landing-page-design

The Ultimate Guide to Landing Pages

Expert Tips For The Ultimate Guide to Landing Pages

Every website owner needs landing pages to convert the traffic coming in from ads or call-to-action buttons. Once they are on a landing page, individual users may convert to leads or customers. Therefore, landing pages are an integral part of your business’s digital marketing strategy. This landing page guide will show you how to go about converting traffic to your website into customers. 

What Is a Landing Page? 

landing page is a web page intended to convert general visitors into leads. Its preparation starts during the website design process with the inclusion of lead forms. Visitors who opt to fill the forms provide contact information, usually email addresses. 

The Purpose of a Landing Page 

A website has many sections, including the “about us” and “home” pages. These other pages have distractions such as competing links, navigation, and other options. So why would you need a special page with a form to fill out? 

With a landing page, you can direct visitors to precisely where you want them to go. In short, the purpose of a landing page is to convert leads into customers. 

Landing Page Best Practices 

Landing page design is a precise craft that involves specific steps and elements known as landing page best practices. Look at each one of them in greater detail below: 

  1. Write a Headline With Clear Benefits

As part of your landing page strategy, you should aim to reduce the bounce rate as much as possible. That means showing visitors the benefit of signing up within the first few seconds. Write a headline with clear benefits since that’s the first thing visitors will see as soon as they “land” on that page. 

  1. Write Captivating Copy

Landing page optimization is concerned with clear, concise content that guides visitors to complete the action. You should write content from a second-person perspective with words such as “you” and “your.” A perfect line should go hand in hand with captivating words to support your call to action. 

  1. Choose an Appropriate Image

Every landing page should have an image that represents the target audience. In addition, it should convey how visitors will feel after receiving the offer. You may select several images and choose the most appropriate one after split testing. 

  1. Place the Lead Form Above the Fold

As part of your landing page optimization best practices, put the lead form in the most accessible location. The visitors shouldn’t have to scan the page to see the form. Instead, they should see the form or a connecting anchor link soon after hitting the page. 

  1. Add a Strong, Standout Call-to-Action

A landing page should have a strong call-to-action (CTA) to encourage conversion. Use color contrasting page elements to make your CTA button stand out. Also, clearly state what you expect visitors to do using an action verb like “get it now,” “download,” “purchase,” or “submit.” 

  1. Request for Specific Information

Every landing page guide you read will advise you to ask for specific information about your lead and nothing more. That will depend on how much the customer knows you, the position in their buyer’s journey, and the level of trust they have for you. If it is a new lead, an email address and a name are enough. 

  1. Make a Relevant Offer

Your landing page is an integral part of your visitor’s journey to purchasing your product or service. Therefore, make an offer in exchange for getting the lead’s personal information. The offer should be compelling enough to extract contact information from a visitor and relevant to the business. 

For example, you may offer “10 Benefits of Laptops in Business” because your ultimate intention is to sell a business laptop to the lead. However, an offer about printers will only direct the lead on a completely different path. 

  1. Remove Navigation Features

The purpose of a landing page is to convert visitors into leads – period. Competing links such as those to other pages within the website can only be a distraction. Ask your web design agency to remove navigation features and other links that could sway visitors to the main objective – converting them into leads and customers. 

  1. Optimize for Search

As part of your landing page optimization best practices, you should include keywords that make it rank highly on search engine results pages (SERPs). That applies to organic and paid search via Google Ads. It is better than relying solely on social media, email, and other digital marketing methods. 

  1. Build a Responsive Page

Every page on your website, including the landing page, should be responsive to different customer viewing experiences. The focus of website design should be to make the entire landing page readable on mobile devices. Consequently, visitors should be able to see the lead form to convert. 

  1. Include a “Thank You” Page

You should have a page where you redirect your customers soon after filling the lead form. It may contain a straightforward “thank you” message or an offer you had promised (like a download). The page’s purpose is to interest your lead beyond the relevant content and thank them for their interest in signing up. 

