Running a PPC campaign without a landing page is the advertising equivalent of buying a boat, but having absolutely nowhere to store it. If there’s nowhere for the PPC ads to lead you to, then what’s the point of even running them?
Let’s say that in the boat’s case, you could have a dedicated storage space for nearly the same price as a storage space which requires airlifting the boat to it. Which would you choose? Obviously, you would want to do less work to get your boat stored, and if it came at nearly the same price, it probably wouldn’t even be a question.
If a consumer has to navigate through tons of different pages on your website, just to find the deal that your PPC ad is describing, they’ll be elsewhere looking for deals in seconds. But if your ad takes them to a landing page where they can buy immediately, there’s very little stopping them from making that decision.
The beauty of a landing page is that displays the exact message of your advertisement, all while being connected to your website. By keeping the message consistent with the advertisement, consumers can know that they’re receiving the advertised deal or message, and can act on their decision whether to buy. Your landing page can also link to other parts of your website, giving consumers ease of access to your full array of products and services, while keeping them in one area where buying is extremely easy.
The optimization and clarity of this landing page is a necessity, as a cluttered landing page may be worse than no landing page at all. If a consumer is instantly confused when they reach the landing page, they’ll likely click back and look elsewhere to shop without having to navigate uncomfortable websites. This means that not only should the landing page be pleasing to view on desktop, but it should also be easy to use on mobile devices, where landing page and website optimization is one of the biggest factors. Navigating a confusing landing page on a mobile device is something that few consumers have the attention span for, and could cause your business to lose a valuable lead.
Other than being easy to use, your landing page should have what is called a ‘call-to-action’, which is a prompt to receive further information, or to actually make a purchase. Without a call to action, a consumer is unlikely to sign up or purchase, as they feel no push to do so. In order not to overwhelm the consumer, it’s best for your call to action to request an email address or a phone number. Calls to purchase immediately may work sometimes, but when they don’t, you may be left with no lead to follow up on.
This call-to-action shouldn’t be hidden away at the bottom of the page either. It needs to be clearly visible as soon as they get on the landing page, so there’s no searching involved. After all, you want the consumer to buy, and not the other way around. They shouldn’t have to work to convert, otherwise you may end up losing their attention. Call-to-action’s that pop up when the consumers scrolls further down the page are a great choice, as they’re unobtrusive, but still visible and effective.
The look of the landing page is another factor which can affect how the consumer views your business. Material design now separates the good from the bad; websites that look sleep and polished evoke ideas of a business that knows what it’s doing, and takes the time to refine all its work. A cluttered and unappealing website will make them think either you don’t care, or that you don’t know what you’re doing. That’s not the way to evoke trust from a consumer and is certainly not what will push them to purchase from you. The worse the website looks, the likelier it is that it will be interpreted as spam. No one likes spam, and certainly no one will give their personal or financial information to a website that might be spam. Good design means good business, and that’s what consumers should associate with your brand.
Design doesn’t apply only to the look of the website, but also to the content on it. Poorly written content can reflect a lack of attention or care, and displaced or irrelevant images will do the same. Double checking all your content is a great way to minimize these kinds of mistakes, and to ensure a consistent level of work across the entire website.
Something you may also consider is having multiple landing pages, one for each different ad that you run. Because your ads may display different products, deals, or services, you should have a variety of landing pages to accommodate for this. That way, each of your ads will be consistent with a specific landing page, and consumers will receive accurate directions to sign up or purchase from you. Whether you not you do, this will depend on how much you’re investing into developing landing pages, but if you have the investment, it can give your advertising campaign a serious boost.
Before you start you, consider how many ads you’ll be running, what these ads will say, and what action you want to take the consumer when they see these ads. Everything else should be conformed to these needs, and when it is, you’ll find that your conversions are growing, along with your satisfied customer base.
