How Do I Build a Landing Page for Google Ads?

via Wishpond https://ift.tt/3hLGk0I Your landing page is the heart of your marketing campaign. When you get smart about online marketing,...

via Wishpond https://ift.tt/3hLGk0I

Your landing page is the heart of your marketing campaign. When you get smart about online marketing, you use Google Ads to drive more traffic to your Google Ads landing pages, right?

Now, for you online marketers that use it regularly, you know that Google Ads gives Quality Scores for your ad and ad content.

But, did you know Google Ads ranks your landing pages too? The better your score, the better your Ad positioning, cost per click, and overall advertising success.

Here’s how to build a landing page for your Google Ads campaigns.

Plan your online marketing campaign

A little planning goes a long way in online marketing success. Hey, if you don’t have a clear direction and a least some sort of path for what you want to achieve, you’re not going to get the results you need.

To increase your Google Ads ranking, you need to plan your landing page with Google Ads in mind.

Here are 7 questions to better plan your landing page for Google Ads campaigns:

1. What do I want out of my Google Ads landing page?

List out the results you need to achieve from your Google Ads landing page. In other words, tie your online marketing operation to your company's marketing objectives.

Do you need:

• Lead generation
• Coupon participants
• Increased website traffic
• Webinar participants
• eBook downloads
• Demo bookings

Take it further by asking:

• How many leads do you need, by when?
• How many coupons do you need redeemed, and in what time frame?
• How much website traffic does your company need for this particular landing page?

The clearer you know what it is you’re aiming to achieve, the better results you’ll get, and the better you can plan out an Ads campaign to drive clicks to your Google landing page.

2. Who’s your target market?

Let’s face it, you need to know who you’re designing your landing page and Google Ads for.

If you don’t know who’s going to convert on your page, you’re not going to attract the right audience to your page.

List out the key targets of your landing page:

• Is your landing page directed to B2B - if so, what type of business (SaaS, professional services, marketing companies, etc.)?
• Is your landing page directed to individual consumers - if so, list out your markets’ demographics (gender, age, location, income level, experience, etc.)

The better you understand your customer, the more you can target them with Google Ads, and the better you can adapt your Google Ads landing page design to conversions.

Advanced tip: You might find you have more than one target market and from your planning, you determine it’s best to run multiple landing page/Google Ads campaigns.

3. What’s my offer?

Before you build your Google Ads landing page, you - of course - need to know what you’re offering.

Are you solving a customer problem? Are you giving lots of great information away for free?

Answer these questions:

• What makes your offer unique?
• How are you better than your competitors?
• What are your key unique selling points (USP)?
• What are you offering right now to get your customer to convert?

4. What’s your competition doing?

It’s good practice to know your competition. Are they running an online marketing campaign? Are they using Google Ads landing pages yet?

Use your research to:

• Build a landing page that’s more effective
• Build a landing page that targets a different market and offer
• Build a landing page to show you’re more in the know about online marketing

5. What’s your message?

Figure out your marketing message. Use it on your Google Ads landing page, and use it to create matching ads in Google Ads.

Craft the most effective messages you can with your target audience in mind:

• What CTA’s will entice your demographic to convert?
• What headers will create the most emotional connection?
• What words resonate with your customer? _(for example: If your offer is a coupon for pizza delivery, and your market is busy families, use words like “busy schedules” or “healthy dinner options”; if your pizza delivery coupon is being marketed to college-aged customers, use words like “cheap pizza” or “super-large slices”)

The words in your message are important. The better you match your landing page message with your Google Ads copy, the higher quality score you get.

6. What top keywords will you use?

Don’t use all of your Google Ads keywords on your landing pages. But, do use your top keywords.

When you’re planning keywords in Google Ads:

• List out words your customer uses when they’re searching for you
• Brainstorm keywords related to your campaign
• Use the Google Keyword planner
• Think outside the box to generate lower-cost ads and reach your target market
• Be specific

Advanced tip: Use Dynamic Keyword Insertion to create more specific targeting.

Then, take your top 2-3 keywords to include them on your landing page. Google Ads loves matching pages and relevancy - so the more cohesive you make your landing page words with your Google Ads - you guessed it - the better your quality score.

7. How will you measure results?

Before you start promoting your Google Ads landing page, determine what tools you’ll use to measure your results.

Set up your preferred analytics to track your objectives in real-time, and to measure your landing page/Google Ads returns.

Use your data tools to A/B test your page too.

Build your Landing Pages for Google Ads

Once you’ve got your marketing foundation set, it’s time to use a landing page tool to build your page.

There are a number of key elements you need to include when you’re designing your page for an effective Google Ads operation.

Keep in mind that Google likes Google Ads landing pages that are:

• Relevant
• Useful
• Unique
• Easy to navigate
• Trustworthy

Here are 7 points to increase your quality score:

1. Use your top keywords on your Google Ads landing page

I know I’ve said this before, but the better you match your keywords on your landing page with those in your Google Ads, the more Google will like you.

Your customers will too.

If your Ad gets clicked on and people are directed to the destination landing page, the more cohesive it is, and more it matches your customers’ expectations, the more likely they will trust the page.

The more trust they have, the more likely they will convert.

