What Is a Landing Page?
A landing page is a single web page to which people are sent after they click on an online advertisement. While most website pages serve other purposes (for example: brand or company information on an “About” page, or introductory details and gateway navigation on a “Home” page), landing pages expand upon the specific content and focus of an online advertising campaign. Landing pages should address a specific audience’s interests and encourage a specific action on that page. Other names for a landing page are “lead capture page.” “static page” or “ad destination page.”
Why Is a Landing Page Important?
Landing pages serve as a targeted, curated, experience for your customer, creating a direct path for them to engage with your business in meaningful ways (i.e. “Landing Page Objectives” listed below). Landing pages can be disconnected from your site’s navigation and are created with the specific needs of an ad campaign’s audience in mind.
When it comes to Google Ads, incorporating a landing page strategy will positively affect the quality score and ranking Google assigns to your campaign reducing bounce rate, lowering overall spend and improving key metrics like cost-per-click and cost-per-conversion.
Landing Pages Objectives
When setting up a landing page, the business and marketing goals of a specific campaign should inform the primary objective of the landing page. Is your landing page meant to inform more top-of-funnel potential customers or to get business from them? Some common landing page objectives are:
- Newsletter signups
- Topic, service or product awareness
- Calls to action (i.e., online orders, contact form submissions, emails, calls, .pdf downloads, etc.)
Essential Elements of a Landing Page
Tailor Content to a Specific Audience
Before you begin creating your landing page(s), you must understand your target audience. Each audience should have well defined characteristics that inform your approach to convert them effectively into customers. Some key audience characteristics to keep in mind:
- Pain Points – What might the target audience be searching for?
- Keywords – What specific keywords and phrases might that audience use when searching in Google? Additionally, what keywords and phrases would the target audience never use?
- Demographics – Where is the target audience located? What age group do they belong to? What do they do for work? What is their marital status? Family makeup?
Defining these characteristics will allow you to create focused landing pages tailors for the specific audience of your campaign.
Keep Content Short
Your landing page should be concise, clearly stating key brand and service/product information and a call to action (CTA). Your landing page should also correlate seamlessly with your ad campaign content. This approach offers your audience a quick solution to their want or ask.
According to the Nielsen Norman Group, the first 10 seconds of a user’s visit to your webpage are the most critical, as most visitors leave a webpage in the first 10-20 seconds of entering. If a visitor stays on your page for more the 30 seconds, the likelihood of conversion becomes much higher. Therefore the conciseness of your landing page is paramount, as prospects are less likely to convert if a landing page has too much information or diverts too far from the ad content that led them there.
Headline, Contents & Imagery
Your landing page’s headline and hero imagery can make or break the effectiveness of a campaign. The headline is the first thing a user will see when they arrive to your landing page, acting as your elevator pitch and your only shot at grabbing the person’s attention and enticing them to read on.
Effective headlines should directly address your product, service, or offer. The most effective headlines are between 12-15 words, followed by a subheading and CTA.
The content of your landing page should always incorporate the contents of your ad. The keywords used in the ad should also be featured o the landing page. When a user lands on your page and discovers familiar verbiage, they are assured that the content is relevant to their initial search query and decreases the chance that they leave your page before converting.
How to Improve Your Strategy
Creating campaign-specific landing pages will boost your online advertising campaign’s performance. Landing pages can help build a brand’s credibility by being able to address a prospect’s pain points and increase the likelihood of converting a prospect to a paying customer.
While business goals may vary (improving ROI, growing your customer base, launching new products or services, etc.), a well-crafted landing page can support any of these objectives and deliver results. Landing pages provide marketers with a flexible and customizable platform to bolster a marketing campaign.
If you are looking for a way to improve your marketing strategy, a well-constructed and concise landing page is a foolproof way to drive traffic, gain qualified leads, and build business online. Who wouldn’t want that?
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