Brilliantly designed your PPC ad that generate plenty of clicks are wonderful. However, high-performing ads are worthless when your landing pages don’t convert. Under-optimized landing pages mean you’re paying good money to have people click on your ads for nothing.
Optimized landing pages begin with convincing headlines that compel visitors to either make a purchase immediately or keep reading. When your landing pages aren’t optimized, visitors bounce right back to the SERPs and continue searching, even when your product or service would have solved their problem.
Optimized landing pages bring home conversions
A well-optimized landing page is like the batter who hits a grand slam and brings in all the runners on base. Ultimately, it’s your landing pages that will bring home conversions and generate revenue. Writing clever ads that get clicks is just the first step.
Focus on conversions, not traffic
You can’t generate conversions without traffic, but don’t make traffic your sole focus. Traffic is important, but if you’re not generating a 100% conversion rate, something in your campaign needs to be reworked.
Say you’re generating 1,000 unique visitors through your PPC ads on Facebook. When they land on your website, only 20 are converting. That’s a 2% conversion rate, which isn’t bad, but it can be improved.
Diagnosing the cause of a low conversion rate is simple. If you’re getting traffic, but few conversions, then traffic isn’t your problem. That’s going to apply to most PPC ad situations. Most people can generate traffic, but not conversions. The reason is almost always under-optimized landing pages.
To get conversions from your clicks, you need effective landing pages.
What makes a landing page effective?
- Convincing copy. A landing page needs to grab a visitor’s attention and direct them toward making a purchase. This is easier said than done. You can’t just create great copy and expect it to work. Your landing page copy needs to be presented in context with your PPC ad copy.
When someone clicks on a PPC ad, they will be expecting something from the landing page. Your copy should immediately communicate continuity to the visitor. Otherwise, they’ll feel a disconnect and bounce.
- An attention-grabbing headline. All great copy begins with an attention-grabbing headline. However, sassy and controversial headlines are not always the best approach. Use your best judgment.
- A strong call-to-action (CTA). Ideally, your call-to-action should be included in your landing page headline. If you can’t make that work, it’s okay to distribute your CTA throughout your landing page copy.
Try to get the first instance of your CTA as close to the top of your copy as possible. You might even have several different versions of your CTA that all direct visitors toward the same action.
- Good use of white space. White space will go far in generating conversions. Visitors don’t want to feel like they’re being hit with a chaotic mess on a webpage. Simple is best. Keep your margins large, and if you’re going to use high contrast colors, make sure it’s well done.
- Proper distribution of “buy” buttons. Your first buy button should be visible immediately above the fold. After that, you need buy buttons placed throughout your copy so that users can choose to buy your product or service at any time as they scroll down the page. You can’t guess the exact moment someone will decide to make a purchase, so make it easy for them to buy whenever they realize they want your product.
If you need ideas, Wordstream has some great button ideas for both graphics and text. Play with shapes, colors, and text placement to see which elements convert best. You’ll need to run some split tests to pinpoint which button elements are most effective.
- All links are “buy” links. Any link on a landing page should be a buy button. Whether it’s an actual graphic with the word “buy” or a text link, every link needs to place an item in the visitor’s shopping cart. Avoid including a navigation menu or links that take people away from your landing page.
Landing pages are the “secret sauce” in every PPC ad campaign
No matter how good your PPC ad are, you won’t generate revenue without effective landing pages. It’s important to generate traffic, but don’t focus all your efforts there. Put some of your energy toward perfecting your landing pages by optimizing them for conversion.
Optimize your landing pages to get optimal PPC ad results
While you’re working on your PPC ad strategy, make landing page optimization part of your plan. When you have great ads and effective landing pages, you’ll generate traffic and get the revenue you deserve.