A well planned and executed landing page can significantly increase the return on investment of any pay per click (PPC) campaign. However, if your landing page is not highly targeted and designed to control the consumer experience from click to conversion, you may as well be sending users to the homepage of your website.
So, how can you optimise your landing page to boost conversions and skyrocket sales?
1) Convey A Clear Message
One of the most important things to get right when optimising a landing page is to convey a clear message. If the customer doesn’t know exactly what you’re selling and how it can benefit them within the first few seconds of being on your landing page, you can bet that they won’t bother sticking around to find out.
This means that before you can effectively optimise your landing page you need to determine what the message is that you’re trying to get across. This message should be clear throughout the entire conversion process, from the ad that was clicked, to the headline of the landing page, as well as throughout the supporting text and images.
As one of the first things customers will see on your landing page, it is essential to have a clear headline. This means using an easy to read font in a large size that is clearly distinguishable from all other text on the page. Additionally, the headline should be clear in terms of the message you are trying to convey.
To check whether or not you have successfully managed to convey the desired message, try testing it out on your colleagues, friends or family. Show them the page for five seconds and then ask them what they think the purpose of the page is. If they aren’t sure, or come back with different answers, you’ll need to go back to the drawing board and make the message clearer until every person can easily identify the purpose of your landing page within the first few seconds of viewing it.
2) Keep It Relevant
Creating a landing page tailored to your ad campaign allows you to have control over the entire customer experience, from click to conversion. This is because, rather than redirecting anyone who clicks on your ad to a broad website homepage that has been optimised for a range of products and services, you can send them to a targeted landing page that has been designed to sell the product featured in the ad that they clicked.
To get the highest return on investment from your PPC campaign your ad copy should be highly relevant to the landing page. Not only will this reduce your cost per click, it will also help to reduce the bounce rate of your landing page and increase conversions.
One of the main factors to consider in terms of ad relevance is the headline. If your ad has a compelling headline that draws clicks, the headline of your landing page should reflect this. No one wants to click an ad for a compelling offer only to be taken to a landing page with no mention of said offer in sight. Similarly, the rest of the text on your landing page should reflect the initial ad copy and build on the message.
3) Provide Clear Calls To Action
No matter how relevant your ad is to your landing page or how convincing your sales copy is, if the next step in the purchasing process is unclear, your conversion rate will suffer. That’s why it is so important to have a clear call to action that will seamlessly guide potential customers to the next step in the process, whether that be anything from requesting a free quote to buying the advertised product.
When using contact forms, keep them simple and ask for as little information as possible. Asking for too much information online may scare away potential customers. Plus, the easier it is for them to fill out the form, the more likely they will be to do so.
One way to compel users to fill out a contact form would be to offer a free resource or service. This can be anything from a how-to guide or relevant case study, to a free sample or a free quote, as simply offering a small incentive can get those fence sitting customers over the line.
It is also important to clearly display the phone number and contact details of your company. Not only will this build trust, as scammers do not provide their contact details, this also provides another way for customers who are not comfortable giving out their details online to buy. Another way to put sceptical customers at ease is to add a link to your privacy policy or adding a privacy guarantee such as “we will never sell your email address” below your contact form.
4) Prominently Display Social Proof
Social proof has proved to be a highly effective way to increase the conversion rate of a landing page. In fact, a recent survey found that around 63% of customers are more likely to purchase from a site with product ratings and reviews.
Testimonials and reviews are a great way to provide social proof on your landing page to increase brand trust and conversion rate. When displaying customer testimonials it is important to keep them as authentic as possible. Whether you use existing online reviews or ask previous customers for a testimonial, you should post the review exactly as they provided it for authenticity, spelling mistakes and all.
If possible, display reviews from well known brands with an image of the reviewer and the logo of their company. Not only will the review increase trust, seeing that well-known brands have used your products or services will make users much more likely to put their trust in your brand as well.
You should never make up your own, over exaggerated reviews using stock photos, as users will quickly recognise that the reviews are not authentic which could end up negatively affecting the conversion rate of your landing page.
