Landing pages are an indispensable part of any marketing campaign. When done right, they are a vitally important driver for conversion rates for paid advertising on search engines or social networks. The first step to creating an effective ad – and its landing page – is knowing the target market and their needs so that you are able to provide information that will resonate with them.
Companies like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram have made it easy to advertise your business to a wide audience through paid advertising. The problem is that many companies don’t take full advantage of this marketing opportunity because they do not have a landing page for their social media campaign. A landing page can be used with any type of paid advertisement whether it is on search engines or social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram – these landing pages provide branding consistency and user experience flow that logically takes users from the ad they clicked on to a website landing page that satisfies what they’re looking for.
Some companies use landing pages as standalone webpages with limited time offers or product sales while others use them as lead generation tools by directing traffic through social media or email marketing campaigns. For example, when someone clicks an advertisement on Facebook and lands on your company’s home page but doesn’t convert into a customer right away, it is likely you have lost the sale or lead. This is because your home page does not closely match the ad and its intent.
4 questions to answer when building a landing page:
How are you going to drive visitors to the landing page?
This is often a question that companies overlook. The best way to get people on your landing page is by sending them there from another website with an ad, or advertising directly through social media sites.
Who is going to visit the landing page – who is your target audience?
It’s important to know what kind of person you’re targeting. If a company wants more customers, they should create pages that are catered towards people in their age range and gender and other demographics such as employment industry, income, education and personal or professional interests.
Think about what your target audience might be looking for. If you’re a travel agent, for example, they may be interested in upcoming trips to Europe or Asia on certain dates, and you would build an ad and a landing page specifically addressing that interest.
If the landing page is too long and cluttered with information, people are likely to get distracted and click off of it without doing anything. Keep your landing pages short; it allows for more effective marketing.
What is the objective of your landing page?
Is it to sell the product or service? It’s important that you make this clear.
The objective of your landing page is to provide a user experience flow and branding consistency from social media or search engine advertising. And once they arrive, to give them clear, concise information and a call to action.
A short, informative landing page with images and videos will retain more visitors than one filled with all of the bells and whistles.
Does the landing page deliver on its promise?
Your landing page needs to look like your advertisement and it needs to be a concise answer to what your advertisement promoted.
Your landing page needs to answer the visitor’s question: “What is in it for me?”
It should also provide a call-to-action. What do you want them to do? Click on your link, sign up, or complete an action that will take them through the conversion funnel (e.g., buying something)?
Keep in mind that landing pages with images and videos will retain more visitors than one filled with text alone.
Use video content on your landing page to increase conversions
Video content is an excellent way to tell stories and engage with customers on a personal level. And it’s not just about telling your story – it’s also about showing how your product or service will make their lives better. It’s all about giving them something they want so they’ll take action by converting into a lead or making a purchase.
Learn what works best
Having a landing page on your website acts as the proof that your ad campaign is working and that your customers are buying. Different from just the ad, alone, you can glean analytics from your website’s landing page and see what is working well and what is not. Get reports on visitors, clicks, conversions, and revenue, as well as track what content or offerings are most interesting to different audience segments. For your social media ad campaigns, consider testing testing different landing pages to see what gets the best return on investment.
It is important to keep in mind that not all landing pages are created equal. The key is understanding the specific goal you’re trying to achieve and then designing a page accordingly. This includes defining your conversion goals through Key Performance Indicators (KPI). For example, if your KPI for click-through rate is 20% on average per campaign month, you might set up two basic groups of landing pages; one group with lots of information about each product line, and one with a minimalistic approach.
A/B testing, or split-testing, is also key to finding out what works best for your website landing page content. You can use specialized software like Optimizely to run A/B tests in a matter of minutes that allow you see which version converts better than the other.
The time required for creating an effective social media campaign will vary depending on industry and company size but there are some general rules of thumb:
• Creating a strong marketing message – requires about 50% of the total work effort;
• Designing creative assets including logos, photos and video clips – takes up about 30%; Building websites where these messages live – it’s another 20%. And finally someone with knowledge is needed.
Enter stage right: Simple Social Media. We are that someone with the knowledge that you need.
Simple Social Media is a social media agency in Las Vegas. For more information about our straightforward approach to managing your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or LinkedIn channels, contact us today.
