PPC Chat Streamcap – PPC & Site Architecture

This week Matt Umbro (@Matt_Umbro) came up with a magnificent question set titled “PPC & Site Architecture.” The following is the transcribed Streamcap from the live chat:

Q1: How does a website’s architecture affect your PPC account builds?

• If its sound site architecture, it can be a good blue print for PPC account structure. – John Lavin (@johnnyjetfan)
• Greatly if Ecommerce where LPs are often categories. – James Svoboda (@Realicity)
• very little from a B2B perspective (usually have LP’s) HUGE for ecomm. Top sellers are usually front & center. – Aaron Levy (@bigalittlea)
• As an Ecommerce site campaign structure largely follows product category structure. – Jessica Cameron Ruud (@Camruud)
• Initial kw research, segmenting ad groups, deciding landing pages. – Claire Remmetter (@cremmetter)
• Oftentimes the site organization provides a good intuitive base b/c it separates different client groups. – Robert Brady (@robert_brady)
  • What do you mean by client groups? – Luke Alley (@LukeAlley)
    • Would have been better if I’d said customer groups. Like a default segmentation. – Robert Brady
• For ecommerce it’s a good starting point for campaign structure. – Dennis Petretti (@Denetti)
• If architecture isn’t there it hurts the ability to break out a campaign exactly as it *should be. Have to make compromises. – Neil Sorenson (@iNeils)
• Helps give some structure for ecomm. Always start there, but most time is spent researching outside the site. – Luke Alley
• Main site navigation = campaigns – Categories = ad groups and so forth, as others have said more on ecomm side however. – Matt Umbro (@Matt_Umbro)
• And from a usability standpoint it helps if the site is set up well, which is going to help increase conversions and results. – Mark Kennedy (@markkennedysem)
• More product-specific, more categories, more sub-category pages = more opportunities for testing. – Jeremy Brown (@JBGuru)
• Website’s architecture is step #1 in keyword build-out and structuring. – Emily Las (@emlas)
• Also gives an idea of what priorities are for the client – if its in the navi it probably means a lot to them. – Aaron Levy
• Quality, strong-call-to-action, landing pages are essential for PPC. Like everything with PPC: Separate and Silo! – John Ellis (@JohnWEllis)
• I always cringe when I see a site that has a poor architecture. Automatic hindrance to PPC account. – Matt Umbro
• Affects if fundamentally. It’s like trying to build a deck with a hose, water and a 2X4 without a well structured site. – Ira Kates (@IraKates)
• It doesn’t. I primarily use single keyword ad groups so site structure is not normally (exceptions of course) a consideration. – Jeremy Mayes (@jeremymayesppca)
• Also great to use the process to identify landing pg opps (i.e. custom category pages that do not exist). – Emily Las
• Good site structure & content should also play a role in helping customers move through the buying process. – Jessica Cameron Ruud
• Unfortunately some extremely low budget campaigns, LPs might not be dooable. – James Svoboda
• Facets, product categories make great Ad Groups…I got your tisk tisk right here! – Chris Kostecki (@chriskos)
• Match your PPC ad copy to the CTA on the LP. – Eric Farmer (@click_eric)
• Too often people think PPC is done in a silo. IT’S NOT! – Matt Umbro
• I like use using the natural flow of the site for most targets, LPs are great for 1 offs, but would rather lean on site nav. – Chris Kostecki
  • This also helps create more of a complete experience instead of a 1 page ecosystem. – James Svoboda
• Although it should help shape structure, more important that PPC best practice is adhered to. – Blair Kerrison (@blairkerrison)

Q2: What types of PPC data warrant new landing pages or updates to existing pages?

