The Importance Of Landing Pages For Online Ads
When we take over existing PPC accounts, one the biggest changes we often implement is the addition of specially built landing pages to direct paid web traffic to. But what are landing pages and why are they important for a successful paid ads campaign?
What Is A Landing Page?
In PPC advertising, a landing page broadly refers to whichever page a user “lands” on after clicking an ad. However, when you see people in digital marketing talking about “landing pages”, what they are normally talking about is a specially made webpage which is used only for ad traffic. While sometimes hosted on the same domain as, or a sub domain of, an existing website, they exist separately as their own entity. The aim of a landing page is to drive conversions for your business. A conversion could be clicking a phone number, filling out a web form or making an online purchase.
Why Do I Need A Landing Page If I Already Have A Website?
While your website has to serve multiple purposes (information, sales, blog, contact info, etc), your landing page is built around a single purpose – to convert visitors into customers or leads. Having a separate landing page from your main website’s home page means that you can make design or content decisions that would not be suitable for your wider website. You can also make changes quickly without risking breaking other parts of your website.
Being able to make changes quickly is an important part of a successful landing page as it is rare to create the perfect landing page on your first try. Swapping out headlines, images, calls to actions, colours and other elements in a methodical way and monitoring the results is known as A/B testing. This is a key part of how we improve our clients’ landing pages.
You may wish to host your webpage on a separate domain name which is better suited to your advertising campaign. For example, if your business was a double-glazing installer named “Brentford & Sons”, instead of hosting the page on your website, you could host it on “localglazinginstallers.com”. Changes like this can improve your ad relevance score, click through rate, and even lead to cheaper costs per click.
Building and hosting your landing page separately from your main website can also help the page to load quicker. At Carden Digital, we offer ultra-fast hosting on websites and landing pages.
What Makes A Good Landing Page?
Every landing page will be slightly different and will need to be adjusted based on the PPC campaign you are running and the audience you are targeting, but the following are some elements which are shared by every successful landing page.
- A Bold Headline That Makes Your USP Clear
Your page’s headline should be clear and easy to understand. It should pass what is known as the 5 second rule, meaning that anyone who looked at it for just 5 seconds would immediately understand what your business does. For example, “double glazing installation in Brighton by qualified installers”. - The Key Selling Points Of Your Business
You should have headlines and short blocks of text which explain your business’s services and why a customer would choose you. But remember to keep it brief, a landing page should look more like a poster rather than a blog post. - Clear Calls To Action Throughout The Page
Throughout the page there should be clear Call To Action buttons, these should stand out and let the customer know exactly what they can expect after clicking them. For example, “Call Us Now”, “Request A Quote Today” or “Book Your Consultation”. - High Quality Images
Ideally well composed, well lit, high-definition images of your team working, your products, or something highly related to your business. Avoid using stock images if possible, however, a high-quality stock image is better than a blurry or pixelated genuine photo. - Quick To Load
If a page takes too long to load, Google Ads and other platforms may penalise your ads with higher click costs or even stop showing your ads altogether. Make sure images are compressed, unused plugins are removed and any other elements that may slow down the page are addressed. - Engaging Videos
If you can have a video on your landing page, it can have a huge effect on the number of visitors who convert to sales/leads. This could be a video demonstrating your services or products, or even just the business owner welcoming the customer and providing a bit of information about your business. - Reviews, Testimonials or Partnerships
Having genuine reviews and testimonials from satisfied customers helps new visitors to your landing page have confidence that your business is genuine and trustworthy. - Partnerships and Accreditations
Having the logos of business partners, suppliers, organisations you are a member of, or awards you have won can help demonstrate that you are an established and trusted business.
How Can I Build A Landing Page?
There are templates for most website CMS (Content Management System) platforms which can help you get started, but if you don’t have the technical skills, a web development company can do this for you.
Carden Digital’s web developers and PPC management team are here to help. Our developers, graphic designers and content writers have built dozens of landing pages for our clients, with each page focusing on a client’s specific products, services, market sectors and selling points.
Our clients have seen improvements in the conversion rate and click costs of their ad campaigns after we have built them a landing page. Speak to our PPC team today to learn more.
