In paid search marketing, the difference between a profitable campaign & a wildly profitable campaign usually lies in the conversion rates of the landing page. Which is why you must keep testing till you get the highest possible conversion rate.
Bear in mind that pay per click visitors that click on your ad are not stupid, they know that they just clicked on an ad. That is the reason why they might be a little skeptical & you only have a very short time to capture their attention which is why your landing page must be really compelling for them.
Headline
Everybody knows that you must have a headline, right? The purpose of a headline in any ad or web page is to get people to continue reading, is it not for selling anything! At the same time, your headline should convey a clear & compelling benefit so that people will read on.
It should also be in a bigger font.Curiosity & Controversy
You want more compelling headlines? Add some element of curiosity in it, combine it with an element of controversy, I doubt few people can resist NOT reading the rest of the copy. Want ideas for such headlines? Go to Digg & see which stories are most popular, they will give you great ideas.
Action Area
If your landing page is a squeeze page or a page to get people to click on your affiliate link, you call to action must be above the fold, which means, people do not have to scroll their page to see it.
Simple Instructions
Give super clear & simple instructions. Do you want them to enter their email or zip code or simply to click on the link or button? Tell them in the simplest language possible. You can go a step further & tell them the reasons why they should do what you told them to do. This will increase your response rate.
Eliminate Distractions
Remember, we are talking about landing pages not content portals, therefore there should be only 1 single purpose, (enter email, enter zip code, click on a link, click on a button), nothing else! Eliminate all distractions!
Which is the reason why the links to your contact page, privacy policy page are right down at the bottom & in smaller fonts. Even if they do click on those links, you want them to be opened in a new tab or browser so that they stay on your landing page.
Summary
Get your visitors attention with your headline, show them the most compelling benefits & tell them to take an action now, not today because today can mean 12 hours later which they would not remember you by then. Once again, take action now, not today!
Paid Search Marketing - How to Create High Converting Landing Pages