Over the last few years, I’ve looked at thousands of landing pages, both PPC and on websites. I’ve researched them, blogged about them, and undertaken a bunch of audits for companies who felt their pages were letting them down in terms of conversion rates.

‍

There’s a lot of (often conflicting) information on the web about the design and copywriting ingredients that go into cooking up an amazing landing page. But the truth is:

‍

There’s no template that will give you a guaranteed amazing return on your investment.

It’s a hard truth, but Googling for “best ever landing page” or “amazeballs landing page template that will guarantee the success of my empire” will just send you down a rabbit hole to nowhere.

‍

From industry to industry, product to product, and business to business – all landing pages need to be created specifically for your business – and your business alone.

‍

The perfect landing page template doesn’t exist. STOP LOOKING.

‍

While designing a landing page isn’t exactly brain surgery, there are some basic elements I see time and time again that are sabotaging their chances of converting and getting a decent return on ad spend.

‍

Your landing page should be looked at in context with the other parts of the marketing funnel it inhabits. But it should also stand on its own as a convincing piece of copy and design that works hard to achieve the goal of capturing qualified leads.

‍

Without further ado, let’s look at the top things you need to keep in mind for a landing page that converts at the highest rate.

‍

The essence of a winning landing page

‍

Don’t assault your customers.

‍

I recently did an audit of a landing page (a home page) where there was, and I’m not even kidding here:

‍

• An email capture pop-up
• A customer survey pop-up
• A chatbot message box
• A cookie/privacy pop-up
• ‍

…within 5 seconds of landing on the page.

‍

So. Horrid.

What does your customer feel like when this happens? You already know the answer.

‍

They’re annoyed. They’re frustrated. They start to care less about your business and more about getting the hell away from your insane page.

‍

Don’t make the first impression of your brand the virtual equivalent of a kid that’s eaten way too much sugar-frosted cereal. Stop trying to do everything at once. Pretend you only have one pop-up you can use on your entire website. Now use it wisely! Pop-ups can convert really well, but you need to choose your timing and placement carefully.

‍

What your landing page should NOT feel like to a prospective customer:

‍

via GIPHY

‍

Make the benefits of your product clear

‍

Your header, subhead, bullets, and all other copy need to frame the benefits of your product to the customer in terms of the value it will give them.

‍

Too many landing pages focus on companies talking about themselves and how unique their product is, together with a raft of features. The “me me me” approach alienates your customer. They need to feel understood and spoken to. They need to know “what’s in it for me?” before they take any further steps to learn more about your company and your offerings.

‍

Keep things simple

A simple, uncluttered landing page can get you the biggest wins. For the best conversions on a PPC landing page, it’s important that everything is laid out in a way that the customer finds it as easy as possible to say “yes” to your offer, enter their details, and progress further into your marketing funnel.

‍

The most important question to ask yourself is: Could a complete stranger understand the purpose of my landing page in 5 seconds?

‍

Form fields

Make sure your form reflects the goal behind your data collection. Only the neccessary form fields should be in there – there’s no point in collecting 15 form fields of data just for the sake of it.

‍

Form field microcopy (e.g. First name, Last name, Email address) should ideally sit above each form box to avoid confusion as the user starts typing in their details.

‍

For clean data at the back end, if forms are able to be formatted with drop down options this will help with accurately segmenting your customers at a later stage. It’s especially useful where collecting correct phone numbers and locations are important.

‍

The button should be prominent, and a contrasting colour to the rest of the page. It doesn’t need to be Neil Patel orange!

‍

Social proof

Have you included testimonials or logos of companies that use your product? This helps build trust in prospects that don’t know you and don’t trust you yet.

‍

PPC landing pages

There should only be ONE offer and ONE call to action on the page. The call to action must be clear and reflected in the button copy. There should be no navigation points off the page other than the single CTA button. No links to your website, and no social icons – these are distractions that take attention away from your offer.

‍

Need more tips to get a high converting landing page for your SaaS offer? Download my comprehensive 30-point checklist to start optimizing now!

‍

‍