Google pay-per-click conversion rates freeze up at Ice.com
Ice.com is taking a hard look at the money it’s spending for paid search advertising on Google. Each year Ice.com, No. 182 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, spends more than $1 million on paid campaigns on Google, says CEO Shmuel Gniwisch.
But the average conversion rate for paid campaigns on Google dropped by 30% last year. As a result, Ice.com is looking at options such as cutting back on pay-per-click campaigns on Google, shifting more advertising dollars to other search engines, working more on site optimization and bringing in an outside third-party agency, says Gniwisch. “Google is a great partner and they are working with us, but whatever we are doing isn’t working,” he says.
In the past several months Ice.com has tried various initiatives to improve its Google pay-per-click results such as testing various combinations of landing pages and messages. During one test Ice.com spent $40,000 on a campaign that produced only limited short term results. “We spent that $40,000 as a test to see how long a life these campaigns have,” he says. “The result delivered some impulse buys, but not a longer sales cycle past just a few days.”
Ice.com continues to see both paid and natural search engine marketing as a big component of its overall marketing plan. “We just need to do a better job of figuring out why we aren’t getting a very good return on investment on Google,” says Gniwisch.
Mayer Gniwisch, president and co-founder, Ice.com, will speak at Internet Retailer Web Design ’08 Conference, Jan. 30-Feb. 1 in Miami, in a session titled How to get feedback to help with your redesign .
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