Being able to share a great success you have is a nice thing, but it is even better when you have the opportunity to share your students’ successes. Over the last couple of years I have seen my students shine writing for publications such as ClickZ, speaking at conferences, generating and publishing interesting research about personas, and of course getting remarkable results for themselves or for clients. I am sure you would love to know the secret to their success?
I went back and analyzed thousands of tests and improvements we made for clients in my 10-plus years running our agency and the success that my early students had, and I was able to narrow it down to what I call the “conversion trinity.” This is also the same formula I have shared to help people find big ideas for testing and to ensure they are testing smart variables that won’t waste resources but will provide them a lift in click-through rates and conversions.
So What Is the 3 Step Formula of the Conversion Trinity?
- Relevance. Are you relevant to my wants/needs/desires (search query)? Have you maintained scent?
- Value. Do I know why you are the right solution for me? Have you explained your value proposition/offer well?
- Call to action. Is it obvious what I need to do next? Have you given me the confidence to take that action?
Every successful test or ad or landing page improvement has come from enhancing one or more of the trinity factors.
My former student Noran El-Shinnawy did a great job explaining how to use the conversion trinity with email marketing. I’ll be sharing with you how to use it to improve the ideas you test and some examples from PPC advertising.
Former student Patricia Hader had her test, which she performed as part of her MarketMotive Master Certification course work, published on WhichTestWon.com. We’ll look at this test as a great example of using the conversion trinity to improve conversion rates.
Let’s start by analyzing Patricia’s 52.8 percent boost in newsletter subscriber rate for the New York Public Library.
Here is the before page:
Let’s see how she improved the page:
How did it improve:
- Relevance. The new headline let’s people know that this is how to stay up to date with the NYPL instead of just telling them to subscribe to newsletters.
- Value. A bulleted list of what visitors would get when they subscribe was added, as well as an image and link to a sample newsletter.
- Call to action. The form was simplified to one field from three fields and a list of check boxes to choose from. Also, the point of action regarding NYPL’s privacy was simplified.
The Conversion Trinity for Pay-Per-Click Marketing
Above you have seen an example of how to improve a landing page. Now let’s look at a PPC ad and see how we can apply the conversion trinity.
Let’s analyze this before and after the PPC ad rewrite from BoostCTR that resulted in a 326 percent increase in click-through rate.
Before:
After:
- Relevance. The new ad focuses in on the need of wanting better PPC ads versus a headline that just said “boost CTR.”
- Value. The new ad includes a specific value of clients seeing a 30 percent higher CTR.
- Call to action. By adding the word “get” to the guarantee of better ad creative, the phrase was turned into a call to action.
Try a Conversion Trinity Analysis Yourself Now!
Do a search on “cheap hotels NYC” and look at a couple of the ads and landing page combinations. Using the conversion trinity, what would you suggest that these advertisers improve? Share it in the comments below.
Now try it for your top three to five terms.
Look at yours and your competitors’ ad/landing page. What could you improve based on your conversion trinity analysis? Feel free to email me what you found.
Looking for more proof that most successful improvement comes from leveraging the conversion trinity? If you look at what MarketingSherpa found as the top four page elements having a significant impact on testing, I think you will see that they are all part of the conversion trinity.
Headline and images are about relevance, body copy is about value, and form layout is about call to action.
Are you focused on using a successful formula or are you just fumbling around hoping to get lucky?
Very nice Article. I completely agree with Trinity approach. When I searched for “cheap hotels nyc” in Google, many Paid Search Ads appeared. Some of them did follow Trinity approach such as “Call a Hotel Expert. 1-866-925-0513″ while some companies need to revisit their ad copy, title and call to action. Most funny was ” 500 hotels in New York: Save up to 50% on your reservation”. How does 500 hotel in New York related to cheap hotel deal? I am sure there are better ways to make it more relevant. Thanks for sharing the article.
ok I will have a go at this: I’ve picked 2 to compare:
New York Hotels From £136
No Booking Fee for New York Hotels
3* From Only £136. Book Online Now!
19 Hotels in New york
3* New york Hotels from £33.01.
No Booking Or Cancellation Fees.
The first thing I notice is the huge difference in price for what on the face of it looks like the same 3* proposition, which suggests that the first is off the mark regards relevance to cheap.
They both offer similar value in no fees, but the first offers nothing to suggest what additional value I might get for my extra £100. The second suggests more choice by using a number (19).
The first has a ‘Book online now’ call to action which the second does not have.
Assuming that the firsts selection of 3* hotels are nicer and centrally located I would reword as follows:
Stay in central New York Hotels From £136
Quality 3* New York Central Hotels From Only £136
No Booking Fee. Book your stay Online Now!
and for the second:
Choose to stay in any of 19 cheap Hotels in New york
No Booking Or Cancellation Fees.
3* choice of New york Hotels from £33.01. Choose your stay.
what do you think, do you agree?
Petes_UK,
One thing to think about is the very first part of the trinity: Relevance. Too many people think that merely matching keyword search terms ensures relevance. It doesn’t
While matching search terms is undoubtedly a good start it’s not enough to ensure the highest degree of relevance. One has to evaluate the *INTENT* behind the keywords. Why are these people searching on “cheap hotels NYC”? What is important to them about their NYC hotels in addition to price?
From the ads that you showcased in your comment, one guess is quality of rooms/hotels in terms of 3* quality. But I would guess that even more important might be location; how close is the hotel to where I want to be? Some ads seem to be addressing this simply through sheer numbers of available hotels the booking site represents. I might suggest testing a more direct approach. Perhaps NYC doesn’t mean ALL of NYC, but only “the city” — i.e., Manhattan. At least two advertisers thought so when I searched on that term, as exemplified by the following ad:
“Excellent Manhattan Hotel
One of Manhattan’s grand hotels
offers great location and rates!
http://www.hotelpenn.com”
But instead of mentioning only Manhattan by name, perhaps it might be wise to test PPC language along the lines of:
Book Cheap Hotel Rooms
Every section of all 5 boroughs
3* hotels avg = $89. See rates.
Or maybe a line like “book w/in 5 mi anywhere in NYC”
Again, the idea is to gauge relevance in terms of searcher intent/buying criterion. And keep in mind that relevance is not static, either — your ad’s relevance is gauged against the background of competing ads. If the searcher IS looking to book in Manhattan and you’re the only ad with Manhattan in the ad, your ad’s relevance is much higher than if every ad mentioned Manhattan.
Additionally value statements require credibility, so I’d definitely recommend testing rages of prices or averages in addition to the “from” language. Also testing dollar (our pound) amounts vs. percentage savings.
Finally, all CTAs are not created equal. While the “book now” variety may be standard for this type of ad, it’s always worth testing CTAs that ask for less commitment from the searcher or that better conform to the shopper’s buying stage. So “see rates” might work better than “book now” for the searcher who is still researching their options. It doesn’t always work out that way, but it’s definitely worth testing.
- Jeff
Great article. I love the graphic showing the revision with Relevance, CTA, and Value. Thank you.
This is a great post. I love the simplicity and flexibility these three rules can provide for marketing. I've included the post in my monthly PPC roundup.