Rules of engagement for Landing Page Optimization!
Too often business owners become so caught up in the details of marketing focused on keywords and click-through-rates that they neglect to consider the intended long-term results. Your goal is not simply to get visitors to your site, but to get customers to buy your product or service. Your AdWords implementation, no matter how good your keyword variety and selection is, can only be measured by your actual conversion rate. If you want your AdWords campaigns to be effective, it is imperative to optimize your landing page effectiveness. The majority of your conversions are going to take place on your landing page, so that is where you need to focus your attention and effort. The greatest keyword ad is only going to get the visitor to your site; the landing page is going to turn that visitor into a customer.
Why Landing Pages Matter
Landing pages are essential for any promotion specific advertising – but specifically, for paid ad marketing where a measurable ROI is crucial to your success and your ability to maintain and run your business. The reason why you want to direct your paid ad traffic to a landing page instead of your homepage is that your homepage is usually designed to be the main online presence for your business, and your brand. It will usually offer descriptions and access to your products or services. Your homepage is where your customers learn more about you and your product once they know who you are. The purpose of a landing page is to provide a calculated customer experience that is specifically designed to achieve the singular conversion objective of your marketing campaign. Your landing page is the destination that your visitors arrive at after clicking your ad, which is the ticket that gets them there. The complete design, sales pitch, headlines, and overall impression of the landing page are each crucial to achieving the sale. If the landing page does not engage and capture the interest of your visitors, and then provide inviting information about your service or product, then you are wasting time and money on ads for clicks that will not make you any money, nor convert any customers.
- Keywords – Target your ads directly to the specific potential customers looking for products and services in your niche.
- Advertisement – The headline (title) and text describe your service or product and invites visitors, which are potential customers to visit your landing page.
- Landing Page – Engages visitor attention and interest, offers information and benefits, converts visitors into customers.
How can you make sure your landing page is effective?
Learn The Basics – Landing page optimization is an expansive industry with endless sources of information available, ranging from advice from experts, to tips, and tricks from successful amateurs. Do lots of research into what works and what does not, learn from the companies who specialize in optimizing landing pages and increasing landing page effectiveness. Learn from everyone who has been there and done it before you. A simple Google search with the phrase “landing page optimization” will bring you millions of results.
Check Out The Competition – Another simple Google search using words related to your industry, or niche will give you an inside look into what your competitors are doing, with their keywords, their ads, and most importantly – their landing pages and websites. Take a critical look, use their ideas for inspiration, and learn from their mistakes and their successes. Test, Revise, Repeat – Use the Internet to your advantage, the web is the most cost effective and the most efficient marketing tool available. It is also the best way to test your landing page effectiveness. Create some sample landing pages and put them out there, find out what works and what does not. Try different themes, formats, colors, headlines, layouts, fonts, keywords, have some fun, use your imagination, test your ideas, change things, and keep testing.
Key Take Aways
Keywords are not just vital to search engine visibility, but to conversion rate. Keywords work like magnets; they attract visitors to your ad, and draw those visitors to your landing page. When they get to your landing page, those same keywords are going to keep that visitor on your page. If your headlines and content do not contain the keywords that your visitor is looking for, that visitor is going to go look elsewhere for what they want. Your landing page should be a reflection of your ad, and your ad should be an indication of your landing page.
- A sales letter, either formal or informal is an effective conversion tool. Persuading people is easier if you engage them on a personal level.
- Color matters, some colors welcome and encourage visitors; some colors disturb and discourage visitors. For example, blue is calm and comforting, red is passionate and energetic – so your colors should enhance the intention of your landing page.
- Once the visitor gets to your page, you have less than 20 seconds to engage their attention and interest.
- People do not thoroughly read websites; they skim them to find the information that matters specifically to them.
- Research shows that the upper left corner of the page is where people focus their attention first, and that attention tends to stay to the left, so put the important images and information on the left side of the page.
- The headline of your ad is what catches people’s attention; the headline of your landing page is the first thing that people see. Headlines can either encourage or repel conversions.
- Visitors are most likely to respond to your call to action if it is a text link, rather than a button or graphic.
Not one of these elements can achieve your intended goal by themselves, but are each vital to the others. Your AdWords campaign success will be determined by the effectiveness of not only your keywords or your ads, but mostly by the impression created by your landing page. Your keywords will get people to click on your ad, which will bring your visitors to your landing page, your landing page will convert your visitors into customers, and your product/service will keep them coming back.
