Advertising costs keep climbing higher

Search Engine Watch and Fathom Online reported today that search ad prices had gained another 3% in June! This is on top of the 3% lift from May's figure. With the cost of ad space on a never ending rise, itsn't it time you start optimizing your creative for improved conversion?

There are two ways to get more leads or sales out of your online efforts- get more eyeballs to see your ad in the first place, or increase the number of eyeballs that convert to a sale or lead. In other words, put more into the top of your funnel, or widen the bottom so more fall out.

Thanks in large part to the major search engines and advertising networks, the pervasive "best practice" has been to put more in at the top, to get more out at the bottom. In my opinion, the is foolish: It is more expensive, and leads to higher ad costs for everyone.

With costs going up, maybe you should think about the other option- get smarter and widen the bottom of your funnel by increasing your conversion rates!