Certainly, it is very important to skillfully craft your ads and to carefully manage your keyword bids in a pay per click campaigns. But ultimately...no matter how bad your ads are, or how much you over or under bid...you can drive traffic to your site with paid search. So the final deciding factor in whether or not your paid search visitors become paying customers is your landing pages. This page discusses strategies for effective landing page design.
The Rules of Landing Page Design
The final piece of the conversion puzzle is to create strong landing pages. You need to construct landing pages that apply specifically to your ad groups. Ideally, you would have a separate set of landing pages for each of your ad groups. This could result in a very large number of pages needing to be created, so you will probably end up sharing landing pages across certain ad groups. Here are the essential rules for creating winning landing pages:
4 Rules of Landing Page Design
1. The landing page must be closely tied to the keyword and ad that generated the click to the page.
2. The landing page should focus on getting the visitor to do one thing.
3. The landing page should use strong copy to influence the action of the reader.
4. The landing page should have few if any links to other pages.
Let's look at these points in more detail.
The landing page must be closely tied to the keyword and ad that generated the click to the page. In most circumstances, you do not want to send your visitors to your home page! Your home page very likely has content about lots of different things and links to lots of different pages. Or, in the opposite scenario, it could be a splash page that doesn't really talk about anything. Either way, you will lose the visitor. If someone does a search with a specific keyword and clicks your ad that is closely tied to that keyword, then that person has held up his hand and said "Hey, this is what I want information about. This is what I'm looking for." So give it to him! Don't make him search for what he was looking for. Give it to him immediately, and tell him exactly what to do.
The landing page should focus on getting the visitor to do one thing. We call this the "conversion event." If you give the page visitor lots of options, chances are she won't do anything. Or she will do something you don't want her to do. You need to strip things down. Decide what one thing you would most like the page to accomplish, and focus on that. If you sell a service, that one thing may be to capture the visitor's email address. One effective way of doing this is to offer something for free, such as a free download, newsletter, or email course, in exchange for an email address. If you sell products, then the conversion event may be to actually get the person to make a purchase. If that is the case, limit the number of items that can be purchased from the landing page. The ideal situation is to only have a single item for sale.
The landing page should use strong copy to influence the action of the reader. Think of your landing page as a sales letter. Think like a copywriter. Use devices such as testimonials, facts, and guarantees to build your credibility and compel the reader to take action. Have a strong header that gets the reader's attention. Don't rely on graphics or gimmicks to do your selling. Words are still what sell, even online.
The landing page should have few if any links to other pages. This goes back to the issue of focus. You do not want to give your reader a lot of options. If the person clicks a link to another page and gets off track, then you may lose the opportunity to sell him on what it was that he came to your site to investigate. It is okay to have a link to your main home page. If the reader wants to visit your main site and learn more about your company, then that is fine. But do NOT have links to every page of your site
If you follow these guidelines, you will have a much greater chance of success.
It is advisable to split-test your landing pages just like you split-test your ads. To do this, just set up ads that are identical except for the destination URLs. After the ads have generated some clicks, you can compare the conversion rate of each one to know which one performs best.
The landing page must be closely tied to the keyword and ad that generated the click to the page. In most circumstances, you do not want to send your visitors to your home page! Your home page very likely has content about lots of different things and links to lots of different pages. Or, in the opposite scenario, it could be a splash page that doesn't really talk about anything. Either way, you will lose the visitor. If someone does a search with a specific keyword and clicks your ad that is closely tied to that keyword, then that person has held up his hand and said "Hey, this is what I want information about. This is what I'm looking for." So give it to him! Don't make him search for what he was looking for. Give it to him immediately, and tell him exactly what to do.
The landing page should focus on getting the visitor to do one thing. We call this the "conversion event." If you give the page visitor lots of options, chances are she won't do anything. Or she will do something you don't want her to do. You need to strip things down. Decide what one thing you would most like the page to accomplish, and focus on that. If you sell a service, that one thing may be to capture the visitor's email address. One effective way of doing this is to offer something for free, such as a free download, newsletter, or email course, in exchange for an email address. If you sell products, then the conversion event may be to actually get the person to make a purchase. If that is the case, limit the number of items that can be purchased from the landing page. The ideal situation is to only have a single item for sale.
The landing page should use strong copy to influence the action of the reader. Think of your landing page as a sales letter. Think like a copywriter. Use devices such as testimonials, facts, and guarantees to build your credibility and compel the reader to take action. Have a strong header that gets the reader's attention. Don't rely on graphics or gimmicks to do your selling. Words are still what sell, even online.
The landing page should have few if any links to other pages. This goes back to the issue of focus. You do not want to give your reader a lot of options. If the person clicks a link to another page and gets off track, then you may lose the opportunity to sell him on what it was that he came to your site to investigate. It is okay to have a link to your main home page. If the reader wants to visit your main site and learn more about your company, then that is fine. But do NOT have links to every page of your site
If you follow these guidelines, you will have a much greater chance of success.
It is advisable to split-test your landing pages just like you split-test your ads. To do this, just set up ads that are identical except for the destination URLs. After the ads have generated some clicks, you can compare the conversion rate of each one to know which one performs best.
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Jerry Work was working in Memphis as a financial analyst at one of the top business appraisal firms in the country when he realized he wa... (more)
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