Definition

Cost per Lead is derived by computing all marketing expenditures and the total number of new leads that drive business revenue. The average cost for one lead which is based on marketing and advertising expenses is CPL.

Description

Cost per Lead Formula:

Cost per lead allows marketers to evaluate the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and cost. The success of an online business is determined by the profitability of the campaign.

In a Cost Per Lead model, first a business owner has to ask a third-party platform to place their advertisement on their site. After that when visitors click on the ad, they are redirected to your site.

On the website, the users can click on any action like “sign up for a newsletter”, “register for a live session”, or “buy here”.

Once a visitor clicks on the website, it becomes a lead. A common trick to track the lead is through a UTM code. A UTM code is attached to the landing page . This code helps Google Analytics to see which ad campaign referred a visitor to this page.

To bring the visitor up until this point, the amount of money spent on the site is the cost per lead.

Example

You spent Rs.600 on AdWords Campaign. The amount of money got you 35 leads which makes cost per lead Rs.17/-.

CPL= Rs.600/35 = Rs.17/-

To find the profitability, you must compare this price with that of the average product you have.

More Facts about Cost per Lead

These are the ways to reduce the cost per lead:

• Retargeting campaigns

At times, you may observe that your website has huge visitors but they leave the site without making the actual purchase. It can happen because of any reason, for example a complicated checkout process or the visitor being into the same business.

In such a scenario, instead of spending money to acquire new leads, you can drive revenues by pushing these leads through retargeting campaigns. They can see your ads on different sites and ultimately lead to increase in business revenues.

• Reconsider your demographics

Analyse your campaign reports and see whether the demographics you selected for the campaign was worth the investment or not? Find out the level of engagement and then alter the age and gender for which your advertisement will drive some revenue.

• Reduce the fields in the forms

Reduce the length of the form. Asking too many details from the users can leave them irritated. Ask for important information to prevent users from losing interest.

• Optimise your page loading speed

Work on the page load speed if you do not want the visitors to leave the site. Suitable site load time is 0-4 seconds. Higher the site load time, more will be the loss of revenue.

• Rethink your keywords

Analyse the high performing keywords. Clean the ones that are not driving any results for you even if it includes highly searched keywords. A quick tip to driving more traffic to the website is by targeting the long-tail keywords.

• Reduce the keyword bids

You may have keywords that are converting but the bid for them is high. Consider bringing the bid down as it gives you longer exposure on the search engine page with more clicks.

You can use Google’s automated bidding to match your goals of keywords hitting. The tool helps you to get the most conversions within budget.

Factors to consider before arriving at Cost per Lead (CPL)

These are the factors you must consider before arriving at the Cost Per Lead:

Variation in lead quality: The best way to consider the CPL is to divide how many leads match your critical quality indicators by the costs.
Channels for high volume of leads: Quality leads matter but channels that generate high-volume of traffic also matters. Invest in traffic sources that match your expectations.

Competition: Understand that every customer that you got in your kitty is a customer lost by the competition and vice versa. Try to know which platform will suit the most for your brand to get the target audience.

Marketing overhead expenses: Consider all the marketing overhead expenses. This includes the amount you spend for creating the marketing content and divide it by the number of leads you generate.

Optimise follow-up: Optimise the follow up campaign. Once the leads have shown interest and made a purchase, evaluate how good you are at handling the leads. Make the follow-up perfect as it offers a connection with your brand.

Think about Customer Lifetime Value: Predicting a lifetime value of the initial lead enables you to predict the return on the investment made. You can optimise the campaigns to drive results with leads that have higher lifetime value.

Conversion rate of landing page: Converting landing page will increase the return on investment made.

FAQs

What is a good cost per lead for Facebook?

According to the data applicable globally, the average cost per lead for Facebook Ads is $19.68. It ranges from $12.91 for food and drinks to $56.89 for news.

Should the cost per lead be high or low?

The cost per lead should be low.

The higher the cost per lead makes the ad campaign less effective. Lower the CPL, more ideal the marketing is.

How do you monitor the cost per lead?

Cost per lead is simple to monitor. Calculate the number of leads and the total marketing spends within the same time frame, to monitor the cost lead.

How is Cost Per Lead different from Cost per Acquisition?

CPL is the total cost incurred to generate one lead. On the other hand, Cost per Acquisition is the total cost of generating a new closed deal.

Definition

Customer Journey is a metric that helps marketers understand a series of customer’s experiences earned when they connect with the brand.

Description

Acquiring customers takes a lot of effort. It is not easy to motivate the buyers to make a purchase for a product or services. If you do not interact with customers or do not serve them with what they want, it can get a bit complex to keep them engaged with your brand.

There is a high relevance of strategic customer journey to observe customer’s experience with your brand and retain them to grow business.

Customer’s journey helps to map how the customers interact with your brand, or your product/service. This is referred to as customer journey mapping.

