Google Ads, Meta Ads, programmatic media... There are many names of online advertising platforms in which companies and agencies bet their chips to attract the audience, generate clicks, and ideally convert this into sales or engagement. But what happens when the website is down or experiencing instability?
Boby Vendramin, Planner at KAKOI Comunicação, says that the website is a living organism and needs to be nourished and cared for so that it does not fail when it is most needed:
It is important for companies to understand that the website needs to be fast, responsive, and up to date, including plugins, and of course, security.
In the world of paid advertising, the average cost per click (CPC) on Google Ads, for example, varies greatly, but in Brazil, it ranges around R$ 1 to R$ 5 per click in competitive sectors such as retail and technology. Every time the potential customer is impacted by the ad, clicks, and does not receive the correct response — such as the website not opening or being slow — this results in a loss beyond the actual click cost:
"First, there is the direct issue of lost sales. Imagine someone excited about a promotion ad, clicks the link and... nothing. The website doesn't load or takes so long that the person gives up. This lost customer may not return, especially if they find a competitor who delivers what they want quickly," explains Vendramin.
According to market estimates, large online retailers can lose between 1% and 3% of their daily revenue when their websites are down. For example, in 2022, Americanas, a giant of Brazilian e-commerce, had an estimated loss of R$ 250 million over four days.
Studies on user experience show that 53% of people abandon a website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. A Google survey indicated that the probability ofbounce(when the user leaves quickly) increases by 32% if the loading time goes from 1 to 3 seconds. If the website is down, this number accounts for 100% of the ad's lost clicks.
