Increasing Conversions - Google AdWords Learning Center

Objective: Learn how to optimize campaigns to increase conversions. (Advertisers define 'conversions' differently; however, for this topic, we'll assume a conversion is a product sale.)

Before you optimize for conversions, you should first understand the buying cycle. Consumers go through the following stages when buying a product:

Awareness
Interest
Consideration
Purchase
Retention
Advocacy

Let's consider a scenario of a consumer buying an MP3 player. You should be prepared with keywords to address each part of this buying cycle. For example, at the consideration/purchase stages, you should include keywords such as 'buy an MP3 player.' Or, at the retention and advocacy stages, you should include keywords such as 'MP3 player accessories' or 'MP3 player headphones' to target loyal owners of the product.

Using negative keywords can help filter out users who aren't actually in the purchase stage. Here are some sample negative keywords to consider:

Adding '-free,' as a negative keyword is important if you don't offer a free product or trial. A user searching for a free product is less likely to make a purchase.
Adding '-information' or '-info' will filter out users who are early in the buying cycle and generally not looking to purchase.
Adding '-how to,' '-what is,' and '-definition' will also filter users who are still just interested in researching the product, not making a purchase.

Adding these kinds of negative keywords will help qualify users as potential buyers. If you feel these negative keywords don't apply to your website, you may simply include them in their own ad group so you can track their performance separately. For example, when selling MP3 players, you can add the broad-match keyword 'how to use an MP3 player' in its own ad group in order to test the performance of the keyword.

More specific keywords tend to convert at a higher rate than general keywords. For example, consider the following keywords: 'Acme,' 'Acme printers,' 'Acme 710,' and 'Acme 710c.' Usually a more specific keyword like 'Acme 710c' will convert at a higher rate than 'Acme.' Users searching for brand names, product IDs, or even SKU numbers have typically already researched their product and want to make a purchase.

Some relevant keywords may not convert well. Consider the keyword 'Acme laser printers.' Let's also assume your website doesn't sell laser printers. You could argue this keyword is still relevant. Someone searching for a laser printer may be willing to purchase another high-quality printer. However, because it's not exactly the product the user is searching for, he or she is probably less likely to buy it. You should review your reports to gather data on keywords like this. If you're just starting your ad campaign and want to focus on conversions, you may wish to hold off on these types of keywords until your other, more-accurate keywords are performing well.

These keywords also present a challenging situation for writing ad text. You shouldn't use 'Acme Laser Printers' as your ad title because your website doesn't actually offer those products. This is a disadvantage, since competitors will be able to use the keyword phrase in the title and have stronger CTRs as a result.

You should experiment with including prices in your ad text. If a user sees the price of a product and still clicks the ad, you know they're interested in a potential purchase at that price. If they don't like the price, they won't click your ad, and you save yourself the cost of that click. However, if you omit the price and the user goes to your website before deciding it's too expensive, you pay for their visit.

We also recommend that you review competitors' ads to watch for the prices they offer. If your price is lower, you should highlight this fact.