Conversions: Adwords, Abandoned Carts, Newsletters: What do you use?

[MelanieF]

Hi,

I am wondering in general, what is your success rate with various paid efforts at increasing conversions.
As a basis for comparison for this post, I am using V's ROI Tracking info (because I use this for all my extra-curricular activities).
I understanding that these days lots of people block cookies, etc and it is not exactly accurate. But it does provide me with a general idea.
That said, here are my stats. Would you please share yours, at least generally speaking?

My conversion rates for the past 6 months:

Conversion rate: OTHER: 1.06% (this includes organic google searches)
Google adwords: 0.69%
Mailchimp new subscriber letter: 1.59%
various MC newsletters: avg 12%
Vextras First Time Buyer email: 25%
Vextras 90 reminder letter: 37%
Vextras Abandoned Cart letter: 15%

I am paying $99/month for Vextras; $50/mon for Mailchimp; and upwards of $300/mon for Google adwords.

On the basis of these numbers alone, I should definitely drop the Adwords. However, I hesitate to do this because it generates so many clicks and I wonder how many of these people will come back later and make a sale. Google analytics info shows a slightly higher conversion rate, but nothing close to MC or Vextras.

Clearly email wins out big and is worthwhile.

I will add that although MC and Vextras conversion rates are very high, the actual number of sales and $$ value is nothing close to what I get through google organic sales. Which leads me to say that Volusions built-in SEO is working well for me.
On a note... my store is a niche market and customers mostly know exactly what they are looking for when they buy.

So my big question for you all... do you see similar results with Google adwords. Is it worthwhile to you? What are your conversion rates like?

-Melanie

[katherine]

Our conversion rate for organic traffic is 1.28% and for paid traffic (google/bing) is 2.40% - average order size is about 10% higher for the paid conversions.

As far as bang for the buck, our most successful effort was adding 4-Tell recommendations to our website (we have had them in place since 2013). The conversion rate for customers who click on 4-Tell recommendations in our website is 9.07% with an average order value 15% higher than organic traffic.

The 4-Tell engine evaluates sales/traffic and generates personalized recommendations based on what the user is viewing and/or has bought. We have 4-Tell elements in various places in the website:

- "Top Sellers in this Category" at the top of each product department (example attached)
- "Recommended for You" on the home page
- "Customers Also Bought" and "Customers Also Viewed" on the product details page
- "You May Also Like" on the shopping cart

We also have 4-Tell recommendations built into a sidebar in the order confirmation email based on items purchased - those are not clicked very often, but do have a pretty strong conversion rate (37.5%) and an average order value 64.98% higher than organic traffic when they are clicked ($73.73 vs. $44.69).

[dmoore]

How timely, I need to look into Vextras....

[dmoore]

How timely, I need to look into Vextras....

I signed up and hooked into their system which was pretty easy with Volusion. I hope my results are as good as yours. I also like that after a customer purchases an item I can shot them an email with "hey, read this page for setup" or "Don't forget you can download your purchase as shown here..."

@MelanieF - you need to see if you can get in on eCommerce Fuel, with all your feedback and posts, you'd be a sure bet to be admitted to the forum.

Thanks!

[dmoore]

Hi,
So my big question for you all... do you see similar results with Google adwords. Is it worthwhile to you? What are your conversion rates like?

-Melanie

As to the GA conversion... We have an average conversion cost of $26.99 but our items and lifetime purchases are high enough to support that level of GA spending. Our average conversion percentage was 3.26% but I don't believe that completely captures the real conversion rate which is higher due to a very long conversion time of 54 days (our product is very complex).

[adventureguide]

For March:

Other: 1.61%
Google adwords: we have several Adwords campaigns. Most are just meant to collect email list signups so don't have any direct sales. The one that is selling has a 1.85%.
A bunch of Mailchimp campaigns that range from under 1% up to about 11%.

One thing that I found is that it really helps to use "long tail" keywords for Adwords. Remove all the general keyword phrases and only use more specifically targeted ones. Your clicks will go down (and the cost), and the conversions will go up. But even so, we're finding Adwords not to be worth it and are cutting down on the spending.

Something new that we've been trying is the new Facebook ads that you can create in Mailchimp. The targeting it offers lets you focus on people similar to your Mailchimp list members, Facebook likers, etc. so you can target people who are inclined to be customers. From what we're seeing so far, it works for us much better than Adwords does and gives a lot more bang for the buck.