Landing Page Design Prerequisites 

Landing page design is a combination of creativity, attractive pictures, colors, functionality, and direction. Pay attention to the: 

  • Landing page structure includes headlines, relevant images, lead form, CTA, copy, and description. 
  • Landing page layout, which should have the most important information on top. You should also perform a blink test, use white space, write short paragraphs with bullets, and ensure visual patterns flow to them. 
  • Landing page colors, which should rhyme with the rest of your website color. It should make your brand immediately recognizable. 
  • Landing page images, which should be relevant to the information on the page. It should set the tone of the visitor’s entire experience from beginning to end. 
  • Call-to-action (CTA) directs visitors on what you want them to do. It should have a large button with vibrant, contrasting colors, less than five words, surrounded by white space, and where the reader’s eyes are likely to be. 

Conclusion 

With this landing page guide, you should craft highly converting pages that compel visitors to provide contact information. Of course, it would help if you worked with the right web design agency and content writers to implement suggestions on the checklist above. 

ppc_blog

How to Improve Your PPC Landing Pages

Expert Tips For How to Improve Your PPC Landing Pages

Pay per click (PPC) advertising is now more proliferate, and more relevant, than ever before. Whether you’re advertising on Google Ads, Bing Ads, Facebook Ads, or another platform, you want to make sure you’re doing everything possible to make your PPC landing pages provide your leads with the right information and the best user experience that’s possible.

As a digital marketing agency that works with a variety of brands on PPC advertising, we help companies in several different industries with landing page creation and landing page optimization. Keep reading for our best tips for optimizing your PPC landing pages, including things you can do right now to improve these important aspects of your PPC campaigns on Google Ads, Bing Ads, and Facebook Ads.

1- PPC Landing Page Speed Matters – A Lot

According to the latest Google statistics, 50% of all search queries happen on a mobile device. Do you know what else Google is reporting? Mobile searches completely abandon a website – including several PPC landing pages – if a page takes more than 3 seconds to load. Just 3 seconds? That means losing your potential next customer can happen extremely quickly.

To make sure your page speed is fast enough for today’s mobile web searcher, consider the following landing page optimization tricks:

  • Don’t overload your PPC landing pages with images. Focus on one clear image – that loads quickly, of course – that conveys your message to viewers.
  • Test your mobile speed score before you finalize a PPC landing page. It’s better to learn now than later that you need to go back to the drawing board.
  • Keep your designs simple and easy to load. Don’t waste valuable page speed on loading an intricate web design for PPC landing pages.

2- Design First For Mobile, Next for Desktop

Even though half of all Google searches still happen on desktops, you really should be designed with the mobile viewer in mind first. And this is whether you’re performing landing page optimization for Google Ads, Bing Ads, or Facebook Ads.

Think about it this way. Your PPC landing pages are being designed by digital marketing professionals who have large screens for their laptops or desktop computers. That means, when they’re designing and testing PPC landing pages, they’re getting the full view. But how often do you test your PPC landing pages on your iPhone or Android phone before you publish them? Be honest, it’s okay. We’re here to help, not to judge.

You see, responsive design is so important, it should be the first thing you test for today and most likely in the future.

If you’re not considering how your pages view on mobile devices when you’re performing landing page optimization, you’re leaving out 50% of your viewers. Make sure your hero image, key message, and any CTA are easily viewed above the fold on multiple different mobile devices before you push a PPC landing page to go live.

3- Focus on Quality, not Quantity

Some PPC advertisers are all about conversions. They want to increase their conversion ratio as much as possible.
However, if you only focus on conversion, you’re forgetting about what’s even more important – converting qualified leads.

Think about it. Which would you rather have your sales team follow up on – 100 leads that found you but aren’t necessarily interested in your product or service, or 10 leads who were pre-qualified through your detailed lead capture form? The answer is obviously the latter.

