The ultimate guide to creating high-converting PPC landing pages

The success of your PPC campaigns heavily depends on one critical element, your landing pages.

A well-crafted PPC landing page can make all the difference between a click and a conversion.

But what makes a landing page truly effective? How can you optimize it to ensure that every click counts?

In this post, we’ll dive deep into the following:

• What is a landing page?
• The anatomy of a landing page
• Why should I use landing pages?
• Landing page best practices
• 5 types of landing pages
• Video landing pages are present and future
• Landing pages & conversion rate optimization
• What is A/B testing?

What is a landing page?

Simply put, a landing page is where a visitor “lands” on your website.

Your landing page serves as a virtual elevator pitch.

A landing page is a web page, created specifically for a marketing or advertising campaign.

It is designed to direct the visitor to take a specific action. For example, make a purchase or fill out a form for more information or give you a call, etc.

Landing pages are generally places where you welcome visitors from search engine advertising, social media, email campaigns, or pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.

The anatomy of a landing page

The anatomy of a landing page refers to the key elements or “building blocks” that make up the page.

Each element plays an important role when it comes to effectiveness in converting visitors into customers.

Above the fold elements

The portion of a web page that is visible instantly to the visitor without scrolling is known as above the fold content.

Below the fold elements

Anything that requires scrolling down to view would be said to be “below the fold.”

The content continues below the “fold,” where the browser window finishes.

‘Above the fold’ was a term used in the early days of publishing to describe anything that appeared on a newspaper’s front page’s top half. The headlines and lead items that appeared above the fold were the most noticeable when newspapers were on a newsstand. Catchy headlines and striking graphics were frequently employed to grab readers’ attention and persuade them to purchase the newspaper.

The phrase stuck around when publishers expanded their businesses online and web design changed in the 1990s.

The below the fold is now used to describe the bottom of a browser window, or roughly 600 pixels from the top of the page, rather than the real fold in a newspaper.

Why are above the fold so important?

Because elements that show above the fold are what a person sees when they first load the page content quality, arrangement and placement play a crucial role.

Users focus their attention mostly on premium real estate, above the fold.

The material you position above the fold should be the content that is most crucial to attaining your company goals due to its high visibility.

To prevent users from leaving and visiting another site, the material must capture their attention right away and provide them with the information they are seeking.

Ads that are placed above the fold are more apparent and bring in more money from advertising than those that are put in less obvious places.

Higher conversion rates are typically achieved for B2B websites by presenting important call-to-actions (CTAs) and other data on product differences above the fold on the homepage or other landing pages.

The most important elements of the landing page:

Click on the pulsing plus to read the explanation.
For more information on the section click on the title.

Let’s examine the landing page element in detail below.

How to write an effective headline for a landing page?

Writing an effective headline for a landing page is crucial. Because the headline is the first thing that visitors see when they arrive on the page.

A strong headline can help to capture the attention of the visitor and persuade them to take the desired action.

The best headline will explain the value you provide in plain and simple wording.

Keep it short and to the point

Aim for a headline that is no more than a few words long.

The shorter and more concise it is, the more likely it is to grab the attention of the visitor.

Address the customer’s biggest objection

To address objections is to ensure your headline solves visitors’ issues in a positive way, before the actual objection.

By handling objections in the headline, you not only address these issues up front but also demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the visitor’s challenges.

Use numbers

It’s proven numbers in headlines engage more readers.

By “engage,” I mean that a user will move beyond the headline and read the rest of the content on the landing page.

Include a benefit or value proposition

The headline should clearly communicate the value that the visitor will receive by taking the desired action.

Use keywords

Include relevant keywords in the headline to help improve the page’s search engine optimization (SEO).

Make sure your headline is H1

The H1 tag is an HTML heading that’s most commonly used to mark up a landing page title.

H1 is important because it’s one of the first and most important things for search engine crawlers.

Test different headlines

Don’t be afraid to test out different headlines to see which ones are most effective at driving conversions.

Testing different headlines or any other elements is done using A/B testing. We’ll go through A/B testing of landing pages in a second. Keep reading.

Subheadings

Hook them with headlines, persuade them with subheadings

They are a fantastic method to support your headline and add more details about your offer.

The headline is usually the first thing people read, so they must both support it and persuade readers to continue reading the page.

As long as they don’t detract from the headline, you may also use many subheadings to break up the content on your landing page.

It provides additional context and information about the value proposition.

When writing a subheading don’t be afraid to get more specific.

You can encourage people to read further down your page by emphasizing how excellent your offer is.

Showing a price on the worth of your offer, one that ought to be more than what you’re charging.

Further on, you can provide testimonials in one subheading, to demonstrate why other individuals found your offer to be so valuable

Visuals transfer the message in a split second.

