Imagine you’ve set up a killer ad campaign – the audience targeting is perfect, the creative is dynamic and attention-grabbing, and the copy is clear and persuasive. The only problem? Your landing page has some rookie errors that could seriously impact your conversions. Read on to discover three common mistakes made when setting up landing pages for ad campaigns, and what to do instead.
1. Sending users to your home page
First thing’s first, you need to make sure you’re sending users to a dedicated landing page related to your ad. For eCommerce businesses, this is pretty simple – users should be led to a specific product page, where they can either enquire about or purchase the product. For ads promoting something else – whether that’s a service or a lead magnet, for example, users should be taken to a page specifically about the topic the ads are promoting.
Thus, if your ads are promoting a lead magnet, your audience should be taken to a page all about that lead magnet. If they’re promoting a special offer, they should be taken to a page all about that special offer and the service it relates to.
Under no circumstances should you send people through to your homepage. Homepages are general and contain a lot of information, as well as several different choices a user can make. As the saying goes, “the confused mind doesn’t buy”, and you want to streamline the process as much as possible, making it as clear and easy as it can be for the user, providing them with all the information they need on one page, as well as the means to take an action.
2. Keeping the site navigation on the page
On the topic of streamlining the process, where possible, you also want to remove any navigation away from the page. This may sound counterintuitive at first – what if users want to browse through your site and learn more about you? – but it can be key in scoring a conversion. A landing page’s purpose is simple; it’s to encourage a user to take a specific action. Therefore, you want the only possible action a user can take on that page to be your desired conversion, such as filling out a form.
All of the information they need to take that action should be on the page, so there shouldn’t be any need for them to click off and visit other pages on your site. As such, you don’t want to include the site’s main navigation bar. Removing the ability to navigate throughout the site helps to prevent users from getting distracted and not converting as a result.
3. Burying the action at the bottom of the page
When users land on your landing page, you want it to be immediately obvious what they need to do. So if the objective is to download a lead magnet, and to do that they need to fill in a form, that form should appear at the top of the page.
Don’t start the page by giving all of the information about the lead magnet and bury the form at the bottom – the chances are, some people won’t read all the information or won’t see the form. Instead, have the form located in prime position at the top, and then have buttons throughout the text below that take people back up to the form, making it as clear and easy as possible for them to take the desired action.
You’ll also want to make sure that within the copy of your landing page, you include clear, concise calls to action. Don’t just include one at the very bottom – again, reiterate throughout the copy the action they need to take and how they should do it.
These are just three mistakes that can easily be made when setting up landing pages. If you’d like help with ensuring your landing pages and ad campaigns are primed for success, we can help here at Engage Web. Whether writing the copy, designing the page, managing your ad campaigns or the whole process, we’re here to help. Speak with our team today to learn more.
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