 |
|
Previous research has shown that Pay Per Click adverts aren't particularly liked by users, resulting in low Click Through Rates. So, why is this, and does that mean you shouldn't be using Pay Per Click? We take a look... TrustGoogle introduced it's AdWords Pay Per Click system in 2000. Previous studies including one by eMarketer in 2003 showed that users thought paid results were untrustworthy, with only 14% thinking the contrary. A similar study found that as much as 66% of users didn't trust paid ads. Another study by Oneupweb indicated that people are less likely to click on paid ads compared to organic search engine listings, instead preferring to try the first few organic listings beforehand. Undoubtedly, part of the explanation behind these results was that paid adverts were fairly new at the time. They were regarded as unnecessary addition to a previously uncluttered Google. It is fair to say that now, in 2009, Google is as ever popular and people are becoming more used to seeing paid ads. Pew Internet's study showed that not only are 38% of searchers aware of the distinction between paid and unpaid results, 54% are aware of the distinction on Google. An eye tracking study carried out by Eyetools showed that the top three of Google's paid ads were easily the most viewed (as shown by the heat map below)
The same study provided the following results for the amount of visibility each ad recieved depending on position. 1 - 50% RelevancePaid ads are not liked by some because of the lack of relevance. This is purely down to advertisers being too broad. This is bad for both them and the user. With the market becoming increasingly competitive, paid ads tend to be more targeted and therefore related to organic listings. Research in 2004 by iProspect regarded organic search engine results as more relevant than paid results. On Google, 72.% felt that organic results were more relevant, while only 28% rated paid results as more relevant. ConclusionClearly, some users still don't trust Pay Per Click ads. This is the the advertisers own undoing, where ads just aren't relevant enough. It's not all bad news though! Lets remember that you only pay for a click, so even if you're not getting results, you won't be paying for the mistake! The key is to ensure you have highly targeted ads relevant to the keywords you choose, otherwise, expect a poor Click Through Rate. In 2008, Google attempted to improve trust levels themselves by stopping the use of different display urls (compared to the actual destination url). This means the user has a better idea of what website they're going to, which is bound to help things. Google also tries to prevent ads being too 'spammy' by banning too much usage of punctuation and capital letters. This is a good thing, as anything too sales like is the sort of thing that puts off users in the first place. Of course, you have the opportunity to test various ads by using ad rotation functionality within the Google AdWords system. You can even choose for Google to use the best performing one.
You may also be interested in reading....
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Articles to your inbox
Discover more about Search Engine Optimisation, Pay Per Click advertising and Email Marketing by getting our articles when they're published.
Just put your e-mail address in the box below.
Latest Articles
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|