• Traffic primarily? If there’s no volume, may not be worth it. From there good (or bad) conversion data can warrant new LPs. – Neil Sorenson
• Bounce rates. – Chris Kostecki
• Metrics like bounce rate or low conversions. Sometimes it’s not the keyword, but the LP, which is why you need to test. – Mark Kennedy
• KW research in terms of popularity and internal site search– great sources for identifying opps for strong PPC landing pgs. – Emily Las
• Bounce rate on specific pages. – John Lavin
• If the searcher uses "escape hatches" – clicks on logo or other links. Indicates we’re not giving what they wanted. – Aaron Levy
• Conversion data. Then perhaps Analytics data, bounce rates, time on site, etc. – Luke Alley
• Use relative traffic volume and conversion rates to prioritize creation of new landing pages. – Dennis Petretti
• Low Quality Score on more important keywords. – Sterling Green (@sterlinggreen)
• New LP whenever the message from keyword to ad copy to LP would be mismatched (and enough traffic to justify) . – Robert Brady
• Low Conversion Rates. New Campaigns/Ad Groups. New Keyword Themes. New LP Styles… more of a testing issue. – James Svoboda
• Be careful using bounce rates for standalone LP’s. Every non-conversion = bounce. – Aaron Levy
  • Don’t know if I agree, can engage site, not convert & still = win. – Chris Kostecki
    • That’s where escape hatches come in- I’m more concerned with people leaving to the site. Big bounce rate = bad campaign. – Aaron Levy
• Low AOV can also call for some new content, seasons/special events. – Chris Kostecki
• Search query reports help influence new LPs, especially when testing the waters with modified broad match keywords. – Matt Umbro
• Conversion Rates, ROI, Bounce Rates, Exit rates, revenue, leads <– all data leads to landing page development plan. – Jessica Cameron Ruud
• Specific new services or conversion type. – Michael McEuen (@lonohead)
• Traffic. Which ad groups/KWs bring in the most traffic? Optimize those LPs first. – Eric Garmer
• Google Analytics — "Content" section is gold mine– important to see how people are navigating through. – Emily Las
• Also new products or services could dictate new LPs. – James Svoboda
• Also targeting audiences/themes that are not part of the natural structure. – Chris Kostecki
• High traffic areas that need a boost in QS or conv rate are 1st place for improvement. – Claire Remmetter
• Fastest growing terms & high/low conversion ad groups can be a good opportunity. – Blair Kerrison
• I typically look at traffic first then conversion data. Occasionally will look at bounce rate. – Jeremy Mayes
• Does anyone create new LPs for ecomm sites that aren’t part of site navigation? – Matt Umbro
  • We may do it if it’s a special promotion just for ppc. – Mark Kennedy
    • I agree. Depends on size of client and their budget too. Resources can limit size of campaign. – Luke Alley
  • Yes. Entry/navigational pages. – James Svoboda
  • We have so that we can have specific colors/styles show up. – Gina Vasselli (@GinaVasselli)
    • Another great point, the more targeted you can make your landing page to the search query the better. – Matt Umbro
  • The case for custom landing pgs comes down to relevancy– what customizations are possible & conducive to conversion. – Emily Las
  • Yes! Example, promotional pages that will only be promoted through paid search. – Eric Farmer
  • Yes, usually not in nav (but keep universal head/foot). – Chris Kostecki
  • Yes, for high-consideration purchases (i.e. expensive). – Aaron Levy
  • Yes, to test special offer copy or to offer deals to audience segments. – Melissa Mackey (@Mel66)
  • Yes, Absolutely. Ecom lp development driven by the buying cycle. Not everyone is ready to buy now. – Jessica Cameron Ruud
  • Almost all of our landing pages are separate from our main navigation. You can get to the site, but can’t get to the LPs. – Michelle Morgan
  • Yes! Helps to optimize pages specifically by ad group offer, without duplicating site content in general. – Claire Remmetter
  • Yes, patches for poor site org. faux category pgs. – Heather Cooan (@HeatherCooan)

Q3: How involved are you with website conversion optimization in tandem with your PPC accounts (ie: shopping carts, buttons, etc)?

• EXTREMLY. – James Svoboda
• I wear many hats including analyst, conversion rate optimization and landing page development. It all contributes to PPC success. – Jessica Cameron Ruud
• Always test shopping carts and give clients feedback…again, PPC is not done in a silo. – Matt Umbro
• Not as involved as I should be. CRO is full of easy wins. – Richard Fergie (@RichardFergie)
• Depends on how competent the website owner is. If they’re already engaged in *good CRO, my involvement is minimal. – Neil Sorenson
• I see it as the same thing. PPC doesn’t end with a click on the ad. – Luke Alley
• Extremely involved. I’m the main instigator for new LPs. Work closely with design team to get exactly what we need. – Michelle Morgan (@michellemsem)
• Trying to make it more of a focus, but need to pull in other resources. – Chris Kostecki
• I make it a point to be involved because if they can’t convert traffic I get fired. – Robert Brady
• I try to insert myself in the site conversion optimization process wherever/whenever possible. – Emily Las
• Depends on client. Some let us create the page on the CMS or listen to our input. Sadly, some have to fight internal politics. – Mark Kennedy
• PPC can only do so much with a struggling site. Thats why we are internet marketers not just PPC Ninjas! – Sterling Green
• I work directly with SEO, Creative, & Copy to ensure the best U/X for the PPC pages. – Michael McEuen
• We do lead gen, so no shopping carts… but small company means it’s only a hop & skip over to dev team to test new CTA ideas. – Claire Remmetter
• Lucky to be in-house when it comes to LPO. Makes it much easier to get stuff done. – Michelle Morgan
• Not too involved w/ cart, but give TONS of suggestions based on drop off I can see in Analytics & if it hurts ppc. – Aaron Levy
• Very involved, it’s my duty to dig for optimization opportunity which goes beyond the ad and the click. Way beyond. – Heather Cooan
• Like I said last wk, PPC is real-time focus group — our data provides amazing insights for site conversion optimization. – Emily Las
• In a small agency, very involved. We provide wireframes for custom landing pages, UX improvement with our in house designer. – Rod (@rodsblog)
• PPC is the best channel for testing…Landing Page Tests should always be in place & results fed back to client. – Blair Kerrison
• In my in house roles was heavily involved, in some cases "owned" site optimization. With agency now so depends on client. – Jeremy Mayes
• Reading Tim Ash on LPO, and honestly, probably too involved in LPO for what the statistics justify. Gotta let ‘um run. – Mark Jensen (@Just_Markus)
• Involved in CRO more & more these days essential part of PPC as far as I’m concerned. – Andrew Baker (@AndrewBaker72)

