MarketingExperiments Blog: Research-driven optimization, testing, and marketing ideas

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Relevance is not born on your landing page. Relevance starts with the ad that the visitor clicked. With SES New York right around the corner (hope to see you there!), I wanted to discuss how your ads effectively shape your site visitors’ motivation. When you understand motivation, you can build ad-page pairs that maximize relevance, and consequently conversion.

Recently, I discussed how clarity helped RealGoodsSolar landing page keep visitors on the page. Today, I wanted to take a closer look at the different motivations that their landing page meets from paid Facebook, LinkedIn and AdWords traffic. Read more…

Finding appeal for your PPC ads is never easy. But if you take the time to think like the searcher and then offer them what you truly believe they are looking for, you are one clear step closer to finding the key that unlocks the door to a significant increase in conversions for that segment.

Let’s see what the process of finding appeal might actually look like as I quickly apply it to one of our audience-submitted PPC ads from our previous Web clinic on PPC. Read more…

After being involved in our recent Web clinic on PPC ads, I feel it’s important to talk about one of the most misunderstood elements involved in effectively writing a PPC ad. This is the element of appeal. Let me take a step back for a moment. MarketingExperiments has done extensive research (here’s one example) about the elements of an effective value proposition in the hopes of creating a repeatable process that marketers can use to optimize their own value props. In an effort to help simplify this process, we have created a breakdown of what makes a value proposition truly forceful:

• Appeal – How much is this offer desired?
• Exclusivity – Is this offer available elsewhere?
• Credibility – How believable are your claims? Read more…

Your Value Proposition is at the bottom of every decision made by every visitor for every action they make on your Website. And so when comparing the significance of this fundamental force of value with the transient nature of a PPC ad that has at most 130 characters, it might seem as if I am trying to put David on a seesaw with Goliath.

However, though seemingly small and comparatively insignificant, a PPC ad can provide an invaluable resource for marketers trying to identify and craft an effective Value Proposition. And like the rudder of a ship directs something 1000 times its size, I believe a PPC ad can inform the bedrock of all your marketing efforts, namely, your Value Proposition.

What exactly is a Value Proposition?

But before diving any deeper, we should get clear on what I actually mean by the term Value Proposition. At MarketingExperiments we define your Value Proposition as the answer you have to one simple question: Why should your ideal prospect buy from you rather than any of your competitors? So, your Value Proposition is not a catchy slogan or a detailed business plan, but rather a concise, clear, and credible answer to this question.

Seems simple, yet the answers we often receive from marketers are confusing, unappealing, braggadocios, vague, and sound just like the claims everyone else is making. So, how would you answer this question about your online offer? Can you state it clearly in about ten words or less? Take a minute and give it some thought…

We will teach more on the aspects of a good Value Proposition during today’s live web clinic, but for now, it is sufficient to understand that your Value Proposition is that primary reason why your ideal prospect should buy from you rather than your competitors. Read more…

Pity the poor PPC ad copywriter. Back in the days of the so-called mad men, before Transparent Marketing was a necessity, they could just mix hyperbole, bold fonts, and a handsome fella, and then head out for the three-martini lunch. No one is measuring anyway, so who could prove the ad didn’t work?

Fast forward to the present day. In a PPC (pay-per-click) ad, all you have are a few precious characters and tiny visuals in which to convince a skeptical consumer that will only glance at your ad for a split second that your ad deserves a click. On top of that, with paid search, you’re competing for that click with all of your competitors’ ads, as well as organic traffic, with no visual help at all.

On Wednesday’s Web clinic – Optimizing PPC Ads: How to leverage the full potential of 130 characters by clarifying the value proposition – Dr. Flint McGlaughlin will review key PPC experiments illustrating the potential of a clear value proposition to help the humble PPC ad men and women of the world perfect their craft. He will also teach on the components of a properly stated value proposition and how they apply specifically to PPC ads.

But first, we wanted to hear from you. How do you create an ad that stands out from the rest of your competitors? How do you get the click? Here are a few of our favorite answers… Read more…

Quality traffic is essential for any marketing campaign. Shoot, it’s essential for any successful business. You could have a highly valuable product (let’s say a real cure for male baldness), at the best price (let’s say for just a shipping address with no strings attached), and the most optimized website presentation on the interwebs (let’s say it has undergone a year of MECLABS testing), but despite these advantages, if there are no address-owning bald men who can find your website, well then your business will look a lot like me trying to drive a stick-shift.

Ok, crazy example, but the point is this: Quality traffic is essential.

The question for marketers is – where can we find the most quality traffic on the Web? Should we work with Pay-Per-Click (PPC)? Is it smart to invest in social media? Will external website banner ads be worth the costs? There are many options out there, but today, I want to bring your attention to an experiment that compared the traffic quality between two of the most common online channels: PPC vs. Banner Ads.

Now, explaining this test will be a little more tedious than usual because it deals with multiple experiments of a unique multi-step conversion funnel. But, rest assured, if you can just get a bird’s eye view of the optimization strategy, that viewpoint will be sufficient for what I am talking about in this post. Read more…