Do we know what we’re buying when we advertise?

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When we divide our budget by the keywords' cost per click, we get the same number of clicks as the resulting cost. That's what we get. The calculation is usually this simple.

So what exactly are our expectations when advertising?

To earn at least 1.1 times our advertising budget and product/service cost. With simple math, to earn more than I paid. Most of the time, a 1.1 times profitability means bankruptcy. We also include our various expenses and profit desires in this calculation.

So do you think advertising and getting clicks/views fully meet this expectation?

The answer, according to the 2025 report from WordStream, one of the most reliable data sources in digital advertising, is a big "No". Because the average conversion rate for all sectors on the Google Search Network is 7.04%.

What does this mean? Approximately 93 out of every 100 potential customers who are actively searching for your product or service, meaning their purchase intent is highest, leave your site without taking any action.

Moreover, this rate is just an average indicator.

For example, in the apparel sector, this rate drops to 3.99%, and in Finance and Insurance services, it drops to 2.55%. In searches for automotive spare parts, which have an active potential customer base, this rate is close to 15%, but in these sectors, advertising costs are quite high and competition is at its peak.

Even with the most valuable audience you buy with your money, your loss rate is 93% on average. This proves that the overwhelming majority of your advertising budget evaporates due to a website experience that fails to meet or convince incoming visitors. The real problem is not to bring in more people with advertising, but how to convert 7 out of 100 people into customers, or even 10 or 15.

Making mathematical calculations and knowing economics is the most critical event in the lives of entrepreneurs and investors. A few years ago, as a software developer, I realized that I could not take the right steps in the digital services sector without a good understanding of entrepreneurs and investors.

I was aware that just making websites for individuals and companies who wanted to sell products or services, who allocated a budget for these processes, and who had various expectations, would not be of much benefit to me or to them.

Fortunately, I had contributed with my software knowledge to the work done for profitability in many different companies I had worked for until that time. The point I needed to focus on now was not what I did in these jobs, but why I did them.

Designing the "Right User Journey"

I understood that the point was not just to code a beautiful-looking interface, but to consciously design every step the user takes to reach their goal. This is the approach we call the "Right User Journey". I want to explain this to you not as an abstract concept, but with two concrete examples that I have created over the years.

Years ago, for a company I worked for, which had SEO articles, service pages, and a phone number on its website, I had coded a price module where users could get a price by selecting their situation from a form. After that day, potential customers who came to the site to see the prices were also called by the call center with their information and sales began over the prices they received.

A very simple technical infrastructure had turned into a highly effective method that completed the right customer journey. Our competitors and the company I worked for could not show a single price or price list. Because the subject of the offer had a multi-variable formula. We turned this into a form with an easy interface that we expected from the user. Now, those who wanted to see the price filled out the form, and while they were reaching the information they wanted, we could also reach them.

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I would also like to share the following example from a classifieds site that is still our customer. The customers that this classifieds site needs to satisfy are the 'advertisers' before the visitors. These advertisers have some expectations;

• Many potential customers should visit this classifieds site,
• The people who visit should call to make a purchase, their focus should not be different (the phone number in the ad should not be unnecessarily busy)
• My ad should be shown to many and the right visitors.

As you can see, this expectation is quite understandable. Advertisers want MANY POTENTIAL customers to view THEIR PRODUCTS. We made some decisions when we started this project. We set some tasks. If we list them;

1. To show the classifieds site to a large number of potential customers with advertisements and organic searches.
2. To enable visitors to find what they are looking for EASILY and QUICKLY.
3. To enable them to easily reach the seller of the product they found and to place an order.

These were our tasks. While fulfilling them, we went through many processes that seemed magical but had technical difficulties and costs. Still, the mission was not complete. Next, there were tasks that those who wanted to show 'THEIR OWN PRODUCTS' to this right audience had to do. If we list these tasks;

1. Publishing understandable and rule-compliant ads.
2. Using the active doping system correctly to keep impression numbers high.
3. Completing the orders of the customers who reach them in a reliable and transparent way.

At this very point, we brought the DOPING system, which our competitors thought of simply by adding a few buttons, to a stronger point by applying GAMIFICATION. Advertisers can highlight their ads with the credits they receive -while doing this, they are actually playing a visual game and they repeat it several times during the day-, our system uses a certain part of the earnings from these credits to advertise, and a serious win-win system was working. In order not to be eliminated from such a flow, they operate a transparent process where they will not receive complaints, and we marked the advertisers who exceeded a certain level as 'Reliable Member'.

In the last three months;

• 300,000 visitors
• Clicked on 120,000 ads
• Approximately 30,000 orders were placed
• A minimum of $480 USD per order (a total of approximately a minimum of $14.6 million USD) was sold.
• We created this system with a team of only 3 people.
• 80% of the sales were made by the top 100 members who actively used doping.
• The credit packages in the system range from $29 USD to $10,700 USD, and we have many advertisers who actively use each package.

This is what I meant when I said that we are not just interested in 'Making Websites'. HELIAN.work works with a set of systems. In this article, I wanted to talk about the most important of our systems, the RIGHT USER JOURNEY.

Today, making digital products is slowly ceasing to be a technical effort. Our priority is to ensure that the products we make move with a system. There are many methods of providing benefit, and this is a matter of interdisciplinary competence.

If you also want to get back that 93% of your advertising budget and build a system that will turn your visitors into real customers, we can start by scheduling a 15-minute strategy session to take the first step.

Wishing you a successful life where you take the right steps and value your time and knowledge like gold.