Please help diagnose my landing page problem

6 replies
  • PPC/SEM
  • |
I am using Adwords to drive traffic to a webinar registration landing page. The ad's been running for three days. Here's the pertinent info:

- The ad is being shown across a set of nine keywords, and the average clickthrough rate is currently 10.65 percent. It ranges from 26.67 percent to zero percent.

- The ad itself is worded exactly the same as the heading for the landing page, so 'ad scent' is high. In other words, the webinar is about exactly what the ad says it's about.

- The landing page has a video and registration opt-in box above the fold. It shows the date and time of the next scheduled webinar right above the opt-in box.

- The webinar is hosted by Stealth Seminar, and the webinar is offered at the top of every hour from 9 AM to 9 PM EST. So when you click on the ad, the next webinar will always be less than an hour away, unless you click between 9 PM and 9 AM, in which case the next webinar will be shown as 9 AM.

- I've gotten only one conversion (i.e. one webinar registration). Because of this, Google keeps my quality score low, even though they rate my click rate and ad relevance high. This speaks to a problem with the landing page.

- I've used this landing page for marketing my webinar on large a self-improvement email list, and it gets about 35% opt-in rate.

- In the past I've experimented with a multiple time selection option for the opt-in, but when I do that actual attendance is much lower than when I allow them to sign up for the next scheduled webinar only.

Because of the high clickthrough rate, I know the webinar topic is of strong interest to those who are searching with those keywords. Because the landing page says what the ad says, I know there's a good match there. I've used common design principles to put together the landing page, so I don't know how to diagnose why people aren't registering.

Here is the landing page:

'What Career Is Right For Me' Webinar

Have at it.
#diagnose #diagnose landing page #landing #page #problem
  • Profile picture of the author dburk
    Hi Sandy,

    Unless there are serious issues with your landing page it isn't likely to effect your Quality Score that much. Relative CTR is the primary factor that effects your Quality Score.

    Based on the little bit of information you provided it sounds like you have not been running the campaign for long, there was no mention of how many days or how many impressions you are getting.

    When you create a new ad group in AdWords you get a default Quality Score of 6/10 on all of your keywords. Then, based on your relative CTR, you will see your Quality Score begin to be adjusted.

    Until recently it took a while for the first QS adjustment to take place, but recently I have seen very quick adjustments on new keywords with very few impressions. It seems that if you have keywords with relatively low impressions, based on ad positions, that AdWords will lower your QS even when you have 100% CTR. I'm not sure what they changed, but your relative ad position and/or total clicks seems to be part of the equation now.

    It could be an issue of an IA based QS algorithm that doesn't know how to asses QS on low impression volume so it just sets it much lower until enough data has been gathered to make a more reliable estimate of ongoing CTR. because I am seeing wild swings in the QS, even for exact match keywords, it looks very much like an issue typical of IA algorithms that have way too little data to make good decisions.

    I'm hoping that it is an issue that will self-correct after more data is gathered. But somewhat disturbing to see 50% - 100% CTR getting adjusted downward which has happened recently. I had to adjust max bids, in one case to over $25 just to get impressions rolling and did see the QS improve once impressions went up. Funny thing is that CTR declined from 100% to 50% and then down to 15% during that period yet the QS kept going up as the number of impressions increased.

    For now, I'm assuming it is an issue related to low impression volume, but will be testing it more thoroughly over the coming weeks.

    As for your landing page it seems way too impersonal to me. You need to reveal a little bit more about the person or persons that are conducting the Webinar, People don't buy from people, not websites. And yes, I meant to say "buy", because even though you claim to not be selling a product or service, and the webinar is free, you are still selling them on registering and investing their time, so you are still selling something that your audience must buy with their time.

    Your landing page, in it's current form, seems dangerously close to violating AdWords policy on transparency or unclear content. It needs to be clear exactly what your business model is or you might end up with a website suspension notice from Google's website quality review team. Ad approval is not a safe indicator that your website will pass a closer inspection by the review team that takes a closer look at your business model.

    This link provides insight on what AdWords wants to see on your landing pages:

    https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2404197?hl=en
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    • Profile picture of the author Sandy Cormack
      Originally Posted by dburk View Post

      As for your landing page it seems way too impersonal to me. You need to reveal a little bit more about the person or persons that are conducting the Webinar, People don't buy from people, not websites. And yes, I meant to say "buy", because even though you claim to not be selling a product or service, and the webinar is free, you are still selling them on registering and investing their time, so you are still selling something that your audience must buy with their time.

      Your landing page, in it's current form, seems dangerously close to violating AdWords policy on transparency. It needs to be clear exactly what your business model is or you might end up with a website suspension notice in the near future.
      Thanks dburk. Regarding the latter point, I have an 'About' link at the bottom of the page that links to my website. I'll check to make sure the information on that page is adequate for Google's transparency policy.

      Regarding impersonality, what do you suggest beyond the testimonials? I could add a section that explains who I am and what I do, maybe an 'About The Speaker' box. Or whatever. I could add an image of myself but I've read images of people looking at the viewer can distract the viewer from taking action.
      Signature
      Sandy Cormack

      Creativity Training, Strategic Planning, Personal Development, Organizational Development, and Lead Guitar
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  • Profile picture of the author dburk
    Hi Sandy,

    I suggest that you promote the Webinar presenter in a similar fashion that a keynote speaker at a major convention is promoted. It doesn't have to be lengthy but it should give people a name and any notable credentials or job positions held that relate to the topic of the Webinar.

    For example:

    Attend our marketing mastermind webinar to hear marketing ideas from:
    Ken Schmidt,
    Legendary Former Director of Communications Strategy at Harley-Davidson Motor Company
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    • Profile picture of the author Sandy Cormack
      Originally Posted by dburk View Post

      Hi Sandy,

      I suggest that you promote the Webinar presenter in a similar fashion that a keynote speaker at a major convention is promoted. It doesn't have to be lengthy but it should give people a name and any notable credentials or job positions held that relate to the topic of the Webinar.

      For example:

      Attend our marketing mastermind webinar to hear marketing ideas from:
      Ken Schmidt,
      Legendary Former Director of Communications Strategy at Harley-Davidson Motor Company
      Thanks, good advice. I updated the landing page:

      What Career Is Right For Me Webinar revised
      Signature
      Sandy Cormack

      Creativity Training, Strategic Planning, Personal Development, Organizational Development, and Lead Guitar
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  • Profile picture of the author 55sadhikar
    I don't know if it would increase your optin rate but I suggest you to turn off the auto, have the image of the video something like this here http://www.worktraits.com/wp-content...eo_overlay.png and then on the "claim my spot now" call to action put "claim your spot for webinar". I personally find the video is a distraction from having people put their e-mail and sign up for the webinar.
    That being said, test this simple idea and see if you have any improvement in your conversions. I don't know for sure it can work but I do have the feeling that it can help you to boost your sign up conversions.
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    • Profile picture of the author Sandy Cormack
      Originally Posted by 55sadhikar View Post

      I don't know if it would increase your optin rate but I suggest you to turn off the auto, have the image of the video something like this here http://www.worktraits.com/wp-content...eo_overlay.png and then on the "claim my spot now" call to action put "claim your spot for webinar". I personally find the video is a distraction from having people put their e-mail and sign up for the webinar.
      That being said, test this simple idea and see if you have any improvement in your conversions. I don't know for sure it can work but I do have the feeling that it can help you to boost your sign up conversions.
      Very good observations, thanks.
      Signature
      Sandy Cormack

      Creativity Training, Strategic Planning, Personal Development, Organizational Development, and Lead Guitar
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