However, customer reviews and testimonials are not the only way you can use social proof to increase the conversion rate of your landing page. In fact, there are many other forms of social proof that can be used to improve landing page performance including:
Industry Partner Logos
Adding the logo of associated brands and well known companies who have benefited from your products or services builds trust through association as consumers already trust these brands.
Google and Facebook Review Star Rating
Adding a star rating to your landing page (eg. 5 stars from 56 reviews) is a great way to immediately build trust as users can see that real people have had good experiences with your brand. Combining both Facebook and Google reviews into a single star rating allows you to display a higher number of reviews while retaining the credibility of a Google review.
Influencer Testimonials
Authentic testimonials from industry influencers and associated brands builds trust and industry authority. This also gives a voice to the star rating helping it to appear more genuine.
Business Figures
Adding positive business figures including the age of the business (eg. servicing Brisbane for over 30 years), the combined experience of the team (eg. over 75 years of combined industry experience), or other positive figures (eg. we’ve helped over 10,000 customers) shows that your brand is reliable and trustworthy.
Before and After Photos
Where relevant, adding before and after photos of your services (eg. a tattoo removal service with photos before and after the removal) gives a real life example of the quality of your service with photo evidence, rather than just telling them how good your service is.
5) Promote New Offers & Guarantees
Another way to get the best return on investment from your PPC advertising is to create a compelling offer. Adding an offer designed to appeal to your target demographic will encourage users to click your ads and eventually convert. For example, if your landing page is targeting potential customers whose greatest barrier to conversion is providing the money upfront, creating an after pay offer that allows users to buy now and pay later will help to increase conversions.
You can also display any customer guarantees or product warranties to gain the trust of sceptical users, and get those fence sitting users across the line.
However, do not create ad copy that over exaggerates or over promises. Not only will this reduce trust as users click on your ad for one thing only to be taken to a page promoting a less appealing offer. Google also sees “click bait” ads that over promise and under deliver as low value. This will decrease your quality score and subsequently increase your cost per click.
6) Strive For Brand Consistency
When optimising a landing page it is important to ensure that the style and tone of the brand stays consistent from the ad, to the landing page, and on the main website. Using company colours is a great way to promote consistency across all platforms and allow return users to instantly recognise your brand.
Using the same tone across the ad, landing page, and main website is also important for a more uniform feel. The tone and writing style used should be based on your target demographic (for example, if you’re targeting well-educated, working class people, using a colloquial tone can come across as unprofessional and put off potential customers).
7) Optimise Page Layout
The layout of your landing page is mostly up to your creative judgement. However, there are a few rules that should generally be adhered to in order to get the greatest return on investment from the page. As touched on earlier, there should be a clear headline that draws attention as soon as you land on the page. You may also want to add a subheading to further clarify the message of the headline.
You also need to make sure that the most important information is kept above the fold (this means that the content is visible without having to scroll). This can include key selling points such as product information, guarantees or testimonials.
It is also important to ensure that subheadings are used as most users will scan through the page rather than reading word for word. This also means that content should be broken up into small, easy to read sections rather than a wall of text that may be difficult to read.
Additionally, relevant calls to action (CTAs) should be added at regular intervals down the page. This ensures that if users decide to buy after reading through half of the page, the next step (CTA) is visible on the page rather than having to scroll back up to the top.
8) Create A Clear Path To Conversion
Finally, one of the main benefits of using a landing page over sending users to the homepage of your website is having more control over the whole experience from click to conversion. The more navigation options available, the more unclear the path to conversion becomes. In order to guide users from the first click right through to the thank you page, you need to declutter the page and keep only vital information that will convince customers to buy.
Your landing page should have one goal, one message and one action. If any piece of information or image is not helpful towards the goal, message, or action, remove it from the page. Too many features vying for attention can cause potential customers to lose focus or become distracted from the path to conversion.
If you can create a landing page that successfully; conveys a clear message, maintains relevance from ad to sales copy, provides clear calls to actions, prominently displays social proof, promotes new offers and guarantees, cultivates brand consistency, has an optimised page layout and creates a clear path from click to conversion, then you’re well on your way maximising the return on investment from your pay per click advertising campaign.