The Header

Please whatever you do, do not use plain, run of the mill iStock photos in this location. The last thing you want people do is associate your webpage with the 500 other pages on the web using the same photo of the girls writing with a whiteboard marker.

It needs to be branded. It needs to be unique. It needs to get the point across.

In fact, can we make it a rule that no iStock images without modification be used on any of your personal or client’s websites. Especially those little white bubble men with the red pen.

If you are a service based industry, you definitely want your phone number large bold and prominent so those that do not want to read or email can at least call immediately. Your internal sales people should be able to take it from there.

Pictures of Product & Offer

You would be surprised (once again im guessing due to time and budget constraints how many landing pages exist out there without a high quality and reasonably sized image of the product or the service on offer. Once again, iStock wont do here either.

The website industry recognises this so much that often their digital products are often drawn and portrayed as coming in a box to help the visitor associate the fact that it is a tangible product.

The starburst button should have the product feature or competitive advantage or discount offer - ideally on the right hand side as that is widely accepted as the best position for it.

Do not attempt to cross sell or upsell on this page, that should not be the job of the landing page. It’s primary goal is to solve the problem mentioned in the ad or keyword search. If you start distracting them, you can kiss the original purpose goodbye.

Don’t Make it a Visual Avalanche

So so so many pages try to cram every last detail about the product/service into the page it looks like someone vomited sales speak and images in the hope that in the spread something will stick. Whitespace is your friend, and your designer should have the ability to determine when too much is literally too much. Talk to your designer about it, they will definitely have an opinion on it.

Properly Written Copy

Not cut and paste from a supplier’s website, not pulled from some B-grade press release, and definitely not any content that focuses on multiple variations of a key word (I’m looking at you finance, car finance, boat finance, equipment finance, et al landing pages!).

You have x amount of seconds before a user makes up their mind (I have read anywhere from 5 to 15 seconds), so if you set an expectation with the ad copy in 70 odd characters, you are obligated at least do deliver that information. Stop and think every time you publish the content on your pages.

The Offer

I was reading recently about the format, design and structure of the McDonald’s menu banners and how they are designed to be easily read and identified. But more important than that, it gives the illusion of choice when there is really none at all.

Same with your offers. Make them clear and easy to follow, starting with the core product (such as the burger), followed by the standard up/cross sells (fries and drinks in the McDonald’s example) and then the extra little bonus at the end (the desserts).

No fuss, maximum sale potential. Unfortunately though the internet runs vertically, but if you study pages such as Apple’s customisation page, you can get a nice idea of how to lay it out.

The Call to Action

After everything else is complete, to put the final seal on the deal, you have to clearly outline the next plan of attack, whatever it maybe. However, many businesses have expressed concerned that they do not wish to have every page on the website to be a sales page, or pushing people to take action - and that is a reasonable response as it could quite possibly turn away many visitors.

Nonetheless, it is important to have it there on the page, so you could consider being a little bit more discreet, possibly using a text link of a smaller side bar image.

Or even factor in different goals for every page. For instance, on the ‘About Us’ page, the goal might not be to contact, but it could be to get as many visitors as possible to follow your staff on Twitter.

Each page should have a goal, along with the motivations in clear site. Then you can be guaranteed that a visitor can achieve at least one of the many goals you have prepared for your website.

Templates Are You Answer

It’s not as hard as you might think. Most websites these days are part of a CMS system. Most CMS systems have the ability to exclude pages from navigation menu blocks and so forth so they exist and float in that part of the Internet only accessible through PPC ads. That is your first step, add those pages to the CMS and remove them from the navigation.

Then, you assign them a separate template to the rest of the website, the whole point they are separate to begin with. If your CMS does not have that ability, there are plenty out there that do, it will definitely be worth your while.

Now You Need to Generate the Content

For the more elite and dedicated marketers out there, start being extra nice to your web developers. Because these are the people that will add that little extra bit of spice. In your template you can create content blocks that are dependent on the keyword referrer. By correctly tagging your destination URLs with proper parameters, you can allow content filters that determine the header images, headlines and content to increase your chance of conversion.

Obviously we can’t give away all our secrets on this blog in one post, so stay tuned over the coming weeks for the full breakdown.

They have Walked into a Conversation

When someone clicks on a paid search ad, they have decided to enter into a conversation between themselves and your organisation. They stumbled across the conversation (via a SERP) and deemed it worthy enough to spend a bit more time getting to know you. So they believe the conversation to be about how they can start a successful business online, but the landing page says different.

The landing page says that we can help you with doing that, but first you need a website, and hence, you should click on this button (or even worse - fill out an enquiry form) that will put them in touch to a website designer. Was the landing page copy relevant? Yes, you can’t run a business online without a website that is common sense. But we all know there is no common sense in the buying/conversion process.

What would have been more important is to outline to the visitor the steps involved in running a business online, and providing them access to a document or a check list of points to work through. By doing that, you provide the visitor with value, relevance, and a qualified lead that will return once they have met the said criteria.

How can you Perfect it?

The easiest way? Just avoid laziness…

A more relevant answer though is to make sure that each modification and edit of the ad copy is reflected in the landing page as well.

The purity of your data is at risk!

“Industry research indicates that for every $92 spent online to acquire site traffic or build awareness, only $1 is spent to proactively convert this traffic,” said Gail Ennis, SVP of Marketing, Omniture. “Advertisers are spending huge sums to get traffic to their sites and we have seen that by focusing on increasing conversion, online marketers can have a tremendous impact on the bottom line.”

How can you not fall into this trap?

It is quite simple really. Often it occurs that people approach our agency wanting to spend copious amounts of money on the actual campaign itself. There is inherently nothing wrong with that, especially when the keywords are highly competitive. But never once when I have mentioned dedicated landing pages has the client immediately taken the idea on board. There is always a struggle explaining (and then actioning) changes that need to be made to the website so the traffic becomes a visitor and a visitor becomes a lead/customer.

