Dry Testing/ Time to Quit?

[togikubo]

Hello All,

This is my first post so please bear with me.

I am testing a site with adwords and all - FighterFocus dot com

Originally wanted to test because I read the 4HWW and wanted to test something, so i figured why not test an idea that is similar to brainquicken/bodyquick - only because I know that it is a viable business.

After getting a web developer in the Philippines to design my site - which i think is quite cool - I began with google adwords.

This turned out to be a bit of a nightmare for a few reasons. First is that, like in the book, i wanted to test different keywords, ads and max CPC to see if my conversions would justify doing this - which I was not planning on - just a test. I found out really quickly that my site was generating some traffic, i was getting ZERO conversions.

After about three separate weeks of testing at about $20 per day, costs started to add up. I just last week finally got one person to buy it, but began wondering am I really that far off the mark? Is it because of the ads? Keywords? Did i need a more polished site with a google cart? or am I just doing something really really wrong?

Any advise would be really helpful, in the meantime, I will be searching for older posts for any help.

Thanks,
To.

[gaberoonie]

Just a quick response having skimmed the site for a few minutes as many of your visitors probably would do. I get a whole lot of info about what your product "is not," but I can't really say what it "is."

I found this intriguing line buried deep within:

"The world’s first ever enhancer designed specifically by fighters for fighters..."

If you could shorten that sentence while adding the word "drink" or "beverage," and put it front and center perhaps even as a head, you reframe the entire visit to the site... because the customer knows what is being sold! Tell what you're selling first and foremost, not what you're NOT selling. Once you've established what it is, tell us why it's different/better.

Also, the site has great graphics but something needs to be tightened up in the theme/layout. Not sure what it is, maybe someone else can be more helpful with this.

Finally, I'm not you're demographic, so I have no idea how helpful this might be, but: the "won't flag drug tests" thing actually made me a bit suspicious. I'm probably totally off on this, because again I'm not your target market, but just bringing it up for your consideration.

[togikubo]

Thanks for the feedback @gaberoonie.

Made the changes to my homepage.

Stopped burying the lead, so to speak.

Have also listening to Mike Rhodes' videos on WebSavvy to help with the adwords. For the most part I have been headed in the right direction, but some of the little tricks really help.

I wonder - when do i consider this project failed vs. need better content/offer website?

Thanks, please keep the feedback coming.

[mdhymas]

Hey just skimming your site, your home/sales page isnt working too well. There should be bigger, bolder calls to action and more obvious "buy here" buttons. Also the dark background can work but light is almost always better.

Check out Tims PX Method sales page http://www.brainquicken.com/pxmethod.html

Also just a quick look at adwords advertisers sales pages:

http://www.sytropin.com/compare_bodybuilding.html
http://www.brainalert.com
http://store.nutrition53.com/n53/Neuro1_functional_brain_supplement-c72.aspx

Looks like you've got a great start just take a look at these for some pretty good sales page designs that are clear and get the message across. I would also recommend reading "the ultimate sales letter" by Dan Kennedy for some great sales copy advice. Hope it works out!

[togikubo]

There is quite a bit of information to digest from those few links.

I noticed, just off hand, the use of images and the large icons to buy it now - a very helpful tip that i will try to incorporate asap.

I understand the need for all the text on the homepage, but dont really know what to add in terms of content and dont want to add anything irrelevant to the site...will have to sit and think about this one.

Thanks for the feedback.

[liam75005]

You need to have a visual of your product online : a picture showing the bottle/pills/container of the product, otherwise people won't know what you're selling.

If the product doesn't exist yet, you should have a visual made by a graphic designer hired from elance or something like that.

[vmgbpo]

Writing good sales copy is both art and science. While hiring a professional copywriter at this stage may be too expensive, you can find good writers with copywriting experience on sites like Guru and Elance. Hire one to tweak what you have and grow from there to a professional copywriter.

It sounds like your adwords were driving traffic for you but if you can’t convert with good copy and design, then it’s a waste.

[Sean Conner]

I'm going through a similar scenario as you To. I'm Dry Testing one product and 'regular' testing an illustrated children's book I wrote for fun (The Great Adventure of Sean and Eve... in case you were wondering.)

I'm only about a week into my tests but I've learned a heck of a lot in that time about what to do and NOT to do with Google AdWords, (and I have a lot more to learn on this subject!)

One thing strikes me as unusual about your $20/day that sounds very similar to a mistake I made with the Google AdWords on day 3. If you have the Google managed adword networks "ON" turn it off now (i.e. stop reading this post and open a new window and turn it off now.) Some people may disagree with me - I almost expect it - but in my opinion it's a complete waste of money. You can read dozens of articles (for example this one: http://www.ellertonwhitney.com/search-engine-blog-and-articles/google-content-network-sucks.html) of WHY it doesn't work, but my own empirical experience has told me THAT it doesn't work.

In my first week of testing I've had one "purchase" on the MindQuiet product and it cost me 28 cents... total- for the whole test thus far. The other product I'm testing however I tried using the Google managed networks and it cost me $56 for one day (I'll just label that "Tuition") and I got many many clicks and a stupid amount of impressions and "0" (zero) sales- using very very specific search terms too.

