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Landing Page Optimization 101

Jul
17

Written by Nick Yorchak. Posted in Paid Search

Effective landing pages are an essential component of any successful paid search program. For as much money as we marketers spend driving traffic to landing pages, we need to ensure they are doing their job – driving conversions. So, how does one go about improving conversion rate? There’s no secret, but it’s far from simple. You drive conversions through diligent, thoughtful, and highly measured testing. But how do you get started in the right direction?

Understand Motivations & Perceptions
Put yourself in their shoes. Various user groups will seek and engage with different types of content. Identify the user groups you’re marketing to and develop persona-driven messaging you can test by driving traffic to two landing pages with different messaging. You’ve set up your first test and laid the foundation for the type of thinking and digital empathy you’ll need to drive your campaigns forward.

Address Users’ Thought Process & Anxieties
In order to drive a user towards your conversion point, you need to address their anxieties and thought process.

  • Where am I?
  • Landing Page Strategy by Big FootprintWhat Can I Do?
  • Why Do I Care?
  • What About… ? (user’s anxieties)
  • Why You?

Remove the barriers to conversion, and test, test, test. Create an A/B or multivariate (if you have enough traffic or budget) and test variations in any of the categories above. Everything from button color, size, position, to imagery, messaging, layout, and more. Establish your value proposition. Start with the basics and evolve from there. When you eliminate the anxieties that prevent users from moving forward, you’ll continuously optimize your campaign.

Establish Your Expertise
Leverage quantifiable factors to illustrate your experience and expertise. These points should prove why you’re the right choice, while also addressing the user’s anxieties discussed earlier. In a B2B situation, supporting points like “Full Tim 24/7 Support” or unique product or service features that are “guaranteed” are all excellent points to emphasize on landing pages. Another way to establish expertise is to list awards your firm has won, or recognitions you’ve received. You can also list prominent publications in which your company was featured. All of these tactics are excellent ways to establish credibility with the user while driving conversions. Test and realign the messaging and imagery you use to establish expertise with the users’ anxieties and your conversion rate will skyrocket. And then test some more.

Landing Page Optimization with Big Footprint

Leverage an Offer
An offer on a landing page can certainly increase conversion rate, even if that offer is only perceived. You can offer a “Free Trial” or an expert content asset, like a white paper or an industry study that your audience will find valuable or provoking. Again, align these offers with the user’s thought process, and test continuously.

If you’re testing or optimizing any of these elements, or better yet all of them, you will generate valuable insights that will drive conversion rate but also marketing intelligence. In a recent project, Big Footprint was able to drive a 276% ROI through paid search management and landing page optimization. We utilized multiple rounds of multivariate testing, splitting paid traffic to three distinct landing pages. With ongoing testing, we identified the top performing elements and increased conversion rate 376% while decreasing Cost-Per-Lead by 77%.

The power of landing page optimization is easily measured. Remember to test and refine as you evolve your campaigns to make the biggest business impact possible.

If you have any questions about your current landing pages testing program, contact Big Footprint.