Online Marketing

Landing Page Optimisation

Here are some quick tip to optimising landing pages for conversion and improve the performance of your paid ad campaigns.

Before we look at some quick fire tips let’s consider the argument of whether landing pages should short and punchy (short form) or long and informative (long form).

On the short form side you will commonly hear that long landing pages don’t sell. We consider this to be a myth, they can actually be very effective. Look at Amazon the pages go on and on but they provide all the information you could ever want from testimonials to additional products, specifications etc.

On the long form side you will be told that short pages don’t give enough information to make a decision and therefore these pages perform poorly. We consider this to also be a myth/ incorrect.

In our experience we tend to find that long form landing pages work betters for products or services that are more complicated or perhaps newer to the market and the customer wants as much information as possible to build trust with regards to sign up or purchase.

Similarly the short form landing pages work better for products that are familiar or easier to understand e.g. a baby stair gate, iPhone etc. and have a bigger brand awareness.

Below, we’ve listed a few more guidelines to consider when optimizing and testing your landing pages.

Button Wording
Testing the wording on buttons can make a big difference e.g More Details, Buy Now, GO Etc.

Button Size
It’s always a good idea to test the size of your buttons – too big and they can look nasty and
unprofessional or too salesey, too small and the visitor can miss them and move on.

Colours of your buttons
Different colours can have different effects on visitors and much has been written with regards to peoples relationships to different colours. So consider this point when creating your buttons.

Position of buttons
Make sure they are clearly positioned on your page maybe have arrows from your key point text pointing to the next step/ button.

If you have a long page then add the button in a variety of places to save scrolling all the way to the top to place that order.

Test existing landing pages against direct response ones
Try a page with no other navigation other than the one activity of Buy or Go alongside your normal pages that have loads of routes to take.

Homepage Traffic
Don’t be scared of sending people to your home page rather than a segmented landing page. If you have a strong home page that clearly provides the information for the product or service then definitely test against that as well. You may be surprised!

Test out price points
Why not consider trying to create pages with a variety of price options, all good shops and sites do this. That way you can grab the premium purchase as well as the bargain basement ones. Having 2 or 3 price points means you can present your product to the full spectrum of visitors and budgets. Similarly highlight your top sellers. People like to be shown which is the top seller or most popular package amongst the range of options.

Reviews/ Testimonials
Real reviews or ratings are very popular and really influence people. So adding independent channels really helps conversions.

Play around with layout
Fiddle around with the layout of your page and bin some content that may be waffle or surplus to requirement. Single content columns with right hand information bars are very popular as people are used to them and know where to look. Again think Amazon, people don’t mind scrolling through clearly labelled and split information if it’s relevant and punchy.

Use high res clear images
A powerful image or clear image of the product is always a plus. Don’t slow your page down though!

Provide as much detail as you can
More information on the product the better – specifications, images from all sides, feedback, videos etc. Don’t leave the visitor wondering or having unanswered questions.

Keep it simple
Explain your product or services in laymen’s terms and don’t bamboozle them.

Add videos
People love videos and creating a you tube channel or adding videos to your server is easy. Let them see an advert for your company and services or see the product in more detail.

Bullet points Vs Text
Don’t be afraid to test out punchy bullet points alongside long block of text.

Talk to us about digital marketing.

Call us FREE from mobiles and landlines on 0800 044 3664 and speak with one of our digital marketing experts to request more information or schedule a meeting.

Increasing Website Conversion Rates Using Split Testing

Your Google Ads campaign is running along fairly smoothly and you are getting more familiar with the dashboard and management system. Why not take the next step and try and optimise your account with a spot of Split Testing?

Split testing, or A/B testing for your ads’ landing pages is an advanced but pretty reliable method of scrutinising and improving how your website interacts with visitors and achieves your visitor goals. Split testing essentially looks to monitor and improve the % of visitors that accomplish goals. Goal conversions that sites can optimise for could be:

Completing a product or service purchase
Downloading further information such as a white paper or E-book
Newsletter sign up’s

A home page or landing page that is correctly tested will essentially lower the bounce rate, increase the amount of time a visitor spends on the site and ultimately boost revenues.

