We’re going to get into the nuts and bolts of ad conversion.
If your ads are performing badly then pay close attention to the 5 stumbling blocks.

1. You are advertising to the wrong audience. Make sure your product and offer is laser focused on the audience you are trying to reach.  For example, You will get poor results if you are selling an investment newsletter to a safelist of internet marketers. Or, you can expect to see zero sales from selling an MLM product opportunity on a women’s health blog. 

Warning: Beware of sites that offer to put your ad in front of thousands to millions of people.  They WILL NOT work because the audience is untargeted (and maybe non-existent).

2. Vague Call to Action.  Here’s why – you are not selling the click.  Selling the click is telling them what they will get, enjoy, or avoid if they click your link.  You sell the link by finding the juciest benefit your product offers and trimmning it down to one simple promise.  That promise is what people will click to get.

3. Your landing page is weak.  The next page your customer will see after they click your ad is your landing page. Your customer will bail if they don’t see the juicy benefit repeated immediately. Don’t get cute here.  Let them know exactly what they will enjoy as quickly as you can.

4. Make a persuasive offer.  Strip your offer down to its underwear.  Make it as simple as possible.  A confused customer simply will not buy.  the best offers tell me 1) What I’m Getting, 2) How Much it costs, 3) Why I Need to Buy Now, and 4) What I need to do next to pay.

5. Make it easy to buy.  A simple clearly labeled buy button is good enough.  Repeat your buy link often throughout your landing page.  Don’t make your customer hunt for how to pay you.

6. Look professional, credible, and sane.  I visit at least 3 sites a day of people who aren’t getting any sales from their ads.  When I arrive at their website, I am almost always horrified by the hodgepodge of links, banners, adsense, misspelled words, and generally sloppy presentation. Don’t expect your customer to give their hard earned money to a circus act.  Pull your website together and make it presentable.

Hard and fast.  A little blunt but I know you can take it.  If you need me to hold your hand through this process and make sure you’ve got all the right stuff in place – then visit www.WebSalesClub.com.  Club members get an entire quick start module on this topic.

Go ahead and take a critical look at your ads and landing pages – make these tweaks and watch your performance improve.

 

This article was written by Stan Smith a closet marketing anarchist, ad
agency refugee, and samurai copywriter. He can't resist the urge to throw grenades at the Internet marketing establishment and supports stealing from the gurus at every opportunity. In his spare time he hunts smallmouth bass, creates dinosaur origami, and is the head trainer (misfit) at the Web Sales Club