Which one do you go for: conversion or traffic?

19 replies
Imagine you have a new website selling an ebook, and the conversion is very low (less than 1/500).

What would you do?

Do you focus on improving conversion or getting more traffic?

I thought getting more traffic is the best thing to do... until one guy told me to focus on conversion instead. He said, there's no point to get thousands of visitors if your site doesn't convert. And furthermore, affiliates will not stay with you long because they can't make money from your site. He got a point.

What about you? Conversion or traffic?

If your answer is conversion, what do you do to improve?

PS: Any real examples are welcome.
#conversion #traffic
  • Profile picture of the author dsmpublishing
    To me it would depend on the type of website what the niche is etc!

    if it was a very good niche and you are bringing the traffic from a certain place then you would get amazing conversions. Its a waste of time having a site with bad content but lots of traffic i would always want lower traffic and conversion 1st!
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  • Profile picture of the author abelacts
    I forgot to mention that the traffic source is PPC or paid ads: cold traffic.
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    • Profile picture of the author Sam Rodrigo
      Originally Posted by abelacts View Post

      I forgot to mention that the traffic source is PPC or paid ads: cold traffic.
      So, you pay for ads, but state the "type of traffic" is incorrect?

      Why would you then increase such traffic and just pay more?

      Shouldn't you find out which traffic leads to more conversions?

      My suggestion is to use Google Analytics to track from key word phrase to sale, and then keep optimising for the correct phrases to raise ROI.

      IMHO,
      Sam
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  • Profile picture of the author nadavs
    Of course I'd focus on conversions. Right now I have an eBook I'm selling, and the sales page gets a good amount of visitors. Not hundreds, not even a hundred, but enough for at least one sale per day. However, conversions are low. Too low.

    To improve that, I'm working with a copywriter who re-writes my copy when I ask him according to keywords used to enter the site. This way I aim to raise conversions to at least 2.5% - 3%. This way, affiliates will be more willing to promote my product.

    nadavs
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    • Profile picture of the author abelacts
      Originally Posted by nadavs View Post


      To improve that, I'm working with a copywriter who re-writes my copy when I ask him according to keywords used to enter the site. This way I aim to raise conversions to at least 2.5% - 3%. This way, affiliates will be more willing to promote my product.

      nadavs

      Are you referring to getting SEO traffic when you mentioned about keywords?

      You are right that only with good conversion, affiliates will promote.
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  • Profile picture of the author activetrader
    Who cares about traffic??? Dude, what if your bottom line? I had avalanche of traffic around Christmas cause I timed it well and wrote Christmas stuff and I absolutely hated it cause it resulted in 0 conversions!!! Now I have 1 out of 10 sales with minimal traffic and I don't care cause I make more money than ever
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  • Profile picture of the author DaveOrchard
    Banned
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    • Profile picture of the author tschlotter
      IMHO - Conversion. The whole point is to make money after all.

      You can get thousands of hits a day using free traffic exchanges or buying PPC ads, which will help your Alexa ranking, but if none of the visitors buys a thing, what have you really accomplished?

      I'm in that kind of situation right now promoting an affiliate product with a splash page that hasn't made me a dime!!
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  • Profile picture of the author Malachi Kelly
    Its all about conversions, you could do less work maybe just a few tweeks to the website which would increase conversions. Rather than spending more money on PPC and getting substandard results.
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  • Profile picture of the author abelacts
    @Sam: The problem is I have only one sale so far. And I have no clue what to improve on the copy or which keywords to focus.

    I do exit surveys on why they don't buy. The reasons given are: I can get it for free by Googling, not sure if this is a scam, no money.

    (Note: It is in work-from-home niche.)

    Based on the feedback, what do you think I can do to improve my copy?
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  • Profile picture of the author Mangozoom
    How targetted is your PPC traffic ... do you know which words/phrases are converting.

    Also have you left the 'show my ads in the Google network' on as conversions from sites that are Adsense sites tends to be lower.

    Also make sure you do not pay too much per click ... When doing PPC I personally work as follows ...

    Cost per Click should equal Total Sales Price Divided By 4 divided by 100

    Sale price $20.00
    Cost per click maximum 5 cents

    I found that if a campaign was not profitable using these figures then it might be time to move on.
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  • Profile picture of the author jasonl70
    no question about it - you need to work on your conversions.

    Also - your kw's you're using for your ppc may not be a good match.
    Here's an example: I run ppc for a car dealership. When we started, we were bidding on particular model searches within their geographic area (the ppc ad was very clear it was a local dealership). Plenty of people clicked their ads - but they did not convert to leads at all. Killing those phrases dropped their traffic a ton, but it was not traffic that was 'in market'.
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  • Profile picture of the author MizzCindy
    Conversions - 1st
    TARGETED traffic - 2nd

    Cindy
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  • Profile picture of the author bookiebuster
    Traffic is is good but if very few buy the product you are just spinning your wheels.

