Optimiser, it became clear to Patrick that one variation was winning. Variation B improved ‘add to baskets’ by 10% in comparison to the original.

Assuming the new variation converts equally to the original layout, this results in a 6% overall improvement in site conversions for customers who navigate via the product category page.

What can you do next?

Identify areas of your site to test. This can be done by a simple usability analysis of your site, or by using hard data from your analytics programme. Design alternatives to the original and run the new variations via a testing platform such as Google’s free Website Optimiser.

Schuh are just one of the companies that have shared conversion improvement success stories with us. Read more about Schuh and others in the Conversion Centre. You can also learn more about our Google Conversion Professionals programme and how they could help you improve your site's profitability here.

Posted By Edward Jackson, Google Analytics Team

Companies and conversions: uSwitch reduce CPA by 40% using Conversion Optimiser

2009-08-17T09:46:00.004+01:00

This week's post in our 'Companies and conversions' series looks at uSwitch.com who began testing AdWords free bid management feature, the Conversion Optimiser. The decision to change from their old bid management strategy has led to a doubling of conversions for uSwitch and a reduction in conversion costs of 40% has convinced them to roll out Conversion Optimiser for more of their campaigns.

Focusing on conversions

The ultimate conversion goal for uSwitch.com is for users to complete a switch to a different product or to complete an online application, such as a credit card application.

uSwitch had been using a bid management system that adjusted AdWords CPC bids based on a target cost-per-acquisition (CPA). In October 2008, Rebecca Ford, Search Marketing Manager for uSwitch.com, was looking to try a different solution as the existing system was complex, time consuming and was not bringing in the results the company were looking for.

Reducing costs, not traffic

Ford decided to trial the free AdWords Conversion Optimiser on one of their campaigns. An important factor for uSwitch was that any changes made to their AdWords campaigns should not reduce traffic volumes.

Within 30 days of implementing Conversion Optimiser, uSwitch's CPA reduced by almost 40% while the total number of conversions more than doubled to 102%. At the same time, traffic to the site remained constant.

What should you do next?
Review your current bid management process for your AdWords campaigns. Is this process conversion and ROI focused? Is it time intensive or complex and does it result in the performance your business wants or needs?

If there is room for improvement and testing, then consider using the Conversion Optimiser on one of your campaigns and see how many more conversions you could be getting for your investment in AdWords.

Once you have Conversion Tracking enabled, or have imported your Google Analytics goals into AdWords, all you need is 15 conversions in 30 days to start using Conversion Optimiser. Simply choose 'Focus on conversions(Conversion Optimiser)' from within your campaign settings tab in AdWords.

uSwitch are just one of the companies that have shared conversion improvement success stories with us. Read more about other companies improving conversion in the Conversion Centre.

Posted By Ruth Brennan, Google Team

Companies and Conversions: Opportunity analysis techniques from MoneySpyder

2009-08-11T10:16:00.003+01:00

Moneyspyder recently became part of the Google Conversion Professionals programme and today Doug Hall, Chief Technology Officer, shares his insights into opportunity analysis on your website.

Starting as you mean to go on

Over the last three years at Moneyspyder, we have developed and refined a set of tools, processes and techniques that we use to help our clients decide what they really need to focus on in order to improve their websites. We've helped clients discover opportunities that can significantly increase revenue through building an 'Opportunity Profile' prior to any development or testing.

The Opportunity Profile should be the first output from an initial web analytics audit and review. Building a clear strategic and tactical plan without firstly drawing the metaphorical line in the sand is a rather fluid exercise resulting in a confusing and nebulous representation of a web business.

The Revenue Funnel

A fundamental tool in the Opportunity Analysis armoury is the revenue funnel. Built using Google Analytics data (either in a spreadsheet or via the GA API), the revenue funnel is similar to the well known goal funnel in Google Analytics. Rather than seeing where users are leaking from a checkout process, the revenue funnel shows where revenue is being left on the table. Where the goal funnel uses each goal step, the revenue funnel uses the main touch points on a site to represent the steps towards the gross profit figure:

The top bar represents the maximum potential revenue that the site would generate with 100% conversion. Subsequent bars represent the theoretical maximum potential revenue for:

• Users who didn't bounce
• Users who added products to their basket
• Users who started the checkout

Finally, we see actual figures for revenue and gross profit. Whilst the first bars are notional, and the numbers have been blurred to protect the innocent, the numbers themselves are not of interest at this point. The real value can be gained by looking closely at the relative sizes of the bars. Seeing that the majority of the revenue is being left on the table at the basket stage in this example indicates just where maximum impact on the bottom line can be gained. Does the site need a new basket? The funnel certainly suggests this!

The same graph can be visualised as a pie chart where the entire pie represents the 100% conversion figure:

Roll your own

Key to the Moneyspyder philosophy is to 'take the think out of eCommerce'. The revenue funnel takes the think out of what to prioritise quickly and clearly. Moving forward, the revenue funnel can be used to pose 'what if...?' questions to your Google Analytics data. Simple sensitivity analysis can reveal what levers to pull in order to affect maximum change to your gross profit. This straightforward technique has proven useful and valuable in getting effective change programmes rolling. Try it with your data and you could see some revealing insights!

By Doug Hall, Chief Technology Officer, Moneyspyder.

Moneyspyder are part of the Google Conversion Professionals Network, learn more about this programme and find an expert to help you to improve your online profitability here.

Companies and conversions: how Next increased conversion rates by 103%

2009-08-06T08:54:00.003+01:00

Over the next few weeks on the Conversion Room we are going to look at how real companies have used conversion tools to improve their ROI. We will also hear tips from our network of Google Conversion Professionals on how they help clients improve their online profitability.

