Directing Paid Traffic: Tips to Optimize Your PPC Landing Page for Conversions

A couple of weeks ago in this blog space, I talked about paid search marketing and what you could do to take advantage of this ever-growing advertising medium.  One of the keys to your PPC campaign, I mentioned, was to create and optimize a landing page that was dedicated to your paid search visitor.

The most common question that I got from readers after that post was this: “Why do I need to create a landing page that only my paid search traffic is going to see?”

The answer is that we need to treat PPC traffic differently than all other web visits, if not for user behavior then certainly because of the fact that you’ve paid for it! Paid search traffic and leads are too valuable to direct to your site’s home page, a generic restaurant menu of all the content found within the pages that follow.  We don’t want to force our visitor to work in their search to find the information that satisfies their search intent, especially when users are much more likely to hit the “back” button (as in “back to Google”) on their web browser than follow a link when they don’t immediately see the information they are seeking.

So what can we focus on to create an effective landing page?  I’m glad you asked. Lets break it down into four categories: Relevancy, Content, Call-To-Action, and Potential Distractions.  And away we go…

Relevancy

When a Google user clicks on a paid search advertisement (or any other search result, for that matter), they expect to see the information for which they’re searching immediately.  As in one click. We can only do our best to satisfy that user’s curiosity, but creating relevant landing pages for your PPC categories is a good start.  It’s a poor user experience to direct a user who has searched on the term “Boston Red Sox” to this page.  A very, very bad user experience.

Perhaps a better example comes from our friends in the insurance industry. Would you direct a PPC visitor who has accessed your site via a $30 “car insurance” click to your home page (which has lots of content and discusses the 40 different types of insurance that you offer) or, worse yet, your home insurance page?  No, you’d want to match the search query with the landing page, and send your traffic to an auto insurance page.  It seems intuitive, but often overlooked: get your PPC visitor to the page where they are most likely to find their desired information as quickly as possible.  Their search query has given you a strong indication of their interests, so make it easy for them!

Continuing with the theme – create unique landing pages for each of your various insurance products. Home insurance, auto insurance and business insurance are all unique enough that you can safely direct traffic to their own landing page.

But once they get to that page, what should the content look like?

Content

Three words: Keep it simple. Your landing page should not be as text-heavy as the rest of your site. This is a mutually beneficial relationship: you’ve bought their click for a reason, and they’ve chosen to click on your ad for (what you hope) is the same reason.  Let’s face it, you want them to perform a specific action.  Why would you bore them with details that could distract them from that action?  Create concise body copy, and limit it to the space “above the fold” on your landing page. Use bullet points to highlight the most important information.

Also, make sure that the content you offer doesn’t contradict your advertisement that the visitor has just clicked on.  If you offer 50% off your widget in the ad, make sure that that is reflected accurately and prominently in your content, because that’s probably what your customer is looking for.

This will help keep the visitor’s trust, but it will also help keep the visitor’s attention.  Attention is important, and we don’t want overcomplicated text to distract the user from the most important part of your page …

Call To Action

As I said, there is likely a specific reason that you have paid for your visitor’s click.  Well, here it is.  You want them to do any number of things: buy a t-shirt, download software, fill out a lead generation form, submit a video, or research a Petite Lap Giraffe.  Hey, it’s your site, do what you want.  I’m not here to judge.

The point is, be sure to clearly establish and feature your CTA.  If you are offering a free auto insurance quote, be sure that the lead form is front and center for the visitor. It should be obvious that this is what they are supposed to do – fill out a form. Don’t make your visitor hunt on the page for the lead form, or for the “download” button, or the “add this item to your cart” link.  Some quick tips:

1. Place a big CTA button that stands out from the rest of your page right next to your content
2. Use descriptive language on the button.  Don’t say “Click Here”, but rather “Book Your Flight Here”
3. Reinforce the CTA with a anchor text based link at the end of your content. If a user happens to miss the gigantic button at the top of your page, catch them with a standalone text link at the bottom of your landing page that re-states your conversion point.

Author’s note: The Lap Giraffe page is a terrible landing page for PPC.  All I wanted to do was look for the “Click Here to Purchase a Lap Giraffe”, and there isn’t a conversion point.

So now we’ve gotten the user’s attention with our ad, given them short and focused content to read, emphasized the call to action — now what?  Keep them from going somewhere else by reducing …

Potential Distractions

When I refer to “distractions”, I’m talking about opportunities for users to leave our landing page. We have a captive audience for our conversion point; I don’t want to give them any reason to leave this page that I’ve created specifically for them. To do this, simply reduce the number of links pointing to other pages — even other pages on your site.

Unlike your homepage, which I view as a gateway to information on your site, your PPC landing page is the destination. By eliminating all of the links that would make perfect sense on your home page, your PPC landing page will give your visitor fewer reasons to navigate away from this conversion point.

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So there you have it, some tips to help give your PPC visitor the information they are looking for, a conversion point to focus on, content to satisfy their search, and limited means to click away from your page. If done correctly, the positive effect should be seen in your conversion rate (# conversions/# visits).

If you’ve paid for the traffic, gently nudging your visitor to perform the activity that will help your business is very important.  Creating a custom landing page will help do just that!

This entry was posted on May 23, 2011 at May 23, 2011 and is filed under Advertising, Astonish Results, Insurance Agency Marketing, Insurance Potpourri, Lead Generation, Niche marketing, PPC, Strategy, Trends, Websites. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.