The landing page of any website plays a significant role in PPC campaigns. Good landing page optimisations provides you with two benefits. Firstly, the better your landing page is optimised, the more conversions you can expect to make. The final goal of PPC landing page optimisation is to build pages that reach out to your targeted audience directly, allowing you to gain more leads through paid search.
Secondly, by following the best AdWords practices on your landing page, your Quality Score will improve, making every click cheaper and allowing you to get the most out of every ad campaign. Landing page optimisations processes are critical for success, but it can be daunting and time-consuming, so be ready to invest yourself completely to get the best results.
Contents
There are many different practices and techniques people use to optimise their landing pages. Sadly, many of them don't provide the best results, and if you pick the wrong method, you can end up spending a lot of time and money without getting the desired results.
Instead of sticking to proven procedures, site owners experiment with all kinds of methods, and if one of them doesn't work, they go ahead and restart everything from the beginning.
That's just not how you do things. You need to identify problems using various landing page optimisation tools, and only then can you start working on every little detail that leads to fewer conversions. Once you've pinpointed everything, you can start making changes one by one until your landing page is fully optimised to the latest industry standards.
You can do that by using all kinds of tools designed to highlight any potential issues you might have. Let's take a closer look at how these tools aid with landing page optimisations and why you need them.
Many SEM tools offer heatmaps to help you understand what your visitors are doing when they reach your landing page. You can see exactly where they click, how fast they scroll through each page, what captures their attention, and what they ignore entirely.
In other words, heatmaps can show you how a landing page works by helping you visualise your visitors' behaviour. In practice, that means that the software will crunch all of the data on your landing page and provide you with detailed heatmaps that tell you which parts of the page attract visitors and which parts are not that interesting.
The most popular areas are "hot," while the unpopular parts are "cold." Once you figure that out, you can replace the "cold' parts with new information and website elements to see if they attract more people.
Everything from there is a matter of trial and error, but you'll soon get the hang of things and understand your audience better, which will allow you to insert only the information that attracts visitors.
Similarly to heatmaps, scroll maps also allow you to visualise how your visitors behave once they reach your website. Unlike heatmaps that show you where the user's click, scroll maps tell you how fast visitors scroll through your landing page. In other words, you will get the same "hot" and "cold" visualisation of the areas of your page where your visitors scroll quickly or slowly.
Scroll maps are great because you can use them to collect data from all devices, including tablets, mobile phones, and desktop computers.
You can use the data to understand how many users scrolled all the way down to the page and get an average fold score. That tells you what part of the page visitors see first before they start scrolling further.
When you see a blue area of your website, it hardly gets viewed by any users. Red, yellow, and green areas are those that are scrolled through the most. Once you get that information, you can redesign your landing page and get better results.
Like the two previous heatmap techniques, confetti maps allow you to see where your visitors click within your landing page. The data extracted can provide you with important information about which areas of the page work and which ones don't.
The technique is called confetti because your screen is riddled with confetti dots that represent clicks. The "hot" areas are the ones that get the most clicks, and the "cold" areas are the ones that don't get any clicks at all.
Confetti reports can help you understand which search terms brought visitors to your site, how your ad campaigns are doing, and which days of the week work the best for your website.
Overlay reports provide you with valuable information about all clickable elements on your landing page. They give you a detailed percentage of clicks each element has, allowing you to identify those elements that drive your visitors away from making a conversion.
That gives you a better idea of how to improve the overall user experience and your conversion rate. In other words, it's one of the most effective methods for understanding user behaviour.
These reports allow you to gather important information you can't get from recording user sessions, and the reports you get will help you visualise all clicks on your landing page. Again, you'll get a colourful report that will tell you which areas need improvement.
List reports provide the same information as heatmaps and confetti maps, but instead of visual representation, you are presented with numbers. You will also be able to breakdown every single element on your landing page, but instead of guessing how many clicks they got, you will get exact numbers.
These reports will tell you exactly which elements of your landing page are not providing the desired results. You can then compare them with each other and figure out which elements to replace with new ones that engage your audience more.
When you finally get a better look at what works and what doesn't, you will have to know what practices to use to get the most out of your website's landing page. Below you will find a list of the best methods you should incorporate into your website, and you will surely increase your click rate, conversions, Quality Score, and decrease the amount you have to pay for every click.
Getting visitors to your website is only half of the job done. You must be able to capture their attention and interest them enough, so they read more about your offer and finally make a conversion. Your headline plays a significant role in this process.
If it's good enough, your visitors will make the choice of purchasing something from your offer much more easily. That's why your headline has to be clear, easily noticeable, and positioned very accurately.
