Landing page design is the often overlooked key to successful Pay Per Click (PPC) marketing. Many people find themselves in the loop of investing money into advertising campaigns with minimal results, redesigning their home page with the idea of optimizing, and launching another campaign to minimal results. Time to stop the madness! By creating several landing page designs specific to different advertising campaigns, you save time and money. Even better, you see more conversion! Let’s explore landing page design for PPC marketing.
What is a PPC Marketing Landing Page?
The difference between a traditional landing page and one built for a PPC marketing campaign is very simple. Traditional landing pages collect information using a broad net. Landing pages for PPC marketing campaigns aim to collect information in a specific way. For example, a regular landing page may simply ask for a customer’s email address for future updates. Whereas PPC landing pages will provide information specific to the keywords used in the advertisement the customer clicked through to collect contact information.
This brings up a very important point; be certain to include keywords and other signifiers from your ad on the landing page. You want the customer to understand the ad and landing page represent the same company without all of the information a home page contains. There are several ways to do that, such as:
- Keyword consistency, repetition of language in the ad
- Visual consistency, the same font, colours, and design or imagery as the ad
- “Problem” consistency, offer solutions to the “problem” the ad presented or vice versa
The first two bulletpoints explain themselves. “Problem” consistency means ensuring customers do not get distracted from the reason they selected your ad. If your ad proclaims “the best prices are hard to find”, then make certain the landing page mentions how you “make finding the best prices easy”.
Which is More Important, Words or Visuals?
A true chicken and egg question! Your landing page design needs a stand out headline to keep the customer interested. However, without interesting visuals you will lose the customer straight away. So the answer is obviously both. Keep in mind that the amount of words and types of visuals you want to use depends heavily on the product or service you offer. For instance, a local bakery can showcase one picture that perfectly captures a tray of rolls coming out of the oven. But if you are a will writing service, then a short video may be the way to go. In either case, the headline needs to hit all of these marks:
- Brings together the ad’s headline copy with the offer on the landing page
- Gives the “biggest/best/most” benefit of the ad
- Highlight the distinctive benefit of your product or service
- Has a supporting sub-heading with powerful wording
Now the remaining copy does not have to do heavy lifting. Provide the rest of the information in short sentences and brief paragraph format. Alternately, using bullet points allow for plenty of open space that gives the words more emphasis. Another tip is to choose a checkmark or “ticked box” icon in lieu of a traditional circle bullet point icon. Both the checkmark and “ticked box” indicate action and customers see them as reinforcing the idea that your product or service is the one that meets their needs.
As mentioned above, the visuals you choose will depend heavily on your product or service. The visual needs to match the context and image of the ad the customer clicked. Further, the product or service should feature prominently in use or in action by people similar to your target market. For example, a bridal consulting firm with an image of a bride trying on a wedding dress is more eye-catching than a photo of a wedding invitation on a desk.
The Call To Action Conundrum
Ultimately, the Call to Action (CTA) is how you convert someone from website visitor to customer. You want people to hit the landing page, see the amazing design, and fill out the form fields in the CTA. Not so easy in the time of data leaks and security breaches. But you have three weapons in the war on uncertainty many customers face; a clear CTA, a scaled down data collection form, and trust building signals!
The CTA needs to be simple; this is not the time for jargon. In other words, don’t confuse your readers and don’t mince words. Tell the customer what you want them to do and what they get when they do it. Are you building a database of email addresses to send out coupons? Then say that and only ask them for that. Most importantly, use your verbs! Use forceful and energetic words to get people acting!
Lastly, include your privacy policy where the customer can see it. The best way to build trust is by laying out in the open how and why you gather, use, disclose, and manage the customer’s data. Established companies should also include testimonials from happy customers and any Influencers you may have worked with. If your company has any write ups in publications, print or online, include a snippet and link when possible. Do you have any industry awards? Now is the time to brag. A landing page with a testimonial from an Influencer and list of awards gets customers excited and builds trust.
Sounds Great! Is That All?
Not by a long shot. Not only does all of that need to go “above the fold” aka onto one screen without scrolling, it needs to undergo split testing. About 7 times. Split, or A/B, testing just compares two unique versions of a landing page to find the best performing one. In general, each test should garner between 200 and 500 clicks to get a clear picture of how well the landing page is converting customers. A short list of items to test:
- Copy
- Keywords
- Colors
- Images
- Call to Action
- Target audience
You may even want to test the layout! That’s why it’s best to leave landing page design for PPC marketing to professionals like the ones at Stylistic Design.