So what is split testing?

Split testing is a system that lets you create two or more variants of a particular page and allows you to test them to ascertain which is the most popular. Essentially we want to test a variety of page combinations and see which one delivers the greatest conversion improvements with regards to conversions i.e. activities that are competed and measured as a goal or metric value. The key thing to bear in mind when doing split testing is there are two types of testing that can be done with regards to ad campaigns. The first is Google Ads Experiments and the second is Content Experiments.

Ads Experiments These are centred around A/B split testing with regards to keywords, ad and ad groups within your Google Ads account.
Content Experiments For A/B/C or multivariate testing of specific web pages and landing pages where we you use Google Analytics and synchronise it with your Adwords account.

Content Experiments are the type of split testing we will be looking into for this article. So when you test landing pages using Google Analytics you are able to test up to 10 variations of a page, each one containing different content and layout. When you launch the experiment each page will be shown in equal proportion to the other and rotated through to people clicking on your ad. Then impression share can be optimised to ensure the page with the highest performance gets more impressions over time. Then monitor your landing page experiment for around 4 weeks and Analytics Content Experiments will let you know which landing page has completed the most goals and achieved the most campaign metric improvements.

Before you start you need the following:

Set up conversion tracking goals in Google Analytics and make sure its synced with your Ads account
Have different versions of your page to be tested each set up each with its own URL
Get E-commerce tracking set up (if required)

Which features to test & measure in Content Experiment split testing:

Use different headlines, copy wording and general writing tone
The layout of your copy
Experiment with different background colour schemes, text colour etc.
Placing images in different places and using different images
Style and size of various page elements such as enquiry form, call to action button, videos etc.
Add different contact details e.g. general Contact us, more specific details of the in house person to contact directly

Step by Step

So first of all you need to embed the tracking code for Google Analytics and set up all the goals. These goals can vary from which URL they visit an event goal e.g. call back request, enquiry form fill out, overall visit duration goal etc. Once you decided upon these elements (URL visit goal, event goal, visit duration goal), it’s time to get split testing.

Next to get access to the Content Experiments feature, go to Standard Reporting – Content – Experiments

Next up, enter the URL of the original landing page that you want to test then click on ‘Start Experimenting’. You will be taken to a page where you will be required to name your experiment and add the URLs of all the home or landing page that variations that you want to test.

The next step is ‘Set your experiment options’. Here you’ve got to confirm the type of goal that you want to be improved and measured. At this stage you’ve also got to state the percentage of visitors that you want to run the experiment on. You may find it handy at this stage to write notes to remind you later about the experiment’s purpose especially if you are running a few at the same time.

Next you will be provided with some important code to insert after the <head> tag of the control page’s HTML. This bit of code informs Google Analytics how to display all the landing page variations to your visitors.

Finally this control page complete with the code script must be uploaded to your server. The simply check all the landing pages are working correctly and start your testing!

Testing and measuring your landing page experiment

It takes Google Analytics a couple of days to show you the first results from your experiment – now you are on the way to optimising your conversion rates. There is nothing worse than running a test over a prolonged period and finding at the end it wasn’t set up or reporting correctly so make sure you check the data is coming okay.

So to test this, enter the url of your control page into your web browser and you will see one of the page variations will appear. If you are running an experiment with a lower than 100% of visitors, refresh the page a couple of times to see if the page rotates around.

If you want to double check the URL will have a different ID number indicating it’s a variation. Luckily for you the whole testing and measuring process is predominantly done by Google Analytics. However don’t take this as an invitation to do nothing whilst it’s running

You need to regularly check in and see what data is coming back in. Obviously the amount of data you are able to aggregate depends upon the overall visitor traffic from your ads. So make sure your budgets are set to send some visitors through your funnel.

So what are the key metrics to track?

The experiment summary on the right hand side – this overviews the total visits across all landing pages, the running period and experiment status.
Conversion Rate graph – this compares the conversions across each page over time
Individual page visits and the impression share percentage – this provides a good indication of which page is performing better than the others and getting greater exposure by Analytics
Probability of Out-performing Original – this tells you which ads are most likely to replace your control landing page by the time you reach the end of the split testing experiment.