This is why we never recommend you deploy certain landing page optimization techniques that other digital marketing agencies might suggest, such as slimming down your lead capture form to be as small as possible and still fit into your company’s sales funnel.

Trust us, qualified leads who are truly interested in your products will take the time to provide the additional information you request. And by filling your sales pipeline with qualified leads, you’re best utilizing your internal sales resources.

4- Simplicity is Key

Minimalism is in, and definitely far more than keeping your home easy to organize.

One of the best landing page optimization tips we can offer you is to keep your landing pages simple. Too much information is overkill and can overwhelm viewers. Your landing page sweet spot is when you give viewers just enough information to entice them to either keep searching your website or fill out a lead capture form so they can be put into your sales funnel. Never list all your product details on your landing pages – that’s far too much information for a PPC ad clicker to see upfront.

5- Use Personalization Wisely

Personalization is changing PPC advertising. But you don’t want to go overboard with personalization in a way that makes viewers have data privacy concerns.

Some ways that we recommend you use personalization on your landing pages include:

  • Display different images for male and female viewers that A/B testing has proven to be effective.
  • Use localized images based on the searcher’s geolocation.
  • Constantly be A/B testing your personalization options to see what choices are best.

6- Don’t Forget The Little (and Tried and True) Aspects That Have Been Helping for Years

Because aspects like personalization are new and exciting, it’s easy to think that older landing page optimization tips are no longer relevant. Think again. You should be taking advantage of:

  • Metadata and title tags.
  • A/B testing of forms.
  • A/B testing of content style and length, including paragraphs, bullets, and more.
  • A/B testing of different taglines.

Additionally, all PPC landing pages should have an easy way to get to the rest of your website. In fact, Google will ding you if your landing pages don’t have this “escape hatch.”

Do You Need Landing Page Optimization Help?

As a digital marketing agency, we help a wide variety of brands with their PPC advertising, including landing page optimization. Whether you want to be working with PPC experts like us, or you simply don’t have the internal resources to perform this task on your own, we’re here to help. Call us to get a conversation started at (877) 682-2012.

Not big on reading? That’s okay. Watch “How to Improve Your PPC Landing Pages” instead.

Using the power of Artificial Intelligence, we turned this blog into a video for you. Check it out below!

 

ppc_landing_pages

What to Include on a PPC Landing Page

Expert Tips For PPC Landing Pages

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising is a must in today’s day and age, especially on Google. With Google’s algorithm constantly changing, you simply can’t rely on organic traffic alone to give you the leads or sales your company needs.

For this reason, many companies like yours use PPC digital marketing platforms like Google to promote their business. But creating a compelling ad for Google – even if it has a high clickthrough rate – simply isn’t enough. You need optimized PPC landing pages for your PPC ads to make sure you get the desired 1:1 conversion ratio for every person who clicks your PPC ad.

Continue reading to learn what we as a digital marketing agency suggest every PPC landing page contains, including what it shouldn’t have.

Our Digital Marketing Agencies PPC Landing Page Must-Haves

As a digital marketing agency that has helped several businesses create PPC landing pages, here are our recommendations for your own pages:

  • PPC Landing Pages Need Their Messages to Match Their Ads

When a web searcher clicks on your PPC ad, you’ve already got them interested and engaged at the messaging you used in your ad. To get them to convert to a lead or a sale, you need to make sure your PPC landing page’s message matches that of the ad that enticed the web searcher, to begin with. Your PPC ads should never direct web searchers to your homepage or another page on your website, but rather a specially designed PPC landing page that contains the exact same messaging as the ads that directed them there.

  • Don’t Include Links to Other Pages on Your Website

The goal of every PPC landing page is to get the person on the page to convert to either a lead or sale, depending on what your call to action (CTA) is. To make sure this happens, you don’t want to link to any other pages or materials on your website that could cause your PPC ad to lead to a bounce. 

