Listening in PPC Campaigns

So, I bought a new house and have to get all new appliances.   First stop…Lowe’s.

I go in and have tons of questions.  I’m just starting to look and I don’t know any of the particulars about size, color, functionality, yada yada yada.  I was very happy with the salesman’s knowledge of the products and ability to give me all of the answers I was looking for.  Then, he tried to close me.  Of course, we all have the “one night stand” addiction.  We want everyone to buy on the first encounter.

But, I wasn’t ready for commitment.  I mean, I’m droppin’ over two grand here!!  I had to go and compare, see what the deals were, what sales were going on for President’s Day weekend, yada yada yada.

So, I shop around a bit and of course I end up at the Home Depot.  By this time, I’m not asking the questions I was before, right?  I’m being a little more specific.  So, I ask “What do you have in an 18 cubic foot fridge?”  The salesman’s answer was something like “This fridge here has this and this and this and we’ve got a great sale going on right now, plus it gives you a little more room in that it’s a 22 cubic foot fridge.”

Dude . . . seriously?  I wanted to throw my best Chris Tucker impersonation of “Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?” at him.  Nice guy, good intentions, but wasn’t listening to where I was at in the shopping funnel.

This sort of thing happens all the time in PPC campaigns.  The searcher is at a point in the shopping funnel and enters a search phrase to find a bunch of ads that don’t answer their questions.  Then, if they do find an ad that looks appealing, the landing page feeds them nothing but frustration in finding their answers.

This is exactly what happened in my Home Depot experience and I was ready to walk out the door like 5 minutes after I got there.  In online terms, I was ready to “bounce” right out of the store.  I was so annoyed, I didn’t even want to know the prices.  Why would I expect my paid visitors to react any differently?

PPC visitors pretty much tell you where they’re at in the shopping funnel by what they type into the search box.  If they type in a general phrase like “refrigerators,” they most likely don’t know what brand, size, or color they are looking for.  They are looking for answers to these questions.  Therefore, your ad and landing page should be like the Lowe’s guy and have all the information they need.

If they type in something like “whirlpool refrigerator,” they are telling you that they want information specifically about a Whirlpool.  They’ve already learned something somewhere else (maybe from you) that has given them interest in a more specific type of refrigerator.  These people have different questions.  Therefore, you should give them different answers.

Your goal for each campaign, ad group, keyword and ad should be to meet as many prospects as you can at their stage in the shopping funnel and move them along until they become customers.

Not only did the Lowe’s salesman meet me where I was at and provide me the answers I was looking for, they offered the best value in their products that I found.  Needless to say that I came back and became a customer.