An Introduction to Landing Pages and PPC
This post will discuss the importance of landing pages when running a targeted PPC campaign.
An Introduction to Landing Pages and PPC
If you are new to Pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns using Google Ads or Facebook Ads, researching landing pages is the perfect research project to learn PPC. Let’s dive into this topic by first going over some PPC lingo and definitions.
Landing Pages
PPC landing pages are a unique type of webpage that is used for paid advertisement campaigns. Follow this link to see a Metrix Digital landing page design in action.
PPC Ads
PPC is a type of advertisement where people searching for a topic or service are presented with ads at the top of the search engine results page (SERP). If someone clicks on an ad, the person running the ad is charged for that “click” or exposure.
Impressions
An impression is logged anytime an ad is triggered and displayed in the SERP.
Clicks
Clicks are counted any time the ad is clicked. This is an important variable because you get charged for every ad click.
Click-Through Rate
Click-through rate is a ratio of the number of ad clicks per the number of impressions. Let’s use the keyword “cookie shop near me” as an example. If the ad was triggered 500 times that means the keyword “cookie shop near me” had 500 impressions. Of those 500 impressions, the ad was clicked on 48 times. The CTR formula is clicks divided by impressions times 100. Take 48 clicks divided by 500 impressions and you have a CTR of 9.6 percent.
Cost-Per-Click (CPC)
CPC is the amount Google charges each time an ad is clicked. This value is calculated by Google and is related to the popularity of the keyword. You can set values for the maximum amount you would like to bid on an ad.
Conversions
A conversion is an action a user takes while viewing your advertisement. A conversion could be clicking on a phone icon and calling your office, signing up for an email newsletter, or filling out a contact us form. When designing landing pages, design them to convert!
Conversion Rate
Conversion rates are defined as the number of desired actions taken on your landing page divided by the number of clicks on the ad. If your ad gets 100 clicks, and 5 of those clicks lead to a phone call or form submission, your conversion rate is 5%
Call to Action
Call to action is a section on your page that prompts the user to complete an action. Calling your office, filling out a form, or newsletter signups great call to action sections that should be strategically placed on your landing page.
My Ad Was Clicked,Now What?
After someone decides to click on your ad, they are directed to the advertisement’s landing page. A high-converting PPC campaign won’t direct the searcher to any old web page. The ad should direct them to a carefully crafted landing page that will showcase your product or service.
A landing page’s design has a specific goal in mind. The landing page should contain multiple call-to-action sections. It should be visually pleasing and present a specific message to the audience. This message should relate directly to the ad campaign and the keywords used to trigger it.
“Landing Page Experience is Google Ads’ measure of how well you website gives people what they’re looking for when they click your ad”
Landing Pages are Great Marketing Tools
I often use the analogy that a landing page is like a brochure or a billboard for a specific service you provide. The number one goal of the landing page is to convince the searcher to interact with your call-to-action sections. A contact form or button to call your office is a great call to action item to convert that searcher into a lead.
Landing pages can be studied with A/B testing. You can create a more efficient and powerful PPC campaign by testing different landing page designs and picking the page that converts the most clicks into leads. A/B testing is not as hard as it sounds. To get started testing, create two PPC landing pages. The first page can be flashy with animated headings and hover effects. Maybe this page is 500 words in length with 6 key sections? The second landing page can be minimal and precise. This page could utilize more white space and only be 200 words in length. Perhaps this landing page only has 3 sections. The goal is to track the key metrics we talked about in the introduction. It will be clear after a few weeks which landing page is superior at lead generation.
You can also study landing page copy. Words unmistakably matter to potential clients. You can track which page is producing more conversions. Once you have gathered the data for each test, combine the best-looking landing page and the highest converting landing page copy to produce a highly effective PPC landing page! I would suggest you continue tracking the data to see the results of all your hard work and A/B testing!
Why Invest in Landing Pages?
So why use landing pages when I already have a page on my website for this particular topic or service?
Here is our answer:
- greater control of the content, message, and user experience
- keeps the searcher focused on the topic of the advertisement
- stops the searcher from clicking off the page
- will increase conversions (very important for keywords with high cost per click bids)
- provides data on which PPC ad and landing page combination are performing best for each PPC campaign.
- allows for specific conversion actions like forms or phone calls
Landing Page Pro Tips
By designing a custom landing page for an ad group or cam, you can and should remove the menu to keep the person on the page. Attention span is short when browsing the internet and you want the user to stay focused on the ad’s message and purpose. You also may want to remove any links back to your website. A/B testing coupled with Google tag tracking could show some valuable insights here.
Attention span is short when browsing the internet and you want the user to stay focused on the ad’s message and purpose. If you give the user the ability to click out of the ad, they probably will. Once this happens, the odds of converting the searcher into a lead are greatly diminished. The highly sought-after “conversion” is what we are after when we build customized landing pages.
Keyword case Study and SERP Result
The image below is a SERP result for the keyword “Immigration lawyer Houston”. The results show the Google local service ads at the top, followed by the map pack, and the search ads will follow after the map. The map is displaying Google My Business locations for businesses that match the keyword term in your local area. If someone clicks on one of the ads, the PPC kicks in and the campaign is charged for the click.
Keyword Research
We have to talk about keyword research when we talk about PPC. The next image will show the average monthly searches for “Immigration lawyer Houston.” Google’s keyword planner will also display the keyword competition and top-of-page bid high and low ranges. No matter how awesome your landing page design is, the PPC campaign performance will suffer if you don’t spend a little bit of time on keyword research. The intent is to find the best keyword to trigger your advertisement. Once you know the proper keywords, your landing page will do its thing!
PPC Landing Page Conclusion
To close out this post, I want you to know that building a landing page is not complex or intimidating. I love to design landing pages because it allows me to explore new website design ideas, play around with cool fonts, and discover new images and graphics. Keeping up with design trends also helps to keep my page designs fresh. I want to show the world exactly what my company is capable of!
I also love data and analytics. Google Ads gives me all the data I could ask for to analyze which landing page is most effective. I hope you get inspired and run your own A/B tests on your landing pages. You might be surprised to see which message or design resonates most with the searcher.
If people are taking the time to click my ad, I want to showcase exactly what my business has to offer. If you take the time to design an awesome landing page, the prospective client will see that you care about your business. If they feel like your services align with their goals and dreams, they will fill out that form or make that call to speak directly with you!
As always, never forget to track the Metrix!
-John
