How High is Your Bounce Rate?

Blizzard Associate | 9 February 2006 |

A "bounce" occurs when a person leaves a website immediately without having viewed any page but the entry page. We clearly want bounce rates to be as low as possible; if they are above average, we need to find out why, and do something about it. Bounce rate statistics can uncover ways to save and make money.

Bounce rates gives clues about your website design
High bounce rate possible causes:
     - an unattractive design
     - slow load time
     - unappealing music.

Bounce rates give clues about your pay-per-click accounts
High bounce rates possible causes:
     - click fraud
     - misleading keywords
     - misleading ads
     - link points to the wrong page (home page instead of wedding page)

Bounce rates give clues about directories
High bounce rate possible causes:
     - click fraud
     - unsuccessful directory

Bounce rates give clues about e-mail marketing
High bounce rate possible causes:
- a misleading subject line/newsletter
- a poorly written "blast"

Bounce rates propel us in a positive direction.
The value of analyzing bounce rates goes even further. They tell us what is successful, and help us know where we should continue to allocate money. To determine bounce rate, you need to have a solid statistical tracker installed on your site. If you have the Blizzard ROI Tracker, you know about setting up unique campaigns to track the success of each category listed above - to include not only bounce rates, but also the actual revenue received from each campaign.

What is the average bounce rate?
Upon looking at 30 different clients and their bounce rates for given campaigns, we find the following averages:

     Pay-Per-Click Accounts    42%
     Directories                       27%
     E-mail Blasts        32%
     All Campaigns Together*   37%

* All campaigns together include bookmarks, pay-per-click campaigns, directory submissions, organic listings, e-mail blasts, and so forth.

What can you do?

If your bounce rate is higher than average, use this information to your advantage. While there will always be people surfing the web who click in and out of a website so quickly that they hardly see it load, refining your efforts can ensure that your site’s bounce rate hovers at a reasonable level. Pre-qualify site traffic with well written ads that lure those truly looking for what you have to offer, and hold their attention with an attractive and user-friendly website design.

Blizzard Promotion clients receive varying degrees of attention to bounce rate issues, with higher level plans receiving the greatest amount. If you have questions about responses to your bounce rate, please contact your promotion team or account manager. Not a Promotion client, but interested in having us address bounce rate issues? Please contact our Sales Department at 888-840-5893 or info@blizzardinternet.com.

Katie White - Blizzard Internet Marketing, Inc.