What Do Customers Really Want? Use AdWords to Find Out

This Company Understands Me!

The single most important thing to know about writing for the web is revealed in the answer to this question:  What do your potential customers really want?

One way to discover what people want is to use web analytics.  Another way, described here, is to use a common Google AdWords report.

Learning about the desires of potential customers is Qualitative Analytics, and usually people use resources like focus groups to get answers.  Yet these Qualitative insights can also be revealed with data analysis. Just bop on over to AdWords and run an "Ad Performance" report.  The actionable insights are outstanding and can lead to dramatic increases in conversion rates.

If you have an AdWords account, you can run an Ad Performance report. It shows amazing information about all the ads you've ever run.

When I want to discover the desires of our potential customers, I'll just:

1. Open the report's date range wide to get as much data as possible.
2. Sort by ad impressions and delete ads with less than 1,000 impressions.
3. Sort by Click Through Rate (CTR).

• My objective is: Identify the ad with the highest CTR.

There's a reason why people click. They are attracted. They are revealing what interests them.

I'm amazed at how well it works. When I've had other sources of data about what customers are most interested in, it's surprising how the ad with the highest CTR has ad copy that speaks directly to that same desire.

So, let's optimize!

First let's start small.  Then let's change the entire company.

You have an HTML Title coded in every page of your site.  In most cases, the only time people see it is in search results.

The three requirements for an HTML Title are:

• Relevance. The HTML Title should contain the search phrase you want to rank for. Above, a page from Martha Stewart's site appears in Google's search results. The HTML Title starts with "Cupcakes," so it's no surprise to find this page ranks high in a Google search for "cupcakes."

• Length. The HTML Title should be less than 65 characters long.
If the HTML Title is too long it won't fit on Google's search results page. We want people to see the whole thing, not just the first part.

• Enticing. The HTML Title should be enticing, so people will click.  Your HTML Titles are like the headlines that appear on magazine covers that are designed to get people to pick up the magazine and buy it.

The #1 Best Selling Magazine on College Campuses
Cosmo Knows the Most Important Issues on the Minds of Their Target Audience

Above, the girl is about to have sex. She may not say it out loud, but she may wonder: Is it a hookup or something more? Put in a less contemporary way: Does he love me or is he just using me for sex? Cosmo laser targets important issues on the minds of their potential buyers. They are the #1 selling magazine on college campuses because they know exactly what topics are of interest to their target market.

Your Problem: When it comes to creating enticing headlines that will appear in Google's search results, are you laser targeting the true desires of your potential customers?  Usually, people write HTML Titles based on opinions, hunches and guesses. A better approach is found in the way Steve Jobs described Apple: "We are a data driven company."

If you have a AdWords account, you have data. The Google AdWords Ad Performance report will show you which ads have the highest click through rate. There's no doubt.  Your potential customers are telling you what interests them.

Your Solution: I like to take copy from ads with the best CTR and place it in HTML Titles. If I already know what people click on in AdWords, why not use the same ad copy for web page Titles?

If you optimize in this way, your Click Through Rate on Google will increase. More people will visit your site. Since a certain percent of visitors become customers, increasing visitors will increase customers. It's that simple.

From the AdWords "Ad Performance" report, certain ad copy will emerge as having the highest CTR. People are revealing to you what interests them most. Does this match up with your advertising, marketing, and the products and services you offer? Why not use this data to optimize:

• The tag line under your logo
• The cool art stickers you give out that people put on their laptops
• The products and services you sell

It's easy to be a data driven company. Just use insights from data to take action that will help you connect with customers, offer what they are interested in and increase revenue flowing into your company.

Google Analytics Sticker on a Notebook Computer

Before changing everything it's nice to see more data, so how about double checking quantitative data from AdWords by looking at a second source: qualitative analytics data, as described by Google's Web Analytics Evangelist, Avinash Kaushik, in his book on marketing optimization, Web Analytics 2.0: The Art of Online Accountability and Science of Customer Centricity.

Companies often don't know what their customers really want. They think they know, but do they have data to back this up? Often, no.

• Your company may talk about how you help people become efficient.  That may be true.
• What if the deepest desire of your potential customers is to have their businesses become more profitable?
• Can you help their businesses become more profitable?
• Currently, does any part of what you sell currently sell help their businesses become more profitable? Can you emphasize that in your advertising and marketing? And tag line? And stickers?
• Can you add new features to your products and services that will help their businesses become profitable?
• Can you change the entire focus of your company to align with the true desires of customers and potential customers?

Do you even know what your customers really and truly want? What their greatest challenge is? Try logging in to AdWords and running an Ad Performance report. The answer - that may cause your company to become dramatically more profitable - is five minutes away.

What's your company tag line?

Often companies have a tag line that appears under their logo. Your tag line tells me what your company focuses on. Your AdWords ad with the highest CTR tells me what potential customers truly want. If these do not match it's a bad sign. Or maybe it's a good sign, since it indicates an opportunity for optimization - of your advertising, marketing, the products and services you sell, and the revenue flowing into your company.

People reveal themselves in interesting ways. Amazing how a quick AdWords report can show their innermost desires.

Resources for You

Learn about qualitative analytics

Check it out at Amazon

For fun, an Analytics Mug