There's a lot that goes into creating and running your digital marketing ads. Fully optimized ads include strong copy that leads directly to a page about that specific product or service. That page is called a landing page. Many businesses don't realize the power of leading someone who clicks on an ad about a specific service to a landing page for that particular service, and instead, they just send them to their complete services page or their contact page.
Sure, those can work sometimes, but if you want to fully optimize your digital ads and increase conversions, you need a landing page.
More than that, you also need an optimized landing page.
What goes into a landing page?
A landing page is not an extremely complex thing to build. You can easily create one within your own website, or you can utilize tools like Leadpages and Clickfunnels, that have been created specifically to help create optimized landing pages.
Your landing page, whether it's for a product, service, webinar, lead magnet, etc., should have copy that further explains what the page is for and an opt-in form, sign up form, or check-out option (specifically for lower-priced products included in shopping ads).
You want your landing page to be visually appealing with quality design and photos/graphics, but the main two elements are your copy and your form.
How do you optimize a landing page?
Let's dive into how you create a landing page that's both visually appealing and that works to generate leads and conversions. The most important part of your landing page is that it does its job after someone clicks to it from an advertisement. If your ad is showing great performance and a ton of people are clicking, but no one is converting, the problem is not with your ad; it's with your landing page.
Here are six ways to optimize landing pages.
1. Align your landing page with your campaign goals.
If you're running Google ads, their performance is also partially based on how relevant your landing page is to your advertisement. You need to have some of the same language or else Google will think the page you're leading visitors to after they click is not relevant to the actual ad.
Furthermore, if you have several different ads promoting specific services, it's a good idea to create a landing page specific to that service, rather than sending visitors to your overall services page. You want to give people exactly what they're looking for when it comes to your landing page. If they clicked on an ad for HVAC replacement, you don't want to send them to a page that also talks about plumbing if that's another service your business offers.
Instead, you want to focus on what your goals are for your campaign: getting someone to request information on a specific service, growing your email list, selling a product, etc. Then, create a landing page that caters to those specific goals.
2. Create compelling headlines and copy.
You want your headlines to be simple and straight to the point. This is not the place to put fluffy, creative language. Instead, you want it to convey precisely what your visitors are going to find on that page.
You also want your copy to be straightforward. Copywriting is an art form in its own right. It's different from blogging and creative writing because there is much less personality involved. Instead, it's meant to sell. You're letting visitors know exactly what your business does, how you do it well, and why they should hire you to do it for them.
3. Use visually appealing images.
Again, design is important. It's the first impression that your visitors see. You want to make sure it's a good one. Use graphics or photos that relate to your product/service but are still pleasing to the eye. Make sure they're not too busy or overcrowding your landing page. Strategically place them near your form to capture eyes even more.
4. Craft a strong call to action (CTA).
This is one of the most important parts of your landing page: getting someone to take action. You've already gotten them to this landing page from an ad, so you're almost all the way there. Now, you need to really entice your landing page visitor to fill out your form or buy now.
Use a large, brightly colored button with actionable text on it, like "Give me the top secrets to X now!" or "Yes, I need to learn more about X service."
5. Place your form above the fold.
You want the opt-in form to be one of the first things that people see when they land on your page. If someone clicks through your ad, ready to go, you don't want them to have to scroll around the page figuring out where they're supposed to put their information to get a callback.
No, you want the form to be front and center (well, technically right-aligned performs best), and one of the first things that your audience is able to spot.
Above the fold means that landing page visitors can see it without having to scroll, so it should be in the first or second section within the page. If your page includes a lot of copy and necessary information, there's absolutely no harm in having a second form at the bottom of your landing page to capture even more leads. But make sure you have one at the very top.
6. Optimize your form fields.
If your landing page is a top-of-the-funnel inbound marketing strategy, you don't want to require a lot of information within your form. The further people get into the funnel, the more information you can request. However, at first, it's best to stick with name and one essential method of communication, whether you prefer phone or email. (We recommend email so you can also add them to your email list.)
In a middle-of-the-funnel landing page, you can ask for two methods of communication, company name (for B2B), and other secondary information. In a landing page towards the bottom-of-the-funnel, you can include even more fields.
The more likely someone is to work with your business, the more willing they are to give out more and more information, and spend more time filling out your forms.
If you're interested in learning more about how to optimize your landing pages, contact us and we'd be happy to help!
Written By: Doug Milnor
