Traffic Acquisition and The Comparative Cost of Customer Acquisition

Traffic acquisition is only part of the equation; another important part is customer acquisition. It's all very well to have the traffic, but how much of it actually converts into customers? If you can't answer that question, then you're in even more trouble!

Let's start at the beginning.

Traffic acquisition in web site terms is the act of getting eyeballs to a specific web property (page, video, blog post, etc.) It can be achieved through PPC campaigns, paid search placement, SEO techniques, social marketing, and so on - all of which have a cost.

Knowing that cost (essentially the price paid divided by the number of visits) enables you to work out the TAC. But there's also been a lot of talk recently of something else - the CAC, or Customer Acquisition Cost.

That's the cost of acquiring a single customer, on average, and needs to compare favorably with the average lifetime value of your customer base, if you are to remain solvent.

If your CAC exceeds the revenue generated by the customer base, you will begin to lose money. Typically, your CAC is equal to the TAC plus the cost of any additional resources that have been used to convert the visitor into a customer.

This is usually where the trouble starts. How do you know what your conversion rate is? How do you increase your conversion rate? How do you get inside your visitors mindset to work out why they do or don't choose to buy from you?

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All of these topics (and more) are covered in the Traffic Acquisition Insider newsletter, where we expand on the topics talked about on the blog, and give you real advice and step-by-step guides that you can use today to boost traffic, conversions, and expand your bottom line!

Why Bit.ly is the New 1-800

Domain names are in hot demand - and the chances are good that your personal favorite is already taken - so how do you get your keywords into your URL? Read on...

Enter URL shortening services.

If you're not familiar with them, they take a long URL, and reduce it to something that can be tweeted, quoted, texted, or just scribbled on the back of a napkin with more accuracy than a regular URL.

There are a number of services that you can use:

• bit.ly
• goo.gl
• ow.ly
• is.gd
• ... and many more!

There are so many to choose from, that it can be difficult to make sure you're using the most appropriate, and useful service. Whichever you choose, your URL will look something like:

• http://bit.ly/keywordcracker

Notice how, even if the top level domain is taken, you can still have a (shorter) TLD with your web site name or marketing message in it!

So, why use a URL shortening service? Easy - they can be easier to remember, less ambiguous to communicate, and come with some extra benefits.

To learn about the key hidden extras, see why you should be using URL shorteners as part of your next traffic acquisition project, and, importantly which service to choose just join the Insiders Club:

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You'll get the free URL Shortener Traffic Acquisition Report, as well as hints and tips on a regular basis to help you generate traffic, and make the most of it!

If You Make ANY of these Three Mistakes, Your Site will be Invisible!

Sometimes, the best information is the most basic, and takes the least number of words to say. With that in mind, here are three very basic mistakes that people make time after time when trying to attract traffic to their site.

#1 : Your Site (or page) Isn't Even in Google!

It might sound a bit silly, but do take the time to check that your site is actually listed in Google's index.

How? Do a Google search for [ site:http://www.yoursite.com ] and Google will return a list of every page that appears in Google's index.

If there's one missing, you can add it using the Google Webmaster Tools submission service. This also works for individual pages.

#2 : Your Site (or page) Doesn't Rank Well for Real Keywords!

This sounds like more familiar territory; at least it isn't a newbie error like #1, right? You'd be surprised. The keywords that you think are important might not be as important to your visitors. Get them wrong and you might as well not even be in the index at all.

The remedy? We used to tell people to check their Analytics stats. But since Google decided that we shouldn't be able to see the keywords people use, and since we're trying to make sure that we've got all the keywords down pat, that isn't going to help...

Enter AdWords. More specifically the new AdWords Keyword Planner. Just do a search, using your URL rather than a root keyword, for Keyword and Ad Group ideas. Check that the top 10 matches your content - if it doesn't, again, your site will be invisible to people who don't look past the first few pages of results.

#3 : You Have No Sitemap!

This is a bit obscure for some people, and many forget it. A Sitemap is just a list of all the content on your site - all the FLVs, all the pages, images, and so on - arranged in an XML file that can be easily read by a search engine.

There's the key - search engine - not just Google, but Bing, Yahoo, and others all use Sitemaps to figure out what's on your site, and what's interesting on your site.

For the complete lowdown on Sitemaps, Google has a great page all about them, and you should check it out.

So there it is - a short and sweet guide to making your site go from invisible to visible in three easy steps.