A pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaign provides your company with instant access to people interested in your products or services. It’s not enough to create snappy ad copy or target high-value keywords, though. Your business also needs a fast, user-friendly landing page for your PPC ad campaign.
Set your campaign up for success by following these six PPC landing page best practices.
1. Design a dedicated landing page for your campaign
If you’re looking to launch a PPC campaign for your business fast, it’s common to use an existing page on your website as your landing page. While this approach can work, it’s not the best way to accomplish your campaign goals, like generating leads.
For the best results, your business should create a dedicated landing page.
With a dedicated landing page, your company designs a page tailored to your campaign, goals, and audience. As an example, a dedicated landing page for roofing services may feature a quick summary of your service benefits and prices, as well as a contact form.
In comparison, your website’s main roofing service page may feature additional content that provides essential information to users in the earlier stages of the buying funnel. It’s a longer page, which may not work well for users ready to receive a quote for their roofing needs.
While you can design a dedicated landing page with builders like Unbounce, many companies find the best success with a professionally designed landing page. That’s because a designer can leverage best practices to create a user-friendly and intuitive page.
2. Optimize your landing page for mobile users
More than 50 percent of clicks on ads come from mobile users. With so many users, from everyday shoppers to business buyers, using mobile devices, it’s essential for businesses to develop responsive landing pages.
A responsive landing page adapts to any device, from a smartphone to a tablet.
If your company doesn’t create a responsive landing page, it can have a dramatic effect on your campaign’s performance. Your conversion rate can drop, and your bounce rate can increase. Not to mention, your cost-per-click (CPC) can also go up, which costs your business more money.
Before launching your ad campaigns, follow this PPC landing page best practice: check your landing page on mobile. Just type the URL into your mobile browser and review the page. See how it looks, as well as responds to your taps and scrolls.
If your team struggles to interact with the page (or notices a slow load time), let your web design and web developer know. They can update the page to improve the user experience, which helps your business launch a top-notch landing page.
Should your company design a landing page with a website builder, use the builder’s support system.
3. Use A/B testing to create the best version of your landing page
With the availability of free A/B testing tools, like Google Optimize, it’s vital that your company takes advantage of A/B testing. When you use A/B testing, your team can get valuable feedback on the performance of different versions of your landing page.
If you use A/B testing, only test one change at a time. In your first A/B test, for example, your team may compare two separate headlines. Or, you may modify a form field on a contact form to see how it impacts your conversion rates.
When you want to test more than one change, use multivariate testing, which you can access in Google Optimize too. For instance, you may test two completely different layouts for your dedicated landing page.
While this best practice for PPC landing pages may require additional time from your marketing and web development team, it can have a tremendous impact on your campaign results. If you’re looking for leads, for example, it can improve your conversion rates or even impact the quality of your leads.
4. Align your landing page’s headline, offer, and CTA
In addition to the design of your landing page, your company also needs to consider its copy. Your page content, which includes a headline, offer, and call-to-action (CTA) on a landing page, plays a significant role in a user’s decision to act on your offer.
For the best results, your headline, offer, and CTA should align with your ad copy. As an example, say someone clicks an ad for stucco roofs. They land, however, on a page about steel roofs, which leaves them confused about what you’re offering.
Create a headline, offer, and CTA that makes users act by following these tips:
- Write copy that’s about your audience
- Use language that your audience understands
- Appeal to your reader’s emotions with your copy
- Highlight the benefits (not the features) of your products or services
- Keep your copy simple and to-the-point
Before you launch your campaign and landing page, get feedback on your copy.
Ask friends, family, or even people in your professional network for their opinion. While you can ask team members, everyone in your company tends to know what your business offers, which makes it easy for them to see what you’re saying.
You can also invest in professional ad copywriting services to get the best copy for your landing page.
5. Add a personalized thank you page
With online advertising, your company gets a unique opportunity to thank shoppers, leads, and clients. When someone acts on your CTA, like by completing a contact form or purchasing a product, your business can use a thank you page as confirmation of their order or request.
Like your landing page, your company should create a brief thank you or confirmation page.
Use your landing page to provide users with additional value. You can include links to some helpful resources, for example, that relate to their needs. If you want, you can even personalize the page with the user’s name, so that your team can thank that person directly.
Some companies will also include testimonials or reviews on their thank you pages. Both serve as trust signals, which can build a new customer or lead’s confidence in your business. You can even share your social media accounts, which may also include reviews.
With a thank you page, you have dozens of options for establishing yourself with users.
6. Remove every possible distraction on your PPC landing page
One of the reasons a dedicated landing page is a PPC landing page best practice is because of distractions. When you direct someone to a regular page on your website, it features tons of distractions. These distractions can range from a navigation bar to a sidebar.
No matter what kind of distraction your website features, it can have a direct impact on your campaign’s performance. Instead of following through on your CTA, for example, a user may click on your navigation bar to explore your site further.
With a PPC campaign, you want users to stay focused and follow a specific path to conversion. It’s excellent when a user that visits your site organically browses your website, but when a paid user does it, it can derail your ad results.
Eliminate distractions from your PPC landing page by removing:
- Navigation bars
- Footer
- Links
When you remove these distractions, you create a straightforward process for users. They stay focused on your page, read your headline, see your offer, and (hopefully) act on your CTA. While some users may ignore your CTA, removing distractions ensures they at least see it.
Get a professionally designed landing page
Prepare for your next ad campaign with these six must-follow best practices for PPC landing pages. If you’re looking for professional help with your PPC strategy or landing page design, IndustrialFX provides award-winning design and advertising services for businesses like yours.
Browse our services or contact us today to get started!