At the end of the experiment Google Analytics will arrive at an overall winner based on all he performance metrics. Armed with this information you can select this as your new landing page confident that it is guaranteed to increase your conversion rate and the all-important return on investment.

From this point forward you can use this as the starting point or control to conduct more landing page split tests if you think more improvements and increased ROI can be achieved.

If you feel you have achieved as much as you can currently achieve you may consider having a look at other high traffic ads that may help you improve conversion rates and run Content Experiments on them.

Generally your campaign landing page quality and conversion rates contribute to improving your Quality Scores which can reduce budget spend and increase the all-important profit.

Talk to us about digital marketing.

Call us FREE from mobiles and landlines on 0800 044 3664 and speak with one of our digital marketing experts to request more information or schedule a meeting.

6 Essential Elements Every Landing Page Needs

A great landing page is the foundation of a successful online marketing campaign but it will only convert if you first understand that all your visitors are not the same. By trying to create a generic page that appeals to everyone you’ll end up appealing to no-one.

So, your landing page needs to be tailored to each individual marketing campaign in order to maximise conversion rates. And here are 6 essential elements to help achieve this:

1. The solution headline

When someone visits your landing page it’s because they have a problem: they want to earn money, lose weight, secure their home…etc. etc. It’s up to you to tell your visitor how you’re going to solve their problem and it starts with the headline:

“Learn How To Lose 10 Pounds In One Week”

…clearly describes what a visitor will get from your page (its goal) and conveys a strong message that leaves the visitor in no doubt that they’re in the right place.

2. The subheading detail

You’ve given your visitor a solution, now you need a more detailed explanation in order to convert them into a customer.

Your subheading can be a direct extension of the headline in that it finishes the sentence your headline started, or it can extend the message by adding an additional persuasive message which supports the primary one.

“Using a high intensity fat burning workout plan that’s better than a treadmill…and faster.”

The key with subheadings is:

Express the benefit clearly.
Keep it within one sentence.
Tie it in with the primary headline.

3. Who is your customer and what is their use case?

Whenever we view an offer or product it’s natural to ask whether or not it’s the right fit for our needs. Visitors rarely convert to customers if they’re unsure if the solution is correct for them but this is easily solved by clearly listing who would benefit from the product or service:

Simply adding use cases to your landing page can boost conversion rates because you’re helping visitors overcome any niggling doubts about your product or service. If other people or businesses are using your product, your visitor will feel more secure in following their lead.

4. Testimonials and case studies

You need to offer some proof in order to back up your claims so testimonials and case studies are a great way to show visitors that your statements are true.

If you’re going to include testimonials then include your customer’s full name, a photo, and the specific results achieved. A video testimonial is even better and typically can convert higher than a static text based version.

5. The call to action

You’d be surprised how many landing pages don’t include a Call-To-Action (CTA). This involves some testing to see where to best place your buttons so people will click on them and convert.

Here are the main elements to test:

Copy – What should your button say – Click Here? Buy Now? Add To Cart? Sometimes generic phrases aren’t always best so consider other options such as ‘See Our Pricing Plans’.
Colour – Test a few colours to see which works best. Different colours can have different meanings such as red for urgency but the main aim is to stand out.
Location – Placement can have a big impact on conversion rates so try adding in different locations but don’t assume placing your call to action higher on the page is best. Visitors should know what they’re getting before you ask them to act.
Design – A simple rounded button with a few words isn’t necessarily the best call to action. For example, including an image of your product within your CTA can boost conversions significantly.
Timing – You can increase conversions by firstly selling the benefits of your product before the call to action. This can be achieved by only showing your visitor the CTA button once they’ve read what you’re offering.
Creativity – Your call to action doesn’t have to be a standard button on a page. You can place the CTA within a video so it appears once the visitor has finished watching. You can also add effects to your CTA so it scrolls with the page as the visitor is reading.

