# Paid search optimization

The ad matches the search term. The landing page usually does not, and the pages after it never
do. Croct carries the campaign, the ad group and the search term into the experience, so the
journey stays relevant past the first click.

## The problem

Paid search buys intent, and generic pages waste it. The ad promises something specific, the
page answers something general, and the mismatch shows up as bounce. Visitors who do not convert
on the first visit come back later to a site that has forgotten why they came, and cost per
click climbs to cover the gap.

## How Croct solves it

Campaign, ad group and search term are available in the profile while the visitor is still
browsing, from the first pageview. Audiences built on them personalize the whole journey rather
than one landing page, and the same signals persist when the visitor returns, so a second visit
continues where the first left off. Building a page per keyword stops being necessary.

## Outcomes

Higher conversion from the same spend, one page serving many keywords instead of many pages
serving one each, and a return visit that still reflects the campaign that earned it.

## Features you use

- **[Segmentation](/segmentation).** Audiences written in CQL, an English-like query language, that update the moment a visitor qualifies.
- **[User profiles](/user-profiles).** Real-time profiles built from behavior, available on the first pageview and enriched from your own data.
- **[Personalization](/personalization).** Content decided per visitor on the server, with no flicker.
- **[A/B testing](/ab-testing).** Bayesian tests on unsampled data, so you learn which variation wins rather than which one looked better.

## Why Croct

- **Server-side by design.** Content is resolved before the page is sent, so experiences
  arrive personalized with no flicker and no anti-flicker snippet blanking the page.
- **One platform, no extra vendors.** Segmentation, user profiles, experimentation and
  analytics are built in, so there is no separate CDP, feature-flag tool or analytics
  contract to buy and wire together.
- **Built for headless stacks.** Croct sits alongside Storyblok, Sanity, Strapi, Contentful
  or Shopify Hydrogen and makes the content they hold contextual, instead of replacing them.
- **Marketers ship without developers.** After setup, audiences, experiences, A/B tests,
  scheduling and preview all happen in the Croct interface.
- **Bayesian experimentation on unsampled data.** A/B, A/B/n and multivariate tests with
  cross-device consistency for identified users and bot traffic filtered out.

## Getting started

Setup is one command, `npx croct@latest init`, which installs the SDK, wires the provider
and generates TypeScript types for every slot. Official SDKs cover Next.js, React, Vue,
Nuxt, JavaScript, PHP, Laravel, Symfony, Drupal, and Shopify Hydrogen. Most teams are live
the same day, and the forever-free plan needs no credit card or commitment.

## Frequently asked questions

### Do I need a landing page per keyword?

No. Audiences on campaign, ad group and search term let a single page adapt to many keywords.

### Does it work for returning visitors?

Yes. The signals persist in the profile, so a visitor who converts on a later visit still gets
the experience their original search earned.

### Do I need developers to run this?

Only for the initial setup. After that, audiences, experiences, tests, scheduling and preview
all live in the Croct interface.

### What does it cost?

The forever-free plan covers 10,000 monthly active users with 3 content slots and 1
experience or experiment, and needs no credit card. Growth starts at $100 per month billed
annually for 20,000 monthly active users. Scale is custom.