Positive example
Here is an example of a good headline that captures the audience and makes it want to know more about the offer. It's clear, easy to read, and positioned well.
Negative example
Here's a bad example of a landing page where you don't get sufficient information immediately. Everything feels cluttered, and visitors lose interest if the information they need isn't placed well.
When your visitors reach the landing page, they want to get the information they need as quickly as possible. That's precisely why you should keep the reading to a minimum and make your copy as concise as possible.
If they have to read through multiple paragraphs to get a better idea of what you're offering, they will either lose interest or get the wrong information. Keep more detailed information on product pages and blogs, and include only the critical stuff on the landing page.
Positive example
Here is an excellent example of using the copy to attract visitors and interest them more about your offer. The text is at a minimum, but you still get a good idea of what the website is about.
Negative example
On the other hand, this example tells you exactly what not to do with your landing page copy. Everything is cluttered, you can't figure out what the website is about, which means that your visitors are more likely to go elsewhere.
The headline and copy you use on your landing page is critical, but you still have to present it in the right way to capture your audience. The idea is to develop a clean, professional design that makes your visitors trust. You also have to keep the design consistent with your brand, so that nothing stands out too much. Doing so will increase your conversion rate and revenues in the long-run.
Positive example
Take Spotify's landing page, for example. Instead of listing genres of music, artists, or any other details, it says, "Music for Everyone." It's a simple and catchy hook - sometimes, less is more.
Negative example
On the other hand, this landing page is cluttered and has too much information, which distracts people from the original intention.
Sticky headers are better known as fixed headers. What happens is that the header stays on top of the page when someone keeps scrolling through, unlike classic headers that are lost the moment a visitor scrolls down.
Sticky headers provide an excellent way of structuring your landing page. They improve the user experience, which is why it's one of the trendiest techniques used by website designers worldwide. Apart from offering excellent navigation, it also keeps your brand on top of the page at all times.
Example
As you can see in the image above, even when you are scrolling down the site, the heading is clearly visible. This makes it easier for people to navigate throughout the website without having to scroll all the way up.
Scarcity techniques are an excellent way of provoking your visitors to take action. Using the in-built fear of missing out on sales or discounts, you can drive your conversion rates up without too much hassle.
If you tell your visitors that your offer's products are limited and make them feel that they will miss out if they don't make a decision right away, you can persuade them to buy what you offer and increase sales. These techniques include
Example
Here's an example of using a simple scarcity technique to drive sales. The image on the left promises next day delivery for a product, while the image on the right doesn't use a scarcity technique. The chances are that a simple trick as a countdown timer will increase sales when compared to a product that doesn't offer any benefits if bought right now.
Call to action is one of the essential details every landing page needs, and you will have to include it on every other page and increase conversion. However, make sure that your landing page features a big, eye-catching CTA button to make it easier for the users to purchase something from your offer.
If your headline and intro are to the point, a big CTA button can save users time and take them straight to the product page or checkout. Think of it as a shortcut that allows visitors to purchase something immediately.
Example
You can also add your contact information at the bottom of the page to make it easier for visitors to ask questions and get more information about your offer. You could do the same with a Contact Us page, but keeping everything on the same page will make visitors take some kind of action much easier.
If your copy is good and captures their attention, they will feel like they can ask you for more details, and when you give them the answers they want, you will get a conversion. It's simple as that.
Example
Here is an excellent example of how to present your contact information. It is clear, crisp, and to the point.
It's a well-known fact that many people look for user reviews and testimonials when purchasing something online. Instead of making them go to other websites to find their answers, it's always a good idea to provide them with a few testimonials on the landing page. That way, they can get the reassurance they need to make a purchase, without going to your competition to get answers. Testimonials build trust, and trust sells products and services.
Example
Testimonials can come in many different shapes. You can provide textual testimonials from other users, add screenshots taken from social media pages as social proof, or use visual customer testimonials such as photos and videos. Here's an excellent example of a textual testimonial.
Forms can help you generate leads, but only if you do it right. Nothing can scare your visitors away like a lengthy, detailed form that takes minutes to complete. Instead of asking them to provide all kinds of details, you should keep your forms as simple and short as possible.
Make it look inviting and clean, and use directional cues to guide visitors to the form. Also, you should clearly state what benefits you offer for every visitor that completes the form. Something simple as a 10% discount or a free item should do the trick.
Example
One of the most important things to keep in mind is consistency. Everything on your website should be consistent with the expectations your users have when they arrive on your website.
