Written by Dwight Miller on March 4, 2008 – 4:51 pm
I’ve been working on a client’s PPC campaign and just got off the phone with this client. Basically I had an argument with the client about his campaign and why it’s not working. The client insists (despite concrete evidence to the contrary) on landing prospect on the main page of his website forcing the prospect to search all around looking for what they want. More often than not what they want isn’t even obviously available on his site, so the prospect flounders around until he quits (We can prove it by looking at his bounce rate)
My argument is that this is stupid (I guess you can tell I’m still steamed). When a prospect see a PPC ad and they click on the ad, they want to see the same message on the site. The process is called message to market match, in other words, when the prospect clicks on an ad, they land on a page that continues the sales message alluded to in the ad.
My client insists this is hogwash (his words), my client wants to have the prospect see everything he had to offer. I say he is wrong and have decided to design a landing page (for FREE) to prove my point.
BUt this isn’t my thinking the effectiveness of landing pages has been proven over and over again compared to landing a prospect on your home page.
The prospect is looking for something specific, remember the client typed in a specific search string “womens shoes in philly”, when they click on your ad, they don’t want to have to find the womens shoes, they TOLD YOU WHAT THEY WHERE LOOKING FOR.
So, when running PPC, land your prospect on a page that helps them find what they want. If your like my client and don’t beleive that this increases conversion then at minimum test to see what works best.
Dedicated to your success
Dwight
BTW – If you want to learn more or talk about your campaign call me