So to avoid wasting your online marketing budget, half of the budget should be dedicated to making sure that specialised pages will be created, monitored and optimised throughout the duration of the campaign. This will ensure that every single paid click has the highest possible chance of converting and giving the user exactly what they were after.

But its Only About Traffic Isn’t It?

If I hear that question one more time I am guaranteed to go b-a-n-a-n-a-s. In saying that however, I completely recognise the fact that it is not their fault, but rather a lack of understanding on the Marketers part. They are still stuck in a very 1999 view of the web were user hits and traffic numbers were the only thing that mattered. 10 years on, the Internet has evolved and so has the ability of all those that operate inside it.

The landing page is a key part of any online campaign for all mediums, not just paid search. And it is extremely short sighted not to recognise that at the end of the day, the website does the job of converting, not the click.

And if you think about the Internet and the buying process, the only time your website will convert is if you gain that trust. No matter how pretty your banner is, or how convincing the copy or you put the contact us form straight bang in the middle of the screen - no one is touching it without the trust.

So the million dollar question (and this could be literal million dollars) is how do you earn the trust on just one webpage?

A Real, Physical Address

It doesn’t matter if you offer a product or a service, your location should clearly be placed on your website. The reason being is that it adds instant credibility in the fact you will no longer be associated with many of the fly-by-night spammer websites out there. You suggest to the visitor that it could be possible to visit the office need be or assistance or advice. Many of my clients have implemented this, albeit a little apprehensively thinking that they will be swamped with unwanted guests. I can assure you that so far it has not happened at all, infact - they cannot conclusively say that any visitor to the physical location was purely from the website uninvited.

Put a Local Phone Number

Now I qualified the above header with the word ‘local’ number as we have found that for service based trade industries (plumbers, electricians, etc) benefit by having that local number as many people know their suburb’s phone prefix/area code and hence more likely to choose a local then one that is outside their radius.

I know many websites do have contact phone numbers prominently displayed, but they are often mobile numbers or some kind of toll prefix. If you have that currently, make the switch and test out the effectiveness and let us know in the comments how it goes.

Security Badges for Ecommerce

For those in the know (super internet savvy users), these badges might not mean much as many users of this nature are familiar with the trusted, safe and secure payment gateways. But this type of user is few and far between. In order to assure the visitor that their possible transaction will go smoothly, placing the badges of security firms and padlock logos that you have legally gained is a quick and easy addition to trust building. Most of the time they are relatively small as well, so they can be very easily slotted into the design.

I had an interesting case recently with a client to stop fraudulent transactions. The website was receiving many bogus transactions and hence also suffering from low conversions. The simple solution he came up with his web developer was to display the user’s IP address on the screen and suggested that these were being used to combat bad transactions and make the overall experience safer. After a week or so, there was a significant reduction in fake orders and conversion rate soared as well.

I personally did not think the solution would have been that easy, but I just could not argue with those facts and figures. Now it has become part of my initial steps to solve this problem in the future. I am not calling it the magic bullet, but a great first step.

Post Purchase Procedures

To follow with many others that there are very few one night stand conversions, giving some kind of notification to users about what happens after they have filled out the form or made a purchase also establishes that credibility and trust. After sales support is something many businesses struggle with and if you clearly outline the refund policy for example on a shopping website, the feeling of abandonment after can be reduced. All this information does not have to be played out step by step, but just adding some reassuring copy somewhere on the page can be a definite benefit.

Testimonials

And for those that were not already aware, the icing on any landing page is the testimonials from already satisfied customers. It should be a given on every single landing page, for every single keyword, and definitely be believable and not over the top (ie. not made up).

These are just a few of the points I have found from my experience dealing with clients from our agency, and they work great for us. If you have some more great tips, feel free to mention them in the comments!

That area that they all forget is what happens once the searcher gets past the engine, and arrives at their website. They have reached the first objective of the campaign, the user felt that the ad was the best answer for their query. Whether they complete the next step of either staying or leaving, the key factor is the landing page. Unfortunately for most businesses, they take an existing page (*sic* the homepage) and use that to channel the traffic.

Below I plan to outline just 3 key reasons why you need specially designed landing pages:

They Serve a Specific Purpose

Not all your ads in your campaign do not target the same words or the same product or service. Nor does your homepage normally provide enough information specific enough to match the claims made in the ad. Hence, each landing page should make sure it clearly match the expressions and claims put forth in the search ad, assuring the user that they made the right choice.

Your Offers Should be Within a Couple of Clicks

If Google decides to review your campaign, they recommend that any offers such as “15% off”, “Buy One Get 1 Free” are backed up on the website itself. However, this should not be your only reason. Think of your own user experiences with less credible websites that do not re-inforce their offer on the landing page. How much faith will you put in the rest of their claims? Always a smart move to be ethical in your dealings.

Prominent Calls to Action

On your landing page, you have the ability to fill key pieces of online real estate with banners, phone numbers and contact/enquiry forms. It would not reflect well on your existing webpages if all of them reduced the overall user experience (and even your SEO efforts) by removing navigation elements or page copy - all in the name of extracting somebody’s name and number.
Landing pages give you that flexibility and can be structured to funnel the user in the path that you would like them to take. Each method of contact also then can be tailored to the specific product or service, rather than just the generic contact us form you probably already use on the website.

So in conclusion, make sure that when you are about to undertake a paid search advertising campaign you factor in your budget landing page design. Your conversion stats and bottom line will thankyou later.

If you are interested in speaking to one of our experts for advice on how to implement it on your website, contact us today and one of our business partners will be in touch with you shortly.