Landing Page Best Practices

What Is A Landing Page?

With all the hype around landing pages, you know they’re important and are supposed to increase ROI, but what exactly are they?

In short, a landing page is a stand-alone web page designed for visitors to take a specific action. Typically, they are focused on a single promotion or call to action, such as “Download Your Free E-Book” or “Reserve A Voucher For A Free Trial,” and coincide with targeted marketing strategies.

For example, if you’re running a Facebook ad promoting your “7 Ways To Stay Healthy This Holiday Season” cheat sheet, you’d want to direct traffic to a landing page specifically about your cheat sheet.

If you simply linked these ads back to your website homepage, people would be confused and most likely click off your site resulting in high bounce rates – and most importantly – wasted advertising dollars!

Benefits Of Using A Landing Page

Since there are fewer distractions on a landing page (such as a website menu bar) and it is clear what action you want people to take, conversion rates tend to be significantly higher. According to a research study by Omniture, using a landing page in advertising campaigns increases conversion rates by 25%!

With higher conversion rates and increased lead generation, this results in better use of your advertising dollars and a higher ROI. For the same budget, you can get DOUBLE the leads by having a lower cost-per-conversion.

Plus, since landing pages are focused on one call-to-action, this makes measuring performance that much simpler. If the new campaign you launched promoting a free workout video in exchange for someone’s contact information is not generating leads, but all of your ads are receiving high CTRs, you know you need to make some adjustments on your landing page.

Best Practices For Creating An Effective Landing Page

Now that we’ve determined the need for landing pages and why they are beneficial, the next step is creating one that actually works!

Here are a few of our best practices for creating highly converting pages:

Bait or Promotion

The majority of landing pages are built to supplement a pay-per-click advertising campaign. This means that an advertiser’s promotion or “bait” must be eye-catching in order for people to take action.

Think about it this way, when you open your Facebook app you’re looking to catch up with family and friends or maybe check out the day’s trending memes. You’re not looking to make a purchase off of a Facebook ad.

So, what makes for an attention-grabbing offer?

Since the majority of people aren’t ready to make a large, high-ticket item purchase when they log in to Facebook or open an email newsletter, anything $21 or less is a great starting point. The lower barrier to entry the better!

Headline

Just like an engaging offer, you need a headline that will grab attention. This is one of the most important elements on your page since it’s what potential customers see first.

However, this doesn’t mean you need to be an award-winning copywriter to create a headline that converts. Check out WordStream’s list of five proven conversion-boosting headline formulas that can help provide some inspiration!

Copy & Call To Action

Landing pages are designed around a specific call to action or promotion. Make sure all your copy aligns with what you are offering so there is no confusion when someone visits your page. On the same note, ensure your call-to-action button is clear so your audience knows exactly what you want them to do.

Additionally, in order for your campaign to be effective, you need to really understand your target audience. What are their needs, pain points, etc. and how can your product or service help them? Write copy that will appeal to their emotions and shows you can relate to their situation. Adding customer testimonials are very effective as well!

Lead Form

It is crucial to have a clear, simple lead form that’s easy for potential customers to navigate.

Also, make sure to only ask for necessary information. The more fields you require, the lower your conversion rates will be.

A/B Testing And Monitoring Results

Congratulations, you have created a landing page!

Now what?

In order to get the highest ROI possible, you should always be A/B testing your landing page and marketing campaigns.

There is no way to tell which headline, CTA button or promotion will work best until you test them against other variants. Even making a small change to your CTA button, from “Claim Your E-Book” to “Claim Your FREE E-Book” can make all the difference!