Knowledge is the Foundation To Success  

Sure you can manage Google AdWords yourself, but do really want to? Do you have the time to really manage all of your pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns as closely and as carefully as you would like to? Are you content with how they are performing and not really looking to save both your time and advertising dollars? If you answered “yes” to that last question, please just send me a check for $10,000 since you don’t mind just throwing money away.

The confidentiality of our clients is important so I am not revealing any names here, but I would like to share some actual numbers that we have seen here at JumpFly as a result of our efforts. I looked at some PPC advertising data samples from the first quarter of 2008 and compared them to the first quarter of 2009. Sure, I can make these numbers up, but it’s just much easier to show you the real numbers as they truthfully exist.

JumpFly Client #1

1st Quarter 2008 – 139 conversions at $351.55 each with a total spend of approx. $49,000.
1st Quarter 2009 – 295 conversions at $125.51 each with a total spend of approx. $37,000.

Yes, they spent about $12,000 dollars LESS but more than DOUBLED their number of conversions. True story.

JumpFly Client #2

1st Quarter 2008 – 205 conversions at $62.82 each with a total spend of approx. $21,000.
1st Quarter 2009 – 301 conversions at $32.47 each with a total spend of approx. $10,000.

Yes, they spent about $11,000 dollars LESS but increased conversions by nearly 100 more. True story.

JumpFly Client #3

1st Quarter 2008 – 252 conversions at $9.87 each with a total spend of approx. $2,500.
1st Quarter 2009 – 1,859 conversions at $5.91 each with a total spend of approx. $11,000.

Yes, the spend is greatly increased as we took their business to a whole new level, while bringing their conversion costs down. Huge sales growth with conversions growing over 1,500 compared to the same time period a year earlier. True story.

JumpFly Client #4

1st Quarter 2008 – 4,027 conversions at $9.04 each with a total spend of approx. $36,000.
1st Quarter 2009 – 5,204 conversions at $6.36 each with a total spend of approx. $33,000.

Yes, they spent about $3,000 LESS while growing conversions over 1,000 at a lower cost. True story.

And the numbers above don’t take into the account the time and worry these business owners took off their shoulders by outsourcing their PPC management.

I’m not saying that professional PPC management will produce the same results for every company, but very positive results certainly can come from having a professional pay per click management company like JumpFly assisting you along the way. During these tight economic times, can you afford not to?

More about Jack

This is a back-to-basics article about your website and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising and the relationship between the two. One of the first things we look at here at JumpFly when we get a new client is their website. And one of the very first things we look for is a phone number, prominently displayed on every page of the website.

A phone number in the header on every web page is something we highly, highly recommend to every client. It’s not enough to have it buried in the bottom of the page or only on the Contact Us page. We’re talking every page, in the header where it’s immediately visible.

And it’s not because we want you to get more phone calls, but we’ve actually seen a definite correlation between conversion rate improvement and having that phone number on your website. Here’s what we think is the reason why:

1. Having that phone number gives your site a subconscious vote of confidence – it shows you are an actual business. That’s why a toll-free number is great, as it has more legitimacy. However, a local number may work well too for businesses seeking local customers.
2. It lets the visitor know that if they have a problem when ordering, that there’s someone that can help them. And if they have a problem after they order, they know they can reach you too. Even if they never need to use it, they know they can.
3. Some people are still leery of ecommerce and using their credit cards on the Internet. You can miss out on those potential sales if the only way they can order is through your website. Why lose the sale just because you don’t list your number or make it hard to find?

Those clients who we’ve encouraged to add their phone number to their websites have not necessarily seen an increase in phone calls, but they have seen an increase in conversions. The benefits clearly outweigh the possibility of getting a phone call or two. So display it loud, display it proud and put that phone number in your header on every page.

More about Nikki

Cost Per Conversion in PPC Advertising

Wikipedia defines Cost Per Conversion as an advertising and marketing term, describing the cost of acquiring a customer, typically calculated by dividing the total cost of an advertising campaign by the number of conversions. The definition of “conversion” varies depending upon the situation; it is sometimes considered to be a lead, a sale, or a purchase.

What is a Good Cost Per Conversion?

One question that will typically arise when talking about cost per conversion is: what is a good cost per conversion? Is it $5? Is it $10? Is it 20$? Or perhaps a good conversion is measured by a percentage of spend as it relates to your average sale value — so is 5% a good ratio between pay-per-click (PPC) advertising spend and revenue generated? Is 10%? Or perhaps even 20%? There is no real hard and fast answer to this, but many of our clients here at JumpFly like to use 10% as a solid measuring stick, in case you were looking for a typical ratio. So if you know your average order value is $100, you would look to get your conversion costs around $10 per order.

However, there are other factors that you should consider before deciding upon an acceptable cost per conversion. For example, how much is a new customer actually worth? How many times does a customer order from you within a year? If you know that most of your customers just order from you once and they rarely, if ever, order from you again, then you can use a flat 10% of average order value as a good benchmark for your conversion cost goal. But if you know the average customer orders from you 3 times a year, 5 times a year, or even more, then you really should factor that in to your cost per conversion goals. You may be short-changing your growth if you don’t consider what the total true value of a new customer is worth. You may be willing to push that conversion cost ratio to 20% of average order value, for example, if you know the average new customer orders at least twice from you within a year.

What is the Value of a New Customer? 

The value of a new customer is different for everyone, so you should look at your own average order value and the average number of purchases made by a typical customer before you make that final decision on what your cost per conversion goals are.

What is a new customer worth, especially in these tough economic times? Only you can decide for your business, but they might just be more valuable than you think.

Learn more about Jack