Creating an optimized landing page is not always enough to cause a visitor to purchase. In order to create an efficient funnel, you need to work both sides of the spectrum: the ad side (Google AdWords, Facebook ads, and email campaigns) and the landing page side (site or interstitial). This means your ad source and landing page should be optimized and connected.
Connecting ad to landing pages
There should be similar notions when going from an ad source to a landing page. This similarity is called message matching. Think of it this way: You see a billboard for a captivating movie. Then you see the trailer that pulls selected parts of the movie and weaves an intriguing storyline, but when you see the movie, you are disappointed that the storyline was completely different than what was expected. Why? There wasn’t clear and direct message and image matching.
In order to create a complete landing page to increase conversion, it’s important to pay attention to keywords. These keywords are specific terms that are relevant to your company’s business (i.e. “furniture removal” or “handmade choker”). These terms are important to carry over to the image that is being presented in that ad. The consumer should be able to identify what the product or service is from the imagery presented in the ad that correlates with the headline and messaging seen in the ad.
Once you click on the ad, the first section above the fold (the section before the first scroll on your browser) should carry both similar keywords and relevant imagery. For example, my ad headline reads, “The perfect accessory for that summer night out” with supplementary copy that reads, “Shop our new Havana Nights Collection: The perfect handmade accessories for any summer adventure.” The first line of the landing page should contain an expansion of the Havana Nights Collection with a headline including that phrase and a few select keywords on what is included in the collection.
Capitalizing on imagery and landing pages
The imagery should also correlate to the headline, either being a lifestyle image of the beach and someone wearing the new collection or product images of select pieces. The rest of the landing page should expand on the messaging and keywords in a specific strategy. The beauty of using a landing page instead of a web page is that you can create multiple landing pages with different headlines using different keywords that match your ad group. Each specific ad campaign can have a different message or image that allows you to test varying campaign formats.
Why is it important to message match?
Congruence, context, relevance, and sticking to the theme. Your ads can’t afford to send your visitors to a page that seems to have nothing to do with the ad itself. Visitors will automatically bounce if they don’t see a connection from the original click. The longer you run a campaign this way, the more you’d suffer by paying all that money for nothing.
Written by Melissa Portillo for Hawke Media, an official Mailchimp partner. Learn more about Hawke Media and their Mailchimp marketing services in our Experts Directory or see how to become a partner.