To unlock the full potential of PPC advertising, businesses need to create landing pages that correspond with their ad campaigns, rather than simply point users to their homepage. Here we take a brief look at why, before explaining how to do it.
Why landing pages?
Custom landing pages (pages created especially for ad campaigns rather than using the one-size-fits-all homepage) offer two broad advantages: higher quality scores and higher conversion rates. To put it another way – saving money and making money.
If you’re using Google’s AdWords platform (as most people using PPC will be), custom landing pages make it much easier to increase your ad relevancy and therefore quality score. This means you don’t have to bid as much to get high placements.
Better relevance will also increase your conversion rates. If you’re advertising a particular campaign and users click through to a page that is specific to that, they are immediately finding what they were looking for. If what they want is a couple of clicks away from your homepage, a significant proportion of potential customers will drop off, representing lost sales.
Finally, creating custom landing pages mean you can run specific ad campaigns without the need to tailor your existing homepage to fit them.
Creating a great landing page
The guiding principle is relevancy. If you’re running a campaign to promote your new range of fishing rods then that page should scream fishing rods.
The main areas you need to focus on are:
- Titles and copy
It’s important to keep a close eye on your keywords. Not only will this win you points on ad relevancy, but littering your page with the same words as the adverts will immediately assure the user they’re in the right place. Highlighting keywords in the copy with <strong> tags will make them jump out.
- Images
A good picture of your product will signal to the user they’ve found what they’re looking for even more immediately than your copy. If someone clicks on an ad saying ‘fishing rod’ and sees a fishing rod they know they’ve found what they’re looking for.
- Layout
Keep it simple and clear, putting the most important information at the top where the user’s attention is greatest. Remove anything that distracts from the main message – ‘you want fishing rods, we’ve got ‘em.’
What pages do you direct your website visitors to; your home page or a dedicated landing page? Please leave any comments, questions or thoughts below.
Image Credit: The Library of Congress
Hi Jamie,
Super reminders here.
A solid landing page increases conversions greatly. Visitors need to know they are getting what they want, quickly. Use the right keywords and most of all, make it easy for visitors to sign up.
I use landing pages to build my list. So much easier to develop relationships with a landing page opposed to a home page.
Thanks for sharing your insight!
RB
Ryan Biddulph recently posted..How to Become a Networking Champion with Any Home Based Business Opportunity
Hi Ryan, thanks very much for your comments. It can be very costly if you drive traffic to your homepage rather than a landing page as it’s harder to convert visitors into customers.