Working out what our users have been doing this month has been quite difficult, but for the best of reasons. Thanks to sterling work by our engineering and design teams we have managed to improve the performance of our site dramatically, and consequently the percentage of people visiting our site who end up contacting a clinic has increased dramatically too.

By way of example, our April traffic increased by a modest 8.60% versus March, but the number of enquiries we processed increased by 47.81% in the same period.

RevaHealth.com Traffic and Enquiries Increases - April 2009

RevaHealth.com Traffic and Enquiries Increases - April 2009

Traffic from Ireland increased by 26.82%, traffic from the UK increased by 9.70%, but traffic from the US fell by 12.63%. Unsurprisingly, the fall in US traffic was most notable during the Swine Flu panic, which centred largely around Mexico, our number one destination for our US visitors. We expect traffic from the US to return to normal this month as the panic fades. We expect it increase dramatically in the coming months now that we have started to list local clinics in the US also.

Irish Visitor Analysis – April 2009

An interesting metric that we look at every month is the proportion of enquiries for clinics at home versus abroad. In April the split was 64.89% in favour of local clinics, versus 35.11% for clinics abroad. This is a significant shift towards people contacting clinics at home, as last month’s figure was 58.83%.

Irish Enquiries -  Home vs Abroad Split

Irish Enquiries - Home vs Abroad Split

Digging deeper, while the number of visitors from Ireland who contacted clinics abroad actually increased by 65.10%, the number who contacted clinics at home increased by a far greater amount, 74.83%.

Interest in dental treatment in Northern Ireland continues to be the talking point for Irish visitors. Following on from roughly doubling for each of the last two months, this month there was a staggering 256% increase in the number of enquiries for clinics in the North. The media coverage of “everything is cheaper across the border” seems to be having an even greater effect on people as the economic situation continues to deteriorate. Clinics along the border and on the main traffic routes to Belfast in particular are benefiting from people already travelling for groceries, alcohol and Ikea.

Clinics in Northern Ireland now account for 19.73% of all enquiries made by people in the Republic, up from just 9.96% in March.

The other most popular destinations abroad were Poland (7.91%), Hungary (4.51%), Turkey (3.40%), Poland (2.22%), and Spain (1.18%).

Top 5 Destinations (from Ireland) - April 2009

Top 5 Destinations (from Ireland) - April 2009

Back to the overall picture of visitors from Ireland, dentistry is still the number one thing on their mind, with dental clinics taking 70.81% of all enquiries, followed by cosmetic and plastic surgery clinics, with 21.80%.

The top 5 most commonly requested dental treatments are Teeth Whitening (17.12%), Braces (10.75%), Veneers / Lumineers (9.08%), Implants (7.62%), and Root Canal Treatment (3.24%).

Top 5 Dental Treatments (Ireland) - April 2009

Top 5 Dental Treatments (Ireland) - April 2009

The top 5 most commonly requested cosmetic or plastic surgery treatments are Botox (16.92%), Tatoo Removal (9.77%), Liposuction (8.27%), Mole Removal (6.39%), and Breast Reduction (5.26%).

Top 5 Cosmetic Treatments (Ireland) - April 2009

Top 5 Cosmetic Treatments (Ireland) - April 2009

UK Visitor Analysis – April 2009

As with Ireland, the breakdown of whether UK visitors are looking for treatment at home or abroad is one of the most interesting to look at. This month there is a continued swing in favour of contacting clinics at home, with the April figures showing that 63.60% of enquiries are for local clinics, versus 36.40% for clinics abroad. This is an increase from last month’s figure of just 43.89% of enquiries being for clinics in the UK.

UK Enquiries - Home vs Abroad Split - April 2009

UK Enquiries - Home vs Abroad Split - April 2009

While there was a modest increase of 37.62% in the number of people from the UK contacting clinics abroad in April, the number who contacted clinics at home increased by 112.36%.

Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland are responsible for their fair share of enquiries from the UK, at 3.91% and 4.52% respectively. Outside of these countries, the most popular destinations for visitors from the UK were Poland (7.91%), Hungary (4.17%), Bulgaria (3.21%), Turkey (2.43%) and Thailand (2.09%).

