What marketer doesn’t like to increase the conversion rate on their ads? It’s what we all want, yet, one of the most important factors in closing the deal is often forgotten: the landing page.
Some companies (ahem, a lot of companies) direct their ads to the homepage. We get it – it’s a hassle to create a landing page for every new campaign. But that consistency is exactly what’s expected from users and, yes, it does result in higher conversions.
While it might take more effort, creating a landing page that’s consistent with your ad is certainly worth your while. Read on to learn why landing pages are so much more effective than homepages in increasing conversions on your ads.
5 reasons why landing pages increase conversion rate on your ads
1. Landing pages carry over the ad experience
Who’s the audience you’re targeting in your ad? Is it Gen Z women? If so, wouldn’t they be a bit confused if they tap on the ad thinking “this is for me” but get directed to a landing page that doesn’t feature any Gen Z women, or worse, features older men? Or maybe you’re targeting puppy owners in your ads. If it leads to a homepage about generic dog food rather than puppy food, you’ve lost ‘em. But personalize the experience from ad to landing page and your customer will feel seen, heard, and much more likely to buy.
The good news? Not everything needs to be the exact same. The ad experience has a few key elements:
- the messaging (or key theme)
- the visuals
- the offer
- the audience
You might be able to get away with mixing and matching landing pages with ads that have a different key theme or message. For example, the ad theme may be testimonials, or it may be “how it works.” These can have the same audience and offer provided in the ad, and direct to the same landing page that features both the testimonials and the “how it works” section. See the ad and landing page below for a great example.
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The non-negotiable: your landing page must be unique to the audience and the offer. And of course, there should be some consistency in the visuals (that’s just Branding 101).
2. Landing pages answer questions sparked by the ad
While homepages serve a more general audience that aim to cast as wide a net as possible, landing pages answer specific questions that the user will have after they see your ad.
There’s a reason they clicked on that ad and they want to finish the storyline you started. You can’t take them to a different story and expect them to stay interested enough to keep reading.
In a “vs. the competition” ad, for example, the landing page should answer questions about how the product specifically compares to the mentioned competitor. When all their questions are answered, boom, conversion. While you might have this info on your homepage, it will take the user a lot more scrolling to find the info they need, and by the time they reach your comparison chart, they’ve already bounced.
3. Landing pages have a single call to action
Perhaps the biggest thing that makes a landing page a landing page is the one singular purpose it serves. While homepages aim to educate the audience, provide value, and offer loads of different content, landing pages have one single call to action: make a purchase or submit a form.
When you limit the distraction caused by navigation menus, case studies, blog posts, and other links, the user has a much more streamlined pathway to your conversion point. You don’t provide the temptation for them to click away to another area of your site. Instead, you show them exactly what to do. To make it even easier on them, you should add multiple CTA buttons throughout your landing page so that if they’re already convinced, they don’t have to keep scrolling.
See how there’s no navigation on this landing page?
4. Landing pages show personalized social proof
While a homepage might feature rave reviews about your product in general, a landing page can get very specific to your target audience. For example, in a “vs. the competition” ad, the reviews on your landing page can make direct references or comparisons to your competitors, or pain points your competitor didn’t solve that you do. Check out this example from the Super Coffee landing page we saw earlier:
Likewise, you can (and should!) tailor the UGC on the page to the specific audience or product featured in the ad. This personalization provides reliability and trustworthiness that you can’t achieve with just generic UGC and generic reviews. Today, representation matters more than ever. People want to see people who look like them in your ads and on your landing page.
5. Landing page wins tend to last longer than ad wins
You shouldn’t just test your ads. You should also test your landing pages. Test big ideas and iterations, just as you would with your on-platform ad creative, in order to find wins. We’ve found that after testing a few different landing pages and finding wins, those wins last much longer than ad wins. A landing page might be successful for 4-5 months, whereas in-platform ad creative quickly fatigues out and is successful for a much more limited time.
This is reassurance that, while you’ll have to create new ad creative pretty often, you can continue to reap the benefits of strong landing page performance when launching new ads.
Landing pages increase conversion rate and decrease CPA
This is all great, right? But is it actually proven to help you achieve your goals? Of course!
After starting a new campaign and testing dozens of Facebook-friendly, mobile-first landing pages, we found a clear landing page win for our client, Madison Reed. It was a “how it works” style landing page covering the three simple steps of their product. The results:
- It increased click-to-purchase conversions by 54%
- It Increased customer acquisition by 41% when paired with ad creative wins
Need another example?
For our client, Otter.ai, we tested and found a winning, quiz-style landing page that increased conversion rate 65%. We also made a landing page specific to their retargeting ads, and therefore, their more middle-of-funnel audience, which lowered retargeting CPA by 43%.
Time to increase CVR on your landing pages
If you’re already using landing pages for your ads, congrats! If not, here are a few tips on how to create landing pages that convert.
Already running landing pages but not seeing those conversions? We can help! Get expertly crafted landing pages with Primer On-Demand or leverage our full-service agency for landing page and ad testing for maximum growth.