The ease of interaction with your brand you offer assists the customers make their final purchase decision. It offers them a great customer experience and motivates them to stay loyal to your brand.

There are different stages up until a customer completes its journey. A full-interaction of the customers with the brand throughout before making the final purchase defines the customer journey. If during or after buying your product or service, the customers feel pleasant, their customer journey is said to be great.

Example

Vinita was out shopping for an artificial jewellery store. She was new to the city and went to the mall that was in the centre, easily approachable. While she entered the mall, she saw a board of a Swarovski jewellery store. She followed the ground map of the mall and found the store on the first floor.

As she entered the shop, the staff welcomed her and showed her exactly what she wanted. Vinita could purchase what she was looking for and she was completely satisfied with her shopping experience.

Her journey was smooth and she immediately gave feedback on the store. Not just this, Vinita also spread good words about the brand and their exclusive jewellery designs.

Importance of Customer Journey for marketers

Customer journey is important for marketers. They can create a customer journey map and increase the conversion rate.

When marketers map customer’s journey, they get:

1. Valuable Insights

Observing customer’s journey is important for marketers to help the buyers serve exactly what they are looking for. It improves the customer’s experience and ultimately takes them to the last point of the purchase journey.

2. Understand customer’s expectations

Observing customer’s journey helps brand marketers understand their customer’s expectations at different stages. They can take care and remove what frustrates the customers.

3. Influence customer journey

By observing customer journey, marketers can offer the customers what they prefer at different stages and optimise the conversion process.

Customer Journey and the Future of Digital Marketing

This is how customer journey will decide the fate of marketing:

1. Customer’s require high-end experience

Every customer in today’s time requires a highly personalised digital experience based on their interests, preferences, and requirements.

If you do not offer the same, the customer will easily move on to some other brand. Today, customers are powerful and they quickly share their experiences on social media.

Understanding the customer’s journey is important to increase the sales and conversion and will remain relevant for future marketing tactics also. It makes it crucial for the marketers to offer things that pleases the customers.

2. Businesses have moved online

Today almost every business is conducted online and with the quality of experience the customers receive, the brands can determine whether or not they will lead to sales conversion.

The marketers need powerful strategies to influence the customer’s journey for a confirmed conversion.

3. Evolve in the future

Marketing needs complete evolution with the changing times and mindset of people. Brands have to run account-based marketing campaigns for existing customers. They need to efficiently target the customers with predictive analytics.

4. Get efficient to optimise the ROI

The brands will have to leverage data, technology and marketing tactics to offer the best to their customers. They will have to find out barriers and problems of the customers and how efficiently they can affect the decision making process.

5. Focus on brand relationships

Word-of-mouth publicity has always been crucial when it comes to brand marketing. The brands should focus on customer relationships and motivate them for brand loyalty with improved customer journey experience.

Ways to start with Customer Journey Mapping

These are the six steps to start with customer journey mapping:

Step 1: Identify all the touchpoints of the brand

You need to identify all the touchpoints of the brands through which the customers can interact with your brand. It makes creating a customer journey map easy for you. For example if you have an app, website, social media account, print and digital advertisements.

Step 2: Define your target persona

Find out who is interested in your brand, it enables your brand to create a framework to approach the clients. It creates personal touch and a point of reference for customer journey mapping. For example, a male, aged 24-30 years showed interest in buying sportswear.

Step 3: Understand what customers want

Understand and evaluate what the customers want from your brand each time they interact. Like if the customer’s touchpoint of your brand is a social media platform then possibly they are looking for the brand’s personality and their presentation for the customers.

Step 4: Map out customer’s flow of interaction

See the exact flow of interaction how customers move with your brand. The ultimate aim is to make a purchase but at times, the customers interact as they are loyal to your brand. See where the customer’s move and how they interact.

Step 5: Prioritise brand touchpoints

See where and for how long the customers interact at a particular touchpoint. The aim is to improve interaction and offer them more of what they are looking for.

Step 6: Review and update customer journey map

Review the customer journey map and see what more you can offer to your customers. You get to know how customers interact with the brand because it helps you remain in competition. And when you update the customer journey map, you will always keep ahead of the competition.

FAQs

What do you include in the customer journey map?

A customer journey map has details of all possible touchpoints with a brand or a company. The 4 key components of a customer journey include:

1. Buyers Persona: A buyer’s persona is evaluating buyer’s experiences. It helps to predict consumer behaviour and moods.
2. Customer Stages: Customer journey map helps to identify different interaction stages with the brand.
3. Touchpoints of a customer: A consumer can have a touchpoint of interaction via call or a chatbot. The brand should include it in a customer journey map.
4. Emotions: Include customer’s emotions in a customer journey map to understand customer’s pain points and help the brand strategize their approach better.

What are the benefits of a customer journey map?

