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TEXT SIZE Advertisement <SCRIPT language='JavaScript1.1' SRC="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/N5621.websitemagazine.com/B3286961.2;abr=!ie;sz=300x250;ord=[unique-string]?"> </SCRIPT> <NOSCRIPT> <a target='_blank' HREF="http://ads.websiteservices.com/adclick.php?bannerid=244&zoneid=14&source=&dest=http%3A%2F%2Fad.doubleclick.net%2Fjump%2FN5621.websitemagazine.com%2FB3286961.2%3Babr%3D%21ie4%3Babr%3D%21ie5%3Bsz%3D300x250%3Bord%3D%5Bunique-string%5D%3F&ismap="> <IMG SRC="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/N5621.websitemagazine.com/B3286961.2;abr=!ie4;abr=!ie5;sz=300x250;ord=[unique-string]?" BORDER=0 WIDTH=300 HEIGHT=250 ALT="Click Here"></A> </NOSCRIPT> Advertisement Paid Search Beats SEO Conversion Rates? ShareThis In a statement that will surely have SEO's up in virtual arms, WebSideStory, a provider of digital marketing and analytics solutions, today announced the results of a  study that shows paid search has a nine percent edge in conversion rates over organic search. I can hear the furious typing of a million outraged SEO bloggers at this very minute. Via the news release, "In a study of leading business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce sites during the first eight months of this year, paid search -- keywords bought on a pay-per-click basis at search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN -- had a median order conversion rate of 3.40 percent at business-to-consumer e-commerce sites using the company's award-winning HBX Analytics technology. This compared to a conversion rate of 3.13 percent for organic search results, defined as non-paid or natural search engine listings, during the same January-to-August timeframe, according to the WebSideStory Index, a compilation of e-commerce, site search and global Internet user trends. The study analyzed more than 57 million search engine visits. Order conversions occurred during the same session. "For both paid and organic search, you have highly qualified traffic that converts far above the overall conversion rate of about 2 percent for most e-commerce sites," said Ali Behnam, Senior Digital Marketing Consultant for WebSideStory. "In the case of paid search, marketers have better control over the environment, including the message, the landing page and the ability to eliminate low-converting keywords."

Tracking conversion value as expected customer value For many AdWords advertisers, simply tracking conversions is an “advanced” tactic. High-performing marketers go a step further and also use AdWords conversion tracker to dynamically track the value associated with each conversion. With a simple modification to the conversion tracking script (and a tiny bit of custom programming), you can track the monetary value associated with each conversion. If one conversion brings in $30 while another brings in $50, both values will be recorded with their respective keyword in the AdWords reports (Google doesn’t currently allow you to see conversion value in the normal interface. The “total value” and “value / cost” stats are only available through reports in your AdWords Report Center.).

August 20, 2009 Google Chief Economist Says Conversion Rate Doesn't Vary Much by Ad Position Google's Chief Economist Dan Friedman Hal Varian and his team have conducted research on whether ad position affects conversion rate. Their conclusion is that it doesn't much. I have a feeling "much" is subjective among SEMs. Their research showed that for search results pages with 11 sponsored ads, conversion rates "only" varied 5% from first place to last. So, if an ad gets a 1% conversion rate in the first place, the worst it would get is 0.95%. Friedman Varian wanted to emphasize that ad position is affected by ad quality. Therefore, ads with higher ad position are likely better quality and more likely to have higher conversion rates. In other words, don't compare apples to oranges when testing ad position. You would need to test the same ad across various positions.