Creating your Google Ads is just half the battle. You’ve picked great visuals, carefully crafted some copy, targeted the right audience, and utilised the right keywords. You’re ready to launch, but have you forgotten something? What happens when a user clicks on your ad? What page do they get to on your website? Have you given the same care and attention to that landing page as you have to your advert?
It’s no use creating an excellent ad if users then drop off at the next step because the subsequent landing page is badly written, doesn’t meet expectations, or is unengaging.
Before you launch, make sure you’ve created a high-converting landing page to complement your ad. Here’s how.
Table of Contents
What is an Ads Landing Page?
A landing page is the first page a user sees when they enter your site. It can be any page on your site, which means you should think carefully about first impressions for all of your pages, not just your homepage.
When creating ads on Google, you can choose the landing page during set-up, and it’s worthwhile creating a page specifically for an ad campaign, rather than relying on an existing page.
By creating a specific landing page, you can really focus on what the audience is likely to see, and what you want to promote or sell.
Creating a High-Converting Landing Page
Purpose and User Journey
Firstly, you need to understand the purpose of the page, and where you user is in the sales journey. You will have hopefully considered all this already while creating your ads.
These two elements will determine how you lay out your page, what elements you use in the design, and what kind of content you include. For example, if users landing on this page are completely new to your business, you will need very persuasive copy and lots of trust-building to encourage them to buy straight away. Or your goal might instead be to have them sign up to a mailing list so you can continue nurturing them.
If, on the other hand, are you targeting users who have used your service before, or who are already somewhat familiar with your business? In which case, your page will probably need to focus less on trust-building content and more on responding to those final doubts that prevent the user from taking the next step.
Understanding your audience also allows you to use demographic assumptions, the right tone, and visuals that resonate.
Headers and Copy
Now that you know who you’re targeting, you can start developing the written content of your website.
It’s helpful to start with headers. These will determine the structure of your landing page and will guide your content. Make use of any keyword research you did for your ads and use this to address the main pain points of your audience.
Headers should be clear, concise and engaging. Your main page header will be one of the first things users notice so it needs to tell them what they can expect on the page and encourage them to read more. An exciting ad headline followed by a dull landing page header can turn people away.
While your landing page copy doesn’t have to be exactly the same as your ad copy, it should be similar enough that users don’t feel lost or cheated when they click through. Your ad copy has promised something and your landing page needs to deliver on that promise.
Finally, make sure that your grammar and spelling is perfect. Poorly written copy and frequent errors look unprofessional and reduce trust, resulting in fewer conversions.
Call to Action (CTA)
A Call To Action guides users on what to do next. The wording, placement and design of your CTA can make or break an ads landing page.
A Call to Action is usually a button, possibly accompanied by some additional text. It needs to stand out and really draw the eye of a user so there’s no doubt about where it is or what the next step is. Try incorporating keywords that are important to the user and that will further encourage them to click. You can also use mini animations to draw attention.
Trust Indicators
Trust is an important element of the user journey, and without it you won’t get any conversions. If you saw someone on a street corner selling watches from inside a trench coat, you’d be much less likely to buy than if you walked into a clean shop full of smiling customers.
Depending on the purpose of your landing page, trust may need to be built very quickly there and then, or it may be one step in a longer process where you continue to nurture (or have been nurturing) your users.
Trust can be built in all sorts of ways, including:
- Testimonials from real users, provided as text or video
- Clear and helpful information that demonstrates your expertise
- Images and videos that show the real product from all different angles and in use, or which show the results of using the service.
A landing page has limited space, so pick what’s going to be most impactful for your particular goal.
Images, Video and Graphics
Pages without visual elements are boring and will lose interest pretty quickly. No one wants to be faced with a wall of text.
Including images, video and graphics on your landing page not only makes it more engaging, it allows you to demonstrate your product or service more effectively. Think about including visuals such as:
- Product images from all angles and showing all features of an item
- Customers speaking about their experience
- Team members answering FAQs
- Graphics that represent your branding
Think about how you’ll balance these elements with your written copy – you don’t want to overdo one or the other. Any elements you use should complement each other.
Also consider the effect visual elements have on loading speed and make sure you optimise them for best results.
Placement and Layout
Landing pages generally shouldn’t be excessively long. Ideally, you want to get your message across quickly and succinctly.
The above-the-fold section is the key area of your layout. This is the part of the screen users see before they scroll and it’s where you should display your most important information like a heading and Call to Action. This section also needs to be the most engaging so that users want to scroll. Remember that above-the-fold will look different on mobile, desktop and tablets. A mobile-first design will create a good experience for all users.
You should also consider the overall layout. A good, general layout is:
- A hero section above-the-fold
- Benefits and results
- Social proof like testimonials
- Clear Call to Action
This won’t work for everyone – for example, some businesses might find that social proof is better to have above the benefits – but it’s a good layout to begin with.
Design and Branding
If someone knows your brand, clicks on an ad, and comes across a page that’s completely out of keeping with what they know of you, they’ll be confused, lose some trust, and may not buy from you. Your landing page needs to resonate with the rest of your business. That means it follows your branding styles, uses brand colours, and reflects the business as a whole. This is especially important for building trust and for improving brand recognition.
Testing
There is no one-size-fits-all solution to a high-converting landing page and, just like the ads themselves, testing can help you identify what works and what doesn’t.
A/B testing can help you find different wordings, layouts and images that work better or worse. Try an initial landing page for a while (the exact length will depend on how much traffic you receive). Then, change a small element to see which is more successful. You can run AB testing at the same time (by using two different landing pages on your ads) or in succession.
Remember, when it comes to testing, adjust only one small element at a time. Redesigning the whole page won’t tell you which elements are successful. Try just changing the wording on a CTA button, or adjusting a single headline, or swapping out one particular image. You can gradually fine-tune everything until you get the best combination.
Conclusion
Without an effective landing page, your Google ads could be money down the drain. When a user clicks on an ad, you want to provide them with a page that resonates with the ad, provides more useful information, and builds trust to a point that they take a desired action. Finding the right balance of copy, design elements and CTAs can create a powerful and effective landing page that converts well.
