Are you sending your clicks to the right place?

When it comes to e-commerce, there are two important questions you have to answer: where should I send the clicks, and are the clicks ‘ready to buy’?

In e-commerce nothing is more important than sending the right visitor, to the right place, at the right time.  Makes sense, right? Things get complicated when you consider there are many places you can send traffic: home page, category page, product page, shopping cart, or stand-alone landing page. These aren’t easy decisions to make, and it totally depends on the traffic source, the ad or message that drove the click, etc.

Here are some considerations to help you figure out where to send those clicks. 

Home page: This can be the perfect place to send any brand advertising. Not always a good choice for anything more specific than brand advertising though (home page is too generic and often doesn’t include a very clear path to purchase). 

Category page: This is a great place to send viewers who clicked a category specific ad IF you have a narrow set of choices in that category. If you have a lot of choices though, you’ll want to create a campaign-specific category landing page. A category landing page is great for companies that have vast, confusing or similar choices because it offers a focused and distraction free experience rather then one that is overwhelming.

Product page: It makes sense to send traffic directly to a product page if the ad/message someone clicked on is very, very product specific. It can also make sense if the product isn’t a considered purchase. BUT, if your product is a considered decision, if you operate in a competitive space, or if there are product attributes that need to be explained, a campaign-specific product landing page may work much better for conversions.  

Add-to-Cart page: Only send traffic to a shopping cart page if you are really, really, really, sure the viewers are ready to buy. For example, a shopping cart page is ideal for high frequency purchasers on an email list; you know they don’t need any hand holding, and are likely to purchase quickly. But be careful! Sending a visitor to the cart too soon can scare them away.

Campaign-specific landing page: This is a great place to send traffic when you’re not sure the viewers are ready to convert. Landing pages provide the simple option to learn more, or buy now. You can keep the user focused on the conversion activity without risking that they get distracted by your CEOs headshot and wander into your press section only to get distracted and never convert. 

Once you determine where to send the clicks, and how ready they are to buy you’ll be on your way to boosting conversions well above the industry average.

Comments

[Flexible Packaging Companies]

Thank you for all the great posts from last year! I look forward to reading your blog, because they are always full of information that I can put to use. Thank you again, and God bless you in 2010.