Check out 4 visual examples, can you guess what each website is about?

Humans absorb information through images much faster than through words.

The best visual you could provide to users is your product in use.

While it’s tempting to include as much text as possible on your landing page, people simply do not have the time to read long paragraphs.

Use visuals such as illustrations, images, or videos to tell the majority of your tale instead of filling your pages with text.

If you install heatmap software, such as HotJar, you will probably notice that the portions of your website that your users prefer to concentrate on tend to have more visuals.

Therefore, choosing the appropriate images for your landing page becomes crucial.

Make sure visuals and text provide a great user experience

Check out different devices and various screen sizes to make sure that images and texts are working together rather than against each other.

Make sure your headline and subheadline are clearly readable on every device.

The “How it works” section

This part of a landing page is typically used to explain the process of using the product or service that the website offers.

This section should be clear, concise, and easy to understand so that visitors can quickly grasp how the product or service can benefit them.

It often includes a step-by-step breakdown of the process, with images or illustrations to help make the information more visually appealing and easier to understand.

Benefits and features

Visitors scrolled down and entered the “beloved the fold” section.

Now is the time to explain your offer in more detail.

Here is an example of the benefits and features section:

The “benefits and features” might be viewed as a subtle product presentation, but don’t talk only about the product, make sure you address the problems your product solves.

Make sure you address the biggest objections in this section.

If you’ve spent any time in the marketing community, you’ve probably heard the adage “Sell the benefits, not the features.”

By using this old marketing trick, show the visitors exactly how the features solve a problem or provide the desired benefit.

To better explain the end result, describe how can visitors get from point A to point B.

Social proof (testimonials, reviews, case studies, etc.)

Sales is all about building trust.

To build trust and credibility use as many social proofs as possible, such as customer testimonials, reviews, or case studies.

Including testimonials from actual customers who have benefited from your product is one of the best methods to convey a story on your landing page.

How to make a great testimonial?

Describe their particular circumstance, the issue they encountered, and how they solved it.

By sharing client success stories, you hope to motivate site visitors. Because these are actual people discussing their stories, your visitors ought to be able to connect.

See an example of video testimonials below:

People are more likely to purchase a product that others are already purchasing.

Try to add as much as possible social proof.

Call to action (CTA)

Your CTA should make taking the next step easy.

The call to action (CTA) has a single goal, to make visitors take the first step toward becoming customers.

Try to avoid plain CTAs like Get Started, Sign Up, Start Trial, etc. Buttons like these focus on “action”.

Rather than that, focus on the value your solution provides.

Make CTAs original.

Use CTAs to handle the objections.

Make sure your CTAs are big and visible.

For example, look at Lucky Orange CTA, which states “Start My Free Trail”, which has only one field, and there is “Free 7-day trial. No credit card required.”

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

The Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section is where you respond to frequently asked questions, objections, and concerns from visitors.

It is the go-to place for particular information on your offer or your company’s operations.

When used properly, your FAQ section may aid customers at all phases of the purchasing process, whether they’re conducting research and wondering where you get your items from or a current customer looking for help fixing a problem.

By using the best design standards for FAQs, you can make something original.

The introduction of the FAQ section reduces the overall anxiety of online shopping, which goes a long way toward convincing potential customers to buy from you.

Take a look at how HubSpot FAQ helps convert visitors into customers by addressing the most common questions:

Form

Most common are 5 types of forms:

• Contact – the “contact us” form
• Lead generation
• Customer feedback
• Online quote
• Order

Having a form on the landing page can be very beneficial because it can remove one step in the conversion process.

Instead of forcing visitors to click on CTA and then go to a new page with the form, you can them the form directly.

The form itself can be a deal breaker.

I know it’s tempting to collect as much information as possible about your visitors so you can “qualify” them better but try not to over complicated your forms with too many fields.

Keep the form simple.

Provide clearly visible instructions on how to fill out the fields on the form.

Why should I use landing pages?

The landing pages are the best option for making a connection with your audience.

With landing pages, you can reemphasize offers from the ads.

Targeted messaging

Landing pages will help you create and adjust your messaging depending on the audience source.

You can serve one page for visitors coming from Facebook and a completely different one for visitors coming from Google Ads.

Landing pages allow you to create a specific, targeted message for a particular campaign or offer.

This allows you to tailor the messaging to your audience and increase the chances that they will take the desired action.

Increased conversions

By providing a clear, focused call to action and limiting distractions, landing pages can help increase the conversion rate of your campaign.

Easier to track and analyze

Landing pages are self-contained and separate from your main website, which makes it easier to track and analyze the performance of your campaigns.

Google Analytics introduced a new landing page report to make it easier to analyze the performance of each landing page separately.