Q4: Have you been involved in website redesigns that factored in PPC data? How so?

• Yes, mostly from a keyword / messaging standpoint. – Melissa Mackey
• Yes, a lot of times people see the true importance of the website when they see the traffic and data from a PPC campaign. If they see traffic that doesn’t convert they want to improve and look more into calls to action, content, etc. – Mark Kennedy
• No – Luke Alley
• Yep. Looking at conversion rate of page layouts within a site vs landing pages. – Michelle Morgan
• Working on a huge redesign now that is almost year in the making. PPC categorization is influencing site architecture a little. – James Svoboda
• Yes, to the extent of new LPs, but never a complete redesign. – Matt Umbro
• Involved org of site during design phase, ppc data based design is a bit lacking. – Heather Cooan
• Yes. PPC KW data used for site structure, navigation and on-page copy in site redesign. LP testing can feed page layout/design. – Jessica Cameron Ruud
• A lot of content rewrite from converting keywords found in Adwords search queries. – Eric Farmer
• Sadly no because as Richard Fergie points out, dev/design priorities seem to rarely favor PPC. SEO gets more weight? – Emily Las
• Yes. We just restructured our product categories based largely on ppc account structure and creating proper landing pages. – Dennis Petretti
• Used to help with taxonomy choices. Should primary sub level be colour or size? That type of question. – Richard Fergie
• Most site architecture changes are based on large keyword groups that have been generated via PPC. – James Svoboda
• Yes, big part of my job is helping redesign our properties using PPC data. – Claire Remmetter
• Using custom PPC segmentation to realign focus and address different funnel parts in design and content. – Chris Kostecki
• Yes, I use PPC SQ data & landing page engagement from Analytics to assist organic optimisation. – Andrew Baker
• We’ll definitely give advice from a CRO perspective for ecomm. For lead gen, we share LP and ad copy insights to aid design. – Aaron Levy
• Yes, on micro site for lead gen picked main navigation links from top ppc queries. – James Hume (@zerospin)
• Giving feedback into how the path to conversion can be shortened/be made easier is common, and useful to both PPC and SEO. – Brittany Baeslack (@BaeslaBr)

Q5: From a website perspective, what are some easy updates that can be made to improve conversion rate?

• Put the contact form above the fold!!!! – John Lavin
• Add a phone number on the page, a form, a special offer, talk about features benefits, etc. – Mark Kennedy
• Make the form or goal process shorter! – James Hume
• Page H1 tag, button & image placement can be huge. – Chris Kostecki
• Clear CTAs, fewer font treatments, a contact form on every page. – Neil Sorenson
• Tell the visitor what you want them to do next! Shocking how often this is lacking. – Melissa Mackey
• Change the button color (and location – blog post coming soon). Simple tweak that can have a huge effect. – Aaron Levy
• Hero shot, headline, call to action. – Andrew Baker
• Switch standard phone number to call tracking solution. Conversion rates always jump way up. – James Svoboda
• Usually they need to simplify; focus attention on CTAs. – Robert Brady
• Make call to action buttons HUGE and make them stand out with bright colors. – Matt Umbro
• Clearly communicate your unique value proposition. Why choose you vs. your competition. – Jessica Cameron Ruud
• To increase conversion– highlight hero products/top sellers, push current offers…. TEST, TEST, TEST. – Emily Las
• Improve the form: combine first and last name, less fields, bigger button, trust symbols nearby. – Luke Alley
• Make sure the keyword appears on the landing page. – Dennis Petretti
• Talking about mobile here: Get to the point! As much as you can before the fold (more pgs in the form, but few fields on 1st pg). – Claire Remmetter
• Check out the conversion funnel in Analytics. long form? too many required fields? is the form easy to find on every page? etc. – Cassandra McClure (@imcassy)
• Explain EXACTLY what you want the prospect to do to convert. – Andrew Baker
• Put the deals further out front. Not buried in "specials" page. – Gina Vasselli
• Point the user to what they need to do with an beautiful arrow! – Sterling Green
• Don’t ask for marriage on the first date, and leave a little mystery. Make them want the second date. – Aaron Levy
• From personal experience a BBB Accredited logo on a site greatly helps to improve conversion rate. – Matt Umbro
• Small tweaks to Landing Page images have helped in the past. Takes a generic page & makes it specific. – Blair Kerrison
• Prepopulate answers you want (opt outs not opt ins). – Claire Remmetter
• Depending on where in the funnel the traffic comes from, offer micro conversions that lead them down the path (email, share, ugc). – Chris Kostecki
• Remove all unessential links out of the conversion funnel. – Andrew Baker
• If filling out a form is a requirement for conversion, make it as simple & short as possible while still getting necessary data. – Brittany Baeslack
• Test placement, color, verbiage, etc. of your CTAs Then test it again! – Eric Farmer

