Prequalification, that is the key to improving you ROI with AdWords and most types of advertising, but I’ve noticed particular results with Google Adwords. Here’s how it works.
Most ads usually go something like this “feature x” “feature y” etc etc. everyone has written ads like these, and gotten reasonable results, but what kicks the ROI into high gear is when you start to prequalify your leads.
Let’s say a home buyer is looking for MLS listings. Your ad is being displayed in the traditional “GET PEOPLE TO CLICK NOW!!” format. They see all these ads all around them, and they click on yours. You have no idea what type of person this is or what specifically they are looking for. All you know is that they typed in “MLS listings” into Google, liked your ad, and clicked on it.
Your maybe getting 1%-2% conversion on these types of ads. For every 100 that would click through, maybe 1-2 would convert to a customer. 1% is not shabby, and it’s in the range of “at least I’m getting some new clients”.
So what can you do to get a higher conversion rate for your traffic…prequalify it. How do you do that? You could change your ad to say something like “Find the Home of Your Dreams Now by Searching the MLS with Robin from Remax. This type of ad is much more likely to get the person clicking the ad to contact Robin.
One thing you have to keep in mind though is that you have to balance conversion and CTR carefully. If your CTR drops off your CPC will go up which is OK if the extra revenue from prequalifying your traffic results in a higher CPC. But, and this is a big but you dont want your CPC to go up so much that your ROI actually decreases from your old ad.
So, be careful with this technique but understand that it can really improve the ROI of your marketing efforts.