Holiday 2014 Learnings: How Delivery Options Impact PPC & Conversions

Satisfactory conversion rates are what pay-per-click advertising is all about. However, geographically targeted audiences and cleverly worded text ads that attract the attention of major search engines are only part of the strategy that must be employed in order to attain a positive return on investment.

The 2014 holiday season click-thru statistics are a good place to start in order to find out what measures are utilized by successful businesses to increase their sales. Studying the numbers reveals clues as to how delivery options impact PPC & conversions for online entrepreneurs.

What The Statistics Show

During the Thanksgiving holiday and subsequent Black Friday, most shoppers are concerned with getting the best bargain on items available for in-store pickup. In fact, until recently, online purchases did not increase during this period because most of the products advertised were for in-store purchase only. This has changed, as merchants have begun to discount products for online purchase and in-store pickup beginning right after Thanksgiving.

Christmas has always been a different story because shoppers are more concerned with the cut-off date for ordering online with an assurance of delivery prior to December 24. Depending on the shipping service and schedule chosen by the buyer, this date could be as early as December 16.

According to data gathered through Google Analytics, there is a definite correlation between advertising visibility and click-thru ratios when a favorable shipping cost is involved. In other words, those merchants who decide to absorb some of the shipping costs can actually increase their sales to a degree that outweighs this additional overhead.

Higher Costs Means Lower PPC

Click-and-collect is a term that all merchants need to remember, especially if they carry inventory that is targeted for holiday consumer purchase. This means offering a favorable ordering timeline combined with a very attractive pick-up schedule at a store location. If the merchant must pay a higher cost to deliver product to a physical store location in under 24 hours, this would normally mean a loss of profit, but if consumers know they can receive their product at a nearby store the day after they order it - especially a few days before Christmas - this changes the conversion rates significantly.

However, if the shipping charge is passed along to the consumer, the PPC will drop because this offer is not included. Merchants extending their standard delivery rates for orders going directly to the consumer address will see a higher PPC, as long as their advertising is linked to pages that clearly state this attractive shipping charge. Therefore, avoiding lower PPC and lower conversions mean absorbing some of the freight charges.

Setting Up the Campaign

Besides the normal policy of wording advertisements in a way that is attractive to Google and other search engines, merchants need be mindful of the necessity of including additional information that makes the new-fangled search algorithms take notice. For example, it does very little good to set up a holiday campaign that does not point directly to delivery dates and shipping rate information. Also, the strategy for raising and lowering bids on selective keywords and key phrases changes during holiday periods.

Guaranteed delivery dates and shipping rate options are definitely noticed by consumers and will have a significant impact on PPC and conversion rates. Weaving this information into advertising text and visual art display on the company website is vital, but even more important is the requirement that everything displayed is 100 percent relevant to the product or service being offered.

Get Professional Help

It is virtually impossible for the average merchant to build a successful holiday advertising campaign based on the promise of guaranteed delivery dates and standard shipping costs. No matter how exciting the offer, no one is going to see it unless a fully developed campaign that makes use of extended exposure through media sites is put into play. In addition, a carefully targeted audience that may very well be a seasonal audience needs to be addressed in a way that grabs attention.

Bringing in the help of an experienced digital marketing specialist who focuses on a targeted audience with specific demands is the best bet for increasing sales. Learning how delivery options impact PPC & conversions is the new holiday advertising game, one with specific rules.

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