These are the benefits of a customer journey map:

• It explains the path the customers take to make the final purchase.
• It helps the brand to meet the gap of customer experience.
• Brands can predict the path of prospective customers.
• Brands can maximise the path’s efficiency and makes sales at a faster rate.

Definition

Chief marketing officer (CMO) is the appointed individual who is responsible for the organisation’s marketing activities.

Description

Any business becomes successful only when it generates revenue. And for that a company has to divert their marketing activities to increase the brand awareness amongst the target audience.

Not every job can be performed by the manager which is why they appoint a team to monitor the execution of processes. A Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) has the primary responsibility to generate revenue by increasing the sales.

A CMO reports directly to the CEO and has to minutely gauge the planning, development and execution of an organisation’s marketing activities. The individual has inputs in all marketing activities like to drive results towards growth.

Example

Sharad was appointed the CMO for the reputed digital marketing agency in the city. The year he joined, the revenue of the company was around Rs.3 crores.

He then used the apt marketing strategies and applied the latest techniques like making a content calendar, creating a writing process, deciding contribution on social media posts, managing writers, etc.

It gave a quick boost to the revenue which turned to Rs.4.5 crores by the year end after he joined.

How should the CMO keep ready for the future?

A chief marketing officer will have to adapt to the changing technology without a hitch. The CMO will have to give deep thoughts to these and then build a marketing strategy for the company:

• Focus on Customers: The art of marketing has to be changed. The marketers will have to shift their focus from brands to consumers. It is believed that customers are loyal to the brands who care for them. Ketchum revealed in a study that consumers change their brand preferences based on the service and value offered.
• Technology: Metaverse, AI, VR and AR can help the brands establish their relevance. It enables brands to increase customer’s engagement with the brand. When in the present times, brands like Gucci, Flipkart, and others have tried their hands on offering virtual environments for shopping, it is important that companies experiment to provide more to the customers.
• Experience: 91% of consumers (Source:www.gdsgroup.com ) express positive sentiments after joining the online events of the brands. This is something CMOs cannot overlook in the future also. The role of a CMO is evolving which took a major turn during pandemic and then again in post pandemic era.

Key Insights of a CMO

These are the key insights about a CMO:

• 26% of CMOs attend board meetings in comparison to that of 100% of CEOs who attend the meetings. (Source: www.thinkwithgoogle.com )
• 68% CMOs confirm that the highest expectations the senior set from them is to be the major growth drivers.
• CMOs have a mandate to respond to the world’s fast forward digital transformation.

Importance of a CMO

These are the responsibilities of a CMO which makes the C-suite member important:

• Control all marketing activities: A CMO has to be a sharpmind to have their hands on all marketing activities. Changing trends and calamities can affect the marketing activities especially in this online age. Hence, they have to keep in line all marketing activities across all the platforms.
• Growth Driver: CMO can be a growth driver once they execute the right strategies for the company. In short, the CMO needs to wear all hats while at work.
• Market for customers: The growth of the company is a result of how many loyal and rising numbers of customers are there. If a customer is satisfied, it is more likely to visit the website. And for that a CMO has to work in the user experience.
• Nurture Creativity: The CMO should cultivate and nurture the creativity of the marketing department. The individual is responsible to observe what the competitors are doing and then upgrade the company’s execution.

FAQs

Why do you need a chief marketing officer CMO?

Your company will need a CMO to determine the brand’s direction and marketing strategy. The idea is to lead the marketing team to make the brand successful and generate more revenue.

What are the skills that a Chief Marketing Officer should possess?

These are the skills that a CMO must possess:

• Leadership and Communication Skills
• Technical Skills
• Experience
• MBA or a relevant degree.

What is a primary mission of a CMO?

Primary mission of a CMO is to increase sales and push growth by developing a marketing plan. The intent is to promote the brand and help the organisation grow.

What are the characteristics that a CMO must have to succeed?

A CMO must have these characteristics:

• Versatility
• Creativity
• Analytical Ability
• Growth Potential
• Industry involvement
• Fast communication skills

Which partners bring the best output for a CMO?

These partners bring the best output for a CMO:

• Specialists: SEO, SEM, Trainers, lead generation, and promotional Items.
• Content creators: Copywriters and content writers
• Vendors: List brokers, printers, and mailhouses
• Creative people: Graphic designers, web developers, and photographers
• Partner organisations: Public relations expert, market research firms, and tradeshow services.

Also Read – 

• How to Hire a Digital Marketing Consultant for Small Business?
• A complete guide to being a CMO or Head of Marketing

Definition

A website bounce rate is the number of visitors that go off page after viewing only one page. The bounce rate is expressed as a percentage.

Description

When browsing for information the website visitor may not always spend too much time on a page. That could be because they did not like the first hand information useful or the website appeared to be too complex for the child.

It could lead to visitors leaving the website sooner than the publisher expected. This indicates the bounce rate of a website which is a single-page session divided by all sessions.

