Why are your Adwords clicks costing you too much money?

[Steven Carl Kelly]

Split testing of Adwords ads is important -- better performing ads with a higher CTR cost less money per click. If you're not split testing your ads and refining which ones perform and dumping the weak ones, your Adwords clicks are costing you too much money.

Many of us know that, but also there are some who don't invest the time in doing so. Well here's a real world split test result from 3 ads in a single ad group for a single key phrase (sex offender list). All of the bids were exactly the same, all of the ads were evenly distributed. After a week's worth of testing, do YOU have any idea what the conversion rates were for these three?





Take a shot in this thread, and later I'll post the actual exact numbers.

[Lucid]

I think C got better CTR simply because of the word free. But I also think A would get good CTR and better conversion. So overall, I would say A is the winner.

Nice idea Steven. This can make people think and improve their PPC skills. Maybe I'll do the same if Warriors are interested as I got lots of real-world data.

BTW, I think I could improve A. Maybe that could be the second part, can someone improve on your results?

[Fernando Veloso]

I'd say B. It's instant, and there is the urgency call: in your area.

Let me know, now you got me intrigued.

Fernando

[John Hocking]

This is a good post and I am look forward to seeing the results.

I think A) would perform best.

It is one thing to be able to search the list, but I would be most interested in getting alerts if someone new moved into the target area.

[Steven Carl Kelly]

Good comments, folks. I'll wait a little while in case some more folks want to take a shot, then I'll post the real stats.

[jakesellers]

Cheaper clicks doesn't automatically equate to better return on investment. You can't tell till you test of course but I've found text ads with emphasis on "free" and "look" may be cheaper due to higher ctr but whatever it costs to get clicks in "buy/sign up" mode, with a clear "buy/sign up" call to action - 'A' is closest to what I've found works so I'd guess that converts best.

[freakonaleash]

could be C also because free stuff always seems to attract people to click
just a guess though

[GeorgR.]

A or B, i bet that C performed worst...but then..it has "free" in it. Waiting for results..interested .)

[Steven Carl Kelly]

Here are the actual Adwords results for the three ads in the OP:

Ad A - CTR was 1.16%
Ad B - CTR was 13.65%
Ad C - CTR was 1.79%

So much for assumptions. The point is that testing is critical, ad copy can't be based solely on our own perceptions or assumptions as marketers.

Taking those results into consideration, does anyone want to look at those ads again analyze the reasons?

[Lothar Evers]

Originally Posted by Steven Carl Kelly

Here are the actual Adwords results for the three ads in the OP:

Ad A - CTR was 1.16%
Ad B - CTR was 13.65%
Ad C - CTR was 1.79%

So much for assumptions. The point is that testing is critical, ad copy can't be based solely on our own perceptions or assumptions as marketers.

Taking those results into consideration, does anyone want to look at those ads again analyze the reasons?

Has the shortest headline
"Instant" and "Now" promise immediate results.
Each line of the ad has only one sentence.
In the two ads with lower CTR a long sentence is build using line 2 and 3.

[Lucid]

That's why we test. Some good points made as to why B is overwhelmingly the best. I don't know about the short headline angle.

How about testing this one?

Sex Offender List
Instant sex offender list search.
Find offenders in your area now!
SexOffenderDB.com

Uses many of the same elements of the winning ad. Same title. Same first description line. You could try "Instantly know where they are." Second description line is similar but with an exclamation which may improve CTR.

Note capitalization of URL and the removal of the www part, which often will affect the CTR one way or another. Test both. Note I also don't usually capitalize all the words. Again, something else to test.

I would be hard to beat your CTR but I'm sure the above ad would beat A and C easily.

[Fernando Veloso]

Hey Steven,

Originally Posted by Steven Carl Kelly

Here are the actual Adwords results for the three ads in the OP:

Ad A - CTR was 1.16%
Ad B - CTR was 13.65%
Ad C - CTR was 1.79%

So much for assumptions. The point is that testing is critical, ad copy can't be based solely on our own perceptions or assumptions as marketers.

