Understanding Search Traffic Intentions

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mstef

mstef

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Dec 11, 2008
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I'm still relatively new at this and learning so excuse the newbish mentality and ranting. I'm running two diet campaigns - seemingly the most popular two types of diet offers. I created an extremely professional, well-designed, site, and have been split testing LPs for a while - each LPs contain multiple offers, which have been rotated as well, etc. I had campaigns for each with a large amount of keywords, both deep and wide. After striking out horribly the first few days I decided to focus very narrow on the keyword lists - practically grabbing only keywords with buying intentions.

Now this is what I don't get and what is driving me insane. I've driven 160 clicks through each of the two campaigns over the last 2-3 days. Ad CTR, placement, and CPC are surprisingly good. Almost all of the clicks are things like

buy <product> online
best types of <product>
free trial for <product>
order <product> online
top <product> products
where to buy <product>

You get the point...

Now what the hell is going through the mind of someone who searches "buy <product> online"...hits a great looking, helpful, hard-selling LP, clicks through to an offer, then doesn't convert...?

Even better, who searches for "best <product> products", finds a review and comparison of the 'best' and doesn't click through to the offer even?

I'm obviously missing something because I only got one conversion and it was a wide keyword - not even containing the product in the search. Ironically, it was the first click I recieved...

Any advice or insight would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the girlish ranting again..just getting pissed off.
 


are people not clicking through? Or are they reaching the merchant page but not converting. but yea, what's your bounce rate?

also, try clicktale
 
LP CTR is between 30-50% now. Some users have clicked through to multiple offers. I've sent 82 clicks through the network out of the 160 clicks on Adwords.

Another surprisingly thing is when someone searches for one product and clicks through the other product offer links at the bottom of the LP.
 
not enough data really but you also need to know where they are dropping off. are they leaving the page are going through to the offer page? maybe the offer page sucks...ask your AM if it does well in general.
 
160 clicks simply isn't enough data yet...
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I think you were missing my point. I am just confused on how so many people can search for something as specific and direct as "buy <product> online" or something similar, and not convert. If I go 1 for 160 using the most direct, buying-intention keywords, I don't understand how it could work - yet I know for sure that people are making it work..

not enough data really but you also need to know where they are dropping off. are they leaving the page are going through to the offer page? maybe the offer page sucks...ask your AM if it does well in general.
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I stated the CTR is ~30-50%...and that I rotate offers & lps. 3 offers for each product - usually comparison-style LP's..and I mixed them. Product 1 LP has one offer for product 2 at the bottom, etc. I'm also using new-window links in hopes to have the people come back.

Though I expected a much higher LP CTR since I'm only using direct, buy-intention keywords. Don't know how you search "best <product> products", etc, and not click through the LP...
 
Three things:

1. http://www.wickedfire.com/affiliate-marketing/52527-how-find-niche.html#post470539 - great post, you should read it.

2. Could be a lot of those clicks are from other affiliates having a lookie-lu at your landing page. I know of at least one Wicked Fire member who has a IP blacklist of affiliates who have clicked on his ads at least one two many times. And weight loss is super... fricking... competitive.

3. Time of day is a critical parameter. 185 clicks? Were they between 9:00 am and 11:30 am when people are at their desk surfing the web? Some Wicked Fire members swear that on Sunday evening, weight loss never converts. On the other hand, Sunday is the best day of the week for EPN.
 
Benji49 said:
Three things:

1. http://www.wickedfire.com/affiliate-marketing/52527-how-find-niche.html#post470539 - great post, you should read it.

2. Could be a lot of those clicks are from other affiliates having a lookie-lu at your landing page. I know of at least one Wicked Fire member who has a IP blacklist of affiliates who have clicked on his ads at least one two many times. And weight loss is super... fricking... competitive.

3. Time of day is a critical parameter. 185 clicks? Were they between 9:00 am and 11:30 am when people are at their desk surfing the web? Some Wicked Fire members swear that on Sunday evening, weight loss never converts. On the other hand, Sunday is the best day of the week for EPN.
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I chose this niche because it pays high, has the highest EPCs and earning on the network, weight loss and health idiots seem stupid enough to convert nicely, etc.

