Ppc Bounce Rate Options

[Michael]

Any thoughts on what a good PPC bounce rate is?

We're running a campaign that is 6 weeks old and has a 54% bounce rate for both Adwords and Overture PPC visitors. For the record our home page from organic visits has a significantly lower bounce rate and is identical.

Our click through rates and conversions are high enough (~8% and ~5.5% respectively), but we're in the process of testing some new landing pages and I've grown curious about other peoples' standards regarding bounce rate.

Thanks,

- Michael

[Michael]

Regarding Bounce Rate:

For those who are unfamiliar with the term in this context, bounce rate is a measure of what visitors do upon entering a page on your website.

i.e. do the leave immediately without clicking a further links (i.e. do they BOUNCE) or do they stick around, buy or visit more pages.

- Michael

[Haystack]

Industry data on bounce rates may be hard to come by.

I'd take a look at what terms are causing the highest bounce rates to see if they're as relevant as your SEO terms. Also, is it possible that you've built some hype into your PPC ad copy beyond what your site delivers? Keep in mind that SEO clicks are generally through listings that are far from hyped.

[delridge]

Michael,

I run PPC ads on Google and Overture, too.

I have ads that are triggered by fairly specific keyword phrases, and I send those to my "category" pages (pages that show products similar to the keyword phrase).

I have other ads that are triggered by less specific keywords, and I send those to my home page, for lack of ideas on a more specific place to send them.

I get a bounce rate of about 50% off the "category" pages, and about 20-25% off the home page.

It's the opposite of what I would have expected (admittedly, I'm very new at this). I figured my "advance pre-qualification" would have resulted in lower bounce rates off the category pages, the idea being that the products displayed were more appropriately matched to the incoming visitors' search.

But that hasn't been the result I got.

Anyway, Michael, take that for what it's worth.

And to everyone else, if my situation triggers any thoughts/suggestions on reducing bounce rate, please chime in, I can use all the feedback I can get.

Matt

[delridge]

Michael,

One more thing...

In a quick google search for "reducing bounce rate", I ran across this...

http:// www.opentracker.net /forum/viewtopic.php?p=19

(Moderator, I think that's cool as long as it's not a live link, right? I added some spaces to un-live it.)

...I don't know who these people are or how much stock anyone should put into that 25% they so off-handedly mention, but maybe it's a place to start as far as benchmarking goes.

Matt

[Haystack]

Matt, it looks like you officially became an active member (more than 20 posts) with the two posts above, so you could post live links in the future.

[delridge]

Cool, I'm an active member! In the background I think I hear the sounds of a marching band and little kids blowing on kazoos, and I swear I can feel ticker tape falling across my face!

Seriously, though, this is a great forum. Good advice from sane people (except for that elderly Welsh guy, I hear he's whacked). (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Okay, now back to Michael, bounce rates, and our regularly-scheduled programming...

Matt

[Michael]

thanks for the sharing - both of you.

Matt, very interesting results regarding home/page category page as I would not have expected that either.

Haystack: the ads are not too overstated (at least in my opinion) to account for too much bounce.

I've implemented some subtle changes to our landing page for testing. I'll report back on my findings.

- Michael

[BobetteKyle]

I send those to my "category" pages (pages that show products similar to the keyword phrase).
<snip>
I get a bounce rate of about 50% off the "category" pages, and about 20-25% off the home page.
It's the opposite of what I would have expected

I would have guessed the opposite, too. A few random thoughts...

I wonder if you are attracting people who are researching options/products, not ready to buy? On the more general home page, maybe there are more links they want to explore, so they stick around.

Maybe those who are searching on the more specific phrases have a better idea about what they want, so don't need to click around as much.

It would be interesting to see what would happens if you sent some of the more specific phrases to homepage rather than category pages.

:-)

[Michael]

It would be interesting to see what would happens if you sent some of the more specific phrases to homepage rather than category pages.

And if we're talking conversions, not just bounces...

[delridge]

Riffing off Michael's conversion comment...

The store's only been open about two months, so it's not like I've got lots of accumulated time and the data stability it brings. But...

For the first month, I was sending everyone (incl those coming in on specific keyword phrases) to the home page.

But for the past month I've been "hell bent for glory" on increasing conversions, so I went with the overwhelming conventional wisdom (and common sense) that says "send them to more specific landing pages".

So I attempted that, and conversions dropped from unacceptably low down to horrific.

Figuring that must mean the design of my more-specific category pages must really bite the big one, I spent some time in July trying to clean them up. They're not perfect now (perfection's like a rainbow, something you always chase), but I don't think they're total dogs (someone slap me if they think differently). And the conversion's still in the tank.

So maybe I'll buck the conventional wisdom, and try going back to sending people to the home page.

Matt

[BrianR]

What I know about PPC can be written on a postage stamp, so please take this wild guess with a huge pinch of salt...

With bounce rates that high, could click fraud be involved??

Just a thought...

BrianR

[delridge]

I've looked into that, BrianR, and don't see any obvious signs of click fraud.

My daily traffic has been pretty consistent over the past 60 days -- about 100 to 150 visitors per day. No big swings that would indicate someone sitting down at their computer periodically and clicking on my ads a bunch of times. If it's click fraud, someone is doing it in a very consistent, daily, low-level way. I don't think I'm big enough game to warrant that kind of carefully cloaked and personalized attention.

My visitors also come from lots of different IP addresses. The only "clusters" are me (my own visits) and what looks like Overture testing my ads after submissions/revisions. Every other IP address only has one or two clicks associated with it.

So I figure the problem is me -- something(s) about my site, my merchandising, my ad copy, something. Troubleshooting that is what I continue to obsess over. (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)

Anyone else have any bounce rate benchmarking info? I know there are a gazillion factors involved and every case is different, but if there's no science, then perhaps a little art would be nice.

Matt

[lyn]

Another wild, uninformed guess...
Maybe bounce rates are lower on the home page because visitors don't learn enough to decide to leave until they have clicked through to the more specific pages? They could arrive at the home page and explore down to the category page before they decide to bounce out ...
I would expect people landing on a home page to be a least a bit patient checking out the site; if you take them directly to the product page, they see not reason to explore further.
Are you able to track through to compare the final conversion rates between those who come through the home page and those who short-cut into the product pages?

L.

[delridge]

Lyn,

That's a good hypothesis, and all other things being equal, I think it's the most likely.

But conversions went down noticeably after I switched from sending everyone to the home page to sending most visitors to category-specific pages. So yesterday I started experimenting with sending people to the home page again, to see if my conversion rates bounce back up a bit.

Overall, I definitely have a problem -- too many people leaving the site, regardless of where they land. I'm working to address that (and plan to submit my site for review here in the next week or two). In the meantime, perhaps going back to using my home page as a landing page will breathe a little life into sales.

Matt

PS: I don't have simple access to that kind of conversion rate comparison info you mention, Lyn, but I think I know how I could compile it. It may come in handy later, but at the moment, conversions in either scenario are too close to zero to be able to tell the difference.