If you find that visitors are leaving your landing page without interaction then you definitely want to check out our blog post on 17 Reasons that can cause a low website engagement rate.

Awesome for PPC

PPC campaigns, such as those on Google AdWords, often perform better when they are directed to a specific landing page rather than a general website page.

This is because the landing page is designed specifically for the campaign, whereas a general website page may have multiple purposes and offers.

Overall, landing pages can be an effective tool for increasing the effectiveness of your marketing and advertising campaigns and improving the ROI of your marketing efforts.

Landing page best practices

Keep it simple

Landing pages should be focused on a single call to action, so it’s important to keep the design and messaging simple and uncluttered.

Avoid including too many links or distractions that could distract the visitor from the main message.

Use a clear and compelling copy

The copy is the first thing that visitors will see on your landing page, so it’s important to make it catchy and attention-grabbing.

Use strong yet simple, value-oriented language and make it clear what the offer is and what the visitor will get by taking the desired action.

Fast loading

Every page on a website has numerous components, including both the elements that visitors see and numerous more that are hidden from view.

Each element on your page must load in order for a visitor to see it, whether they arrived via organic search results or a paid ad click.

All these elements add to the duration of the page load.

If your landing page is slow finding the exact cause might be difficult because there are so many elements and variables at play.

It doesn’t matter how appealing your product is or how beautifully designed your sites are if your landing pages are slow.

If a user leaves a page prematurely due to a slow page load, they do not convert!

Make the call to action prominent

The call to action (CTA) is the most important part of the landing page, as it’s what you want the visitor to do.

Make sure the CTA button is easy to see and stands out from the rest of the page.

Use strong, value-oriented language and make it clear what the visitor will get by clicking the button.

Make it very easy to convert

Let’s face it, Life is busy!

It’s possible that your visitors won’t have much time to figure out how to convert or fill out forms.

Your potential customers’ enthusiasm will quickly wane if you make the conversion procedure excessively difficult and drawn out.

If they see an overwhelming amount of text and form fields, they might not even bother to read the form at all!

Your form’s conversion rate will be higher the fewer fields it has.

That’s all there is to it.

It’s okay if you need to gather extra details like dates or phone numbers.

But generally speaking, you should only request the data you actually require.

If you want more information later on in the relationship, you may always ask them.

Every landing page should have a specific goal

A landing page should be designed to persuade the visitor to take a specific action, such as filling out a form, signing up for a newsletter, or making a purchase.

Landing pages are different from other pages on a website in that they are designed with a single focus or goal in mind.

You should strip any distractions, such as navigation links or various calls to action that lead to other pages on the website.

This helps to keep the visitor focused on the intended goal of the page.

A landing page should be targeted to a specific audience and include a clear and compelling value proposition.

It should as well include strong and relevant supporting information, such as testimonials, case studies, or product demos.

Are all the web pages considered landing pages?

Nope, other pages on a website, such as a homepage, may have multiple goals and may not be specifically designed to drive a specific action.

While these pages may still have calls to action, they are not necessarily designed with the sole purpose of converting visitors into customers.

5 types of PPC landing pages

There are 5 different types of landing pages that businesses and marketers can use to achieve their goals.

Here is the full list of 5 different types of landing pages:

1. Lead generation landing pages

These pages are designed to capture information from visitors in exchange for an offer, such as a whitepaper or webinar.

They often include forms that visitors can fill out to request more information or sign up for a newsletter.

2. Click-through landing pages

These pages are designed to persuade the visitor to click through to another page or website.

They often include calls to action and compelling copy to encourage the visitor to take the desired action.

3. Product landing pages

These pages are designed to showcase a specific product and persuade the visitor to make a purchase.

They often include detailed product information, images, and calls to action.

4. Event landing pages

These pages are used to promote and register visitors for events, such as webinars or conferences.

They may include event details, registration forms, and calls to action.

Check out an event landing page example here: https://affiliateworldconferences.com/europe

5. Service landing pages

These pages are used to promote services and persuade visitors to sign up or request more information.

They may include information about the service, pricing, and calls to action.

Importance of understanding different types of landing pages

By understanding the different types of landing pages and which ones are most appropriate for their goals, businesses and marketers can effectively target and convert their website visitors.

Videos on the landing pages are present and future

Videos on landing pages can have several benefits for your marketing efforts.

Improved engagement rate

Video is a powerful medium that can capture the attention of visitors and keep them engaged.

By using video on your landing page, you can increase the amount of time that visitors spend on the page, which can improve the chances that they will take the desired action.

Studies have shown that landing pages with video tend to have higher conversion rates than those without.

Improved conversion rates

This is likely because video can effectively communicate complex information and create an emotional connection with the viewer, which can help persuade them to take action.

