When it comes to turning traffic into conversions, landing pages can be the most important aspect of a digital campaign. Remember, landing pages are independent pages dedicated for specific traffic (Email marketing, Pay Per Click, Direct, etc) and are designed to drive conversions. For the purposes of this post we are focusing on the relationship between landing pages and PPC campaigns, however, the best practices outlined can be applied to all traffic sources.

There are many different benefits that come from having optimized and targeted landing pages in any campaign, to understand these benefits it’s important to understand Pay-Per-Click campaigns and how landing pages work within those campaigns.

The PPC process can essentially be broken down into two main parts:

  • Generating traffic through the setup of the campaign
  • Converting that traffic at the highest rate possible

When setting up your PPC campaign, the focus is on structuring the ad groups in a way that will produce a high quality score for your identified keywords. Quality Score is Google’s grading system for Adwords performance strength and is determined by three things:

  • Ad relevance
  • Expected click-through rate
  • Landing page experience

This quality score is very important in determining where an ad is placed and how much the click will cost. Following the keyword and ad copy, converting traffic becomes a responsibility of the landing page experience. It is vital that the landing page follows this same pattern of keyword and ad copy to continually communicate the same response to what the initial inquiry was seeking.

Being able to create very specific, targeted ad groups is the power of PPC efforts. Therefore, differentiating the landing page message based on each target is vital to conversions. To help with this, here are some ‘best practice's for creating landing pages for your PPC account and overall paid marketing efforts:

Be Campaign Specific:

We all know companies generally offer a lot of different products/services. However, most PPC searches are based on users looking for something It is much more effective to provide the specific information they are searching for rather than a generic message with conflicting offerings.

Make Them Easy to Modify:

PPC campaigns are constantly being optimized and modified, that’s one of their greatest aspects. Your landing pages need to have the same flexibility in order to incorporate A/B testing ideas and overall optimization strategies.

Focus on Conversions:

Your website’s homepage is typically found organically or through referral traffic and does a great job educating someone on the company, products, etc. PPC traffic is psychologically different than Organic traffic and needs to be treated differently. The window of opportunity to convert PPC traffic is much smaller than that of the Organic Being able to have relevant calls-to-action and information based on the visitor’s intent streamlines their steps to conversion rather than possibly losing them as they browse the website searching for the answers on their own.

Keep it Simple:

Determine the most essential information needed and leave the rest out. The easier it is for the customer to complete the desired action, the higher the conversion rate will be.

Be Benefit Driven:

Once the user has reached your landing page you know they are already interested in your product or service, the goal now is to give them an offer they can’t refuse through promotions or discounts.

Stay Focused:

Include specific search terms from the ad group the brought the user to the Including these keywords not only adds a level of trust for your potential customer but also adds value to the landing page experience, which directly improves the Quality Score in AdWords.

Once you have determined what your marketing goals are, as well as the point of conversion for each goal, you can create a landing page based on the points above to round out your overall PPC structure. Be sure to keep your messaging tightly themed with each corresponding ad group and as you continually monitor and optimize both your ad groups and landing pages you will find which combinations work best to improve your overall performance rates.

By segmenting your potential website customers into their interest areas, you can ensure the first thing they see when they land on your website is highly relevant information which gives you the best chance of turning them into a customer.