Buying Signals - Non-Click Consumer Actions Speak Louder than Words

Buying Signals – Non-Click Consumer Actions Speak Louder than Words

More than half of those who send buying signals in response to online advertising do so without actually clicking on an ad. Find out more about non-click buying signals.

How to Identify Consumers Whose Non-Click Buying Signals Speak Louder than Words

Just because a consumer doesn’t click on your digital ad when they see it online, it doesn’t mean they aren’t interested in finding out more about your product or brand. Find out what other actions consumers take, so that you can increase engagement beyond the click, when non-click actions may be speaking louder than words.

For businesses using PPC (pay per click) and SEM (search engine marketing) paid digital advertising channels, the most obvious win occurs when a qualified lead sees the banner or text ad and clicks through to get more information. But just because a consumer doesn’t click through to a landing page or advertisement, it does not necessarily mean that the consumer is not going to take action.

A new ChoiceStream study highlighted on marketingcharts.com provides some interesting insights into consumer buying signals as they pertain to online ads (retargeting ads in particular):

  • 44% of consumers who respond to online ads did so by clicking on the ad

Of those who took action in other ways than clicking on the ad:

  • 52% did an online search of the product or company
  • 48% typed a URL directly into their browser to visit a website

While one might believe that consumers only take action immediately, the study also noted that:

  • Only 22% of non-click responses occurred within an hour of seeing the ad
  • A significant portion of non-click responses occurred hours and even days later

Buying Signals – Retargeting and Online Ad Marketing Takeaways

Based on the statistics, you may be able to get more marketing ROI (return on investment) by tweaking or redesigning ads so that:

  • The brand name or proprietary product name is clearly displayed
  • The URL of your website or landing page is easy to find and prominent in the ad

Also of interest from the study is that 62% of respondents said they had never even noticed the retargeting ads, perhaps another indication that consumers are savvy and have learned to ignore online ads to some degree. To help make sure that members of your target markets actually notice your online ads, remember that human brains are wired to ignore the familiar:

  • make sure that you are changing the visuals, main selling points, headlines and even the colors on your digital ads periodically
  • create digital ads that are visually different from those you display on your own website (you might even reverse the colors of your logo with the goal of helping the eye tell the brain, “Hey, Look at this, this is new!”)

Each ad should focus on just one big thing – the one customer pain point, the one customer benefit, the one unique feature – most likely to attract the attention of your target market. Don’t try to do too many things with any one ad.

Knowing that digital ads do more than get people to click through immediately, be sure that you are designing them to get the most bang for your marketing buck. Make sure they are memorable and that your brand name and website URL stand out.

You might also like: 11 Things You Didn’t Know Your Website Could – and Should – Do