Google: Landing Page Optimization & Improving Search
Landing page optimization is the ongoing process of improving a website to increase the likelihood of a user converting into a customer. A conversion is any measured action, whether it’s a sale, a lead, a click, increased time on a specific page, or any other measurable activity, that provides value from the marketers’ perspective. Landing page performance has a big impact on how well businesses acquire new customers and at what cost. A finely tuned landing page will increase conversions and lower the cost to acquire them, something all businesses want.
This month, 360Partners sat down with Google Evangelist, Frederick Vallaeys, to talk about landing pages and how customers can improve their paid search marketing activity.
What can companies do to improve their landing pages?
Aside from setting expectations with keyword bidding, companies need to have a link to their privacy policy on their landing page. Consumers enter the site with varying degrees of trust and little commitment to staying (they are just a click away). That trust is built by having credibility marks like a privacy policy.
Too often, landing pages have a wealth of information. This creates a poverty of attention and ultimately leads to a poor consumer experience. Most landing pages would do well to eliminate lengthy text.
I would also recommend that advertisers continually improve their landing pages. Google Website Optimizer was built toward this end. This tool lets advertisers increase the value of their landing pages by testing and optimizing landing page content and design. Improving landing pages with this tool provides a quick and easy way to increase revenue and ROI. One company started utilizing this tool and increased conversions 70% while spending the same amount of money on advertising.
Do landing pages influence ad quality score?
Editors note: Quality score is a combination of factors that measure how relevant your keyword is to your ad text and to a user's search query. A high quality score means that your keyword will trigger ads in a higher position and at a lower cost-per-click (CPC).
The best way to think about quality score is to put yourself in the mindset of your consumers. To start, you need to bid on relevant keywords and use ad copy that answers the need or question posed by the search query. If your consumers are clicking on your ads that means you are doing the right things to bring in that traffic (i.e. bidding on the proper keywords, using proper ad copy, and utilizing proper bidding).
However, the consumer experience doesn’t stop with the click and neither does quality score. What happens after the click could start influencing quality score. We want the consumer experience to be fluid. A consumer enters a search query with expectations that Google will be their solution. If they click on your ad, that expectation is shared with Google and the advertiser. The landing page plays a key role in helping the consumer satisfy their initial query. We want to ensure that the landing page is solid and meets the consumer’s expectation. With that in mind, advertisers with great landing pages are less likely to suffer issues with lower quality scores. This will bring in more traffic at a lower cost.
What will AdWords look like when areas become overly saturated with advertisers?
Advertisers are seeing that paid search is a necessary arrow in their marketing quiver. This low-cost, direct marketing approach is an automated way to generate revenue. As more and more companies begin to utilize paid search, everything becomes more competitive.
To help, Google provides advertisers with a wealth of granular data. Advertisers can pull reports to discern detailed metrics such as the keywords that bring in the most traffic and/or conversions, and from which geo-locations. Armed with this information and much more, advertisers are equipped to make wise business decisions.
Additionally, advertisers should spend some time choosing and tweaking their keyword lists. Advertisers should consider using keywords that focus on their business’ unique qualities or offerings that differentiate them from others in the same market, For example, a niche business owner might emphasize their free delivery offering or excellent customer service to stand out from the crowd and reach the most targeted audience possible.
What reports are most overlooked?
First of all, advertisers need tracking properly enabled. If not, the reports are much less useful and underutilized.
The Search Query Performance report tells you a lot of valuable information by revealing the exact keywords your potential customers are querying on Google to trigger your ads. It helps you manage your keyword lists by tracking their performance and can even identify any poorly matched keywords.
For those who are also advertising on relevant sites in the Google content network, the Placement Performance report helps you figure out which sites are effective. After all, 5% of all internet activity is spent on a search engine, and the other 95% is on something else. The Google content network allows you to find the other 95% by showing you the performance statistics of your content campaigns on specific domains and URLs, you can eliminate poorly suited sites and increase your bids on those that are highly relevant.
Is Google offering any new search products?
The new Search-based Keyword Tool can help any advertiser who has felt overwhelmed by the task of choosing the right keywords. The tool analyzes your landing pages, compares it against actual Google search queries, and then suggests highly-relevant keywords that are not already included in your paid search account. By recommending keywords based on their fit with your landing page, you can identify previously-missed keyword opportunities, including niche terms you never might have thought of, and capitalize on the long tail. This takes the guesswork out of the keyword selection process because rather than adding keywords to a campaign based on what you think a customer might search for, you can manage your keywords based on what you know they’re searching for.
Finally, the new Adwords interface is a makeover from our previous one. It has a lot of enhanced features, like roll-ups tabs on every page so you can see keywords, ad text, and placements across multiple ad groups at once. With in-line editing, you can make immediate changes instead of clicking and loading five separate pages to adjust bids. Performance graphs also enable a greater integration of reports and campaign management, turning it into a one-step process, and there are also keyboard shortcuts, filters, and customizable columns in the new interface that make it easier to navigate. Basically, managing accounts through the new version of AdWords should be more effective, speedy and intuitive.
Summary:
360Partners believes that landing page optimization is an integral piece to any online marketing initiative. Increasing landing page conversion rates will simultaneously increase conversions and lower the cost to acquire them.
360Partners has been optimizing landing pages for the past 10 years. Over the course of that time, we’ve tested hundreds of pages. The result of such testing is that we’ve developed many best practices and incorporated a successful process to improve any landing page.
If you’re not currently optimizing any landing pages, contact us and we’ll help you get started.
About Frederick Vallaeys
Frederick Vallaeys is a Product Evangelist for Google AdWords. In this role, he helps advertisers learn about which Google products can best solve their marketing needs. He also represents the needs of advertisers with the engineering and product management teams. His main product focus is on ads quality and bulk tools like the AdWords Editor and the AdWords API.
