Guest post by Degree Jungle
In 2011, Google made $37.9 billion in revenue. A staggering 96% of that revenue came from their advertising spend. Top spenders with the search engine giant were home improvement company Lowes and global retailer Amazon, spending $59.1 and $55.2 million respectively on extensive PPC (pay-per-click) advertising. Estimates vary as to how many clicks these figures represent, but what is clear is that the average cost per click to advertisers is steadily increasing.
Whether advertising on Google or other ad networks like Microsoft AdCenter, PPC campaigns have been known to generate significant return on investment when conducted correctly. Although there are many factors to creating a successful PPC campaign, one way to facilitate a positive outcome and convert clicks into customers is to devote some time to perfecting your PPC landing page.
Five Essential Tips to Maximize Success Using PPC Landing Pages
1. Don’t drive your PPC traffic to your homepage: While your homepage may boast a delightful design, it will typically display more information that you need to convey at this point. Creating a focused PPC landing page with a targeted call to action will boost your conversion rates. It will also make your PPC efforts easier to analyze since you won’t have to track visitors interactions with more than one part of your site. Although it should be clear who you are, the best PPC landing page will not display your regular site navigation links. The goal is to encourage visitors to convert there and then. Directing them to another part of the site won’t help you achieve this primary goal.
2. Focus on content: Many PPC landing pages require the user to read excessive copy before ever presenting them with the option to purchase. Text on a website is read differently to printed media in that it is scanned as opposed to read word for word. Devote some time to creating brief but compelling content. Catch the attention of your readers with attractive headlines and use bullet points to make it easier for them to digest your message. Your call to action, the invitation to users to convert, should be clear and displayed above the fold where it can be seen without the need to scroll.
3. Inspire confidence in potential customers: An effective PPC landing page will include several trust factors. Include elements such as product reviews, client testimonials, SSL certificates and guarantee seals to build trust and assure your visitors that they are dealing with a reputable company. Dot the i’s and cross the t’s when it comes to paying attention to detail. Be upfront about who you are and make sure your contact details are clearly displayed. Consider whether you would buy from your page or, even better, ask someone impartial to give their opinion as to whether your landing page appears trustworthy.
4. Make capturing customer data simple: People tend to read landing pages by scanning the headlines then moving their eyes to the right. It makes sense to cater for that expected behavior by placing your conversion form or shopping cart icon on the right-hand side of the page. Mark required fields with an asterisk and provide an example of how things like postcodes, dates of birth and phone numbers should be entered. Unless you specifically need a piece of data from a customer, don’t ask for it. If you never telephone your customers, don’t bother asking for their number. People are wary of giving out excessive personal information on the Internet. Stick to asking for the absolutely essential data only and you won’t funnel out leads unnecessarily. You can pad out their profile later as you build an ongoing relationship.
5. Keep an eye on your quality score: While Google has always used some form of quality score to rank ads in their network, in October 2011 it announced a major update to its AdWords algorithm that significantly affected the way that PPC landing pages are used in advertising campaigns. The quality score takes into account three elements:
- The historical performance of the ad
- The relevance of the ad copy to the search query
- The overall quality of the PPC landing page
Google rates functionality and usefulness highly and rewards marketers who meet the criteria with higher-ranked ad placements for a lower bid cost. With this in mind, it’s worth making sure that your PPC landing page is relevant, easy to navigate and offers a useful experience to visitors.
Put these pointers into action to create effective PPC landing pages and maximize your conversion rate. PPC campaigns are best thought of as an iterative process. Results should be continually monitored throughout the campaign so you can see what is working and what isn’t. Don’t be afraid to test and tweak your approach. By doing so, you might just see even better results. On the other hand, if it isn’t broke, roll with it and watch your clicks convert to customers with ease.
Linda Forshaw is a Business Information Systems graduate from Liverpool. She is a contributor to Degree Jungle and its Facebook page and published author who specializes in social media, technology and entrepreneurship.
Photo courtesy of Flickr user oatsy40
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You state: ”
Estimates vary as to how many clicks these figures represent, but what is clear is that the average cost per click to advertisers is steadily increasing”, but it’s been pretty well documented that average cost per click is actually on the decline -
http://www.seroundtable.com/goog-earnings-q12012-15016.html.
Interesting Godless. May be that ave CPC is decreasing because marketers are getting better at bidding on a longer and longer tail of keywords (and thus more less competitive keywords). For me, its always been the short tail, high volume keywords keep getting more and more expensive to bid on as more and more sites join Adwords.