PPC Landing Pages Best Practices: 11 Tricks for Landing Page Optimization in 2021

Your landing page can make or break your marketing funnel. After a user clicks your ad, the next step must be an effective landing page that moves them closer to a conversion.

Many marketers are using landing pages to great effect, but there are a lot of lessons to learn before success comes. Whether it’s irrelevant copy, mixed messaging or poor keywords, there are plenty of pitfalls to watch out for that could scupper your chances of conversion.

So, how can we do it right? What are the landing page optimization best practices that will maximize our return on investment (ROI) in paid advertising?

Let’s find out.

Landing Page Optimization Tricks

Here are eleven landing page optimization tips to help you turn more visitors into customers after they click on your ad.

We’ve split these tips into several categories – user experience, trust, and engagement.

User Experience

The user experience (UX) of your landing page must be easy and enjoyable, with a streamlined focus from top to bottom that is geared towards your ultimate goal:

Convert visitors.

1. Make Your Headline Compelling

The first thing people will see on your landing page is the headline – make it grab their attention. If it lacks impact or intrigue, people will soon lose interest in the page, possibly before they even read anything else.

2. Effective Navigation Enhances the UX

People should be able to navigate your website with ease. Landing pages should be clean and clear, making it simple for people to explore.

As they probably clicked on a specific ad, the same product or offer should be easy to find when they arrive on the landing page. Maintaining that consistency between the ad and landing page is a vital part of offering an enhanced UX.

By eliminating distractions such as sidebars, menus, and irrelevant content that takes the focus away from the conversion funnel, you can keep the attention on the offer.

3. Use Appealing And Responsive Design

Not all visitors will arrive on the same device. You should use a mobile-responsive theme for your web design, which ensures your site looks good on desktop, tablets, and mobile. That last one is of paramount importance as more people are using mobile to browse and shop now.

Test your site out on multiple devices and make sure everything looks good and is responding as it should when users interact with the content and features.

4. Speed Matters

Your landing page may have great videos, images, and content, but nobody will see it if it takes forever to load. Studies indicate that online shoppers will bounce off a website if it takes more than three seconds to load. Chances are, they won’t be back.

So, keep code bloat and image sizes to a minimum, and try to maximize page speeds so no prospect is kept waiting.

5. Ask for the Minimum

A longer registration form deters people from signing up. By simply asking for the bare minimum – an email address – you can get what you need without troubling people too much.

Trust

Trust underpins the sale process. Before you can sell to anyone online, your brand must establish that foundation of trust with customers.

6. Tell People What They Need to Know

It helps to include details about your business on your landing page, such as your contact details, physical location, and genuine social media pages.

This will add credibility to your business, and also offer the option of phone transactions and in-store purchases some prospects are uncomfortable with buying online.

7. Leverage Social Proof

Social proof works because people trust other consumers more than they trust brands. You can use this on your landing page by adding any of these to gain credibility:

• Customer reviews
• A success story
• Partner logos from respected brands

This will make your brand more legitimate in the eyes of your visitors, which helps foster the trust you need to secure a conversion.

Engagement

A solid keyword strategy, in-depth audience analysis and the most amazing copywriting are big components of a high-converting landing page. But sometimes you just need a little more to get people over the line.

8. Use Chatbots to Improve Service and Build Engagement

Chatbots are incredibly advanced now, and may arguably offer better customer service than some of their human counterparts. You can also use a chat feature to engage with customers on a more regular basis, from offering assistance to interacting with warm leads who have visited your landing page.

9. Pop-ups May Be the Little Push that is Needed

Sometimes, people just need a little more persuasion to seal the deal. A pop-up that offers them a special discount can sway people who are on the fence.

The one caveat is that pop-ups are regarded as intrusive or annoying by many online consumers. You must implement them in a way that doesn’t disrupt the online experience, and instead stirs up temptation.

10. Leverage the Power of Visuals

Nothing turns people away faster than a ‘wall of text’. People just don’t have the patience for that format nowadays, and so visual content is essential.

Whether it’s simple images that break up chunks of text or eye-catching infographics, you can massively improve the engagement on your landing page with some high-quality visuals.

Videos, above all else, are the most powerful. Not only will they get more clicks and views, but videos are more likely to convey your brand message and story in a way that resonates with your target audience. Learning how to leverage this to your advantage can make all the difference to the conversion rate of your landing page.

A short video demo of your product in action can quickly highlight the value of it, and dispel any common concerns. Many brands are already using this technique to drive their sales volumes.

11. Finish with Convincing CTA

After the headline, your call-to-action is the second-biggest opportunity to encourage a conversion. It should be a powerful, clear prompt that not only agitates the pain point of your lead but also highlights your product or service as the valuable solution they have been seeking.

Keep Your Landing Page Updated

If visitors discover irrelevant information or inconsistencies on your landing page, it could cost you a sale. If they start talking about it on social media, it may damage your brand’s reputation. Therefore, it’s important that you keep your page updated and make efforts to quell any negative impression that an outdated page could trigger.

PPCexpo has an Account Audit Report that can help you find issues with your landing page. By using this report, and with the tips from this article, you can optimize your landing page to deliver a better user experience that converts more visitors.