How to Design a Landing Page that Converts

When running a digital advertising campaign, there are several critical stages to achieving a conversion. 

First, your ad must be shown to a member of your target audience at the right time.

After you determine buyer personas, you can target users who match certain features of your ideal audience using different types of targeting: geographic, demographic, interest-based, etc. “The right time” will depend on your product or service, the target audience, and what you know about your audience’s typical behavior. Consequently, knowing this information will help you identify the most effective advertising medium to use and when.

Second, someone who sees your ad must decide to engage with it.

The ability of your ad to garner clicks or views will depend upon how well you’ve targeted the appropriate audience and how compelling your ad is. If your ad contains an image, such as a display or social media ad, does the image grab someone’s attention? Does the headline of the ad draw someone in? Is it clear from looking at the ad what you’re selling? Does your ad feature a compelling offer, promotion, quiz, sale, or other compelling feature to increase clicks?

Third, someone who clicks through from your ad to your landing page must decide to act.

You’ve put a lot of effort and resources into getting a prospect onto your site, but that’s just half the battle. The ultimate testament to the quality of your ad campaign is how effective it is at converting users. For e-commerce sites, your conversion action is likely making an online sale. For service-based businesses, your conversion action may be generating a phone call or form submission. Whatever the desired action, every aspect of the visitor’s experience on the landing page should be encouraging them toward it.

Tips for Increasing Conversions on Your Landing Page

Present a Cohesive Experience from Ad to Landing Page

Keep your user engaged. Once a user clicks through from an ad, you only have a few seconds to reinforce that you’re indeed offering what they’re looking for. If the ad featured a photo of a particular product and mentioned 20% off, be sure that the landing page shows that product and includes the 20% off promotion.  Don’t frustrate your visitor by presenting a mismatch between expectation and reality.

Limit Distractions

The best landing pages present a streamlined user experience. If your primary goal is to get users to purchase a product, don’t distract them with an overly complicated menu, phone number, contact form, and email subscription pop up. The cleaner and clearer the path toward conversion, the fewer stragglers you’ll lose along the way.

Include a Specific, Clear Call to Action

Make it easy for the visitor to convert by presenting a clear call to action up front. If you want prospects to call, provide your phone number in the header and tell them to call for a free consultation. To get them to subscribe to your email list, tell them about all the great news, information, resources, and offers they will receive. If you want them to purchase a product, show them the product they clicked on and other related products they might like.

Focus on Design

Don’t neglect your design. Visitors will judge the quality of your products and services based on the look, feel, and functionality of your landing page. Be sure your landing page is responsive, quick to load, clean, modern, easy to use, and easy on the eyes.

Retarget

Because people often require multiple interactions with a brand before taking action, retargeting campaigns are a great way to increase conversions. This type of campaign allows you to show ads to users who’ve engaged with your ads in the past. There are a number of benefits to retargeting: 

• the audience who is shown your retargeting ads has already demonstrated interest in your product or service,
• they are becoming more familiar with your brand,
• they are more likely to convert the second time around,
• and these types of campaigns are often more cost-effective than others.

Takeaway

With the aforementioned tips in mind, you are well on your way toward designing an effective landing page and a powerful ad campaign. The takeaway message here is to provide your visitors with a compelling, seamless, enjoyable experience. Meet their expectations. Or better yet, exceed them.

Courtney Turrin is VP of Data Science at Xponent21. We provide digital and business solutions that help our clients delight customers, drive revenue and increase operational efficiency. For more information about our services, reach out to us.