The PPC Journey; a users perspective

11 November 2015 | | Marketing, Pay Per Click

This week, my blog points you to a brilliant article by Christopher Ratcliff of Search Engine Watch.

Christopher Ratcliff explores the customer’s point of view when searching, finding, ordering and paying for a product online. Although very few dental practice websites have check-out pages, this is an interesting insight into the journey of the customer and really makes one appreciate that EVERYTHING your website does and does not do right, has a massive impact on the decision-making of your potential patient.

Take some time to read the below and refer back to your website. How does the customer journey compare?

Search

First let’s check for some of Lowe’s most popular products. Here’s the search engine results page (SERP) for ‘patio furniture’.

patio-furniture-google-search-14

Lowe’s may not have the top ad, but it certainly takes up the most amount of space in terms of text and detail. The retailer has to make a big impact here in the paid space, as its competitors are dominating the organic space. As you can see from the SERP, Lowe’s languishes below Home Depot, Walmart and Costco.

Which means Lowe’s has to work hard to trounce its rivals with paid search, and in terms of persuasion it certainly does that.

lowe-s-ppc-ad-google-search

For a start it has a 5% more attractive discount than Wayfair above, probably down to some prior competitor analysis.

It’s also festooned with customer ratings all 9/10 or above, as well as a 4.5 star rating. The other major difference between Lowe’s result and the other two, is that it takes you directly to a specific clearance patio furniture page, as opposed to a generic patio furniture page from Hayneedle or the following page from Wayfair…

wayfair

I don’t want to have to enter an email address in order to continue. Neither do I want to wait for an emailed discount code. I want my cheap hammock now!

Anyway, back to Lowe’s…

There’s similarly detailed PPC campaigns for drills, dishwashers, refrigerators and other higher priced items.

However it hasn’t bothered with lower priced everyday items such as light bulbs or screws, as perhaps the return on investment wouldn’t be justified.

Perhaps as it gets later in November, Lowe’s may want to consider boosting its search presence for key seasonal terms like Christmas lights and Christmas trees.

christmas-lights-google-search

Landing page

Google AdWords uses relevancy to the searcher and the quality of the landing page to decide if it will serve an ad, not just whether it’s the highest bidder on a search term. This is called a ‘quality score’.

If you’re using PPC, your landing page linked in the ad needs to relevant to your ad text. It’s not good enough advertising cheap patio furniture if you’re just going to take searchers to a generic home page and make them hunt around for what they want.

Lowe’s provides a product results page here for clearance patio furniture rather than a bespoke landing page, such as it does with its general patio furniture.

shop-patio-clearance-at-lowes

Yes it’s relevant in terms of description, but it’s not the best example of a product results page.

On my laptop screen I can see a grand total of one and a half products. It’s pretty hard to tell because of the size and positioning of the text, but these are sorted by ‘best sellers’. The images are also tiny and offer nothing in terms of hover-zoom or alternative views.

Lowe’s could improve this by serving three to four results across the page, using much larger detailed images. With the product names and prices happily sitting underneath each image.

As someone clicking through from search I would expect attractive, attention grabbing images with clear pricing and large text, otherwise I’m bouncing immediately and clicking on a competitor’s listing.

Other important elements a landing page needs are clear information on delivery options and whether it does free shipping or not. Lowe’s includes a free shipping message here along with the threshold amount, however it doesn’t mention its click and collect offering.

Product page

So let’s pretend I found a relevant item I liked and I clicked through to the product page. Today I think I’ll purchase this decorative lumbar pillow.

product-page-lowe-s

There’s something particularly drab about Lowe’s product pages. Something perfunctory. The greying background doesn’t help, and neither does the lengthy product name with its mixture of cap sizes and lack of actual product description.

The image is small and feels weirdly marooned in the white space, although if you click on the image it pops-out to a larger version.

I love live chat for customer service, it’s convenient, personal and immediate. However the live chat box sprang up as soon as I clicked through to the page, obscuring key information and the add to cart CTA.

By all means offer live chat after a certain period of dwell time, but don’t patronise someone by assuming they have no idea what’s going on from the start.

In its favour are the clear delivery options on the right hand side, however the sub-total doesn’t change to reflect the premium option you’ve selected.

For more info, check out Graham Charlton’s guide to the ideal product page over at ClickZ.

