Written by Ted Dhanik
The Web is a busy place, especially on websites that have content and other banners competing for the attention of users. In addition, your space and visibility is further limited by the actual placements of your banner advertising. It’s important to know the tricks for aligning your banner advertising with your landing page so that you don’t waste the attention of a user when you happen to catch it.
Find the Purpose of the Ad
Your ad is the first contact a user makes with you and your brand. It’s a good chance to incorporate the colors and imagery that are associated with your brand: things like the logo or the color scheme. It’s also the first (and possibly only) shot you get at creating a call to action that actually drives users to do something.
Your ad copy must also explain what your product is and detail the problems it solves. All of this has to be done within just a few lines of text, or else you risk cluttering your ad with a lot of unnecessary copy. Once users have clicked on your ad, you get the opportunity to try to sell them on your products. This is where a solid landing page comes into play.
Define the Landing Page Role
In Internet marketing, we refer to a difference between two things that a user sees as a disconnect. An example of this would be copy that says “Buy Now” with a landing page that says “View Information.” The user is expecting to buy something, so offering information sets the whole operation back a step. If you determine the focus of your landing page, you’re less likely to suffer from this kind of aimless marketing.
Ask yourself what you want the user to do, then work on shortening the time between point A and point B. For instance, getting a user to buy something typically requires information like a shipping address and payment information. Therefore, you want to design your page so that the user is prompted for these items as soon as possible.
Test for Quality
Even Google tests its landing pages to see what changes they can make to improve conversions on a page. The key to improving any landing page with display advertising is to test and check your theories constantly. Through repeated testing you learn how to better optimize your ad, which calls to action are likely to work, and how to shorten or lengthen your sales funnel to improve conversions.
Bio: For over fifteen years, Ted Dhanik has been a thought leader in the sales and direct marketing space. Now, Ted Dhanik acts as the president and co-founder of engage:BDR. To supercharge your marketing campaigns with targeted traffic, visit Ted Dhanik online.