I’d like to talk about the conversion funnel.

Firstly, what is ‘the conversion funnel’? Well, the conversion funnel is the steps which a website visitor has to complete in order to fulfill your desired goal, whether the final outcome is a lead or a sale. Each step in this process is vital. After all, if a website visitor does not complete all of these, then the sale has not been made.

Most online marketers only look at the end result. However, it is important to consider the non-converting cases in order to discover at what stage the sale process was stopped. This information can then be used to improve the process and increase the conversion rate.

What happens if your website achieves a lot of downloads, but few sales? Could it be the checkout process? How secure does a user feel when they are completing their purchase? Are they been offered too many alternatives at this final step? These are all important questions to consider.

I believe in the KISS principle. Keep it simple, stupid. The fewer steps a website visitor needs to take to complete your desired goal, the better. Just by improving the final steps within your conversion funnel, you can greatly improve your overall conversion rate.

Using tools such as Google Analytics, you can track the user’s progress through the different stages the checkout process. This allows you to monitor your conversion funnel metrics and learn valuable information which can be used to improve your website.

After its CEO publicly endorsed Barack Obama, Google is now urging Adwords advertisers to get out and vote in the upcoming elections (see screenshot below). Personally I doubt Adwords users will be swayed by Google’s call to action and I even find it slightly annoying that the company uses this platform for non-Adwords related messages. […]

When Google launched Chrome last week, I noticed a download link on its homepage. I didn’t think too much of it and assumed it was a launch stunt. But more than a week later, the link still occasionally appears. Given Google’s resistance to putting a privacy link on its home page, I wonder why they […]

When the gorilla in the room develops a new web browser, you cant help but pay attention. That Google was working on a browser was not really a secret, they already hired a lead developer from Firefox nearly 3 years ago. Nevertheless the entry of Google into this market is bound to ruffle a few […]

When Google introduced the concept of a minimum bid into the Adwords platform, I guess few advertisers and perhaps not even Google realized the effect it would have on their business.
Publicly, Google always maintains that relevance and user experience take priority over revenue generation and so the minimum bid was introduced to ensure that search […]

(written by Nic, member of our adcopy team)
What do I want from Google? There is one thing that I have ALWAYS wanted for as long as I can remember and it is a simple little thing.
A RANDOMIZE BUTTON next to search results. Not the crumby “I’m Feeling Lucky” button that makes me think “I‘m Feeling […]

Yesterday, 28th July a new search engine was launched called Cuil.
The company claims that their search engine is the worlds biggest, having even more indexed pages that Google and Microsoft Live.
Much of the team responsible behind the creation and design of Cuil are ex-Google employees but the look-and-feel as well as functioning of the site […]

The fog of war has lifted from Yahoo: Microsoft has walked away, Yahoo claims victory and Google ends up with the spoils. In response to the failed Microsoft bid Yahoo announced a “Non-Exclusive Search Agreement” with Google. In short, this means that Yahoo will outsource a portion (whatever that means) of its search and display […]

At SMX advanced in Seattle the question was put to the attendees: “how many of you use bid management tools?”
And that was the most surprising part of the session: nearly everyone in a room with hundreds of people raised their hand. Of course technically speaking using Excel to increase your prices by 10% also makes it a bid management tool. Nevertheless people in […]

Finally. That was my first thought when Microsoft announced the existence of an MSN Adcenter desktop tool at the SMX advanced conference this morning. We knew something like this was in the pipeline but never knew when it was supposed to become publicly available. Well now it is, almost. The tool will initially only be launched in a private […]