Past The 1st Page
The pay per click advertising platform is often touted as a level playing field that a business of any size can compete in. In real terms the playing field is far from even.
In higly competitive sectors the to achive consistant first page positions can require daily budget in excess of £500. Not an easy figure to justify for the small business. And even the engines themselves tell us that the number of a views the second page ads recive is minimal. But while the traffic on the second page is much lower is there any difference in quality?
While it has long been aknowldged the number one spot may be the best for traffic, it is a long way lacking in quality traffic. In a click happy age, many searchers put faith in the search results and quite often click on the first result offered. Hence the position of the sponsored results, over the organic listings. Also the nature of the browser comparing prices and services is unlikely to return to the first site viewed when finding all offers pretty similar. All signs point to the better value traffic lower down the listings, but how far?
This is not something that would infulence the long tail terms but the high traffic volume terms where sponsored links go on and on for pages.
Taking the example of furniture, very high consideration goods, that people will browse extencively before buying. Unless the site appearing first has a massive, all ancompassing range and jaw dropping prices, the majority of traffic will move past the first few sites. From experience users will view many of the sites and there are conversions to be gotten on the second page.
It could be said that those users that do venture beyond the page 1, are more conscientious and therefore futher on in the buying process, looking for the right place to spend.
There are obviously many factors that affect your conversion rates, but position should not nesasarily be one. With a well built targeted campaign, specific landing pages and strong web site conversions should be generated. The position of the ad should merely affect the volume of traffic and conversion.