2. I was thinking that. Do you know where I can find that list? Any other ways to prevent this?

3. The ads usually started around 1pm EST and stopped around 3am. Moved the times around a little. Tried weekends and weekdays.

I understand it's competitive but the CPCs don't seem that high - as opposed to what I thought they would be.
 
Ok, I'm no guru and still relatively new and all but I will second the comment about time of day. That can make a huge difference and that's also why you need more data spread out over time so you can get a clear picture of all the variables that can make or break conversion rates.
 
Youre assuming those KWs are buying kws...they often are RESEARCH and comparison KWs and no where near the buy process..
Ive tested alot of KWs in the diet vertical and you'd be surprised what some of the converting diet kws are...
 
there's bad days to take into consideration. i've gone 0/120+ on some days then done 20 conversions the next day. sometimes it happens. 80 click throughs is really not enough to tell. you're rotating offers? so thats 30 or so clicks to each offer. way to low.

... and there's also the shave factor which is high on diet right now.
 
well the clicks were spread out across about 5-6 days. What do you think about the keywords/targeting though? Like I said, I'm still pretty new at this so I'm still learning...

I know most people like to start as wide as possible, but I figured having like 1000 keywords, and needed at least 20 clicks per keyword for testing, that would cost a fortune and take a long time. I thought it would be best to start as narrow and concise as possible, find profitability, then begin branching out and testing more...

No?
 
mstef said:
well the clicks were spread out across about 5-6 days. What do you think about the keywords/targeting though? Like I said, I'm still pretty new at this so I'm still learning...

I know most people like to start as wide as possible, but I figured having like 1000 keywords, and needed at least 20 clicks per keyword for testing, that would cost a fortune and take a long time. I thought it would be best to start as narrow and concise as possible, find profitability, then begin branching out and testing more...

No?
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You are doing search ppc in a ridiculously competitive industry. you dont know that people are really making a lot of money with search for the diet niche you are in. maybe, just maybe they are not. (shocker, i know) also, competitive doesnt just mean CPC, it can mean cookies, so you convert someone elses browsing customer from last week. it could also mean that you are in a niche where the customer clicks on 3 or 4 landing pages before buying. maybe they like someone elses landing page better.

and, perhaps MOST importantly, as stated by others, you are trying to analyze their search/buy tendencies. good luck trying to physchoanalyze that. do ppc long enough and you will see the entire gambit. obvious keywords with horrible conversion ratio, obscure keywords with 80% conversion ratios, general keywords performing awesome and specific ones poorly. and, oh, vice versa.

my advice. use your best judgement. go with your gut. if it fails try another niche.
 
1. No, no, read the entire thread on finding a niche. A guy pops in and gives his 2 cents about keywords and buying intent. Go back and read it again, the title is misleading (that's Wicked fire automatic hot-linking feature).

2. I think it's Will the living legend has the list. Don't know if he gives it out. Maybe if you suck up to him real nice.

3. If you haven't had at least one conversion, maybe its your offer. I would do a search "scrub" and "Acai" on this forum and see what interesting bits of gossip show up.
 
Yea that thread was great..

I rotated the offers and each got their fair share of clicks...

I really liked how the thread mentioned the importance of 'end results'...perhaps I should go back to trying keywords like that related to what the products do rather than the name of the products themselves...
 
be very careful with network epc too on diet. you have to take into account that most "big" acai offers had to start somewhere and the easiest way to get a lot of attention is to convert well. where there's money afilliates will jump all over an offer and the epc will go way up. after a month or so most offers i've been on will "re-adjust" there epc to become or remain profitable. its normally at this point a lot of marketers jump ship as they get squeezed by the epc drop. you get left with a high network epc that will take a long time to drive back down.
do i have absolute proof of this? no but my stats show it happening
has it happened to me? yes, 3 times now
and yes it sucks, but no-one is going to admit it happens.
diet on search takes a lot of money and testing to do the traditional way but if you're smart you can buy yourself in cheaply.
 
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