This is the 10th post in the SEM Beginner Series, following last week's post on negative keywords. This series of posts is intended for new search engine marketing professionals that are looking for guidance to help identify, monitor and adjust the key performance indicators (KPIs) that determine the success of a PPC campaign. Previous posts in this series discussed click-through rate (CTR), cost-per-click (CPC), ad copy, dynamic text, ad position, natural versus paid search and relevancy.
In Part One of Measuring Search Success, I explained common search engine metrics (pre-click) and their importance when determining the success of your pay-per-click marketing strategy. Determining return on investment (ROI) happens after the click. Your ROI will differ depending upon your business model, site structure and campaign objectives.
Today, I am going to discuss a few of the basic post-click metrics that can be used to determine ROI. It is important to use web analytics and/or conversion tracking to monitor post-click activity. Microsoft adCenter currently offers the ability to track conversions.
Sales - Driving sales drives online revenue. Online retailers, who drive sales online, use several formulas to determine success depending upon their objectives. The most commonly used formulas are Conversion Rates (Number of Purchases / Clicks) and Cost per Order Dollar (Total Purchase Amount / Total Cost of Transaction).
Bounce Rates - Bounce rates are the percentage of site visitors who leave for a different website. Having a low bounce rate ensures you are providing the site visitor with a great user experience, which increases your chances for a transition and higher ROI, especially for branding campaigns.
Time on Site/Page - Time on Site or Time on Page refers to the amount of time that a site visitor is on a website or webpage. Generally the longer the visit, the better, including branding campaigns.
Form Submission/Lead Generation - Form Submission (also known as Lead Generation) is commonly used by financial and auto advertisers to gather a user's basic information for additional follow up. Examples include applying for credit cards, scheduling an automotive test drive and filling out a credit application.
Click to Call (CTC) - Click to call is a method in which a user can call a phone directly from a web browser. This has become more popular recently with mobile devices.
Offline purchases from Online Advertising - This metric is often hard to measure unless your website offers a coupon that can be accessed online and linked to from your paid search campaign. When executed properly, this method can be very effective!
The above listed metrics only scratch the surface of what advertisers and website owners use when measuring success. Using a web analytics platform and conversion tracking will help to track available website metrics.
What other metrics do you use to judge success when evaluating paid search success? Leave a comment!