Bounce rate defines a percentage of people who visit a website and then leave immediately. A bounce rate looks like this:

Over a period of time, the bounce rate keeps changing which is important for the marketer to analyse. Aiming for a 0% bounce rate will be carrying too much hopes for brands. The average bounce rate expected must fall between 26% to 40%. When the rate is above 90% it should be a matter of concern.

And, as the number of mobile users is on the rise, the bounce rate for mobiles is 51% which is highest across all industries.

Some of the major causes that contribute to increased bounce rate like bad design, errors in code, browser incompatibility, etc.

Example

There were 100 visitors on a fashion apparel website www.fapparel.com. Out of these 100 visitors, 10 visited only one page and left the website immediately. It indicates that the bounce rate of the website is 10%.

Importance of bounce rate

Businesses might fail if they are not monitored carefully. One vital metric to measure is bounce rate which is important as:

• Bounce rate measures the quality of the visit.
• It helps to identify the issue with the user-experience, content relevance, page layout, or copywriting.
• It enables the website owner to understand that there is a need for enhancement of various elements.

How to compute bounce rate?

Bounce rate is computed as-

Bounce Rate= Single Page Session/Total Sessions

For example 500 people visited your website and out of those 200 people left the website without moving on to the second page, your website’s bounce rate will be

Bounce rate= 200/500 X 100=40%

Common reasons to have a high bounce rate

Common reasons for the website to have a high bounce rate include:

• Slow-to-load page: If the site speed is too low, that is, it takes time to load, then the probability of bounce rate being high increases.
• Effective content: At times the content is too good that quickly gives the users the information they want. So they browse and leave the website immediately.
• Incorrect title tag and meta description of the page: If the title-tag and meta-description is incorrect, it will mislead the users. This can add to the high bounce rate.
• Blank Page: A high bounce rate is also an indication of 404 which means that the page is blank.
• Bad Links: The bad links from referring sites could be a possible reason to have some visitors that quickly leave the website.
• Affiliate landing page: The bounce rate of the affiliate landing page can be high because the purpose of the page is to drive traffic to the merchant’s site. Same will be the case with the single page website like a portfolio or an eBook.

FAQs

How to reduce the bounce rate?

To reduce the bounce rate, you can follow these practices:

• Have a mobile-friendly website because half the traffic is coming from the mobiles.
• Monitor the bounce rate which is based on different websites.
• Eliminate reasons that can affect the user’s experience.
• Find out the keywords that help the pages rank.
• Optimise SEEP.
• Boost user-engagement on the landing pages.
• Check performance by devices like laptops and mobiles.

What is the difference between the bounce rate and the exit rate?

The two rates might be confusing but bounce rate measures the percentage of single engagement. On the other hand, exit rate measures the exits on the page.

Exit rate considers individual pages to show how many people exit the page comparing the total number of views that page received.

It implies that exit rates are recorded regardless of the user’s activity some time in the past. But the bounce rate is recorded if the user exits directly from the page they entered.

Should I be concerned if the website has a bounce rate of 80%?

Yes, the website bounce rate that falls between 70%-80% is a matter of concern. The website owner must find the reason for the issue and try to eliminate them.

Is there a bounce rate grading system?

Yes, in common these are the standards that are followed for the bounce rate grading system:

Percentage	Bounce Rate Status
25% or lower	There is something which is probably broken.
26%-40%	Excellent
41%-55%	Average
56%-70%	Higher than the normal and the issues need to be considered.
70% or higher	Bad and something is to be fixed urgently.

Also Read – What is Soft Bounce?

Definition

Banner blindness refers to selective attention in which the users or web visitors ignore the banner.

Description

The attention span of web visitors is proven to be just 8 seconds or less. At times, the visitors tend to ignore some valuable part of the information that is placed either on the web page or the ad.

Research in 2010 showed that 43% of internet users ignore banner ads. The study shows that human eyes are skilled in looking at the content they want and ignore the extraneous material.

This can be either a conscious or unconscious decision, as ads are said to disrupt the user’s experience. Unconsciously the visitor may ignore the advertisement as they might search for particular information and feel that the ad is irrelevant.

While consciously, the user might avoid a banner ad for two reasons. Once they think that the ad is not engaging, divert attention to the ad. Second, it gives rise to delays in reading the information.

Example

A newspaper ad for a brand’s car may have a banner of a car dealership attached to it. The users might ignore the banner entirely as they might be interested in the image of the car.

FAQs

How can you avoid banner blindness?

These are the things you can try to avoid banner blindness from the people:

• Do not make your banner just like an advertisement. Make sure that the colours of the ads are the same as that of the website you host the ad.
• Run an A/B test for your ad to evaluate the ad’s effectiveness. If the ad is effective, the chances of banner blindness will decrease.
• Choose different ad formats that are less likely to be ignored.

What causes banner blindness?

When website visitors have visited many pages and cannot get the information they want, they will most likely miss the banner.

