LANDING PAGES – THE WAY TO
    PROFITABLE PAID ADVERTISING

    The biggest mistake you can make when buying traffic is sending that traffic just to your home page, unoptimized for paid traffic.

    For anyone running paid advertising,
    an optimized landing page is vital.

    If you’re running Google Adwords, Facebook ads, or other paid ads, you’re leaving money on the table if you don’t have a landing page, combined with a winning strategy.

    A landing page is where you funnel your paid traffic. When your potential customer clicks on your ad, this is the page they go to.

    • Is the ad targeted to a profitable audience? Do those customers have a high lifetime value (LTV)?

    • Is our offer unique in the market, and meets the pain points of that target audience?

    • Is our copy written to convert the customer, or does it just use up an obligatory budget?

    • Are we funneling potential customers to a page that reflects all of the above?

    Having landing pages that convert well is critical to the success of your campaigns.

    Allow me to illustrate the difference in revenue between a high-converting page and a low one.

    Landing Page Profitability Comparison

    The following table details an Adwords campaign for a local mechanic. Average lifetime value of a customer is $2500 (which we established with the owner), and half of all leads convert into a paying customer.

    **Best Viewed with Phone Sideways**

    Poor Converting Landing Page  Optimized Landing Page
    Conversion Rate 2% 4%
    Gross Return on Investment (ROI) $23,000 $48,000
    Investment (Google Adwords Spend) $2,000 $2,000
    Clicks 1000 1000
    Leads 20 (2% of Clicks) 40 (4% of Clicks)
    Lead Cost (Adspend ÷ Leads) $100/lead $50/lead
    New Customers (50% of Leads) 10 20
    New Customer Value $2500 $2500
    New Customer Revenue $25,000 $50,000

    Here’s how can we double the conversion rate of your landing pages:

    • Write compelling sales copy based on the target audience (also known as a “Customer Avatar”).

    • Make sure the above-the-fold space is optimized for action.

    • Build an offer that actually makes sense for the customer and compels them to take action. Do everything in our power to point the customer towards that offer.

    • If there’s a form present, make sure the form is automatically selected so the visitor can just start filling it out (think about how Google searches work – you don’t have to click on the search box, it’s already “clicked on”).

    • Track all form submissions and phone calls. Determine which keywords and campaigns drove those conversions – delete anything that isn’t converting.

    • Remove navigation from the page so potential customers aren’t distracted by unnecessary links.

    • A/B split test the ad copy to see which elements convert best. These include headlines, subheadings, bulleted lists, calls to action, and the position and colour of some layout elements.

      • For advanced campaigns, we might even build multiple, completely different landing pages, and split our paid traffic between them – measuring the results.
      • This is an ongoing task because you can only test so far as you have traffic. Testing should never stop.

    Landing Page Profitability Comparison

    **Best Viewed with Phone Sideways**

    Here’s the auditing rubric that we use to grade our landing pages internally:
    Page has one specific action One major purpose or clear-cut goal.
    Headline Above the fold, compelling copy that shows what we offer and why it matters, with actionable and value-driven words.
    Subheading Above the fold expands on the claims made in the headline, explains what the visitor should do next.
    Call to action Powerful, contrasting colours to grab attention, calls visitor to take an action to help them solve their problem. Offer value to the client if they take action.
    Copy Talk about visitors pain points, show them how we can provide a reasonable solution.
    Navigation Remove distracting links, including navigation.
    Testimonials Include trustworthy testimonials that showcase previous clients problems, and how we fixed it. If your business has common objections from clients, try to showcase clients who also stated that objection (we have ways to get good testimonials from clients). If you have any large clients (influencers), include their recommendation here.
    Opt-in form Make sure any forms stand out, above the fold, and minimize the number of fields. Every extra field a visitor has to fill out lowers your conversion rate. Likewise, if you have too many low-quality submissions coming in, increase the number of fields so you’re only talking to quality leads.
    Phone Make the phone number large and dynamically insert call tracking.

    Based on the above criteria, you may have noticed that the page you’re reading right now is NOT a landing page. That’s because the sole purpose of this page is to educate clients who may have spoken to us in person, not to convert Google Adwords traffic.

    For paid campaigns, we create orphaned landing pages (you can’t see them in the navigation) so we’re able to segment organic and paid traffic. We don’t want our organic traffic to screw up the data for paid campaigns – data needs to be mostly pure so we can make calculated decisions within paid campaigns.

    Want to learn more about working with paid marketing campaigns?

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