6. It’s all about trust

Many people are cautious about buying products or services online, particularly if you’re not a known brand. By adding trust elements to your landing page, you can reassure your visitor that what you’re selling is genuine which in turn will help boost conversion rates.

A trust element is typically a badge or logo from an approved source. For example when a visitor is using a checkout page they can be reassured that it’s safe by adding an SSL Encryption badge. However don’t just place these elements on the final page, have them on display throughout the visitor’s flow through the site e.g. Landing Page to Pricing Page to Checkout Page.

Talk to us about digital marketing.

Call us FREE from mobiles and landlines on 0800 044 3664 and speak with one of our digital marketing experts to request more information or schedule a meeting.

The Importance of Landing Pages

The landing page of your website i.e. the page a visitor lands on when they’ve been directed to it by search marketing, social media or a home page, plays an important role in how that visitor continues to engage with your business. Therefore, every landing page should offer a clear and concise reason for your visitor to take action.

Measuring success

It’s possible to measure the value of each landing page via analytic reports that highlight engagement metrics for visits started from a specific landing page. These reports give an instant understanding of how a page performs and once armed with this knowledge you have a better understanding of where to focus your optimisation efforts through design and segmentation.

Designing a landing page

A landing page needs to be simple with a clear call to action so your visitor will give you what you want.

Say you want to improve the number of people signing up to your newsletter. Is your sign-up form obvious with a clear message? The website below has placed a simple form in a prominent position on their home page. The enlarged size and bold colour choice draws your attention along with a clear statement on the benefits signing up.

The above example demonstrates capturing data on a home page, however sometimes visitors will click through to a landing page from your home page or arrive there from an ad or social media link. In this instance, the page is created for one purpose only.

In the example below the landing page has been designed with easy-to-read copy and large images to help generate interest and sales of a mobile app.

To ensure your landing page is giving you maximum performance, here are a few more tips to consider:

One thing at a time – A business may have many great products, offers and services, but throwing them all on the page is distracting and confusing to customers. Just focus on one thing because the less options on the page, the more chance the customer will pick it.
Keep your focus – In the same way that you shouldn’t bombard your visitor with too many options, don’t fill your landing page with too much detail about your company. Be specific.
Don’t distract your visitor – Placing links on your landing pages to other potential areas of interest will lead to your visitor following a bread trail and forgetting about what you were offering in the first place. Remember – one campaign at a time.
Highlight the benefits – Your landing page is where you tell your customer about the benefits of making a specific action. What will they get from the transaction or by signing up? Maybe you can offer something free or provide a discount for buying or signing up today?
Make it easy – Everyone is busy, and attention-spans are short, so be mindful of the fact that your visitor doesn’t have time to mess about by making it easy and clear about what they have to do. The more steps you provide, the higher chance they’ll leave the page and then your campaign will suffer.
Clean and simple graphics – Graphics and imagery can be distracting, dull graphics don’t entice people to action your request, too few graphics don’t inspire confidence or give a clear message on what you’re about or what your customer can expect from the transaction. Keep your graphics simple and in step with the tone of your business, website, and product.

Read more about optimising your PPC landing page

Landing Page Segmentation

Using various metrics it’s possible to know where someone clicked to arrive at your landing page. What isn’t so obvious is who is on your page and why:

Are they the person who makes the decision to buy, or the person who influences someone else?
Are they researching or buying today?
What motivates them to buy – price or features?

By offering segmentation choices on your landing page, you can filter your visitors so they head in the right direction thus enabling you to market the product or service more effectively. Segmentation can be based on product features, gender, location…the list is endless.

For example, say you’re selling wireless security systems to private and residential customers. Someone performs a search for ‘wireless security systems’ on Google and your website appears. They click the link and land on this page. They know they want a system for their home, however this company didn’t have that exact information – so they asked …

As you can see, the visitor is given a clear choice. When they click on the choice relevant to them, they’re put into a specific segment and will be taken to a subsequent page for who they are and what they need. This experience increases the chances that the visitor will convert into a sale.