Another factor that can lead to banner blindness is the use of bright colours in the ads, which make them look like an advertisement. It pushes people to think that it is an advertisement.

Why do you think that banner blindness is a challenge for marketers?

Banner blindness is a challenge for marketers because it prevents publishers from helping to get the attention of the audience. Advertisers pay to get the maximum attention from the users. But there will be fewer click rates if there is more banner blindness. This, in turn, means less return for the advertiser.

Also Read – 

• A Beginner’s Guide to Banner Advertising
• What are Banner Ads

Definition

Banner ads are the display ads that uses imagery to fascinate and attract the target audience. The goal is to drive traffic at the website.

Description

In the world of digital marketing, the idea is to get more traffic to get higher sales on the website. Banner ads are ads placed in high-traffic locations on the websites that attract visitors.

It creates a high brand awareness and pushes people to click through and make the ultimate purchase.

Banner ads use images and multimedia to convey the brand’s message. These ads fall in the category of digital advertising that lures the customers to generate revenue.

Banner ads are priced according to either of the two:

• Cost per click, that is, the price for each ad click.
• Cost per mille, that is, cost per 1000 impressions.

Example

In the screenshot above, a LinkedIn banner ad indicates that people can connect over this platform to expand their business.

Importance of Banner Ads

Banner Ads are important for a website as it:

• Helps in generating traffic to the website.
• Assists in creating more brand awareness.
• Allows the brands to have wider acceptance amongst the audience.

How to create banner ads?

This is how you can create banner ads to increase brand recognition:

• Step1: Outline brand goals: You must create a banner ad after considering the brand’s goal. Think about what desired action you want the viewers to take from the banner ad.
• Step2: Agree upon a budget: Decide what amount of budget do you want to invest in the banner ad.
• Step3: Identify the right audience: Make sure that the ad reaches the right audience. The brand should have the right audience to make it successful.
• Step4: Create the right CTA: Develop the right CTA considering what actions you want the audience to take from your banner ad.
• Step5: Keep the quality in mind: Make sure that the banner ad includes high quality images, readable text, etc. that should match the company’s overall branding.

The banner ads are placed strategically on the website to promote the brand as well as encourage the viewers to visit the brand’s website. The intent is to build brand awareness, drive traffic and generate more leads.

Best Practices for designing Banner Ads?

Here are the best practices for designing banner ads:

• Use the effective standard banner sizes. According to Google AdSense, a standard ad banner should be of:

1. 728X 90px for leaderboard
2. 300X600px for half page
3. 300X250px for medium rectangle
4. 336X228px for large rectangle

• Place the banner ads correctly.
• Maintain hierarchy. Start with the company’s logo, then add the value proposition, and then include the CTA.
• Keep it simple with a blend of content and visuals.
• Keep everything inside a frame as that catches the attention of the people’s eyes.
• Make your text readable.
• Use animation to catch attention.
• Banner ads should blend but stand out at the same time. So colours and UI designs must suit the best but still the design should be unique.
• The banner ad should match with the brand’s image and identity.
• Add an essence of urgency in the banner ads. You can use bold colours to add urgency enabling viewers to take actions.
• Choose appropriate colours and use the images well.
• Keep the file sizes small so that it does not affect the load time of the website.
• Use the correct file format like JPG, PNG, and HTML5.

FAQs:

When does a banner ad perform well?

A banner ad performs the best when they are:

• Conveying the exact message that is close to the content.
• Above the fold and not at the intersection of the two folds.
• Placed on the left hand side.

What are the important things to be included in a banner ad?

You can create a banner ad when you make a note of these things:

• Speak and reflect well for your brand.
• Incorporate a CTA.
• Use keywords wisely but do not overdo it.
• Choose high-quality images in your banner ad.
• Keep it simple.

What are the types of banner ads?

There are two types of banner ads:

1. Standard: The banner ad in which advertisers will pay for in exchange for clicks on advertiser’s websites.
2. Adaptive: Adaptive banner ads are the ads that offer the best user experience.

What is the difference between a native ad and a banner ad?

A native ad is the one that blends seamlessly in the website’s content. These ads appear as sponsored or promoted content. On the other hand a display ad is the advertisement that appears on the website since the beginning of digital advertising.

Banner ads are the common display ads that vary in shape and size to fit different locations on a web page within the content.

Native Ad	Banner Ad
A native ad matches organically with the look and feel of the site.	Banner ads stand out from the organic feel.
Native ads are consumed as pieces of content.	Banner ads are ignored due to banner blindness.
These ads are suited to bring traffic to the site.	Banner ads are suited for remarketing campaigns.
High CTR	Low CTR

Also Read –

• What is digital advertising? A beginner’s guide
• Display Ads Vs Search Ads: What’s the best for you?

Definition

Backlinks are links from one website to a page on another website. These are also called inbound links or one-way links.