  • Make Sure Your PPC Landing Pages Have Impactful Headlines

One of the tenets of digital marketing is to use words wisely. You want the headline – which will be the first thing your PPC ad lead sees when they are directed to your PPC landing page – to be impactful. Remember to use message matching, and when it makes sense, use action words to keep your lead captivated on your product or service.

  • Add a Tagline That Supports Your Main Message

A tagline is your opportunity to add more messaging about the benefits your product, service, or brand can offer your PPC ad leads. Taglines should be succinct, but meaningful. It is okay, however, for your tagline to have slightly more text than your PPC landing page headline.

  • List Out Your Product’s or Service’s – Not Just Its Features

While it’s important to include product or service details or technical specifications, you need to write this information in an engaging way. Our advice is to list them as benefits, and not just features.

For example, if you’re creating a PPC landing page for a 60” TV, don’t just list “60-inch TV” as a bullet on your page. Instead, use impactful copy that conveys the benefit of the TV size, such as “Large 60-inch TV that lets you see your favourite shows and sports in full detail.”

  • Show Symbols of Trust

Since your PPC ad lead is a paid lead, it’s pretty safe for you to assume that he or she wasn’t thinking of your brand, product, or service when entering his or her web search. Your PPC ad lead was looking for options and recommendations and may have never even heard of your business before. For this reason, it’s important that every PPC landing page includes symbols of trust, such as:

  • Security symbols, such as from McAfee, if you sell a software application.
  • Customer logos, especially from customers recognizable in your industry niche or household names, if you can get permission to use them.
  • Testimonials from happy customers – just make sure to keep them short and sweet. Long, paragraph-form testimonials may be easily skimmed over for PPC ad leads.
  • Award badges for any award your company has won, such as from professional organizations and publications.
  • Membership badges, if your company belongs to any industry-recognizable professional organizations.
  • Certification badges, which are especially important for service-based industries. 
  • Transparent language about your company’s policies, including your privacy policy and whether or not you share lead or sales data with 3rd parties, return policies, and so on.
  • A free trial if you offer a software product.
  • Press mentions, especially in mainstream or leading industry publications and websites.
  • Make Sure You Have a Clear CTA

Every PPC landing page needs a CTA. It’s well known in digital marketing that PPC ad leads are more likely to take the next step when they are asked to do so. You need to keep this message clear, though. Don’t have multiple CTAs, but just one. Depending on the product or service you offer, your CTA may be to make a purchase, download a trial, download a lead magnet like a whitepaper, or something else.

  • All PPC Landing Pages Need a Lead Capture Form

If a PPC ad leads lands on your page – and even follows through on your CTA – you’re doing yourself a major disservice if you don’t have a lead capture form on your PPC landing page. A lead capture form allows you to identify the person who has come to your page, obtain his or her contact information, and add him or her into your marketing funnel for either remarketing if the lead didn’t convert or to send supplemental or support materials such as emails about your product or service.

  • All PPC Landing Pages Need a Compelling Image of Your Product in Action, or the Conveying the Benefits of Your Service

People are visual, and you need to appeal to your PPC ad leads’ desires for images on your PPC landing pages. If you’re promoting a product, then choosing an image is typically easier. You want to include an image of your product in action, especially showing it offering a benefit, if possible.

If you are a service-based industry, you want your PPC landing page image to trigger positive emotions related to your brand. Think about the types of images you typically see on a financial institution’s website, for example. Since most people are managing their finances for the benefit of their family’s well-being and future, banks’ websites often contain images of families, especially with young children, to elicit an emotional response from the webpage viewer.

We Can Help You With Your Digital Marketing Needs

As a full-service digital marketing agency, we’ve helped several brands create PPC ad campaigns and PPC landing pages that have matched messages. If you need help creating PPC landing pages to get PPC ad leads to convert, we’re here to help. Simply contact us at (877) 682-2012, sales@agencypartner.com, or fill out our online contact form.

Not big on reading? That’s okay. Watch “What to Include on a PPC Landing Page” instead.

Using the power of Artificial Intelligence, we turned this blog into a video for you. Check it out below!