11 Things Every PPC Landing Page Needs

Did you know that 80% of PPC traffic goes to an existing website page (typically the homepage)? If you aren’t seeing ideal conversion rates on your website from PPC campaigns, there is a good chance the landing page is the problem. Even if you’re getting numerous clicks on your PPC ads, if the page the ad is leading to isn’t converting, then you’re just wasting your money. In this post you’ll learn why you need to have separate PPC landing pages and what needs to be included to generate the leads you’re looking for.

Before diving into the specifics of an effective PPC landing page, we should first discuss what a landing page is. A landing page is a page on your site that allows you to capture a visitor’s information through a lead form. Simply put, your landing pages should focus on one offer and one conversion without any distractions. To see an example, view our latest ebook landing page.

How PPC Landing Pages Differ from Standard Landing Pages

Paid traffic is a whole different animal than organic or referral traffic. Think about the mentality of a person who clicks on a Google ad. They are on a mission to get something and are more likely to buy. They don’t want to weed through the content that typical organic search results provide. Whereas top-of-the-funnel users want more information because they still aren’t entirely sure what they’re looking for, bottom-of-the-funnel users (where many of the PPC clicks come from) are more ready to buy and are more likely to jump on offers on ads.

How to Build an Effective PPC Landing Page

Before you create landing pages, it is imperative that you know who the buyer persona is that you’re targeting and the goals you’d like for them to achieve. This will make your landing pages much more focused and specific around the personas wants and needs. Once those components are understood, follow these guidelines that apply to the majority of landing pages. Your landing page should include:

1. A clear and concise headline that describes what you’re offering
2. Short descriptive copy of the value of the offer
3. Bullet points that describe the benefits a visitor will get by obtaining the offer
4. A captivating image that revolves around the offer to keep the visitor engaged
5. A clear call to action that directs visitors to the form where they will fill out the contact information desired by the marketer in exchange for the offer
6. Social sharing icons that allows the visitor to share this offer with others

Note, there is one thing that should not be included in landing pages. All site navigation should be removed to avoid visitor distractions. You want their entire focus to be on the offer to improve your lead conversion rate.

A Few More Helpful Guidelines:

7. Make sure your landing page aligns with an optimized key phrase and ad group. If you send multiple ads or key phrases to a single landing page, the message will get mixed and lost. In order to keep conversion rates up, create separate landing pages for each ad group.
8. Segment the landing pages by demographic and offer. If you offer 15% on one ad, and a buy one get one free deal on another, you should have separate pages for these offers. They shouldn’t be funneled into on general offer.
9. Segment the landing page by stage in the buying cycle. Depending on the ad, you may be targeting return visitors or people who have never used your product or service before. The copy on the landing page should cater to the corresponding lifecycle stage.
10. Ensure the CTA matches the ad copy the visitor clicked on. Consistency will make the visitor more likely to convert.
11. Create a responsive design for your landing page. While all websites should have a responsive design, it is especially important for PPC ads as they pop up on mobile search results as well as desktop.

As most marketers know, the most important things to remember is to always be reviewing the analytics of your landing pages and PPC ads and continue to test new ways to increase your conversion.

Getting clicks on your ads isn’t the hard part, converting them into leads (and eventually customers) is. What PPC landing page best practices have you found to be beneficial for your company? What do you struggle with? Please leave your comments below.