Increased understanding

Video can be a more effective way of communicating information than text alone, as it can show rather than just tell.

This can help visitors better understand and retain the information presented on the landing page.

Improved SEO

Video can improve the search engine ranking of your landing page, as Google and other search engines tend to favor pages with multimedia content.

Increased shareability

Video is more likely to be shared on social media and other platforms, which can help increase the reach and visibility of your landing page.

Overall, using video on landing pages can be an effective way to increase engagement, improve conversion rates, and communicate complex information to visitors.

Just be sure to use high-quality video that is relevant to the offer and adds value to the visitor’s experience.

Conversion rate optimization of landing pages

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the process of improving the performance of a landing page in order to increase the number of visitors who take the desired action, such as making a purchase or filling out a form.

Conversion rate optimization allows you to extract more value from the visitors and users you already have.

It enables you to reduce your customer acquisition expenditures.

You can boost revenue per visitor, attract more clients, and expand your business by optimizing your conversion rate.

How to calculate the conversion rate?

The conversion rate of a landing page is calculated by dividing the number of conversions by the total number of landing page visitors.

Conversion rate calculation formula

For instance, If you had 50 conversions out of 1,000 landing page visitors. Your conversion rate would be 5%

Let’s take a look at an example of conversion rate optimization.

If it receives 2,000 visitors per month on your landing page.

And the landing page produces 200 conversions per month.

The landing page conversion rate is 10%.

Focusing on conversion rate optimization and increasing the conversion rate to 15% will result in a 50% jump in new leads, resulting in 300 new leads per month.

One of the best conversion rate optimization techniques is called A/B testing. Let’s examine it below.

What Is A/B Testing?

A/B testing, commonly referred to as split testing or bucket testing, serves different two variations of the landing page to see which one performs better.

In a nutshell, A/B testing is an experiment in which consumers have randomly presented two or more variations of a landing page.

By analyzing metrics, we can easily ascertain which variation performs better for a specific conversion objective.

With A/B testing you can gather information about the effects of changes on your landing page.

This allows you to ask targeted questions regarding the changes.

A/B testing removes the element of guesswork from conversation rate optimization and makes data-driven decisions possible.

Changing the tone of company dialogues from “we believe” to “we know.”

You can make sure that every adjustment has a good effect by tracking how it affects your stats.

Here’s how A/B testing works:

A/B testing involves altering a landing page to produce a second version of the same page.

A single headline, button, or a complete page redesign can all be included in this modification.

Then, half of your traffic sees the page’s updated version and the other half sees the original version.

As visitors are served either old or new versions their engagement in each event is measured, gathered, and evaluated using website analytics.

You can then determine whether changing the experience had a positive or negative impact on visitor behavior.

Why you should A/B test?

A/B testing enables people, groups, and businesses to modify their user experiences with care while gathering data on the outcomes.

They can utilize this to develop hypotheses and understand how specific aspects of their experiences affect user behavior.

A/B test can prove the false belief that a particular experience is the optimal one for achieving a particular goal.

A/B testing can be used to progressively improve a particular experience or a single goal like conversion rate rather than merely addressing a one-time query or resolving a dispute.

5 steps on how to run an effective A/B testing campaign

1. Identify the goal of the test

The first step in A/B testing is to identify the goal of the test.

This could be anything from increasing conversions to improving user engagement.

2. Create a hypothesis

Based on your goal, create a hypothesis about what you expect to happen as a result of the test.

For example, your hypothesis might be that changing the copy of the call-to-action button will increase conversions.

Set up the test

Set up the test by creating two versions of the landing page that you want to test.

The version without any changes is also called the “control”.

The new version is referred to as a “variation”.

You can also set up multiple “variations” to test.

Make the envisioned changes on the variations.

Limit the time frame of a test. For example, run the test for a month.

Run the test

Once the test is set up, traffic will be randomly divided between the control and variation.

This allows you to see which version performs better in terms of your goal.

Analyze the results

After the test has been running for a sufficient amount of time, analyze the results to see which version performed better.

Focus on key metrics that you wanted to test, for instance, an increase in conversion rate.

If the variation outperformed the control.

You can make the “variation” changes permanent to your landing page.

Conclusion

In conclusion, landing pages are standalone web pages that are designed specifically for a marketing or advertising campaign.

They are designed to direct the visitor to take a specific action, such as making a purchase or filling out a form for more information.

Landing pages offer several benefits, including targeted messaging, increased conversions, easier tracking and analysis, and better performance for paid advertising campaigns.

To create effective landing pages, it’s important to keep the design and messaging simple, use a clear and compelling headline, include social proof, make the call to action prominent, use images and videos, and continuously test and optimize the page.

By following these best practices, you can increase the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and improve the ROI of your campaigns.