Description

Increasing ranking in Google SERP is essential to get more visitors and higher sales. One way to push your website to a higher rank in SERP is by building backlinks. Pages with higher backlinks have higher organic search engine rankings.

Backlinks formed the basis of Google’s original algorithm that defines Page Rank. Because the backlinks give the page rank, it is vital to get quality backlinks.

Backlinks are essential for SEO because when coming from authoritative and trusted websites, it improves the trust factor for Google. To check the credibility of the website, the search engine measures the domain authority (DA) of the website from which the backlink is generated.

A backlink that directs the readers to your site should originate from the place with the content related to your website. The link looks rich if it has an anchor text, and if the backlink does not go overboard with keywords in the link.

Backlinks that have never been linked to the website before are valuable for your website.

Example

A website www.monitorbacklinks.com talks about link building Vs link earning.

The web page has a backlink which is highlighted with the text “earning links through a value exchange”. The back link is generated from the website www.moz.com that has high Domain Authority of 91.

The website also talks about link building and rebirth of link earning.

Importance of Backlink

Backlinks are important for a website because it helps to build domain authority and credibility of a website. It is kind of a vote of confidence from the site of higher DA to another site.

If multiple site links to one page only, the search engine infers that the content on the web page is worth reading. Earning multiple backlinks can have a positive effect on the website’s ranking and search visibility.
More trust brings more visitors ultimately increasing the business for the website owner.

Types of Backlinks

These are the popular 9 types of backlinks that can be created:

• Editorial backlinks
• Backlinks from guest blogging
• Backlinks from Webinars
• Backlinks in business profiles
• Acknowledgement backlinks
• Free-tool backlinks
• Badge backlinks
• Guest-post bio links
• Comment backlinks

How to get backlinks?

Backlinks are one of the top search engine ranking factors in Google. Higher the quality of a backlink, more are the chances of a website to rank higher. And for that you need to learn the ways to get backlinks:

Get backlinks from top referral sources:

Start looking for backlink opportunities from the backlink sources, that is, the website that can offer to connect with the content you have posted. Find out which type of content the source prefers and whether you meet the criteria.

You can check for the referral sources under the head of Acquisition>>All Traffic>>Referrals or you may find it as Acquisition>>User Acquisition.

Some of the referral sources are:

Outbound links to form partnerships:

If you are sending traffic from your website to a source, you can send them an outreach mail to form a partnership. If through you the source receives a high volume of traffic, the deal can be beneficial for you. Use tools to check the traffic volume and decide whether you want to receive the backlinks from them.

If yes, then you can send an email to the source and think of the content partnership.

Google Search Console to get backlinks:

Google Search Console helps to find opportunities for backlinks on the website. The tool provides a report on top linking sites. These are the websites that are linked back to your site. You can request them for another backlink if you feel the source has high domain authority and if the links are beneficial for them. Check here how you can use Google Search Console.

Check what the competitors are doing:

You must check on the sources of the backlinks that the competitors are receiving. Evaluate their organic keywords, high-performing content, social media activities, and more. You can use tools like SEMrush to evaluate the profile of the backlink that you have entered.

Login in SEMrush>> Backlink Analytics (from the left panel)>> enter the competitor’s domain>> Click on Check It >> Click on Backlinks and you will get a list of domains that works for the competitors.

Find a broken link to a website: Find a broken link to a website. And then approach the source website to replace the link. This presents a great opportunity to get a backlink. You can use tools like Semrush or Ahrefs to find the broken links on the website, especially those which the competitors are using. In the screenshot below, a report on the broken links to www.sbigeneralinsurance.in is generated.

Create a high quality content that is linkable:

Create a high quality content that is worthy. There are different types of content that you can produce majorly that engages the readers. For example you can build the content around :How to do, list posts, quizzes, and guides.

Use the moving man method:

Find the website that still links to pages with outdated content. So you can connect with these website owners and offer them to link to your website.

FAQs

What is the difference between hyperlinks and backlinks?

A hyperlink is a link on the text that takes the online visitors from a hypertext or image or a button to another part of the same page, website or utterly different website.

A hyperlink appears blue on a text. A backlink is also a hyperlink, but it takes the reader to an entirely new website.

Will backlinks be popular as a ranking factor for websites in 2023?

Yes, the practice for creating backlinks will be popular in 2023 also. But yes spammy backlinks will still be a no as it will degrade the ranking instead of raising it in the Google search engine results.

What kind of backlinks should you avoid?

These are the kind of backlinks that you must avoid:

• Paid links
• Low-quality or irrelevant directory links
• Backlinks in press releases that are less relevant
• Low quality forum backlinks

What kinds of backlinks are valuable?

These types of links are valuable:

• Backlinks that come from trusted and authoritative websites.
• Links that have anchor text and are enriched with the keywords.
• Links that have “DoFollow” attribute.
• Link from a domain that hasn’t linked with you previously.

How many backlinks per month are good for SEO?

