There is a problem with nearly every company’s online advertising, and I’m going to show it to you and give you the secret weapon to fix it in your campaigns.
Chances are, you are spending money every month promoting your company through Google or SEO. That’s all fine, but the problem is the leads can get extremely expensive. With Adwords costs rising, it's not uncommon to see clicks for $10-$20 PER CLICK. If you can’t convert those clicks into customers, you are burning money at an alarming rate. Think about it; If you are spending $20 per click, and you convert 2% of the clicks to leads, THAT MEANS YOU ARE SPENDING $1,000 PER LEAD. If you aren’t tracking your conversions and costs, you should be freaking out right about . . . NOW.
The reality is, most companies spend big money for advertising programs and track nothing. The good news is, it's not as hard to do as you think.
Here is why your advertising is eating your wallet.
If you’re like most companies, when you run an ad, you send all of the traffic to your website’s homepage.
The problem is, once people arrive, you are leaving it up to them to determine what to do next. There’s navigation, images, links to social media, about pages, services, contact – potentially dozens of things the visitor can click on. None of those things point people to take action. If for example, if you're an HVAC company that runs a $149 tune-up special, people click on the ad expecting to get more details about the $149 tune-up special offer. That makes sense right? If someone clicks an ad and the page they are directed to doesn’t speak to what they thought it would be within 2 seconds, they will click away.
Think about that. You just paid $10 for someone to click your ad, and in less than 2 seconds, they looked at your page and left.
This seems so logical yet more than 98% of the campaigns we evaluate are setup exactly like this. If you direct people to your homepage, you are wasting money at an incredible rate.
So, how can you cut ad cost and turn more clicks into customers?
I’m going to share with you one simple tip, that when implemented, can get you 2-10X return on your ad dollars right now. This one tip can double, triple or even quadruple your conversion rate.
Are you read for the secret weapon?
Landing pages.
A high quality, laser focused landing page can cause your conversion rate to skyrocket and lower your cost per click at the same time, creating more leads for fewer dollars.
So how does this work?
1: Google likes landing pages.
Targeted landing pages that contain keywords that match your ad are more relevant than sending people to your homepage. With a landing page, you can make the content speak directly to the visitor and the offer that caused them to click. This leads to a higher Quality Score, which in turn, means cheaper clicks.
2: Landing pages provide a consistent messaging experience for the prospect
When a potential lead clicks your ad, they will spend approximately 3.5 seconds deciding if the page they landed on is relevant to the offer they clicked and what they are looking for. When you provide a clear headline that matches the message of your ad, this tells the user they clicked on the right thing. They have found what they were looking for through the ad.
You’ve likely experienced this before. You saw an ad for one thing, clicked on it, and it went to something totally different or even unrelated to what you thought it would be. This causes the user to immediately hit the back button.
By keeping a consistent message between your ad to your landing page, you make it past the 3.5 second mark and increase your chance of getting the user to consider contacting you.
The amount of time someone spends on your website is directly proportional to them contacting you. So your goal should be to do everything you can to make the person stick to that page.
3: Landing pages tell the user how to move forward with you.
Homes and home services aren’t something that a homeowner typically buys online. So the only action you can get them to take is to contact you. They contact you based on the consistency of message and speaking to their initial reason for clicking on your ad.
Your homepage is distracting. It distracts them from taking the only action you care about. It can actually prevent them from leaving their contact details. It requires them to go and decide what action to take.
A correctly designed landing page will have one singular focus, which is, giving the user what they want to see.
If you are running an ad for “Free Estimates”, then your landing page better have a prominently places estimate form at the top of the page.
On landing pages, we recommend removing as many links as possible. People are too easily distracted. Removing links keeps them on task.
4: Landing pages tell the story you want to share and persuade people to contact you
Trustworthiness is critical when trying to stand out from the competition. Landing pages take the ad message and expand on it. They share the offer, but they also allow you the space to tell the story of WHY the user should buy from you.
Here are the elements that a good landing page should include:
A Unique Selling Position (USP)
An overview of what you do and how to get started
A success story (video or photos); for remodeling and home services, before and after photos work well
A list of benefits for the customer
Social proof such as testimonials with names and photos if possible
Directional queues guiding the user to the contact form or phone number
Risk reversal such as no obligation, money back guarantee etc.
A strong call to action that gets them to contact you now
The goal of the landing page is to lead the user through these steps, building trust, and ultimately getting them to contact you.
When we create new marketing campaigns for clients, it always starts with the offer and the landing page.
You need to do this now.
Would you like to see some examples of landing pages done right? I’ll share some soon. Comment or like the post and let me know.
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