Shopping cart

The first page of the shopping process offers a nice clear view of your basket with image, although the prices could be bolder.

lowe-s-shopping-cart

You’ll also notice that the full horror of your total price isn’t revealed till below the fold…

lowes-shopping-cart-02

Bear in mind that a significant amount of basket abandonment occurs because of these nasty surprises. Maybe truck delivery isn’t for me. Although why regular parcel shipping isn’t available goes without explanation.

Happily Lowe’s offers guest checkout, which is great customer service, as it offers speed and efficiency as the focus, rather than data capture. Asking if a customer would like to save their details after the checkout is complete with a password is a perfect way to capture details and not put up another barrier to purchase.

The remaining checkout process is easy and straightforward. The text boxes are large and have autocomplete enabled and as you can see from the image below there are only three steps to completion. Although faster payment methods such as PayPal are missing.

lowe-s-secure-checkout

In conclusion…

Though an excellent search strategy means that Lowe’s is succeeding at being represented on SERPs, its landing and product pages leave a lot to be desired. The checkout offers a great deal of convenience, but I feel that more people would get to that point if the rest of the site was just as clear and customer-focused.

**********************

Food for thought. Give Dental Design a call on 01202 677277 to discuss your PPC campaign, and the landing page experience of your dental practice page.

More posts from our team


Previous Post:
Next Post:

Back to all news

Reviews2024
Five Star
Reviewed Marketing
5 gold stars
google review logofacebook review with 5 stars
"Excellent service from James at Dental Design, thank you very much for your prompt attention whenever I get in touch! Would definitely recommend to a friend" Alison Tarmey View Full Testimonial
Google reviews logo "Would definitely recommend to a friend"
5 gold stars
"As a dental practice manager I cannot recommend Dental Design highly enough. They are just brilliant at what they do. Lucy and her colleagues are just an email or a phone call away...." Emma Smith View Full Testimonial
Google reviews logo "I cannot recommend Dental Design highly enough"
5 gold stars
"Really great company to deal with. They always respond quickly and are truly reliable. I would 100% recommend, the staff are so friendly and helpful." Michelle Molloy View Full Testimonial
Google reviews logo "Really great company to deal with"
5 gold stars
"I got increased traffic and new patients applying to my surgery, once Dental Design upgraded my website. They are very professional, efficient & adaptive to new situations..." Joanna Gallop View Full Testimonial
Google reviews logo "Very professional, efficient & adaptive to new situations"
5 gold stars
"Lucy has been a star, responding to and acting upon our requests in a prompt, efficient and professional manner, as well as the rest of the Dental Design team..." Abhay Shah View Full Testimonial
Google reviews logo "I cannot recommend them highly enough"
5 gold stars
"...Since the website has been up and running Lucy Mander has been our point of contact. She has been invaluable and gone out of her way to help us, especially during COVID-19 lockdown... " Lucy Jones View Full Testimonial
Google reviews logo "Has been invaluable and gone out of her way to help us"
5 gold stars
"Thank you for all your help and support, and the provision of valuable learning aids for our patients and staff alike in these difficult times. We love the look of our practice website. Very professional!" Sandra Luck View Full Testimonial
Google reviews logo "We love the look of our practice website. Very professional!"
5 gold stars
"Dental Design stood out both in their knowledge of the industry and their professionalism and can-do attitude. All of their staff are exceptionally competent and knowledgeable..." Harvey Rook View Full Testimonial
Google reviews logo "Dental Design stood out both in their knowledge of the industry and their professionalism"
5 gold stars
"Having done extensive research into all the dental website companies, the team and package offered at dental design was unrivalled..." Neil Shah View Full Testimonial
Google reviews logo "The team and package offered at dental design was unrivalled"
5 gold stars
"The team at dental design (especially Rosie) are absolutely fantastic and are always on hand to help. They are professional, friendly and extremely efficient. Rosie always gets back..." KiKi Wilmot View Full Testimonial
Google reviews logo "absolutely fantastic and are always on hand to help"
5 gold stars
"Dental Design are fantastic to work with, our website is amazing and the support they provide is second to none. Our account manager Rosie L is a fabulous point..." Luke Lucas View Full Testimonial
Google reviews logo "Dental Design are fantastic to work with"
5 gold stars
"Having worked with the Dental Design team for the last six months, I've found them not only helpful, but friendly and approachable too. I bombard Marcus with regular..." Sophie Harper View Full Testimonial
Google reviews logo "always met with a swift and professional response"
5 gold stars
desk with branded documents