In a month, a grade of about 60-100 is excellent, 40-50 is acceptable, and less than 40 is not good.

Which is the most powerful type of a backlink?

The most effective backlinks are the ones that have a do-follow tag.

Also Read – 

• Digital Marketing Trends
• Link Building For SEO: The Definitive Guide

Definition

Cost per Acquisition defines the cost of a customer that completes a specific action. Putting it in simple words, Cost Per Acquisition is the cost of acquiring a customer after running a campaign level.

Description

You invest in marketing activities to increase the sales of your product or service. And in marketing, it is not just about investment but also measuring revenue after investment.

Revenue can be evaluated by monitoring the conversion rate, which indicates a marketing campaign’s success. It also informs about the action completed by the customer, which can be a click, purchase, lead, or other options that depend on marketing goals.

Cost per Acquisition= Campaign Cost/ Conversions

Example

Anant ran a marketing campaign for his new online jewellery business. The total cost of his marketing campaign was Rs.10,000, and from the whole campaign, about 1000 conversions. With this, CPA 10,000/1000= Rs.10.

Quick Points about Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)

• There is no standard Cost Per Acquisition.
• CPA calculations will depend on industry, prices and products.
• The lower the ad cost is, the better the ad campaign is.
• Cost per Acquisition (CPA) is lower than Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), and the better the ad campaign performs. Customer Lifetime Value is the total amount of money the customer will spend on your company’s product.
• A higher CPA might indicate that the strategy for marketing needs to be revised.

Ways to acquire quality Cost Per Acquisition

Every business has a different idea of investment in marketing to acquire customers. It is about checking how much they can afford to pay for customer acquisition.

Some factors that affect the cost per acquisition:

• Financial Goals: Defining financial goals depends on the stage of the business. Based on the growth stage, you can finalise a budget for investment into ad campaigns.

• Retarget customers: Retargeting is a strategy businesses use to get customers to think again about the value they provide. Customers that visit a corporate website and stick around do so because they are interested in the things offered. Within four weeks of exposure, retargeting can lift more than 1000% in trademark search volume. Retargeting is one tactic that can significantly increase consumer conversion rates.

• Improve customer retention: It is simpler to persuade existing consumers of a business’s value than to convince new customers who have not yet dealt with the brand. Companies can improve their customer acquisition costs by boosting their return customer rate, buy frequency, and average order values. Tactics like customer education programmes, loyalty programmes, and loops for consumer feedback can add to reducing customer acquisition costs.

• Affiliate Programs: Affiliate programs can also help to reduce customer acquisition costs. The program is becoming increasingly popular because it benefits influencers and the companies.

• High engagement with quality content: Provide meaningful content that educates the customers more and helps them build trust with their brands. But to make it an effective strategy, you must assess the content’s performance and optimise the factors that can help to improve the ranking. The higher the ranking, more the probability of customer acquisition.

• Improve the sales funnel: By improving a sales funnel, a business converts leads into paying clients. Sales funnels are crucial when attempting to lower the cost of customer acquisition. A strong sales funnel delivers a wealth of data and offers the business insight into the perspectives of its potential clients. Understand the motive of the buyers and then propose a reason to buy. Maybe then it is highly likely to click and take action.

• Marketing automation: Marketing automation can help businesses by cutting costs on menial tasks. Automation can improve conversion rates and reduce the cost of acquisition.

Ways marketers optimise Cost per Acquisition

You need to optimise cost per acquisition to motivate the customers to purchase. Make a compelling ad copy on the landing page that pushes the customers to take some action.

• Rouse customer’s excitement: Rouse curiosity in the audience so they respond to your ad copies. Highlight the benefits of the product or service in the ad copy so that the customers take some action after clicking on the link.
• Drive emotions: Drive emotions that form the behaviour of the people. Customers who associate a feeling with your brand are more likely to buy it.
• Design a simple landing page: Make the landing page accessible and straightforward. Create compelling copies and intriguing headlines so that users take some action.

FAQs

What is a reasonable Cost per Acquisition Cost?

A reasonable Cost per Acquisition can be 3:1, which is 3 times lower than the Customer Lifetime Value. If the ratio is 1:1, your customer acquisition cost is higher.

Is the cost per acquisition the same as the cost per conversion?

Cost per acquisition is the same as cost per conversion, which indicates a user’s conversion cost.

Which is better, high or low CPA?

A low cost per acquisition is better because that is the amount you invest on one user to make the final conversion of a single user.

Definition

Conversion Rate defines the number of users converted against the total number of users who visited your site.

Higher conversion rate means you have posted a good quality of content that engages people for longer further leading to higher conversion.

Description

The conversion rate in marketing refers to the number of users who click on a call-to-action. The link directs them to make a final decision about a purchase.

A call-to-action will include activities like opening an email, hitting on the purchase button, signing up for the giveaway, or filling out a contact form.

