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Report Says Retail Paid Search Conversion Rates Dropping

posted on October 17, 2011


When you think about paid search advertising on a search engine like Google, Bing or Yahoo do you care about how much is being spent there in total or are you focusing on your conversions?

Most marketers will say conversions rule the day for obvious reasons. That’s why a recent study from IgnitionOne is interesting in that it shows a Q3 trend of increased spend on paid search by the retail sector in particular but a significant decline in conversion rates. This is good news for the engines on increased revenue but will that be sustained if conversions are not taking place? Here are the numbers from the report (AOV is average order size).

There are plenty of reasons why conversions may be down in this area but the most obvious one is that paid search advertisers struggle with compelling landing pages. It is one of, if not the most, critical components that cause searchers to eventually convert into real leads.

So why the disconnect? If this is such an important element in the success of any online campaign, be it a paid search effort or some other inbound marketing technique that attracts a potential customer to a web presence, why is there more failing than succeeding in converting visitors to customers?

What do you see as the most common shortcomings in landing page optimization? Can this trend in conversions be about the overall effectiveness of paid search or is it more of a commentary of how much help most need to master this important online marketing concept? Or is it simply that people are looking but don’t have the money to buy?

What’s your take?

Marketing Pilgrim’s Inbound Marketing Channel sponsor HubSpot is educates businesses of all sizes regarding the most effective techniques for success in landing page optimization.


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  • spidermate

    How about the period where people are preparing for christmas, comparing various products/offers but not willing to buy, yet
    Do you have comparable data of last year ?

    How about change in buying behavior:?

    Stronger reliance on seo, or social media when buying

    But I disagree with the idea it could have to do with a global landing page quality decrease.I don’t think it makes much sense

    • Online Guru

      The notion that landing pages across the world in retail have all gone bad is bogus! What is happening is a sea shift in the way people are shopping. Consumer retail may be moving to social media, but more likely people are returning to trusted brands NOW that everyone has gone to the basement on pricing on the internet.

      AND in the case of B-to-B which, in my view, is also experiencing a drop, people are returning to their old face time professional networks for referrals. Too much is on the line for them, why would they base a buying decision on a landing page, or even a call to an unknown company if they could lose their job for making the wrong decision?

      And as usual on the numbers, Hub Spot is miserably shoddy, come on guys, give us some real analytics, some real stats trended over timeframes this snivel of data tells us nothing!

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