PPC Landing Page Essentials

In the last two months, we’ve never had so many calls regarding optimising existing Pay Per Click (PPC) Campaigns.

After analysis, these campaigns may not be set out how we’d like, ads might look a little wooly to us, but on the whole they’re in good shape.  The commonality amongst them, is the lack of good landing pages.

This SEO Liverpool post is about educating our readers on important landing page elements that will provide a good conversion benefit. Obviously, some elements are subjective but we feel those identified below are very important.

Elements Of A Good Landing Page

High Quality Product Images (Product Zoom And Multiple Views).

This is a simple win. As with most elements of design, consistency is the key. If you’re trying to imply trust, then product image resolutions are important. Background colour consistency, is the most noticeable, get this right and the page will look professional. If you’re selling a product that has small details or maybe the image size is small, then product zoom is also a good idea. If the product looks different from the back, or side, then you should have multiple images.

Product Demonstration Videos

These can be an excellent way not only to get across information in an easy to digest way, but also help monitor customer engagement. A video of instruction, with the odd testimonial and user experience thrown in, will speak volumes.

Calls To Action

Wow, if you have no calls to action then you don’t have a business. I’m a great believer in the psychological triggers associated with buying behaviour. A simple large buy button, one click ordering or even an email form to harvest data is a must.

Copy

Having good solid copy is vital. Lots of businesses write copy based on the product, saying how great it is, what they’ve achieved and how it can enhance your life. We think you should write your copy to these guidelines…

Feature – What are the killer features? We only care about those that relate to customer.

Benefit – How will these features benefit the client.

Experience – An example of how this product has helped, made life simpler or revolutionised a client process. You need a real world example.

Simple Shipping Instructions

Companies spend thousands of pounds making things simple. Don’t have lots of complicated instructions, keep it basic. If you need a popup to establish trust, or explain a little more then do so. Complex shipping instructions can lead to high shopping cart abandonment, even if you take a hit… remember 85% of something is better than 100% of nothing.

Maximise Trust

When we say trust, we’re talking web-trust. How can a prospective client differentiate your business from a 16 years olds bedroom enterprise.

Simple accreditation’s are quick and easy, but make sure you use high resolution images. If you’re industry has them, make sure you do.

Testimonials are a powerful trust indicator.

You should try and anticipate any part of the process where a prospective client may need trust. If they fill in this email contact form, are they going to get spammed, will you sell their data. All such issues have simple resolutions, just look at other established e-commerce landing pages.

Hope this post was useful

Advanced Business to Business Marketing

This week at SEO Liverpool we’ve had a discussion this about how best to leverage b2b marketing. Have a look at our tips.

10 Tips for business-2-business marketing

1. Reach prospects early in the buying cycle
2. Advertise in “the tail”
3. Include non banded keywords
4. Pre qualify clickers
5. Focus and align ad copy
6. Create very specific landing pages and microsites
7. Test pages continuously
8. Offer multiple action options
9. Simplify registration forms
10. Turn web inquiries into sales leads

Advertising in the tail

Example is software: the tail would go to software…. enterprise software… business enterprise software and so on

Include non banded keywords

  1. Use adcopy to pre-qualify clickers
  2. Address your specific target audience

Pre qualify clickers

  1. Align ad copy with search query
  2. Modify copy across buying cycle
  3. laptop computer -> laptop information -> laptop user reviews -> ibm laptop models -> ibm thinkpad t61

Microsite

  1. Typically between 3-10 pages.
  2. Focused on a solution or client type.
  3. It eliminates the political stuff that comes with changing a corporate website

Test page elements – landing page testing

  1. Run a/b or multivariate constantly on microsites.
  2. Pick items to test.
  3. Page layout.
  4. Action triggers.
  5. Images.

Registration form placement.

  1. Names and descriptions of downloadable assets
  2. Registration form fields

Track & improve results

  1. Get some decent metrics into a chart of 60 days

Secondary actions

  1. Allow for more than just one action
  2. Registration forms

*Scour the internet and look for great examples of these*

For more information contact SEO Liverpool

PPC Basics Part 2

SEO Liverpool understand that Using Pay Per Click without knowing the fundamentals of advertising and writing copy is absolutely pointless. You’ll be taken to the cleaners and beaten at every turn by people who have learnt the game and understand the equilibriums

There are excellent resources available for quickly and painlessly learning the fundamentals. Obviously experience, is key but practising the fundamentals will improve your results the minute you start. You can run small campaigns at relatively little cost that will help you gain the understanding needed.

Book-wise if you’re a novice their is no shame in the Adwords for Dummies by Howie Jacobson. Excellent read and still a good resource for anybody involved in running a campaign. The only drawback is Google adds features periodically to it’s Adwords dashboard and you need to keep update with the latest tools.

Also check out this PPC video… it will help you understand how the process of the bid auction works

You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video

Pay Per Click (PPC) The Fundamentals

Here at SEO Liverpool we are always trying to implement successful PPC advertising campaigns. How successful can we be you ask? We regularly hit Click Through Ratio’s of 5 and 11 percent obviously dependant on keyword competition. Double-digit rates are common, even for most competitive of PPC campaigns. Return on investment of is our major selling point and primary aim. Depending on client average customer values it can easily hit 100% more often than not.

Always check out Google advice and Youtube videos for the free help and advice…. never refuse Google help when it’s offered and just keep A/B testing.

Most of the techniques I’m going to share are based on the science of PPC. Simplistic best practices for constructing campaigns, Understanding the data, and interpretations to improve results. The rest is creative! Writing and designing you adverts and landing pages. Best practices and guidelines have already been studied and reported for years, and various resource as mentioned above are available for free.

The basics are based around exceptional keyword research, account/campaign structure, ad writing and design, bidding strategy, landing page design, and conversion optimisation. Always try and pick up a few new tips from blogs and guidelines that are constantly evolving. I guarantee you will always discover activities you can improve on and ways of taking your campaign over the top.
To succeed with PPC advertising depends on the ability to make potential clients take action, based completly on a few well researched and timed keywords or phrases. You don’t have to understanding how a search algorithm works or use all the features of Google AdWords. (although all if not most are useful and they add more periodically).

The ability to write persuasive ad copy using just 130 characters is a big challenge. Especially if you’re up against significant competition. Your words must not only persuade; they must stand out from a page full of words all shouting for your customer’s attention. And after your words have convinced the searcher to click through to your site, it’s persuasive words (augmented by graphics) that convince the visitor to become a customer. The best of the best online marketers have been testing, and refining ad writing techniques for a years now so there are some excellent resources out there. Learn the science then work on your creativity.
If you need any help please contact Summit Online Marketing 07968 848 228 for more help and advice or wait for the next exciting instalment!