We are a wholesaler who only sells to verified customers. This usually means the customer registers and then we verify their business status before they can view pricing and buy.
We are looking into starting an AdWords campaign but I’m hoping to get input from others in a similar situation. These campaigns can be very expensive, and we’re worried that we’ll be spending a lot of money on clicks that don’t result in a conversion.
Is AdWords worth pursuing on a wholesale site?
Is there any way to track conversion rates? (Given that the customer won’t be able to purchase directly after clicking to the site from the sponsored link.)
Any words of advice from wholesale site owners who have done an AdWords campaign?
If you have an audience that’s searching, yes. Lower volume, higher cost per clicks and a big need to really close visitors to sales.
Is there any way to track conversion rates? (Given that the customer won’t be able to purchase directly after clicking to the site from the sponsored link.)
If the conversion path is delayed then you’d have to build a method to track. This can range from home grown to a salesforce.com integration – either way you can definitely track the clicks using google analytics or another provider and on in.
Any words of advice from wholesale site owners who have done an AdWords campaign?
Not wholesale specific but treat your campaign launch as an initiative. If you don’t have conversion focused landing pages, you’ll need them first. If you don’t have a direct ordering path, build one first. Prepare to spend at a negative early on, put time into quickly optimizing and moving to find success and cut loss and repeat and repeat and repeat over time.
If you don’t mind me asking a possibly stupid question…
Could you explain what a “direct ordering path” is? A Google search didn’t return any relevant results? How does a direct ordering path work in a retail vs wholesale setup?
I guess it’s a term I made up for this post. Whoops.
In a direct path everything happens in one, fairly linear funnel, so even if the customer has to revisit the site 5 times to actually convert, it’s easy to track.
When you have something more complex, like a lead generation process that gets a follow up phone call and a person to person sale, it’s an indirect path. You mentioned that “the customer won’t be able to purchase directly” thus your purchase path is not direct and therefore more complex to track as you must gather web data and pair it up with other metrics either manually or by importing and exporting information into one system.
We don’t have a lead process, and I think we’re close to a direct path setup. When I said, “won’t be able to purchase directly” I meant to say that there would be a waiting period before they can purchase directly themselves.
I’m just really worried that we’re going to throw a whole bunch of money at an AdWords campaign and yield very little in the end. When a PPC customer clicks a retail link, find what they want, and can purchase immediately, it’s easy to track conversions.
With our setup the waiting period could be poison. Not only are conversion rates going to be lower (I would think this is inherent) but we’ll have a harder time tracking these conversions.
I just don’t know if it would be worth it. And I’m unable to track anyone down who has real experience using AdWords on a wholesale site.
Consider that the typical b2c order takes 33 hours from the first visit to purchase and that’s not counting any pre-store research on the category. Your process may take days, maybe weeks, but there’s no inherent problem with that.
Also consider that only 8% of retail sales happen online and even the best CPG retailers convert under 10% of their visitors. The vast majority of people still go in store… attribution is a huge problem in b2c.
Lead times, purchasing consideration, conversion, it’s not the same but it’s not that different mechanically or even process wise. In fact, your purchase path is more controlled than b2c and thus much easier to track.
As for quality & return, conversions could be a lot lower if you go for broad terms or much higher if you focus in on very relevant searches. It’s a function of testing breakeven… more volume is more possibility but more cost and less relevancy. You run, measure & tweak starting out very conservative and expanding as you find success.
As far as your actual path, it sounds very much like a lead / differed sign up process…
Prospect searches google/ bing/ etc
Prospect sees & clicks your ad [ cookie is set by google & your analytics]3. Prospect reviews your landing page, dives into your offering
Prospect either returns later or immediately signs up [ your analytics capture this action ]5. Your offline sales process takes effect. Screening, call, whatever [ analytics are imported & leads classified as sold / bad / in progress in your CRM ]
Depending on your system that last step could be an integration with Salesforce.com or a simple web gui importing a cookie set on the first click and stored with the sign up form.
If your customer comes back and logs in to buy you’ll even be able to retroactively updated your systems to understand the actual sales [NET and Gross] of each lead and establish a great sense of ROI.
If people jump to the phone then it gets more complicated but by placing a clear identifier code on the website and training your phone staff you can easily keep a 1:1 ratio.
And the great thing about search is that, aside from some initial reporting integration that you really should have setup anyways, you can invest a few hundred bucks and see if yields anything.
Maybe a noob question, but I would like to know,
What is google adwords ? O_o
I’ve heard and used adsense program, but never heard about adwords. Is it another program started by google which pays more or something else ?
Its true adword is costly affair … if you do not select the niche to promote your products, or the targeted countries or the customer profile… you may be wasting your money.
One advise initially make an adword setting with say 50 USD in your account and check the results. this will help u to minimize your chances of loss.
