The Magic Keyword “Buy” in AdWords
Most newbie AdWords users focus very strongly on CTR as a way to measure the success of their advert.
In previous posts I already explained why focusing on CTR is wrong and why instead you should focus on conversion:
- http://www.ppchacking.com/2009/01/impact-of-domain-on-ctr-and-conversion/
- http://www.ppchacking.com/2009/01/focusing-on-ctr-for-your-adverts-and-forgetting-conversions/
What CTR indicates is simply how many people out of those that made a search clicked your advert. However it doesn’t indicates who those people are. Are they buyers? Are they people purely looking for information with no intention to spend a single dollar?
People that search on Google have a specific intent in mind, and they summarize it into the search query. However the search query being just a few words it doesn’t tell everything about the intent of the user. Is he looking to buy? Or just searching for information?
The second step in expressing that intent is clicking on an advert. The user will click the advert that he feels is the most relevant to his intent (and not just to his search query).
So if for example you add the word “Buy” in your advert people that have the intent to buy will click more on that advert and people that don’t have the intent to buy will click less. Usually by adding the word “Buy” in your advert you’ll get a lower CTR, but the reason is not because your advert is not good, it’s simply because the amount of people with the intent to buy is less than the amount of people with the intent not to buy.
Let’s look at this example:
In the advert with “Buy” the CTR is lower, however the conversion rate is higher and overall the advert with “Buy” generates more conversions.
Also besides generating more conversions this advert gets half the number of clicks, so the cost is is also less.
Interesting read. I’ve been experimenting with exactly the same wording for a few months now and to be honest I’ve had mixed results in terms of if it affects conversions. Certainly not enough data either way to draw conclusions.
I definitely agree that you need to think about a users intent when writing your Ads, for example if someone is searching using the word “cheap” then I’d include “low prices” “free delivery” etc. If someone is searching for a brand then I’d Google around to find the USPs of that brand and include that in the Ad text.
Hi Giotto - great blogs as always. Wouldn’t you agree though that it important for a newbie to partially focus on CTR as this will effect their ads Quality Score? Would the account be better handled if they include the “BUY” call to action within their advertising but place works such as “info”, “information” within their negative keywords? Hence lowering impressions, but maintaining a quality CTR and Conversion Rate?
Food for thought!
Thanks
Ian Rhodes
SPOT ON POST!!!
I once had a client who hired his virtual assistant to run a Google Adwords campaign and the CTR was amazing. She did a GREAT job of creating an ad EVERYONE clicked on.
Unfortunately, the conversion for the ad SUCKED! The guy flushed over $2K without making a single sale.
It’s a hard lesson to learn on your own. You’ve done a GREAT job of illustrating the “truth” here.
Lowering impressions with negatives is always a good thing to do. Focusing purely on a high CTR is wrong even in the beginning, I’m not saying that CTR is not important but what you actually want to achieve is a high CTR that also converts, not a high CTR that doesn’t convert.
Hi Giotto and everybody else,
I am a newbie. And Yes I have been focussing on a high CTR in my Adwords campagne. So if I understood correctly, I should place “Buy” in the headline of a an advert within an existing adgroup?
Or should I make a complete different adgroup for “Buy my USP” keyword? Or should I just place the word “buy” somewhere in the rest of the ad text?
Thanks for the great info in your posts!
Jeremy
You have to test as the behavior changes from product to product (market to market). There is nothing bad in high CTR as long as it converts. The thing to be careful of is high CTR that does not convert well.
Interesting post. But, not really complete though. What I’d like to see, is if the CPC is lower on the ad with the Higher CTR.