By avoiding the ‘one size fits all’ landing page, you can control the segments your visitors are placed into giving them a better online experience and you a more targeted and relevant audience. This will help improve chances to convert an enquiry into a sale, and provide you with effective online traffic data to further improve your landing pages.

Talk to us about digital marketing.

Call us FREE from mobiles and landlines on 0800 044 3664 and speak with one of our digital marketing experts to request more information or schedule a meeting.

PPC Driving SEO

This article is the first in a set of three that starts off by looking at how creating an effective PPC campaign has a positive knock on effect with regards to your websites SEO. The second article will look in greater detail at the 8 Ways PPC can boost SEO and in the final article we will look at what you should consider first PPC or SEO?

PPC & SEO – Two Sides Of The Same Coin

When approaching natural search (SEO) and paid search (PPC) for the first time, the majority of businesses view SEO and PPC as two separate entities and typically direct their immediate efforts towards SEO. While there may be differences between both, SEO and PPC should actually co-exist, each complementing the other to create one successful search strategy.

The Past – Worlds Apart

In the not too distant past PPC & SEO where worlds apart in fact within Google the two teams are not even on the same building.

Consensus amongst the search community was that PPC should be rolled out first before undertaking SEO work in phase two. The key reason is Pay-Per-Click campaigns are an excellent way to generate keyword and performance data for literally hundreds of keyword variations. This data can then be used to create Keyword Insight Report which can help formulate an SEO strategy to bolster your natural SEO campaigns.

The Present Day – Convergence

Coming right up to date SEO and PPC have started to converge. What this means is whilst PPC can help show the road map for an SEO strategy with the data it churns out, the work undertaken in setting up and optimising a PPC campaign actually boosts SEO as a by product of the process. To understand why, you need to look at changes in the PPC and SEO best practice guidelines from the major search engines.

In the old days to get your PPC ads to appear pretty much all you needed to do was be the highest bidder. Nowadays merely being a big spender isn’t enough; you need to consider a raft of factors that combine to deliver a high quality score which in turn delivers a cheaper CPC and higher placement.

Some of these best practice PPC ‘ingredients’ overlap with ones that need to be addressed when delivering organic SEO results such as page relevance, quality of landing page and page loading times. Essentially Google rewards relevance, and the work carried out to construct relevance for PPC campaign on your website will help your organic keywords results for your SEO.

Our team notices time and again that our clients organic traffic is substantially boosted as a by-product of our PPC work and this has become more noticeable in the last 12- 18 months as Google aligns the two areas together encouraging businesses to engage in PPC as a first step in creating a digital footprint.

Squeezing SEO In Favour Of PPC

So why are the search engines converging SEO and PPC together and apparently shifting the emphasis to PPC? Publicly the search engines (specifically Google) talk about not being ‘evil’ and providing an even playing field. However behind the scenes and in reality the search engines make no money from businesses engaging in SEO. In the UK it is estimated that last year alone £500m was invested in SEO whilst in the US it was a $2.2 billion industry. None of this money goes to the search engines and they want a share of the pie.

So by shifting the algorithms on a more regular basis under the guise of fairness it causes the shifting SERP’s sands that we have known for years to be more like quick sand. So a business can invest is SEO and finally get to page one just as a new algorithm is released dragging them off page one and back to the foot of the mountain. This uncertainty is designed to encourage more businesses to engage in PPC as a first step on the optimising and digital marketing ladder. Don’t get me wrong SEO is important and dual visibility on organic and paid results is important. However a sensible marketing strategy will be based around PPC as a cornerstone delivering immediate results and lead generation. SEO on the other-hand should be adopted as a secondary medium to long term strategy. Structuring your strategy in this way ensures a worst case scenario drop of your organic traffic wont put your business at risk of closure due to all your eggs being in the wrong basket.

So let’s look in greater detail at 8 different ways that PPC can help drive your SEO.

8 ways PPC can drive SEo

Talk to us about PPC.

Call us FREE from mobiles and landlines on 0800 044 3664 and speak with one of our digital marketing experts to request more information or schedule a meeting.

Landing Page Optimisation

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