Q6: Do you utilize any sort of landing page score system? How so?

• No, but that’s a great idea – will have to start doing that! – Melissa Mackey
• All tests, including LP are measured and reported, but not a LP audit. – Chris Kostecki
• Website optimizer. – David Kyle (@DavidKyle)
• Yes. We stole this from @IonInteractive and use it to score existing/competitor LP’s. 10-Point LP Checklist – HUGE help. – Aaron Levy
• Not so much a "score system" but more an analysis of what the client got out of the LP test (more/less convs, clicks, etc). – Cassandra McClure
• Yes, tools can help. I also track engagement, but not as a score. Might though. – James Svoboda
• No, but we do utilize a LPO planning flow to track what we tested, why (hypothesis) and the results. Feeds ongoing testing. – Jessica Cameron Ruud
• I just measure by results and metrics, but I think there may be some tools/software/resources that do that. – Mark Kennedy
• Visual/functional score or Performance/analytics score? – Chris Kostecki
  • Both, but more so visual/functional, however data talks. – Matt Umbro
    • Yup, data speaks volumes, but not always accessible. – Chris Kostecki

Resources

• Google AdWords Editor (version as of today’s PPCChat 9.7.1)
• Microsoft adCenter Desktop
• http://www.google.com/ads/answers/
• PPCChat Member List (Twitter)
• adCenter Feature Suggestion
• PPC Tuesday – PPC Account and Site Architecture
• Ten Point Landing Page Checklist

More PPC Chats

Don’t forget to stay tuned for the next #PPCchat on Tuesday at 12 noon Eastern, 9 am Pacific and 5pm in the UK. Same Chat time, same Chat channel.

Participants

Check out the PPC Chat Twitter list to see and connect with all current and prior participants.

• Matt Umbro (@Matt_Umbro)
• James Svoboda (@Realicity)
• Paul Kragthorpe (@PaulKragthorpe)
• Aaron Levy (@bigalittlea)
• Andrew Baker (@AndrewBaker72)
• Blair Kerrison (@blairkerrison)
• Brittany Baeslack (@BaeslaBr)
• Cassandra McClure (@imcassy)
• Chris Kostecki (@chriskos)
• Claire Remmetter (@cremmetter)
• David Kyle (@DavidKyle)
• Dennis Petretti (@Denetti)
• Emily Las (@emlas)
• Eric Farmer (@click_eric)
• Gina Vasselli (@GinaVasselli)
• Heather Cooan (@HeatherCooan)
• Ira Kates (@IraKates)
• James Hume (@zerospin)
• Jeremy Brown (@JBGuru)
• Jeremy Mayes (@jeremymayesppca)
• Jessica Cameron Ruud (@Camruud)
• John Ellis (@JohnWEllis)
• John Lavin (@johnnyjetfan)
• Luke Alley (@LukeAlley)
• Mark Jensen (@Just_Markus)
• Mark Kennedy (@markkennedysem)
• Melissa Mackey (@Mel66)
• Michael McEuen (@lonohead)
• Michelle Morgan (@michellemsem)
• Neil Sorenson (@iNeils)
• Richard Fergie (@RichardFergie)
• Robert Brady (@robert_brady)
• Rod (@rodsblog)
• Sterling Green (@sterlinggreen)

About the Streamcap Jedi

This is a guest post by Paul Kragthorpe; WebRanking SEM Manager in Minneapolis, Minnesota, #PPCChat Streamcap Grabber, Search Marketing Blog Author. Connect with me @PaulKragthorpe, and Google Plus.
Follow @PaulKragthorpe

Tags: Conversion Rate, Landing Pages, PPC Chat, Site Architecture

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 28th, 2012 at 11:14 am by Paul Kragthorpe and is filed under Pay-Per-Click (PPC), PPC Chat. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.