Retargeter

Aligning Your Ads and Landing Pages to Maximize Conversions

Banner ad design is an immensely popular topic among marketers. What makes banners clickable, what’s considered good design, why they’re important, and what metrics you should be looking at are just a few examples of posts you can find on the topic. While banner ads are an integral part of your display strategy, they are only half of the equation. What happens after a prospect has clicked on your ad?

Yesterday, our own Hafez Adel, Sr. Director of Marketing, ran a webinar that discussed the importance of aligning your ads with your landing pages. We’ve put together the highlights from the webinar here:

What’s the purpose of your ad?

Your ad is often your first impression, so it’s important to make it a good one. A good ad will have simple design, concise messaging, it will incorporate your brand’s colors and fonts, and will include a clear call-to-action. The tie to your brand should be unmistakable–logos, colors, fonts, and messaging should be immediately recognizable as your brand’s, and should match the rest of your content.

In addition, your ad is not only representing your brand, but also explains how your product or service meets a particular need. When this is properly communicated, users will click on your ad. It serves as your first opportunity to grab the attention of a user and say, “hey, we have what you’re looking for!” Ask yourself if your ad is using your branding and messaging in a way that compels a user to click.

What role does a landing page play?

The ad is the first step in attracting a customer. Then, you can let your landing page be your brand ambassador. While a landing page does serve a functional role — to take a user further down the funnel — it’s also important to consider design. Instead of grabbing the first template you see, pause to make sure your landing page reflects your brand’s aesthetics as well as the promise of your ad.

Your ad is only as good as your landing page. You might have an amazing ad– memorable logo, clever tagline, clear call-to-action– but if your landing page does not fulfil the expectations set up in the ad, your efforts will be for naught. The landing page must clearly communicate the conversion action you want a customer to take, and it should align with the design and messaging of both the ad and your brand as a whole. A user should know immediately that this landing page accurately represents the ad they clicked on.

How do you know when you have a good landing page?

There are a few metrics you can look at to determine how well your landing page is performing. Generally, you’ll want to see a low bounce rate, a good quality score, and a high conversion rate.

A high bounce rate means people are arriving on your landing page and leaving immediately. This metric shows you that there’s something drawing people to click on your ad and arrive at the landing page, but your landing page is not delivering on the promise of your ad in some way. When you see low bounce rates and longer time on site, you can rest assured that your messaging and design are aligned with the ad that attracted a user in the first place.

Quality score is a proprietary metric created by Google. Your score is based on the relevancy of your ads, keywords, and landing pages. A low quality score is a good indicator that your landing pages are not aligned with your ads, website, or keywords. As you develop a campaign, always segment keywords and create ads and landing pages that match those keywords and your desired customer.

If people are taking the desired action you’ve set up, then you have set up the buying process from introduction to purchase to be seamless. As marketers, it is our job to remove the friction between interest and action. When people are searching for a need, viewing and clicking on your ad, arriving at your landing page, and finishing with a conversion (a purchase, lead form, download, or other action), then you have succeeded in aligning all elements of your advertising campaign.

It’s important to note that while you may have a completely aligned campaign that’s resulting in high performance, there is always room for improvement. Take the time to A/B test both your ads and your landing pages, and even go into multi-variant testing to find the most optimal combinations.

Check out Hafez’s presentation below for more great tips on how to maximize conversions with aligned advertising and landing pages: