My business, which is an equipment supplier for tradespeople, has recently added an e-commerce arm to its website. I’m aware that the success or otherwise of the venture will depend on the amount of traffic the site can generate through well placed organic search listings. However, I’ve recently dropped to page two or under on Google for my main keywords and have been considering investing some money in both SEO activities and pay per click (PPC) campaigns. I don’t really know where to start and need some help in measuring results. How do I go about this?
Christopher Angus writes:
The beauty of internet marketing is that results are completely measurable down to the last penny; you know exactly how each pound is performing and how much profit you will be make for every amount that you spend. Ultimately, the old phrase “you know 50% of your marketing works, just not which half” is completely invalid in this day and age.
Google offers some amazing free tools to track how much money is spent on a particular campaign, whether it is search engine optimisation (SEO) or Pay Per Click (PPC). The first tool you need to get working is Google Analytics. This shows you where every stream of traffic is coming from and lets you dissect each path and its value. Once you have Google Analytics set up correctly, you can then install the ‘conversion goals’ part of analytics which will tell you exactly, down to the last penny, how much each sale or action which you have deemed to be a ‘goal’ has cost.
The visualisation within setting up the ‘conversion goals’ has a number of steps so you can track each process within the sales funnel on your site and plug any “leaks” you may have. For example, maybe your shopping cart is confusing and you are seeing a lot of people dropping out after they have filled their shopping baskets but before they have paid. You can then investigate why you have such a high drop-out rate from people you assume are ready to buy but do not complete the final transaction.
By using Google Analytics and setting up your conversion goals correctly, you will be able to measure and understand what the return is from both SEO and PPC campaigns, and which activity to subsequently channel the most funds into. As a final cherry on the top, Google offers a tool called ‘Conversion Rate Optimiser’ which enables you to split test your website versus new versions of it, which will allow you to continuously improve the conversion of your site and ultimately, your bottom line.
Christopher Angus runs a successful digital marketing boutique in the UK,
www.warlockmedia.com