That includes your ads as well. When you start a story through an ad, it has to continue on your landing page, and you have to serve it one bite at a time to keep your audience interested all the way until they make a conversion. Use the same fonts, writing style, and website interaction if possible.
Landing page SEO is another essential feature if you're looking to establish long-term lead generation. By optimising your webpage SEO, you will increase its value, which will result in better website ranking and, ultimately, more conversions. Not all traffic comes from ads and PPC campaigns, so you must do what you can to increase your chances of popping up in searches relevant to the keywords you use.
Once you've narrowed down what works and what doesn't, you will have to undergo regular A/B testing to see what combination of methods gives you the best results. A/B testing landing page is a critical step to success and a one you'll have to repeat regularly as the rules keep changing all the time.
A/B testing is a necessary step for all previous practices we covered. That includes testing multiple website designs using different images, messages, CTAs, button colours, forms, and everything in between.
You should go through A/B testing every time you implement a new element to see if it performs better than the design you used so far. It's an ongoing process that never stops if you want to stay relevant for a long time.
Now that you know how landing pages works and what landing page optimisations provide the best results, it's time to take a look at the things you should avoid doing.
Too much content will repel your visitors away in seconds. You should try to keep your copy as short and simple as possible, providing only key information without any fluff or detailed explanations. You can get into more detail after you make a conversion and generate leads, not the other way around.
While forms can help you generate leads, they will often turn people away from your landing page. The truth is that you should avoid using forms if you can and use other methods to capture the data you need. If you really want to get some kind of information, consider giving away white paper for free, without your users leaving their emails.
If you do that, remember to brand all pages with your contact information. If it's worth it, people will share it and help you generate more visitors naturally. That's always a better idea than forcing your visitors to fill out forms.
If you're offering products or services that have something to do with music, make sure that you include a big, eye-catching mute button and basic volume controls. That way, your visitors can mute or turn down the music if they can't listen to anything while they browse through your landing page. Music can be beneficial, but you don't want it to drive your visitors away because they can't turn it off.
Using generic images that can be found on Google will make your landing page look unprofessional and untrustworthy. That's why you should only use custom photos and images to show your visitors that you've put some extra effort into creating a unique user experience. Check out our guide on how to make stock photos look less generic.
Knowing how to optimise a landing page is one thing, but knowing which tools to use to get the best results is entirely different. Here are the most popular and effective landing page optimisation tools that will help you get the most out of your landing page.
Unbounce is currently one of the best landing page content builder tools that allow you to design excellent pages even if you're not a website developer. It uses the "drag and drop" system that allows you to add and remove elements from your landing page in minutes. Those elements include text boxes, forms, images, and everything in between.
The tool allows you to make changes whenever you want, and all of the pages you create using it will be fully responsive by default. It also makes it easy to include forms of any type, so that you can increase lead generation whenever you want.
Since the tool is so easy to use, you can quickly create multiple versions of your landing page and go through with A/B testing via the native feature found in the app. Lastly, the analytics will give you valuable data on your conversion rates, page stats, and so on. Depending on the plan you get, the Unbounce will set you back between $80 and $300 per month.
If you're looking for a simple landing page creator tool with a limited free trial, Instapage is an excellent choice. Even the paid version is quite affordable, making it the best choice for people with a limited budget. It works similar to Unbounce, and it also creates fully responsive landing pages by default.
Instapage also offers all-important webpage building features and an easy-to-use drag and drop building tool.
On top of that, you'll also get a built-in A/B testing feature, ideal for optimising your conversion rate. It's a simple tool that works great for beginners but isn't of much help if you need advanced features. With that said, you can still get most of the things done to get started.
One great thing about it is that it allows you to connect your domain directly so that everything you do is published on your website right away. It also comes with a WordPress plugin that will enable you to sync your landing page with your Instapage account. Instapage is currently available for $199 per month.
Unlike the previous tools on our list, Launchrock isn't a live landing page builder. You can only use it to create the "coming soon" type of pages. It's a great choice if you own a startup and want to create a hype about your offer before it goes live. You can use it to create a teaser while you work on your main website.
The tool is straightforward to use. All you have to do is pick a theme, and write a short message. The tool is very easy to use, and it's one of the most affordable landing page builders you can get. You can get Launchrock for only $29 per month.
Hello Bar is, just as its name suggests, a small thin bar found at the top of your landing page, and it can help you generate leads and display important messages. People use it for all kinds of reasons, but it's a powerful tool for email marketing.
You can link it to the top of your landing page and include some kind of CTA to drive extra traffic to your landing page. It also doubles as a way of informing your visitors about discounts and sales, without changing anything on the landing page itself.
