Have you ever put together a beautifully created digital marketing campaign with a healthy advertising budget, that you were certain would generate more business, only for it to fall short of your expectations?
While there could be many variables that lead to this failure, there is one that you can control, regardless of the campaign. And that is the destination, or target landing page that you send your campaign visitors to.
More often than not, this is a page on your website. Unfortunately, directing campaign traffic to an existing webpage such as your home or product page, is going to cost you money rather than make you money. It will also result in you missing out on business like you wouldn’t believe.
A dedicated landing page or even a series of landing pages, that are developed specifically for a campaign, will help you optimise your conversion rates and minimise the price you pay for Google Ads, and who doesn’t want to save money as you make money?
If you’re about to run a digital campaign and your web team isn’t involved, be prepared to waste money and miss opportunities if you don’t stop and take action right now.
What is a ‘Landing Page’?
The confusing part is that any page a visitor enters your site on, is considered to be a landing page (hence the name). However, in the world of digital marketing, a landing page is one that is developed specifically to align with your campaign, maximising the chances of conversions.
You may be familiar with the terms ‘Lead Generation’ or ‘Lead Capture’ page, which are one and the same thing and are what you need as part of your campaign planning. Your web development team will be monitoring behaviour on the landing page(s) to continually enhance the performance of the campaign so you can see exactly what traffic is being generated and also, spot any gaps or opportunities for improvement.
According to HubSpot a landing page is “a page on your website where you can offer a resource from your business in exchange for a visitor’s contact information. Marketers can capture this contact information using a lead-capture form, where visitors can enter details like their name, email address, and job title.”
Because a landing page has a defined purpose, it allows you to be specific by making it clear to the visitor what the value they will receive is, and the actions they need to take in order to receive it. Neil Patel, states “The paradox of choice reveals that less is more. Too many options will often hinder people from making a choice”, and this is precisely why landing pages are so effective.
The anatomy of a perfect landing page
In order to get the most out of your landing page, there are some core elements you need to ensure are factored in.
1. Ultra-fast load speed.
WordStream suggest that a 1-second delay in page load time can result in a 7% reduction in conversions. By making sure your potential customers don’t have to wait forever and a day to view your content, is a priority.
2. Just one Call to Action (CTA)
Avoid the temptation to litter your landing page with lots of options as this will just confuse people and drive them away. Instead, provide one direct call to action that tells visitors what to do next.
3. Test headlines and value propositions
With only 2 out of 10 people reading past the headline, you need to ensure your headline kills it.
It goes without saying that it must clearly articulate the value to the visitor for completing the call to action, but it should also compel them to do it too.
Fortunately, we’re not confined by the same parameters experienced in print. Digital campaigns can evolve and improve instantly with feedback. This is why we use a range of headlines, running experiments to ensure we are milking every last drop.
4. Consider mobile first
Mobile rules! If your landing page looks great on desktop but is hard to navigate on mobile, you will miss out on a significant number of leads. As well as making sure your webpage is responsive, you could also consider reducing the length of forms or removing imagery on mobile to improve the user experience.
5. Visual impact
As you would expect, the more engaging a landing page, the more time a visitor will spend on it. Including video can improve the likelihood of someone completing a call to action by as much as 86%.
6. Test and improve
Don’t walk away once a campaign page is up and running. We always track behaviour and test improvements to see if we can enhance performance.
So, how can a landing page save you money?
Aside from the fact that you won’t be paying for visitors to click on your ads, only to have them leave immediately, a targeted landing page that aligns with your campaign and the visitor’s needs, is going to save you money.
Quality scores in your Google Ad campaigns not only tell you how relevant your ads are, they assess your target landing page. If you are pointing the visitor to a general page, or even a page that has other products, Google will likely give that campaign a lower score. What this means is that you will pay more per click than your competitors but also be less likely to be the first ranking ad on Google, even if your bid is the highest.
Research shows that strong quality scores decrease both your cost per click and cost per conversion dramatically. This is why working with a marketing team that combines web development and digital marketing increases your conversions but also saves you a ton of money in wasted advertising at the same time.