This week, Next share with us how they improved their conversion rate by 103% on high traffic keywords.

Next's PPC keywords 'catalogue' and 'directory' drove high volumes of traffic to their site. In fact, these keywords represented 30% of Next's overall PPC traffic. The Next team noticed that while these keywords brought lots of visitors to their site, the visitors were likely to bounce - or leave the site straight away. Having identified this trend in Google Analytics Next looked at their site. The keywords 'catalogue' and 'directory' both led to a catalogue sign up page.

In an attempt to reduce the bounce rate, Next tested sending visitors on these valuable keywords to their homepage instead. The results were dramatic, bounce rates decreased by 37% as more people were spending more time on the site. As a result sales increased, and these keywords experienced a 103% increase in conversion rate and 107% increase in per visitor value.

Catalogue page

Home page

What can you do next?

Check out the following report within your Google Analytics accounts: Traffic Sources >> AdWords, then look at the bounce rate for various keywords that drive traffic to your site.

Examine the relationship between keywords with a high bounce rate and the URLs these visitors are sent to.

Could visitors searching on your keywords be brought to a more relevant landing page?

Next are just one of the companies that have shared conversion improvement success stories with us. Read more about Next and others in the Conversion Centre. You can also learn more about our Google Conversion Professionals programme and how they could help you improve your site's profitability here.

Posted by Evelyn O'Keeffe, Google Analytics Team.

Now even more AdWords campaigns can use the Conversion Optimiser!

2009-07-30T15:56:00.008+01:00

The Conversion Optimiser is a free bid management tool that allows you to set your optimal cost-per-acquisition (CPA) values to make the most of your advertising spend and really drive profitability from AdWords. On average, campaigns using Conversion Optimiser see a 21% increase in conversions, combined with a 14% decrease in CPA, when compared to manual CPC bid management.*

*This analysis compares the performance of Conversion Optimiser campaigns with a control set of campaigns and represents the average impact of Conversion Optimiser. The actual impact will vary from campaign to campaign.

We have recently lowered the criteria to use the Conversion Optimiser from 30 to 15 conversions in a campaign within the last 30 days. This means even more AdWords advertisers can benefit from this free bid management tool.

To use the Conversion Optimiser you must also have Conversion Tracking enabled within your AdWords account or import your conversion goals from Google Analytics into AdWords. Check out our previous Conversion Room posts to find out more about these two options:

Boosting AdWords ROI with the Conversion Optimiser

Importing your Google Analytics goals into AdWords

Read our Success Stories and find out how UK Tights have used the Conversion Optimiser to reduce cost per conversion by over 50%. You can also learn more about how the Conversion Optimiser works by visiting this microsite.

Posted By Evelyn O'Keeffe, Google Team

Check out Page Speed and help make your site and the web faster!

2009-07-28T13:28:00.003+01:00

Making your website as fast as possible could help keep visitors on your site, so any improvements you can make to the speed of your site should be good for business! Conversely, if browsing a site is slow and cumbersome, visitors may give up and shop elsewhere. Today we want to share a cool Google tool called Page Speed that can show you how to increase the speed of pages within your site. If you are not responsible for your website's code you may want to pass this information on to your webmaster.

What is Page Speed?

Page Speed is an open source Firefox/Firebug Add-on that webmasters and web developers can use to evaluate the performance of web pages and get suggestions for improvement.

How does Page Speed work?

Page Speed can carry out tests on your website's web server configuration and front-end code. The tests rate your site against a set of best practices proven to enhance web page performance. When you run Page Speed on on your site's pages you will get a set of scores for each page, as well as suggestions on how to improve performance.

How do I get Page Speed?

Access the Page Speed site here. Once you or your webmaster install the add-on you can begin testing your web pages. You can also watch this YouTube video to learn more.

Page Speed is part of a wider Google campaign to make the web faster for everyone. Check out the YouTube video below to hear about Google engineers and webmasters vision on making the web faster:

Find out more by visiting the Google Code site. If you have your own suggestions for making the web faster please let us know.

Posted By Evelyn O'Keeffe, Google Analytics Team

Improve your AdWords ads to win even more converting customers

2009-07-20T10:21:00.005+01:00

With search advertising, the route that a buying customer takes towards making a purchase on your website begins with their search query (your AdWords keyword). But it is the content of your ads that will determine if they ever actually reach your site. So we thought we would share the short video below which contains some of our best practices for creating winning ad texts. These will provide you with ideas to test when writing your ads, which will help to differentiate your business from the crowd and drive even more converting customers to your website!

Test the above optimisation tips by logging into your AdWords account today, and editing your ads to make your marketing messages even more compelling to your potential customers!

For more information, visit our content on ad text optimisation in the AdWords Help Centre.

Did you like the video? We'd love to hear your feedback. Let us know.

Posted By David O'Donovan, Google AdWords Team

How to convert clicks into profit - download free Google how-to guide

2009-07-13T10:28:00.005+01:00

We wanted to share this how-to guide with you as we think it is a great resource for anyone involved in online marketing. How to convert clicks into profits, is a step by step manual for working with 5 Google products that can help you increase your online profitablility: Insights for Search, Conversion Tracking, Conversion Optimiser, Google Analytics and Website Optimiser.

Whether you are new to one or all of these products, or an experienced user, you will find tips and best practices to help you track your online results and drive competitive improvements. Equip yourself with the tools and the resources to identify areas of improvements on your website and start seeing the impact you can have on your bottom line.

Download a pdf version of the how-to guide now and drive conversions for your business, no matter what the economic climate.

Did you like the how-to guide? We'd love to hear your feedback. Let us know

Posted By Ruth Brennan, Google AdWords Team