All you have to do is install it on your page and start generating leads right away. The starter pack is free, but if you expect more than 5,000 monthly visits, you will have to pay from $29 to $99 per month.
Crazy Egg is a fantastic tool that offers one of the best heatmap tools ever created. It provides you with valuable insight into how people behave on your website. You can use the information you get to see which areas of your website need improvements and which ones deliver expected results.
The tool allows you to create heatmaps, scroll maps, confetti reports, list reports, and collect other data that will help you improve the user experience and increase your conversion rate. If any part of your landing page isn't delivering the expected results, simply remove it and replace it with something more engaging. Crazy Egg is available in multiple plans, with prices ranging between $24 and $249 per month.
Optimisely is one of the best tools for split testing landing pages. You don't need it if you're already using a landing page creator tool, but if your website is designed from scratch, it's the perfect tool for A/B testing. After you create an account, you can just paste your website's URL, and the tool will automatically give you multiple variations.
The tool comes with advanced content builder options you can use to edit any of the designs on the go. The testing will provide you with exact numbers on the traffic for all versions and track their performance over time. Once you see which version works best, you can stick with it and improve it further. Optimisely costs roughly $800 per month.
If you're looking for a great alternative to Optimisely, Visual Website Optimizer is the best choice. It's a user-friendly optimiser ideal for beginners as it makes most of the tasks very simple and easy to complete. After you enter your website's URL, it will allow you to change each element and complete A/B testing to see which version works best.
The tool will then give you codes you can just copy and paste in your landing page's header. When the data is analysed, you will get a detailed comparison of which one works better and why. Depending on the type of plan you select, VWO will set you back between $99 and $199 per month.
Every landing page depends on two key factors, the way it shows up for a visitor and the browser they use to open the website. That's why you must have a responsive landing page building tool to ensure that all visitors have the same experience.
Browsershots is a tool that will show you exactly how your website looks in different browsers and devices. It won't fix anything, but it will give you a better idea of what needs to be improved. All you need to do is to paste your URL in the box and click on the browser you want to check.
The tool offers over 100 browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, and many others. Browsershots is free for everyone.
You might find yourself in a situation where you've done everything right, but your conversion rates still don't want to go up. That is usually because your landing page doesn't provide the information your prospect expects. If you don't tune in your content with your visitor's needs, expectations, and desires, your conversion rates will suffer no matter what you try.
Here's a quick overview of the mistakes businesses make when doing landing page optimisations:
If the design of your website is not intuitive, it will turn people away because they won't be able to get the information they need right away. You must provide as many answers to their questions before they are even asked, which will help you increase your conversion rate.
If your headlines are not concise and clear, they will harm your conversion rates. Headlines are critical as they capture the reader's attention. If they have no visible purpose, your visitors will just close your website and look for other websites with more relevant headlines.
Remember that your copy and entire website has to be consistent all the way through. If you fail to make clear connections between your ad copy and landing page copy, the reader could feel that he came to the wrong place and continue looking for answers elsewhere.
CTA is the primary conversion goal on your landing page. As such, it has to be clear and unambiguous. In other words, your visitors have to know what they have to do to get something in return. The CTA needs to have an appropriate tone and language that's consistent with the type of product or service you offer.
The primary purpose of your landing page is to make conversions. That means that all of the information displayed on the page has to be oriented towards that goal. You can't have any distractions or misleading information on your landing page.
Everything you post has to be true, to the point, and informative. Put yourself in your visitor's shoes and answer their questions before they are asked. You must prove that your offer is the best they will come across.
After going over all of the things you should and shouldn't include in your landing page, you should have a better idea of what to do to increase your PPC campaigns' conversion rates. With that said, you should also be aware of the fact that landing page optimisations is an ongoing process that never stops.
You will have to keep finding new methods and keep A/B testing your website's landing page all the time if you want to keep your conversion rates up. With the use of visual tools and sticking to proven practices like keeping things simple and to the point, you will learn how to capture your audience and combine different practices to improve the conversion rates of your PPC campaigns.
It takes time to become a master of digital marketing, so don't give up. Keep working on your skills, and the results will follow.
But if you still need help with landing page optimisations, or with building a landing page that can convert customers, feel free to contact Heroes of Digital today.
Google Ads trends for 2025 that you cannot ignore
7 SEO trends for 2025 you cannot ignore
How to Create a PPC Report That Goes Beyond Vanity Metrics
5 Unique Ways to Find Trending SEO Keywords (No Keyword Tool Needed!)
How to get more appointments for your B2B business with digital marketing
Get A Free Proposal