Taking those results into consideration, does anyone want to look at those ads again analyze the reasons?

Originally Posted by Fernando Veloso

I'd say B. It's instant, and there is the urgency call: in your area.

Let me know, now you got me intrigued.

Fernando

I am not a copywriter expert but this one was a easy job

Any other split test for us? Love this stuff.

Fernando

[Steven Carl Kelly]

Originally Posted by Lucid

That's why we test.

Exactly, and I wanted to provide a real world example of why that's so important.

[Steven Carl Kelly]

Originally Posted by Lucid

Maybe I'll do the same if Warriors are interested as I got lots of real-world data.

Yeah, share with us!

[Steven Carl Kelly]

Hey Lucid! We're interested. Come on, share!

[htmlv2]

Its useful to see because it shows how important Split-Testing really is.

[simonting]

Hi Steven

Thanks for the thread. Indeed good one

[Lucid]

OK. Here's different ads for a client a few years back that had houses for rent for students near Niagara College. These are some of the ads tried:

Housing for Students
Rooms for rent near Niagara College
Affordable, fully furnished.

Niagara College Housing
Rooms for rent near Niagara College
Affordable, fully furnished.

Studying at Niagara?
Rent an affordable home.
Utilities, cable, phone included.

Which do you think got the best CTR?

[Steven Carl Kelly]

Lucid:

I'll guess #3.

[new guy]

I just found this thread. When I first read the OP, I would have picked B. I wouldn't have thought by that same margin but here is why I thought B:

"find sex offenders in your area now"

It is the only ad of the three that offer an immediate benefit to the searcher. The others all focus on the product itself. This line offers a benefit to the user.

I also bet that if you took ad B and switched lines 2 and 3 to run in the other order that it would go up even more. Keep the text the same, switch the order on these two lines. Let me know if it works better.

[Lucid]

I almost went with B myself at first for the reasons you state New Guy. But you are right on the money, it does offer an immediate benefit and that's what makes people click.

I'm also curious to try other variations such as you suggest and of course my own. What Steven doesn't mention is conversion rates and if they vary a lot among the three.

Now for the results of my ads. Ad #2 has (had) a 10.7% CTR followed by #1 at 7.6% and #3 at 3.4%

As you can see, what we think may be the hot button often is not. There's nothing bad about the third ad and a 3.4% click rate. Some people would think that's a great rate. Has great benefits mentioned.

Looking back, I think the other two ads do better because all keywords had "niagara college" as part of the keyword. This is the only ad without the word college in it. That may be also why the second ad did better since it has part of the keyword in the title.

Of course, this is all speculation but seems like the explanations that make more sense. I have had ads run which to me defy explanation as to why they work.

[Steven Carl Kelly]

I bet if you combined the title of #2 with the text of #3 you'd have the best performing ad of the bunch.

[Lucid]

Could be. But this is not a client anymore so I can't. I guess they were happy with what they were getting. Would love to try to improve it though if I could.

[seguys]

Another reason "B" might have had a better CTR could have been because the word "search" was left out.

[mikecorp]

I have stopped using adwords for awhile, i am using other PPC companies at the moment.

[Kurt]

Originally Posted by Steven Carl Kelly

I bet if you combined the title of #2 with the text of #3 you'd have the best performing ad of the bunch.

This was my exact thought.

[Steven Carl Kelly]

Originally Posted by Kurt

This was my exact thought.

Perhaps I'll give it a go and post the results.

[dburk]

Hi Steven,

I just read this thread for the first time today. Before I scrolled down to see which ad had the best performance I said to myself definitely B. Not that it matters that I knew which ad would have been the best performer. Let me share with the readers why I felt certain that B would be the winner.

From the thousands of tests I have performed I have learned that using a headline that matches the exact search term almost always works best. You get an additional benefit of having your ad's headline made bold which seems to help a great deal.

Ad "B" also had the most clarity in my opinion, it described the benefit well and had a clear call-to-action. In my opinion this was clearly a superior ad and I was not at all surprised to see the stark difference in CTR it had over the other choices.

It still pays to experiment though every once in a while you discover something unexpected.