Before we get into the importance of a dedicated landing page, we need to learn what a landing page is.
So, a landing page is the first web page that your visitors will arrive at after a link has been clicked. Normally, this link is used for marketing efforts like PPC or a banner advertisement.
A landing page is not and really shouldn’t be the homepage of your website. The purpose of a landing page is to describe your products or services advertised, and a homepage that is generalised may not be sufficient enough.
Any page on your website could be a potential landing page. A good landing page for AdWords is described as useful, relevant and also easy to use by the Google Learning Center.
When a visitor clicks on an ad, they expect to come into contact with content that acutely represents the ad they have seen. If the content isn’t what they expect to see, they may become frustrated and leave your page. This also gives them a negative opinion of your brand. So, a landing page needs to provide useful information for your users to help promote a conversion.
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Using Your Homepage as a Landing Page Should be Avoided
Using a homepage as your landing page can cause confusion for your visitors. They click on your ad based on the information you provided in that ad, but they are taken to a homepage where they are shown general information. This means your visitors then have to go searching for the information about your products and services by themselves, which will frustrate them and lead them to leave your website. It is considered wise to use an existing page with the correct information, but it is recommended to build a completely new web page to use as your landing page.
If you need to work out where to start with your dedicated landing pages, consult a Website Development Agency to get you through the gate.
Why You Need to Create a Separate Landing Page?
When you create a specific landing page for your ads will provide you with benefits for your business and also your customer engagement. These include:
Track Advertising Clicks
You want to ensure that all your marketing efforts are functioning as effectively as possible. With a separate landing page, you will be able to obtain statistical data about your visitors, such as where they clicked through, the duration of their stay on your page, and whether they converted.
From this, you can see which of your campaigns are perfoming the best. By being able to measure the success of each campaign, you will be able to make alterations as and when you need to improve upon your conversion rate or desired trackable metric.
Focus Your Content
If you have web visitors from your advertising, they want to learn more about the specific product or service they saw from the advertisement. Guiding your users to a page with different content than promised can be seen as sneaky, deceitful and unethical, which will put potential customers off their brand.
Plus, it means that your ads will be shown less and less as search engines will put your authority score down, and you won’t be shown where you want to be. For instance, if you have an ad that promotes red running shoes but your content talks about camping gear, then you have been deceptive.
With a separate landing page for each ad/campaign, you can focus your content without editing your normal website.
Capture Lead Data
Your landing page is a really helpful tool when it comes to collecting data. You can use a dedicated landing page to solicit information from visitors. You will need to
be careful about the quantity of data you request. Only ask for what you actually need.
A successful way to convert a lead is by gathering visitors’ email addresses, as most people won’t mind giving you their email to be provided with more information about your products or services.
Unconventional Testing
Another great way you can utilise a landing page is through unconventional marketing strategies. For example, you can create a landing page without a navigation to make the page more basic with all the relevant information and a form for visitors to complete. It has been proven that conversion rates are more successful using this type of landing page without distractions.
Other Tests You Can Perform On Landing Pages Are:
- Countdown – to promote a sense of urgency.
- Testimonials – to provide social proof of your business.
- Sales – Using different discounts (percentage or monetary).
- Subscriptions types – pop-up, on-page etc.
- The use of live chat.
If you want to add something new but effective to your website, then a landing page is a great way to test your new ideas’ effectiveness without putting your site at risk.