Initially, this post started out as a look at the top 10,000 viewed pages on elclasificado.com to determine which categories saw the lowest bounce and exit rates; however, after noticing the top pages also showed differences along the entire scale from 0% to 100% the thinking shifted to looking at some of the ads that were currently being placed on the site.
IMPROVING ADS THAT LACK HIGH RETURN METRICS
What may come as a bit of a surprise is that elclasificado.com doesn’t want to have zero percent bounce rates on the ad pages. Of course, we don’t necessarily want to see a 100% bounce rate on the same pages either, because our marketplace is designed to enhance the user experience by giving them multiple options to discover advertisers that best meet their individual needs. However, 0% bounce rates can also imply that advertisers are not getting the expected results from the site (assuming that the ad page acts as a landing page for visitors from external sources). Of course, there could be extenuating factors that could influence the metrics and that may not be measureable within the analytics, such as negative experiences by customers trying to contact advertisers via phone or e-mail, but we’re going to specifically look at ads that can be measured quantifiably.
In the case of the image below, we’ve selected an ad that didn’t seem to be performing in a way that the advertiser would want, redacted the contact information, as well as anything else that could help identify the advertiser, with the exception of the actual ad text; however, as will be noted in the bottom left corner of the picture, the ad has currently been viewed a total of 251 times.
Essentially, the ad is offering to tell people, for a price, where they can buy their wholesale merchandise in bulk. Two things that I should point out are that the headline of the ad acts as the title, and the beginning of the body of the ad, which states, “Empiece con menos de $100. ¡YO LE DIGO DONDE COMPRAR MAYOREO EN LOS ANGELES!” will act as the meta description, meaning that for El Clasificado visitors, Googlers, and other internet search engine users the message is already displayed within the search results and classified ad texts displayed in the text prior shown in subcategories and other pages linking to the ad itself. Considering that the ad has already received ad views despite being placed in a competitive category we can already see that there is a market that is interested in being able to pay for someone to tell them where to get their wholesale products.
What we see here, though, which is similar to other ads with greater amounts of text, is that the general message is more of a list that includes different types of wholesale products that can be purchased. This, to an extent, is a good and suggested practice in the sense that it can potentially help to drive greater amounts of search traffic by specifically mentioning different wholesale products that a search engine audience may be looking for; however, it noticeably lacks a strong call-to-action. The first CTA, which comes early in the ad, is basically stating that the advertiser can help the audience find wholesale products for a fee when the viewer is already on a site that provides wholesale opportunities to them for free whereas the second call-to-action comes after the list has been completed listing all the different wholesale products they are selling in a category that is already promoting specific locations that are selling wholesale.
Our suggestion: Many of the issues with this ad tend to be common of other ads, including those with higher bounce rates than 0%. While we like the list and the opportunities that can be presented to drive more traffic from all the different types of wholesale merchandise that the advertiser can help the visitors find, there needs to be a stronger CTA. Something which can drive greater responses to the ad in regards to what separates their services from other sites and companies. Are there wholesale locations this advertiser knows about that are not advertised to the public? Can the advertiser help them find the best deals on the wholesale products that they are looking for? If so, this should be included in the text of the ad and, more importantly, in the call to action with a strong message as well as a sense of urgency (that is also not included here) to get the viewer thinking they NEED to pick up their phone, send an e-mail, or visit a location now in order to get the best prices, services, or offers for their wholesale needs. While these changes may also seem to be obvious, they are altogether common issues that we’ve seen with many of the elclasificado.com ads. What’s important is to remember why and when a buyer should contact you. Otherwise, the ad that ends up being created is just an ad that’s offering the same services as the subcategory the visitor is already viewing and other competitors that may also have a competitive edge in regards to their location or pricing among other reasons.
