“No landing page is an island”, said John Donne in 1624 (give or take a few words). And he was right.

Just to be clear, in this instance John and I are talking about dedicated landing pages (landing pages that are linked to a PPC ad or a CTA button). These landing pages are usually orphan pages excluded from Google’s index. They have a single, primary purpose: to facilitate a conversion, usually after a user has clicked an ad.

Most people polish their ad copy until it squeaks and sparkles and A/B test their landing pages until they’re cross-eyed, but for some reason people seldom think about doing the two together.

Separately, your ads and landing pages are strong and successful, but put them together and they’ll form the ultimate power couple. Like Jay-Z and Beyonce. And that’s a lot of conversion-power.

Are you one of those marketers denying your ads and landing pages a chance at true love? Here’s how to fix that.

How To Improve your Ad x LP combos:

1.Keep Your Message Clear & Consistent Across Your Landing Page And Ad Copy.

‘Duh’ you think.

This seems so simple, but many ad x Landing Page combos could definitely tighten this up. In fact, you probably think you’ve got this waxed – but do you really?

Let’s take a moment to check.

When you run an AdWords campaign you need to make sure your promotional message remains the same throughout your entire advertising process. For example, if your Ad mentions a free quote, your landing page should mention a free quote too.

This keeps the message consistent and helps to ensure that the user can clearly see the selling point or offer  – A.K.A the thing that made them decide to click on your ad – visible on the landing page. This triggers an ‘Ah. I’m in the right place’ reaction.

Here’s an example of a company that’s landing page message isn’t as tight as it could be:

As you can see, the ad’s main message is “answer, route and manage calls”. It also mentions a free trial, but makes not mention of the keyword ‘receptionist’.

Now let’s look at the corresponding landing page:

The landing page, while by no means terrible, doesn’t really match the ad’s message.

There’s no mention of the free trial, switchboard, or routing/managing/answering calls.

Is a cloud phone system and a virtual switchboard the same thing? Even a split second decision like this is enough to cause a customer to press ‘back’.

The ad should be driving the action the CTA encourages, but in this case the CTA (Check out our unbeatable prices) isn’t mentioned in the ad itself.

Mismatches – even slight ones like these – are likely to result in higher bounce rates, more wasted clicks and a lower conversion rate. Boo.

2.Do you have one landing page for multiple ads?

This is sad, because landing pages actually prefer to be monogamous.

A one-size-fits-all approach is seldom effective when it comes to ad-landing page match making.  After all, your ad copy is what enticed the user to click through, now you want your landing page copy to follow through on that.  

Each unique ad needs it’s own dedicated landing page that’s specifically designed as a for that particular product or offer, and for that particular ad.

This is something that both Google and your customers will appreciate.

3.Is your USP apparent in your ads (as well as you Landing pages)?

It’s best practice to tell customers why they should choose you (or this particular product, deal or offer) in both your ads and your landing page.

Most people include their best selling points in their landing pages, but forget about adding them to their ads, or vice versa.

Does your service offer a free trial with no credit card required?  Has your company consistently ranked best-in-class for your product category? Make that obvious in your ad as well!

Using straightforward and compelling selling points will increase CTRs, conversion rates and improve your overall PPC campaign.

Have a look at the number of awesome selling points in this ad for Superbalist:

Get my order in 9 hours? Free delivery? Discounts? eCommerce awards?? Holy moly.

You can see why this ad would get more clicks that it’s competitor who only tells customers “safe and secure online shopping”.  

4.Do you use Trust signals in your ads (as well as you Landing pages)?

Like the point above, social proof and trust signals aren’t only for your landing pages, you can – and should – include them in your ad copy too.

There has never been more ad copy space and ad extension options than there are now – it would be silly not to take advantage!

For example, look at the social proof used in this ad for Uber Eats:

Trust signals like these give users the push they need to choose your ad. Once they’ve clicked through to your landing page, they should see more just like it.

This continued messaging is effective in helping users make a decision.

Conclusion:

Having a landing page that’s getting along with it’s partnered PPC ad is a game changer. It’s one of the easiest ways to improve user experience and overall landing page conversion rates.

The better the relationship between PPC ads and landing pages, the better your campaigns will be, so don’t be afraid to get your Cupid on!

Tags: ad copy, AdWords, landing page copy, PPC, relevant, TBA/ landing page