Primary Rule about Landing pages is never to link your campaigns to your website

We had a wonderful webinar last week (thanks to the active participation of the attendees) on Landing Page Tips (HABITS framework, to be specific). A number of questions came in about landing pages; we have tried to summarize the most asked ones in this post, for the benefit of beginners who could not attend the webinar, and might have the same queries.

Webinar FAQs

Question 1

Where can we use landing pages?

Landing pages can be used for all your ad campaigns, including Google, Facebook and LinkedIn Ads. In addition to these paid ads, you can even use the landing pages to capture leads organically, by using CTAs on your website and blog.

Question 2

Why is it advised to have standalone landing pages for different kind of Ads (Google, Facebook etc.),rather than linking to the website? Won’t the Trust factor be more on the website?

All good landing page tips start with the basic ‘No matter how great your website, never drive your campaign traffic there’. 

The reason is simple: There is way too much information on your website. Therefore, you would never be able to drive one SINGLE action using your website as your landing page. For most kinds of ads, including Google Adwords and Facebook, you have to pay for every click. With that kind of cost, you wouldn’t want to lose out on any of the visitors who click on your ad. Check out the image below:

The ad says ‘Leather Shoes at 50% OFF’, but the website (which has been linked as the post ad click destination) has no mention of it.

Result: More Bounces = Increased Cost of Conversion

Primary Rule about Landing pages is never to link your campaigns to your website

To increase the probability of visitors taking the desired action, the best thing you can do is remove all the distractions, and have only that specific offer, for which your ad was created. This stripping the landing page of all its “unnecessary” attributes can be achieved only by creating a standalone “single-objective” landing page. This is one of the most important landing page tips.

Speaking of Trust, you can make sure that your landing pages seem as trustworthy as your website by including a few elements on it:

1. Your Company Logo: This is a must, as without it, the visitors would not be able to relate the landing page to your brand.

2. ‘About Us’ section of your company. You have the freedom to go beyond the first fold on the landing page. In the second fold, or the lower half of the landing page, you can include the ‘About Us’ section, or a brief (or detailed, for that matter) introduction about your company. This would not only contribute to the trust factor, it would also help the SEO of landing page, because you can include more relevant keywords using this section.

Check out the landing page below: It has a Company logo on top, and an additional features section in the second fold.

Use Company logo and about us section to establish trust about landing pages

Question 3

We run ads for a similar offer in India, UK and US. Should we have separate landing pages for ads running on different geographies?

Yes; it is recommended to have separate landing pages for ads running in different countries. This is because of the cultural differences that exist in different geographies. You might have heard the term ‘glocalization’ and how brands adjust their advertising techniques, service offerings etc. according to the geography they are targeting. McDonald’s Menu is a highly talked example of that.

If you use a similar principle for your online advertising as well, you would see some positive impact on your conversion rates. People are more likely to respond to a message that resonates with them. Therefore, while you are drafting headlines, deciding on the images etc., always consider the standard value sets of the countries you are trying to target. Sometimes (depending on your offering), you might not even have to make many changes; just a simple change in headline or image would do.

Example: If you are running an offer of Rs. X /- OFF in India; you might wanna change the message to $Y OFF in US.

Question 4

How many fields must the landing page form have?

This depends on the offer on your landing page. For instance, if you are asking people only to subscribe for your newsletter, then simple Name and Email ID ‘or’ just Email ID would do. Check this out:

Use minimal landing page fields

However, if you are giving 50% OFF on a high-value service, you can go ahead and ask for more details. Ideally, we recommend not more than 6-7 fields.

Question 5

Is it beneficial to have a link back to the website main page from the landing page?

You should not have an obvious navigation link on your landing page that can distract your visitor (this is one of the most important landing page tips).

However, you can link your logo back to your website homepage. This would ensure a connection between your website and landing page, without impacting your conversion rates negatively.

Question 6

How can we ensure that the lead details entered are authentic? Many people fill in fake email IDs etc.

Yes, some people might fill in fake details, especially when you offer something free on your landing page. To counter this, what you can do is send the offer in the email, instead of just after the visitor hits ‘Submit’ or ‘Download’ button. For instance, if your offer is to ‘Download a Free E-Book’, instead of allowing the visitors to access the e-book as soon as they fill the form, send it to them in an email.

Explicitly mention this condition on the landing page itself (something like You will be emailed a link to access your download) As the e-book is free, the chances of people getting deterred by this are low. After all, you are giving away something for free; the least you can expect is the email ID of the person accessing it.

There you go; these were a few landing page tips, based on the most common questions that came our way in the last week’s webinar on HABITS of creating landing pages. Let us know if you have some more questions in mind. Stay tuned for more landing page tips.

 

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