The top two pay-per-click (PPC) advertising challenges for marketers are “increasing lead generation” and “achieving or increasing measurable ROI,” according to the MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Report – PPC Edition, with 56% of respondents indicating those areas are key challenges.
“Being a small company, it is important for us to achieve a high ROI on our PPC ads, so this goal typically drives our strategy for SEM (search engine marketing),” a marketer responded in the benchmark report.
One way to increase lead generation and measure the ROI of your search marketing is by testing the ads. So today on the MarketingExperiments blog, we’re featuring a paid search test conducted for a MECLABS Research Partner …
EXPERIMENT
Background: This MECLABS Research Partner is the sole provider of the Accurascope procedure, which is an innovative, minimally invasive spine surgery for back pain relief.
Goal: To increase number of leads on website
Primary Research Question: Which benefit approach of the three treatments will increase the conversion rate?
LANDING PAGE
Three pay-per-click ads were tested: the control plus two treatments. All three ads sent traffic to the same webpage for lead capture. The goal was not to get the most clicks on the PPC ads, but rather the most conversions on this webpage.
CONTROL
The control used a positive message. But did it say too much? Did it have too grand of a claim? While a claim like this could perhaps get people to click, could it actually get them to convert once they reached the webpage?
TREATMENT #1
Treatment #1 also used a positive message, focusing on what the potential customer would get – “back pain relief.”
TREATMENT #2
Treatment #2 used a negative message, essentially telling potential customers what they could “avoid” rather than what they could receive, namely “back pain relief.” Treatment #2 also included a clear, specific description of what the procedure actually entailed – “one micro incision.”
RESULTS
Treatment #2 generated 46.6% more leads than the control.
For more information on this experiment, you can watch the free MarketingExperiments Web clinic video replay – “The 5 Most Startling Marketing Discoveries from 2012: Including the 3 words that changed everything for a top financial product.”
Related Resources:
How to Test Your Value Proposition Using a PPC Ad
Online Advertising: How your peers optimize PPC ads
This Just Tested: How PPC specificity drove 21% more clicks and cut costs 66%
PPC Advertising: How to track AdWords and Facebook ads in 5 steps (via the MarketingSherpa Blog)