Anyway. That's my opinion. Take it or leave it.

Good luck To. And good luck to us all.


... Also, the other suggestions in this thread are pretty good, I would listen to them if I was you. 1. Put a nice product picture front and center (even if it's not real yet.) 2. Emphasize what you are, then in your FAQ what you're not. 3. Review your main competition (i.e. the three links that mdhymas was gracious enough to track down) and assess their weaknesses and "best" the competition (right from the 4HWW: better guarantee, faster shipping, more/better testimonials, etc.) 4. Regarding "good copy." If you're not a native English speaker, OR (as in my case) you just suck at making "good copy" on your own, ask a couple friends to separately take a shot at it and see what comes out the other end- couldn't hurt to try.

One last thing... from a physiology/psychology standpoint make future muse websites dark text on light background- with a high contrast between the two. They're easier (from a physiology standpoint) to read, and in general, for whatever reason, we humans respond better to that formula.

[Sean Conner]

This is re-posted from a comment on a "Random Episode" and it seemed somewhat pertinent to this discussion thread:

#
Raina Gustafson
January 17th, 2010
10:43 pm

I’m going to watch the video in a little bit as I fall asleep, but I’m still trying to stir up more interest in the Shopify forums for the contest… So here’s what I just posted over there. Come play with us, please! Share your ups and downs! Learn from us, let us learn from you!

—

I feel that one of the biggest challenges facing any eCommerce project is attracting sufficient traffic to sustain the business model. It seems this is particularly challenging for new businesses, and therefore seemed an appropriate topic to address.

It’s difficult to apply the Outsourcer Economics Profit & Loss spreadsheet (page 186 of 1st edition 4HWW – I don’t have the 2nd edition handy) until you know the following:

1. The cost of driving sufficient traffic for your industry/product(s)

2. What your conversion rate is

3. What your average sale is (in instances where multiple products at different price points are sold or where customers could/would purchase quantities of a single product)

I know that micro-tests are supposed to help predict these values, but in my case there were way too many variables at play for me to reliably predict these things over a short period of time. The statistical significance just wasn’t there, and I kept changing/tweaking things which throws statistical analysis out the window anyway.

Here’s what I’ve found so far:

1a. I know how to do SEO decently, though it is rather tedious and laborious. I took the time to long-tail SEO about 160 products for Google Base, and I am steadily generating about 1 visit for every 4 products per day. In other words, I’m getting about 40 visits per day in organic search traffic from Google Base. I will soon be adding more products, and I am interested to see if this 1:4 ratio of traffic to product URL continues.

1b. I was a bit of an idiot with AdWords out of the gate. I let AdWords dupe me into thinking that I had to spend $1+ per click initially, because when I first launched my campaigns if I set the max CPC at a reasonable amount (<50¢) Google just laughed and refused to show my ads. At that time, I lacked the confidence in my ads to set a max CPC and stick with it, so I got burned when I raised the CPC enough to get my ads shown immediately. Turns out, I was just way too eager and impatient. Now, I set a realistic and sustainable max CPC and stick with it for a week. Sure enough, Google has come around and will show my ads. Still not as much as I'd like – my 'Impression Share' is not impressive, but at least the economics stand a chance to work and the business will exist long enough for me to worry about gaining Impression Share.

1c. I've been looking into affiliate networks, which are highly attractive because rather than the speculative nature of PPC, affiliates are paid a commission only when a sale occurs. However, most decent networks do have substantial initiation fees, so I am holding off on this for now. I can't set up an Amazon store because they aren't accepting apparel merchants right now. :(

1d. I've started a Facebook Fan Page – http://swimkitten.com/facebook – and plan to utilize it in the future with http://wildfireapp.com (Wildfire won't make much sense until I have a core following established). I will try to leverage the fan page for email subscriber signups by automatically displaying custom user acquisition content for non-fans and exclusive content for fans. I will implement that this week. I've just started leaving a few comments on fashion blogs, and am seeing a little traffic come in – enough to make me think it's worthwhile if I can just get into the habit of doing it and not let it take much time or effort.

2. My conversion rate thus far is around 0.5%. I've calculated that at 0.5% conversion, 15¢ CPC and full-price items with paid shipping I won't lose money even if the total purchase price is small. However, some of the data that the 0.5% conversion is based on included free shipping and sales. So, I'm now holding my breath in the hopes that the improvements I've made to the site (added some reassuring content like security and privacy info as well as various other changes) will offset any decline in sales from eliminating free shipping and discounts. My page views per visit and other analytics stats have been decent, so I'm optimistic. I think I should be able to get my conversion rate higher over time as I improve the site, increase product offerings, implement customer feedback and establish a more trusted/attractive presence in the marketplace.

Hope this synopsis helps someone else! I wanna hear how other contest participants are getting on!

[Sean Conner]

The last thing I'll post/link to is an Excel Spreadsheet that helps a bit with the break-even calculations for CPC (Cost Per Click) estimating:

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/xls/paidsearch-channel-calc.xls