Conversion rates are calculated by dividing the total number of visitors who clicked on CTA by the total number of visitors you had on your website.

Conversion Rate= (Number of visitors who clicked on CTA/ Total number of visitors) X100

Example

Samarth runs his online business selling jewellery. During the festival season, he offered a special discount to people who clicked on the registration link, which offered a 25% discount.

Out of a total of 5000 visitors to his website, 1000 clicked on the link as they were regular customers.

The Conversion Rate, in this case, was (1000/5000)X100=20%.

Importance of a Conversion Rate

Conversion rate is a way to compare and calculate the performance of advertisements that a brand runs across different channels. The rates are necessary when a brand makes an investment to capture a higher number of its target audience.

• Conversion rates can also be used to indicate the conversion of events.
• The conversion rate helps to show the success of each campaign.
• The rate helps to identify valuable users.
• The conversion rate helps spot and fix the issues with the app, content or anything that can drive conversion.

Ways to improve Conversion Rate

You have invested money to capture more audience and increase the return on investment, but you are still waiting for results? Quick action to increase the conversion rate is required if that is the case. These are the ways you can contribute to increasing the conversion rate:

1. Use a CRO planner:

Improve the conversion rate with the CRO planner. With a CRO planner, you can analyse and develop a strategy to increase the conversion rate. Conduct the site audit using a tool and identify areas where you can improve to boost the conversion.

2. Include social proof:

Include social proof on your website. A buying decision, in most cases, is influenced by people’s reviews and feedback. So try to get good reviews and add testimonials to your website, boosting sales. This will push the conversion rate further.

3. Track user’s interaction with your site:

See how users interact with your site using different tools. For example, you can find out which elements they click on, which things on your website are attractive, and which elements they skip quickly. This will help you diagnose the area of improvement for your website.

4. Add videos on the landing page:

Videos are more engaging, and if that is attractive, they will capture the audience for longer. It increases the possibility of dwell time and a higher conversion rate.

5. Show users some concerns with the live chat:

Increase interaction with the users by adding live chat. You can save some of your potential customers by adding live chat. Answer them instantaneously and remove their concerns.

6. Rethink your offers:

You should rethink your offers. Make a strong, compelling copy and have optimised forms to push for the final purchase. Stick the copies to the pages it relates to.

7. Conduct A/B testing:

Always conduct A/B testing to see what type of headlines, colours, copy, layout, and call-to-actions work for your audience. For example, you can do A/B testing for the same page and then see which one works best to drive the sales or complete an action.

8. Increase trust in your brand:

To attract audiences, you can use tactics like money-back guarantees, discount offers, etc. Update the site content and make it easy to use for the customers. After increasing the trust in the brand, the customers will automatically make the purchase.

9. Write strong CTAs:

Make it compelling so that the customers are motivated to take action. Keep in mind the UI for CTA that captures the users’ attention.

The Sooner the CTA appears on the page, the higher the chances of sales conversion will be. Also, place a high-contrast CTA button to gather the audience’s attention.

Ways to Increase Mobile Conversion Rate

With the growing number of mobile users each year, it has become mandatory for companies to focus on mobile marketing also. To increase the conversion rate, this is what the brands can do:

1. Improve the page speed:

Concentrate on improving the page load speed enabling the content to appear faster. If your site takes more than 3 seconds to load, the chances of the bounce rate are higher. Keep testing the mobile page speed, and take action to improve the load speed. You can keep the images smaller and compressed. Also, the website should be responsive.

2. Get a Mobile-friendly website:

Develop a mobile-friendly website and check ways to improve its performance. If the site is not mobile-friendly, there are higher chances that Google will not rank your site.

3. Keep the purchase process easy:

Keeping the concentration span of the users in mind, which is less than 8 seconds, make sure that the purchase process on your website is easy. Avoid having too many steps in the checkout process and payment buttons. Keep the payment method simple using accepted gateways like Google Pay, PayPal, or ApplePay.

4. Get creative with mobile marketing:

Get creative with mobile marketing campaigns. Think of the content that attracts the visitors and motivates them to make the purchase.

5. Concentrate on local marketing:

Add your complete location information, as your customers might also want to spot you offline. Increase the mobile conversion rates by creating localised content, so you perform better in local searches.

FAQs

What affects the conversion rates?

A conversion rate is affected by the following:

• Page design
• Page layout
• Text and images

Why do conversion rates drop?

A conversion rate may drop due to the following:

• Ineffective CTA
• High load time of the website.
• Change the platform where you run ads.
• Poor images.
• Site errors.

What is the difference between CTR and conversion rate?

CTR refers to Click-through Rate measuring how many people clicked on the ad that redirects to the landing page.

On the other hand, a conversion rate is a metric that displays how many people clicked on the CTA against the total number of people who visited the page or the page.

What does high conversion rate mean?

A high conversion rate indicates successful marketing campaigns and responsive web designing. It implies that people are buying what you are offering them.