Marketers and consumers are pretty familiar with the term “Buyer’s Remorse.”  You know how it goes…You’re in the store and see the perfect kitchen utensil. It promises to cut prep time in half! You must have it. After making the purchase, you rush home to give it a try. It ends up not doing exactly what you thought it would and a feeling of disappointment overwhelms you. This experience happens to all of us more times than we would like to admit and in some situations it causes a negative feeling towards the company or person who convinced you to make the purchase.

Very similar situations happen online all the time. I like to call it Clicker’s Remorse. Just imagine spending hours on Google, publication sites, and online directories looking for a solution to a problem. Finally, you find it! An attention grabbing banner ad promises to give the answer you are looking for. With sheer joy you click! Your joy quickly melts away when you realize they sent you to the home page of the site and no mention of their promise can be found.

Do you cause Clicker’s Remorse? One clue can be found by taking a look at your site's bounce rate. It is clear a problem exists if many people quickly abandon your site after clicking through from an ad or link. You want people to stay and learn more about your offering, not jump off and run away.

If your bounce rate is higher than you would like it to be, start investigating the cause and do something about it. Some potential elements to review are: 

• The location of your ad. Are you talking to the right audience?
• The message you are communicating. Is it misleading or confusing?  
• The landing page. Is it appropriate and does it compliment the message within your ad?
  

Don’t ignore your bounce rate. It is an important metric that gives insight into how people feel after coming to your site. You want them to be satisfied after their click and not feeling disappointed.