The first challenge of any pay per click (PPC) campaign is bringing in traffic. Many people are under the impression that once you’ve managed to create an effective PPC campaign that is regularly bringing in new traffic the job is done. However, if you’re not actively converting that traffic into leads and sales, then your ad campaign will never be successful.
The best way to convert traffic from PPC campaigns into new leads is through the use of a great landing page. In fact, according to statistical research by Omniture, “the act of using a landing page to target your campaign traffic results in an average increase in conversion rate of 25%”.
But what exactly is a landing page?
What Is A Landing Page?
In a PPC campaign, a landing page is the web page that users land on when they click your ad. This can either be the homepage of your website or a landing page that has been specifically designed for your ad. The purpose of a specifically designed landing page is to reflect and build on the message or offer of the ad that brought users to the page, and to convert visitors into leads using a single call to action.
An effective landing page will have one message, one goal, and one call to action in order to convert a higher percentage of site traffic into new leads. The single minded focus of a landing page allows you to create a clear pathway for the user to follow from click to conversion. This is achieved by using a single call to action and making it as easy as possible for users to complete that action.
What Is The Difference Between A Website And A Landing Page?
The big difference between a landing page and the homepage of your website is the goals that they serve. While a home page is made to fulfil multiple purposes, from building brand awareness to sharing case studies, a landing page is designed with a single purpose: to reflect and build on the message of the clicked ad. As such, a landing page can be used as a PPC marketing tool to increase the relevance of the ad to the page that it leads to.
However, many PPC campaigns will use ads that lead to the homepage of the website. This can be confusing to users as they are bombarded with information about your brand, products, services, and various calls to action as well as a range of links and navigation options with no mention of the original offer that they clicked on in sight.
Conversely, a specifically designed landing page can be used to promote the offer or statement in the original ad that was clicked and encourage a single call to action. By removing the unnecessary information and unrelated navigation options you narrow down the path to conversion. This makes it much clearer to users what the next step in the process is, and discourages distraction from the initial problem that caused them to perform a Google search, and the solution to their problem that your ad offered.
Additionally, if you have a wide range of products and services your website will likely be built to appeal to a wide audience. However, a landing page targeting the sale of a specific product allows you to narrow down your focus to the part of your audience that is interested in that product. This means that you can tailor the entire experience from click to conversion to appeal to the relevant audience, which will increase conversions.
What Is The Purpose Of A Landing Page?
The purpose of a landing page is to create a seamless journey for potential customers from click to conversion. The main goal of the landing page is to convince the user to complete the call to action. In layman’s terms, a landing page is used to turn clicks into leads. This is usually achieved by offering free samples or information in exchange for the customer’s contact details (by filling out a contact form).
Some of the most common ways that landing pages are used to gather customer information include:
- Fill out a contact form for a free quote
- Fill out a contact form for a free consultation
- Sign up to a free newsletter
- Create an account for a free trial
The call to action you choose to use on your landing page should be based on your target audience. The more value your users get in return for handing over their contact details, the more conversions you will make.
An example of providing value in exchange for contact details would be; if you have found that many of your previous customers have wanted more information before making a purchase, you could create a free guide to using your product/service that users can access by putting in their contact details. This secures you a new lead while providing your potential customers with useful information about your product or service.
The Benefits Of A Great Landing Page
There are many benefits to creating a great landing page for your PPC campaign rather than directing all of your paid traffic to the homepage of your website including:
Reduced Cost Per Click
Firstly, a quality landing page can reduce your average cost per click (CPC), which means you will make more sales without having to increase your Google Ads budget. Now you may be thinking what does a landing page have to do with cost per click? Well, CPC is based on two factors: maximum bid and quality score.
- Maximum Bid:
Maximum bid is an amount (set by the account manager) that represents the most you are willing to pay per click.
- Quality Score:
Quality score is a score between 1 and 10 determined by Google that is an estimate of the quality of your ad.
There are many factors that contribute to the quality score of an ad, some well known and some known only by Google. However, Google has confirmed that “the more relevant your ads and landing pages are to the user, the more likely it is that you’ll see higher quality scores”. So basically, the more relevant your landing page is to your ad, the higher your quality score will be.
Now back to the original question: what does a landing page have to do with CPC? Essentially, the higher your quality score is, the lower your CPC needs to be to maintain the same ad rank (the position of your ad in Google’s search results). The same is true in reverse, so if your quality score is very low you will need to pay more per click to maintain the position of your ad.
So, we know that a high quality score means a low cost per click, and to get a high quality score your landing page should be highly relevant to the ad. And the best way to ensure that your landing page and ad are relevant to each other is to create a landing page specifically designed for the ad.
This means that having a great landing page will reduce your average cost per click which means that you will be able to make more sales without having to increase your Google Ads budget.
Generate More Leads
Another benefit of having a great landing page is generating more leads. There are two ways that a great landing page will generate more leads:
First, by reducing cost per click. As we know, having a great landing page can reduce your cost per click. This means that your budget will allow for more clicks than it used to as the cost of each click has been reduced. The additional traffic generated through these extra clicks will create more leads without having to increase the budget.
The second way that a great landing page can generate more leads is by increasing the conversion rate of your ad campaign.
Because landing pages are designed to only display the information that the user is interested in based on the ad that they clicked, they can be used to create a more streamlined experience. Rather than clicking an ad for a spare tyre only to be taken to the homepage of a website that is trying to sell all kinds of car accessories, users will be taken to a landing page all about spare tyres.
This ensures that the user who clicked your ad lands on a page with information relevant to their query. An effective landing page will guide a user to complete a single call to action. Removing other distractions and unnecessary information will make users much more likely to complete the call to action and convert from a click to a lead.
Collect New Data & Insights
Utilising a landing page that is separate to your website also allows you to gather new data and insights about your target demographic and what they respond to.
Using a separate landing page for your PPC campaign means that you can gather data separate to the rest of your website traffic. This allows for key insights to your target audience. For example, if you have two offers running at once, you could use two versions of the landing page corresponding with an ad promoting each offer. This will allow you to see which offer your potential customers respond best to by comparing the conversions from each landing page.
This also allows you to find out other information about your potential customers such as specific challenges they face or information they want to know. For example, you could trial two different contact forms – one offering a free consultation and one offering a downloadable guide. Comparing the amount of completed contact forms from each version of the page will give you insight into what information your audience values most.
Comparison tests such as these can be completed for every aspect of your landing page from comparing two different colours, to two different headlines, and using the response from your audience to create a better landing page experience.
Specifically designed landing pages for Google Ads campaigns also makes analytics tracking much easier as there is usually only one call to action to track.
To summarise, using a targeted landing page designed to control the entire purchasing process, from click to conversion, will increase the return on investment of any PPC ad campaign. Click Street builds quality landing pages tailored to your audience to maximise the return on investment from your PPC campaign. Call us today on 07 3063 0260 to book your free consultation.