In-house PPC: Diversify Landing Page Techniques

@johnslynch

My advice to anyone building a PPC campaign is simple: don’t be lazy.  Never leave a campaign at a point where “this is good enough for now” is an acceptable response.  It’s this type of attitude that frequently leaves campaigns in a perfect position to become dominated by competitors.

Furthermore, PPC testing provides a fascinating opportunity to test the exact words and phrases that create the strongest response from users.  These critical takeaways can extend beyond the PPC campaign and improve efficiency in organic search, print, banner, television, and radio.

Instead of delving into another Google Site Optimizer article, I’d rather discuss a few unheralded techniques that can be used to help convert users into buyers:

1. Try Video: video can be an exceptionally effective tool for more complex or visually oriented products or services.  Isn’t a video the best way to show a house online or explain essential concepts that are vital in communicating product need?  Furthermore, video is a fantastic opportunity to create a positive emotional response.  With the right music and imagery, your video can inspire emotional connectivity with your brand in a way that your competitors static site cannot

2. Experiment between long and short form: If your business pitch in person takes five minutes, how the heck will a 100 word landing page compel users to buy?   In any campaign, it might be a good idea to have at least one long-form landing page that offers multiple conversions (both “soft” and “hard”) and aims to educate visitors.  A client of mine works in the education field, and all of his competitors landing pages are glorified RFP forms.  Doesn’t the one site that offers valuable information peacock compared to its conversion driven competitors?

3. Offer a variety of conversions: frequently, marketers fail to realize that—depending on the keyword—users are often in drastically different stages of the buy cycle.   Depending on the expert, the stages of a buy cycle can vary significantly, but it boils down to these elements:

1. Information Seeking
2. Product Identification
3. Needs refinement
4. Purchase

A visitor in the information seeking phase has no real interest in making a purchase and will often use vague or ambiguous search queries.  The best way to connect with this user is to offer a landing page that offers depth and information. Additionally for the call-to-action, try multiple conversions that appeal to your users needs (white papers, product comparisons, calculator or free tool).  In this example, the focus shifts towards creating a relationship with the consumer and an understanding that the sales cycle is going to be a bit longer.

On the other end of the spectrum, try more aggressive CTA’s if the user is getting to your site through a branded search query.  This might be the time to push your business’s equivalent of “order now.”

4. Aggressively test copy: This includes headline, images, and copy.  Try multivariate testing in limited campaigns before applying key learnings to the rest.  Common industry practice is to allow for 300 conversions before drawing conclusions; however, you should be able to tell in a couple days if you’re page is a complete dud.  If this is the case, don’t hesitate to remove the Ad quickly.

Good luck and remember these key staples:

• Account for visitors’ short attention span by making the page something that can be scanned.  [Almost] Never have two consecutive paragraphs of text.  Break them up with images, bullets, and headers
• Use the keyword in the headline of the landing page.  Let the user know they’ve come to the right place
• Use design elements to accentuate the conversions pieces on the page.  Let them pop.

Follow John Lynch on Twitter @johnslynch