PPC-Advice.com

Visitors to sites are often bombarded by information, especially when their clicks come via pay-per-click campaigns.  Naturally, if you have to pay for a click to your site, you want to throw a few sales pitches at your visitors to get your money’s worth.  Many site owners fall into the same trap though, they lose clicks because their landing pages are not strong enough.  What makes a strong landing page?

Relevant Content

This may sound silly, but many people point their campaigns to their homepage in the hope that visitors will convert to customers.  This is a poor technique because visitors will have been attracted by what you say about your products or services in your display ads.  For example, if you’re advertising 20% off Toronto FC Jerseys (because they finished last in the MLS), you better bring your die-hard Toronto FC fans directly to the product’s page.  Most visitors will be ticked off – and rightfully so – if they can’t find what they’re looking for.

Another huge bonus of good landing page content is ad quality.  If your landing page is highly optimized and relevant to keywords and content in your display ad, search engine PPC programs (especially Google Adwords) will start to lower your minimum – and eventually average – cost per click.

This is where the largest auction site in the world has it all wrong.  That’s right, search marketers at eBay are notorious for misleading consumers.  They often buy targeted keywords, fill their display ads with keyword-generated content, and lead people right to their directories.  Ever try looking up “used caskets” in Google?

Strong Call to Action

What is the purpose of your landing page?  Do you want people to register on your site?  Do you want them to purchase something?  Make sure your “call to action” is obvious, and the natural choice for visitors originating from relevant display ads.  “Add to Cart” is a good example of a what has become a weaker call to action. If your landing page is relevant to your display ad, you shouldn’t have to prompt someone to add the product to their cart because it will be the obvious choice on your landing page.

Back to our Toronto FC example:  Instead of prompting a visitor with “Add to Cart,” why not hit them with “Buy Now” or “Choose your Size”?   The old “Add to Cart” option is fine for the rest of your site, but if you’re trying to move product, its best to customize your call to action for better conversion.

Offer Ends Today!  (Kick in Some Urgency)

Even if you have no intention to end a sale, it’s best to express some need for urgency to your landing page visitors.  If visitors are inclined to believe they have to act quickly to cash in on your promotion, they’re likely to make purchase decisions quicker.  Slowpoke converters are likely to research your other pages regardless of your “call to urgency,” but a large majority of real-deal sales online have patterned visitor behavior into believing a “One Day Only” push.

A fine example of strategic urgency usage can be seen at least once a month from Dell.  Dell often runs a very successful program called “Dell’s XX Days of Deals” that are advertised on a ton of affiliate marketing sites, review sites, and bargain hunting forums.  They often run for a set number of days, with different deals effective only on the day of publishing.  Their urgency is real, because if you don’t cash in on the deal that day, or their inventory runs out, you’re out of luck.

…OR ARE YOU?

If the deal runs every month or so, aren’t you more or less guaranteed similar deals every so often?  Sure you are.  However, there is a strategic twist to this plot.  Marketers at Dell aren’t stupid, if inventory is likely to sell out quickly, they’re not likely to offer the same “40% OFF 30-inch LCDs” again.  You’re likely to see similar LCDs, but their price will surely be higher.

Let’s go back to what I said about urgency.  If the average online shopper has seen tangible proof that limited time offers can hurt, they’re less likely to question your call to urgency.

Up-sells and doing them right

Yes, you paid for that visitor to your site, and Yes, you should give them options if they aren’t interested in actually buying your “Limited Edition Twin Turbo Toyota Corolla” for which they clicked an ad to see, but for the love of everything good and sacred, DO NOT clutter your landing page with irrelevant up-sells.  Home Depot and Dell had purchase behavior figured out right from the start: offering “Good-Better-Best” options makes sense.

Your pay-per-click ads can be highly targeted to keywords you specify, your ad can be highly relevant to your landing page, and your landing page can include exactly what your visitor was searching for… but they still might not buy!  Why?  Because if you offer just one product, they’re likely to click back and research alternatives.  If you offer them cues to subtle alternatives on your landing page, you’re headed in the right direction.

Conclusion

Landing pages are critical to the success of your search marketing campaign.  Even if you keep all the other variables of your pay-per-click programs the same and optimize one landing page, the difference in ROI due to an increase in conversion can be staggering!