In my opinion there will never be a substitute for solid keyword research, targeted creative messaging, and optimized landing pages. It is this ‘Conversion Success Triad’ and a lot of blood sweat and tears along the way, that ultimately drives the results for your campaigns and clients.

Now before I go on I need to first explain that this is not a dig at PPC campaign automation, bid management, or Conversion Optimizer, for these can each be perfect solutions when employed correctly. What I get annoyed at is when I either see or hear of people who claim that their conversion optimizer is all a Search Marketer will ever need to hit their goals, or even more dangerous, when a Search Marketer truly believes that conversion optimization automation (try saying that 3 time fast!) is actually all they need…

It’s unfortunate, because there is so much misinformation out there, or perhaps more succinctly, many young eager search marketers willing to jump onto the next big thing flying past and never get the opportunity to discover what is actually happening under the hood.

Automating conversion optimization will only truly be successful if the principles of the Conversion Triad are adhered to: Keywords, Ad Text, Landing Pages. – Automation then is pretty painless because you’ve already done the hard work to get the most you possibly can out of your campaign.

When Google first released Conversion Optimizer I thought, Great, yet another tool designed for lazy search marketers. Because, all of a sudden many time poor marketers saw this as a quick win for their clients – Oh let’s just set conversion optimizer going on the account and Google will do the work for us. Wrong, wrong, wrong!

But it happened time and time again. I’ve witnessed it first hand, and you know the worst part? It actually works well enough to get a job done. So no one, not the client, nor the noob search marketer actually know that they’re leaving opportunity on the table. This is why it’s so dangerous.

Google Conversion Optimiser, as an example, works – simple as that.

Turn it on, and it will optimize the bids and keyword positions to ensure that you get your conversions at or around the specified Cost Per Lead/Sale etc. (no guarantees on volume etc.)

The issue here is that if the account was not first structured correctly i.e  Keywords were poor,  issues with match types, bad ad copy, or bad landing pages, then the ‘Automation’ of  the account is based on sub optimal performance… Result -  Sub-optimal conversion optimization.

So by all means automate your account if required, and turn on Conversion Optimizer to give it a whirl, but if you have not already put in the hard yards to get everything humming along, then don’t expect Conversion Optimiser to be the be-all and end-all solution for your needs. After-all, you know what they say “Shit in, Shit out!”

The answer to that is, “It depends!”

AArrgghhh! Which One Do I care About?!

Let me tell you a little story and break it down a bit…

It’s June,  a guy (let’s call him Bill) heads off to the pub on a Friday with two of his friends.

While there, they buy two rounds of drinks each, so 6 drinks per person (are you with me?).
So over the course of an hour they’ve consumed a total of 18 drinks between them and they head off home (in a taxi – they’re responsible).

Enter Google Conversion Tracking…  Here’s how this would all break down:

Conversions (1-per-click)  =  3
Conversions (many-per-click) = 6

Confused?

Ok well you see, Bill and his mates each brought two rounds in that session, so there are 3 converting “users/clicks” (i.e. ’1-per-click’),  however in that session each converting user made 2 purchases (of 3 drinks) so there were actually 2 sales conversions per user (many-per-click).  Equaling 6 ‘many-per-click’  conversions.

Pheww!

OK Easy right? Well the thing is, over the next 30 days (cookie expiration period) after that initial visit to the pub, Bill and his friends came back 3 more times and drank the exact same amount.

On the 3 visit they also filled in a form with their email address to go in the draw to win an extra large stuffed donkey!

So, what do the Google AdWords conversions look like now???

Conversions (1-per-click)         =     3
Conversions (many-per-click)    =    24

See where we’re going? 3 ‘users’ bought 24 drink rounds over the 30 day period!

- 3 Converting users  (‘1-per-click conversions’).

- 24 Sales  (‘many-per-click’ conversions).

But… What about the competition ‘sign-up’?

Sign-up Conv. (many-per-click)    =    3

As there were 3 ‘sign-up’ events on the final visit, but still only 3 ‘1-per-click’ conversions over the 30 day period.

What Google’s new conversion tracking does not tell you is the number of actual products sold. i.e the fact that Bill and his friends drank 72 drinks over 4 sessions is not reported, only that the three of them were there, and made 24 purchases… But naturally there are other tools for that type of  measurement (Web Analytics anyone?)

Essentially, the new Google conversion reporting helps us, as advertisers, define value.  More importantly it helps us better understand the true value of a ‘click’ that we get from our AdWords campaigns.

To Sum up:

There is no black and white answer to the “Which conversion metric do I use?” question.

Ultimately it depends on the goals of the campaign and the conversion / success events you’re measuring.

If you’re doing direct response, lead generation, email list building, etc, with little follow-up or anything additional to sell, then chances are that the metric you care about most is the top line conversion, 1-per-click. i.e. did that click result in a converting user?

However, if you’re selling products or services, or doing lead generation in the classifieds space (jobs, real estate etc.), or 101 other possible events,  then these new metrics allow you to understand not just ‘did that ‘click’ convert’, but did they actually convert multiple times over the following 30 day period.  How valuable was that initial click in the broader sense?

Essentially it is a very useful measure in understanding, and calculating, true value per click and other ROI based metrics.