    Sales copy is in need of improvement of do a split test to improve sales.
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    • Profile picture of the author Deji
      You could increase your traffic but if your conversion stays at the same rate of less than 1 person in 500,then its useless and makes no difference.A 1/500 conversion rate means a conversion rate of 0.2% or in other words 2/1000 which is very low.
      Conversely,you could increase your sales thereby making more money by improving your conversion rate with the same amount of traffic.
      I don't know how much your priduct is been sold for but let's assume it's $47.If you could increase your conversion rate to just 2%,it means you make $98 from 2 people in a 100.Let's also assume that on average,your traffic to the page is 1000 people per day at the same 2% conversion rate.That means you'll be making $980 per day.This is conservative as you could be getting more traffic than this but you get the idea.
      So simply improve your conversion rate even withe the same sales and you'll make more money.
      You can improve it by working on your Adwords copy as well as your landing page copy.Hope this helps you.
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      • Profile picture of the author Charles E. White
        Work on the conversion rate! Do some testing and see what works best, you can test your keywords, your headlines, your price, your copy and etc.

        I have been using a testing software that allows you to change any or all of your copy and each person that visits will see one of three versions I'm testing. I can change headlines, copy, prices and anything else.

        Test, test then test some more!
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        • Profile picture of the author TE2
          No disrespect to those saying conversion first, but I have to say... :p

          "Targeted" Traffic is the #1 priority.

          Once you get it then work on conversions.


          Here's why:

          1. If you don't have Targeted traffic, you won't have to worry about conversions (or anything else)

          2. You need enough data to be statistically meaningful otherwise it's useless data that is not actionable


          Let me put it this way. "That's a beautiful website (or landing page) you've got there" [let's assume it can convert at 50%]

          But you have no visitors to your pretty sooper-dooper site.

          Do you really care about conversions now?


          Bottom-line: You need both, but traffic needs to come first.


          Once you have both, then you can determine another important item - "Profitability"

          My humble two cents...

          John

          ps - Notice that I said "targeted" traffic. People who aren't interested in your offer aren't going to convert no matter what you do. Get the right traffic first. Are you sure you are targeting the correct traffic with your ads? Are you using geo targeting, time of day, phrase match, exact match, etc... ???
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael Lee
    It's like asking, "Which do you prefer to keep, your arm or your leg?"

    Both are important. Without a good conversion rate, traffic is useless. And vice-versa.

    What I do recommend, since you're getting cold PPC traffic, is to have an opt-in form and a reliable follow-up system that builds relationships and trust. Once you have the leads, you can take it slowly but surely.

    Nobody's ever said "yes" to a complete stranger asking "Will you marry me?" Unless if the stranger is a celebrity or someone famous, of course.
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  • Profile picture of the author BrianMcLeod
    "I do exit surveys on why they don't buy. The reasons given are: I can get it for free by Googling, not sure if this is a scam, no money."
    Your visitors are telling you that:

    A) They don't think your product is unique or valuable.
    B) They don't trust you or believe you
    C) They don't want to spend any money

    So, how have you addressed these issues in your copy?

    What are the 3 crucial things they can learn from your product that they'll NEVER find by searching Google?

    Why should they trust you? How do you prove that you are sincere and they they have zero risk is taking you up on your offer?

    What makes you different from the millions of other scammy/spammy work at home offers?

    * Special note about "no money"...

    "I don't have the money" is bullshit. What they mean is "I don't want what you sell badly enough to pay what you're asking. You haven't sold me yet". People will go out and raise money for something they think they desperately need.

    Good job on doing an exit survey -- most never bother. I've found that people are far more honest when they are on their way out the door than they are while they're still "in play".

    In other words, when a visitor is leaving, they often don't feel that they have anything to lose by honestly revealing what their true feelings are. Conversely, when you survey "current" customers or people who are still psychologically in the buying cycle, they often guard their true opinions and fear giving that away as leverage to be "sold" with.

    So, exit data has always been good to me... Customer surveys I always take with a few extra grains of salt.

    Rethink your offer. Re-think your sales funnel. Sand away at the splinters revealed by those clicks you paid for. You spent money for that information - use it!

    Best,

    Brian
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  • Profile picture of the author abelacts
    I am doing a split test but the question is what to test. There are too many elements. And to make it hard, there's only one sale so far.

    @Brian: Thanks for pointing out. You gave a very well explanation on that. Looks like I have to address the three questions thrown in by visitors. I am not sure how to do this but I have to do it.

    I know the "no money" is BS and it's a simple way of saying why they don't buy. It's not the real reason.


    @Michael Lee: Having a list is on my plan. But I want to see how well the site converts with cold targeted traffic.


    On PPC, yes I did geo targeting, I emphasize only on broad and exact match. I even put prequalify to prevent freebie seekers.
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