Top 5 Destinations (from the UK) - April 2009

Top 5 Destinations (from the UK) - April 2009

While dental clinics are still the most contacted by visitors from the UK, with 60.82% of all enquiries, cosmetic and plastic surgery clinics have increased their share from 22.72% in March to 31.45% in April.

The most popular dental treatments requested were Veneers / Lumineers (14%), Braces (12.43%), Implants (9.86%), Teeth Whitening (9.86%), and Dentures (2.14%).

Top 5 Dental Treatments (UK) - April 2009

Top 5 Dental Treatments (UK) - April 2009

The most requested cosmetic and plastic surgery procedures were Botox (9.67%), Facelift (8.89%), Tatoo Removal (8.29%), Mole Removal (5.25%) and Trachea Shave (4.14%).

Top 5 Cosmetic Treatments (UK) - April 2009

Top 5 Cosmetic Treatments (UK) - April 2009

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At ReavHealth.com we have spent a lot of time working on CPC campaigns and we are always looking for ways to increase our click-through rates without increasing our costs. The bulk of what we do involves tweaking ad text and adjusting bids to reflect the revenue potential of the keywords. However, there is one method that we have found to be an effective means of increasing CTR that requires remarkably little effort, and that is to maximise the physical presence of your advert on the page.

Advertising pricing is normally based on two factors: size and placement. Both of these factors attempt to price ads based on potential viewer attention – the more attention a placement is likely the get the more it costs. Size is simple, the bigger the advert the more it costs. Placement is slightly more complicated but works on the same principle. In traditional print advertising we tend to see the following pattern:

  • Front of the publication is more expensive than the back
  • Right page is more expensive than left
  • Top is more expensive than bottom

In creating an effective advertising bidding market place, Google and the other search engines have tried to simplify this by eliminating the size variable. They give advertisers very prescriptive maximum lengths for their adverts which ostensibly create an even playing field for a position only pricing model.

This creates the illusion to advertisers starting a PPC campaign that the ad size is fixed and is not a factor to be taken into consideration. However, at RevaHealth.com we have come to realize that spending some time focusing on the size of the ad is one of the easiest ways to increase CTR without increasing our bids.

How to Maximise your use of Space

  1. Line Length. Google gives you 25 characters for your title, 70 characters for the body and 35 characters for the URL. USE THEM ALL! Every character you use increases the size of your ad and therefore attracts more attention than if you don’t use all of the available space. This is particularly important if your ad is going to appear in the premium sponsored positions above Google’s search results rather than in the right hand column.
  2. Bolding. If the keywords a user is searching for are repeated in your ad, then they will automatically be bolded when Google displays it. Bolded words attract more attention than normal words, and increased attention equals increased CTR. Our internal guidelines look to repeat the keywords at least once in the title, once in the body and once in the display URL.
  3. Use Capitals. Each capital letter you use increases visitor attention. Google does not allow you to use capitals letters for everything, but they do allow you to start each word with one, and this is our policy.

Worked Example

The following three sponsored listings were returned when I searched for ‘Dentists Hungary’ in Google. Our advert appears in 3rd position, however because of its effective use of the allowed real estate it achieves a higher CTR than its position would normally merit.

Dentists in Hungary
www.Access-Smile.ie/Hungary Irish Company, Consultation Ireland Full no quibble treatment guarantee

Dentists in Budapest
www.dacadia.eu Save up to 60% on you dental treatment and enjoy the vacation

Find Dentists In Hungary
Dentists.RevaHealth.com/Hungary Huge Choice Of Dentists In Hungary New Pics, Prices, Maps, Free Quotes

Analysis

When you analyse each ad the objective differences become obvious. Our Advert uses more of the available space in each metric.

  Access Smile Dacadia RevaHealth.com
# Characters in Title 19 20 24
# Characters in Body 70 61 70
# Characters in URL 28 14 31
# Bolded Words 3 1 6
# Of Capital Letters 10 3 20

A word of warning – while it is important to effectively use the space provided you must never take your eye off of your messaging. You use of the space and bolding keywords may attract the visitors attention, however if your call to action is poor they will never click on the advert.

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