E-dreamz Company Blog

During these tough economic times, local business owners are always looking for ways to do business faster, easier, and most importantly cheaper. While researching Facebook ads for a client I stumbled across a tip that extends far beyond Facebook advertising.

The biggest benefit of Facebook advertising is the ability to very specifically target who sees your advertisements. As you enter the targeting parameters for your ad, Facebook automatically reports how many people your ad will potentially reach. From a small business perspective, this is a quick, easy and free way to get basic demographic research!

Say I own a bakery in Arlington, VA and I want to expand my product base to include wedding cakes. Before I pay for the supplies, equipment and staff, I want to know what kind of potential market I have. So, I log on to my companies’ Facebook page, click “promote with an ad” and scroll down to the targeting section.

I enter the parameters I feel qualified customers will possess in boom, Facebook gives me this;

Right away I know how many people are in my area that fall into very specific categories of what I consider a qualified lead. I can use this information to start baking and selling wedding cakes, open a new location specifically designed for wedding cakes, or use the info to create my wedding cake advertising budget. This is a great little feature that every small business owner should check out; it only takes a few seconds to get some great data!

So, you've been with your search agency for a good amount of time now, your traffic is up, sales are up, but what's next? 

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Many businesses are smartly taking advtantage of Google's free Google Analytics offering to track their Internet Marketing campaigns online. Through Google Analytics, you can see pretty much everything that goes down ONLINE on your website. However, many busisnesses still receive leads and close sales through the good, old-fashioned phone call. 

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By the end of the day every Google user will see a light purple background behind the paid search results instead of the previous light yellow. The first purple backgrounds became visible to a select group back in May. It took a few months but today marks the end of light yellow and the beginning of light purple for all paid search results for the foreseeable future.

Why the sudden change after three successful years of yellow? Google’s official response is that light purple was chosen purely for aesthetics to update the look and feel of their current search results page. Google is known to be private at best so the color rumor mill has been working overtime since the Monday statement.

Eight years ago the first AdWords advertisements appeared with a light green background. Green seemed an obvious choice considering it is most associated with money. Green has also been proven to improve reading ability and is the color of nature, tranquility and health. The Google brand and lifestyle has always been that of social responsibility, employee wellness and moderation, so green seemed to be a perfect fit.

Five years later the paid search background changed to a light yellow. Yellow seemed to be based on economics for Google’s highest revenue generating product. Yellow is the most visible color in our spectrum and widely used by advertisers and sign makers to grab the attention of passing drivers and potential customers.

By the end of the day the third sponsored search color change will have been fully implemented. Like the first two colors; purple has economic implications as it represents wealth, power and royalty. Seems like a good strategy, get searches in the mindset of wealth and status while they browse ads targeted at returning an investment. Unlike the previous colors, purple has deeper meanings than greenbacks or canaries.

Purple is the primary color of the NBA Champion team, the LA Lakers. Google might not be as nerdy as we thought, using their search results to represent their native California team. They might be avid literature fans referencing the classic novel, The Color Purple, by Alice Walker.

Politically, a completely bi-partisan state is called a Purple State, equal combinations of Red (Republican) and Blue (Democrat) create the perfectly bi-partisan purple. Is Google expressing their frustrations of a split bi-partisan government? Or are they saying political cooperation is the answer to our countries’ issues.

Another theory is that absolutely no thought goes into color choice at all and they are just cycling their logo colors of blue, red, yellow and green. The only thing we know for certain is that the color choice is here to stay. So, regardless of deeper implications we better get used to the change since that is what we’ll see in search results for the next few years.

So you have a great looking website that makes everyone OOH and AHH the second they see it. It received rave reviews from your CEO, Board of Directors, and even the janitor. Though for some the website just does not convert. Often times in website development the vision or purpose of what the website was built for is lost. Basically your brand new Ferrari drives like a Yugo. Here are five quick tips on how you can increase conversion on your website:

1.     Revise your call to action - Do you have a call to action? Where is it on the page?  What color is it? Does it stand out? Is it large enough? A new or even returning customer might get easily lost on your website. Direct them where to go. Give them the action(s) you want to perform in an easy and obvious way. 

2.     View your website in multiple resolutions - Use a tool such as the Web DeveloperTool Bar to change your window size to any resolution. Get the most popular resolutions from Analytics and take a peek into what those customers see. Typically the most common will be 1024x768. Is your website optimized for the top 3 or 4 resolutions?  Do customers have to squint or scroll? 

3.     Add a Search Box(or make sure your current one works) - Search is getting to be very universal in our lives. Some website visitors will go directly to a search box and type in what they are looking for. If you have a search do some testing to ensure it returns the correct or most relevant results.

4.     Use Testimonials or Reviews - One of the world's oldest marketing tactics can often be left out in design. Ensure the customer gets instant confidence in your product or service. Obtain reviews or testimonials from previous customers and broadcast it to the viewer. In an eCommerce setting customers should be able to submit their own product reviews easily. 

5.     Test your load time - Speed is more relevant than ever in this day. The best website could be the worst if it loads slowly. You have only a handful of seconds to keep the visitor on your page. If majority of those seconds are done sitting at a white screen with a small load bar - you’re almost certain to lose that customer. Shoot for a load time below four seconds per page. Two tools for testing and suggestions: FireBug Page Speed or Yahoo! YSlow

These are five of many ways you could increase conversion on a website. Want more? Listen to your customer. They will provide you the best input on where or what to improve on your website.