2. Keep your offer consistent

Ok, this one’s pretty obvious, but when you’re running a solid marketing operation, you’ve got to keep your offer/ service/ product consistent throughout your sales funnel marketing.

For example, if your landing page is for a new service your business is offering:

• Set up a landing page that promotes the benefits
• Use your keywords for your service
• Use Google Ads that promote the same benefits and use the same keywords

3. Create a landing page that’s original and useful

Each of your landing pages needs to be unique. And each landing page needs to be useful for each of your Google Ads operations.

This means: Don’t just cut and paste your content from your other landing page offers.

Make your landing pages unique and specific for each Ad or Ad Group you intend to run. Include useful information too.

Remember that Google does read your destination landing page - the more applicable it is to your keywords and targeted market, the more Google will like you. Ah, your customers will like you too.

4. Design and write a clear CTA

One of the fundamentals of building a landing page that converts is to create a Call-to-Action that’s easy to see and enticing to click.

Make a CTA button in contrasting colors, and use short, action-oriented words to motivate a quick reaction. Making your CTAs better gets results - even changing the text of a CTA can increase conversions by 161%.

Here are a few ways to improve your Call-to-action on your landing pages:

• Use simple action words like “buy” “act now” or “get yours”
• Make a CTA button with contrasting colors
• Place your CTA where your customers will see it

5. Don’t add friction

Keep your page focused on one action you want from your visitors. I’ll say that again - keep your page focused on ONE action. If you add too many CTA’s you’re going to lose your conversions.

Keep the text and visual noise to a minimum on your landing page. Make it super obvious to your customer why they clicked through, and what it is they need to do next. Don’t spook them with distractions - make your customers feel comforted that they made a clear clickthrough choice.

6. Show who you are and what you do

Be upfront about who you are, what your offer is, and what your business does. Google likes pages that exude trustworthiness.

I know it’s easy to forget that not everyone knows who you are and what you do - but they don’t.

Be sure to include elements on your landing page that relate to this. Include a phone number, address, map, your clear tag line, or your business name and logo. (Keep in mind not to over-clutter with friction.)

Your landing page is often the first impression your visitor has of your business. Show them you’re upfront and open for business. You’ll increase conversion.

7. Build a landing page for Google Ads to read

Yes, Google can read your landing page kind of like a human. But, it is a website search engine. Google also reads your landing page like a, well, computer.

When you’re building your landing page (or your website developer or tech team is), don’t ignore the opportunity to relate with HTML, paths, and other SEO tactics.

Here are 3 ways to increase your Google Ads Quality Score:

Use good meta tags - Use meta tags like title tags, description attributes, alt tags, and more to convey what your page is about - and use your keywords.

Example: your title tags are what show up in your organic search results, too. Use keyword phrases on your page to code them in:

Match your content and title tags - Show Google that you’re telling your customers the same thing you’re telling those Google crawlers. Use consistent keywords in your title pages, and match them with your page content (or semantic signals).

Use your keywords in your landing page URL - That website address you use when you set up a new page on which to host your landing page is more important than you think. Make sure you’re using - yup, you guessed it - your top keywords that describe the purpose of your landing page.

Hey, Google actually uses the words in your path to help you decide what keywords to plan in your ad. So, make sure your keywords, or offer, is clear and easy to read.

A/B Test and Measure Results

A/B Testing

Always A/B test your landing pages and A/B your Google Ads campaigns. A/B testing is very common in online marketing. By making changes within your online marketing initiatives, you can test a control (“A”) against a variant (“B”), and scientifically optimize your landing page and Google Ads for conversions, clicks, and more.

For your landing page, A/B test your:

• Call-to-action wording, button, color scheme, and placement
• List of benefits
• Unique selling features
• Images

For your Google Ads campaigns, A/B test your:

• Headline
• Display URL
• Call-to-action
• Competitive advantage
• Wording of your offer

Run a number of A/B tests to achieve your cumulative optimized gains.

Measure Results

Set up your analytics tool to track your business marketing objectives. (See, that planning stuff works!)

Track your results for:

• Lead generation
• Coupon participants
• Increased website traffic
• Webinar participants
• eBook downloads

Depending on your analytics tool, you can track and measure how many leads your landing pages get, the costs of advertising, the number of sales conversions you get and a lot more. You can calculate your ROI for leads and sales and even make cool-looking charts to prove your marketing success.

Related Content

• 21 Ways: How to Create Landing Page/ Google AdWord Combos That Convert
• 25 Tips to Optimize Landing Page Conversions
• How to A/B Test your Landing Page to Maximize Conversions
• How to Optimize your Landing Page for Lead Generation
• 21 Actionable Landing Pages for Content Marketers

Conclusion

Wrapping things up, there are a few things you can do to optimize your landing pages for Google Ads. These include using the top keyword on your landing pages, keeping your offer consistent, create original and useful landing pages, having a clear CTA, removing friction, showing who you are, and building landing pages for Google Ads to read.

Try out these tips to optimize your landing page for Google Ads. Google will rank you higher - and you’ll likely increase your customer conversions - for a lower cost.

What do you think? How do you promote your landing pages? What tips do you have for using Google Ads?