When monitoring your search engine marketing plans, if you notice a high volume of clicks, but a small number of conversions, one of the first places to look is your landing page.
A landing page is the destination page on your website where individuals go after clicking on your ad. For a search engine campaign, a good landing page is just as important as a good ad, good keywords and strategic bidding.
In order to achieve a desirable cost-per-acquisition (CPA), you need to provide good content to individuals who click-thru to your site. Site visitors are impatient. If they don't find answers immediately, they'll often return to the search results and visit another site from their original search results. Headlines, subheadings, navigation, bullets and copy are necessary when writing content for the web, making them very important components of a landing page.
Consider improving your landing pages with the following strategies:
- Remain focused -- Don't use landing pages as a brochure. Keep the landing page specific to the topic/product described in the ad.
- Sell -- Landing pages need to ask visitors to buy. Links to place an order must be prominent. Make a conversion the next step in the process. Test promotional offers that encourage visitors to act immediately. Include an 800 number for individuals who want to place an order by phone.
- Eliminate distractions -- Limit use of photos. Remove as many links and navigational elements as possible.
- Synchronize landing pages with ads -- Make sure the content of the ad is present on the landing page. Claims that are made in the ad should be included and expanded on within the landing page.
- Build your brand -- A landing page is an opportunity to link your company with the very specific needs of site visitors. It's an advertising portal where you can associate your brand with their keyword search without interference from anyone else.
By creating an effective landing page, marketers increase conversions and make Google, Yahoo, and MSN campaigns more competitive and profitable.
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Work Smart
Although the search engines are competing for your advertising dollars, it doesn't mean that marketers should elect using one search engine over another. The most successful marketers strive to operate unique MSN, Google and Yahoo campaigns simultaneously – with each of them performing at enviable CPA levels.
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