Internet Marketing - Matt Bailey [243]
Ecommerce
Here are two examples to consider, using the ads covered so far in this week’s content. If you remember the fishing pole ads that appeared in the search results, you’ll also remember that the most relevant ad was the one for Dick’s Sporting Goods (refer to Figure 19-4). In addition to the great headline, ad content, and display URL, the link also sends visitors to a landing page that matches both the content and the offer of the ad, as shown in Figure 19-9.
Figure 19-9: The landing page for the Dick’s Sporting Goods ad for fishing poles
As you can see, the landing page matches the ad by showing products that match the search and the content of the ad. In addition, the offer contained in the ad was for free shipping. The header under the navigation reinforces the free shipping offer, so the visitor can be assured that the offer has carried through from the ad to the website.
In contrast, the ad for Cabela’s (in Figure 19-4) offered no relevant content of the search for a fishing pole. The landing page from that ad maintains that lack of relevance and association (Figure 19-10). The ad directs visitors to the home page for Cabela’s, which then forces the visitors to navigate the website to the fishing area, which increases the chances that a visitor will give up and shop elsewhere. (In fact, when looking at all the ads that Cabela’s displays for other keywords and products, all the PPC ads send all of the click-throughs to the home page. None of the other ads takes visitors to the content that they are searching for; they are all sent to the home page, as if it is the most relevant page for everyone.) In addition, the images shown on the home page are focused on hunting, not fishing, which creates the impression of irrelevance right off the bat and has very little to do with the intent of the searcher who clicked the ad.
Figure 19-10: Cabela’s sends all PPC visitors to their home page.
Landing pages are not a one-size-fits-all proposition! Landing pages need to be customized and developed for each ad group and tested for effectiveness. The more relevant the landing page is for the visitor’s intent, the easier the conversion will be. It is simply smart business.
Cabela’s certainly isn’t alone in its poor marketing. Let’s take another look at perhaps the most irrelevant ad for a fishing pole in Figure 19-1: eBillMe.com. Its ad was focused on gift cards (see Figure 19-11a), and the display URL was advertising that visitors were going to a page about gift cards. The landing page (Figure 19-11b) doesn’t vary from this intent; a visitor who searches for fishing pole could click the eBillme.com result and then be shown a landing page that has no remote relation at all to the need and intent expressed by the searcher. The landing page is about gift cards, and even then, none of the gift cards in the page is related to fishing.
a
b
Figure 19-11: (a) eBillMe.com’s PPC ad for fishing pole focuses on gift cards. (b) The landing page is a world apart from the fishing pole of the searcher’s intent.
Lead Generation
For lead generation sites, the offer has to be contained within the limited space of the ad, and then the landing page needs to reflect the ad, present compelling reasons to register, and present an easy method of completing the lead form or the registration. There is not a lot of time to waste with the searcher, and within a few seconds, the message has to be easy to process and have a hook strong enough to gain the lead.
A good example of this is the search results for CRM software. For a sales product that has an extended sales cycle and focuses on lead generation, the top advertisers need to capture the lead as quickly as possible by providing specific calls to action, benefit statements, and compelling reasons to move forward in the process.
The top three advertisers for the term CRM software have all developed a landing page specific to the campaign ad group. Each also creates a