Pamela SapioIf your paid advertising efforts are failing to meet your goals, consider this: High-performing PPC campaigns are only as strong as the elements supporting them.
This includes your ad copy, your creative assets, your budget, and—most importantly, for the purpose of this blog—your website or dedicated landing page.
In this short video, Solutions 8 Strategist Team Leader Glen Wilson helped Client Manager Daniel Garduño troubleshoot why one of his paid traffic accounts was stalling. Looking at the client’s website, Glen noticed some pretty big red flags that were likely linked to a low conversion rate. We’ve outlined them below to help you avoid the same mistakes.
Before you can even think about scaling your PPC campaigns, make sure these things are optimized first.
Your calls to action (CTAs)
A clear, concise call to action that is easy to identify will go a long way toward improving your conversion rate. The CTA should be the same throughout the page, and it should be in a color that inspires action. Green is the most popular for CTA buttons, Glen reminds us, because green means go.
“With CTAs, we want to subliminally imprint on a visitor,” says Glen. He adds that it should be very clear that you want visitors to do one thing and one thing only: Click on anything that’s green.
While scrolling through the client’s website in the video, he also recommended adding a sticky bar—a banner that “sticks” to the top or bottom of the page as users scroll up or down. This ensures, along with the color, that the visitor’s eye is continually drawn to the CTA.
In addition, said Glen, use larger text and make it bold so it stands out. If your phone number is the action item, for example, make it big and bold so people know that is what they need to click on. (This should be easy enough to do with WordPress or CSS.)
Your layout and readability
Layout and readability are also important. Nobody wants to read a large chunk of text, especially if it spans all the way across the page. Instead, there should be clearly defined sections that are easy to read with a quick glance.
Start with a strong, benefit-focused headline, with a sub-headline that hits the key pain points of your target audience. Then, add smaller sections with clear headlines, short paragraphs, and bullets to break up the text even more.
Repeat your CTA throughout the page, and be sure to include social proof to instill trust and inspire readers to act. For example, you can include your satisfaction guarantee, 5-star reviews, business credentials and certifications, media mentions, years in business, and trust icons (payment and security badges, industry affiliations, social media icons, etc.).
Your traffic links
Inconsistency in the traffic links on your site can lead to a notable drop in conversions. Proper conversion tracking is a critical part of maintaining performance and keeping bounce rates low, so be sure to keep your traffic links consistent. It is important to know exactly where you want people to be directed (i.e., the URL) so that you can correctly track your conversions.
In addition, all of your CTAs should go to the same link to keep potential customers focused on the primary goal. If you have one CTA taking them to a “get a quote” page, another taking them to a “schedule a consultation” page, and still another taking them to a page about something else, they may lose focus and leave your site altogether.
The takeaway
At the end of the day, your PPC campaigns do not exist in a bubble. Rather, countless factors (many of which are within your control) will impact whether or not they perform optimally.
In this case, before you think about increasing your budget in an attempt to scale, make sure you really think through your sales funnel and take the steps above so that your website is fully optimized to support your paid advertising goals. Success is sure to follow!
