The biggest landing page mistake

[Andy Black]

What's the single biggest landing page mistake?


This mistake is almost universal.

This mistake causes people to do all sorts of stupid things with their landing pages.

I see this mistake made over, and over, and over again.

I'm going to try and save you from making this mistake, whilst giving you a massive advantage over your competitors.



I've had businesses show me their "testing wall" displaying all the landing pages they've used...

... the dates the tests ran

... the % conversion rates for each landing page

... and the winning landing page picked to go through to the next test.


They proudly show me how the winner from the previous split-test is used in the next split-test.

How they've scientifically increased their landing page conversion rate from 1.1% to 2.5% over the course of 5 months.

I just look at them and open my mouth... nothing comes out, then I shut it again with a sigh.


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So what's the single biggest landing page mistake?


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Are you still reading?


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(This is going to mess with your eyebrows.)


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The single biggest mistake people make with landing pages is:

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Thinking that landing pages convert!



WTF? Is that it?!

Yep, you heard me...

Your landing page does NOT have a conversion rate.

If you even utter the phrase "landing page conversion rate", then I know you don't "get" it.

Why?

Because it's NOT the landing page that converts.

It just sits there, doing jack sh*t!


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Your landing pages don't convert, your visitors convert!


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You show me your Emergency Dublin Plumber landing page.

You proudly declare "This landing page converts at 30% Andy!"

I give you a (mental) slap and tell you that what you really mean is:

"People who visit this page convert into enquiries-for-an-emergency-plumber-in-Dublin ... at 30%."

I explain that if I sent people searching for a Caribbean Cruise to your landing page, then you've NO chance of getting 30% of them to enquire about your emergency plumber service.

More like 0%.


Sh*t. Does that mean our landing page has suddenly stopped converting?

There's something up with our landing page guys!

Maybe we'd better roll back to the previous landing page?

Panic! Panic!



Err, no. We've just got people visiting now with a different "search intent" (or just a plain old different "intent" if they didn't do a search - I know, I know... there are apparently other sources of visitors than paid search, and I hear they can work too).





So why is this little insight important?


Well...

Because your visitors convert, it's super important to know WHY your visitor arrived at your landing page.

Did they click on an ad?

Did they click on a link at the bottom of your email?

What were they doing before they saw the ad?

What headline was in the email that enticed them to open it?

What did you promise them in the ad?

What did you promise them in the email?

Were they on Google doing a search for fun ("caribbeen cruises")?

Were they on Google doing a search NOT for fun ("divorce lawyers edinburgh")?

Did you target homeowners who like cats who were on Facebook?

What expectation do they have when they visit your landing page?

Will their experience match that expectation?



One of the (many) reasons why I like paid search is that I can see my ads in situ, against all the competing ads.

I can then click on everyone's ads and see how they match their visitor expectation with their visitor experience (saying a silent apology each time for forcing each advertiser to cough up cash to Google when I've no intention of purchasing).

I can then get ideas from landing pages that are getting paid visitors and (you'd hope!) are converting those visitors into leads or sales.

I can then create a swipe file to study and/or show my client.





Here's an example:
(Originally posted on the inside here):



Search Term - Ad - Landing Page Review for "gadget insurance" (UK)

Below is a review of a competitive online search term.

I do this type of analysis for clients, and for myself when I'm reviewing the competitive landscape.

Many of the landing pages are bleeding awful, and these guys should know better.

Andy

 

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[Andy Black]

Stop "Building" Stuff
(Originally posted here.)


Are you building a landing page?



I worked for a company that was building a content creation platform.

I worked for a startup that was building a new social network.

I worked for another company that was building a call centre.

I've had many many clients that were building websites.

And a few that were building email lists.

Sigh...



I created a deck for a client a few years ago, where I tried (unsuccessfully!) to stop them "building" stuff and focus on helping people instead.

I've added it in it's entirety here to sneakily throw in some marketing education.
(It follows on from the short video in this post.)

The most important point is the last slide.

 

[Andy Black]

"Our Landing Pages Don't Convert!"


The next time you hear this complaint from someone, just ask them:



Do you think people aren't buying...

... because your landing page "doesn't convert"?

... because your offer isn't good enough?

... or because people aren't hungry enough for what you're selling?


Landing pages don't convert!

PEOPLE CONVERT​

... from browsers into researchers

... from researchers into shoppers

... from shoppers into leads

... from leads into buyers

... from buyers into repeat buyers (aka customers)

... from customers into referrers



Sales happen when the right people hit the right offer at the right time.

Guaranteed it is less an offer issue, or a copy issue, or a landing page issue.

I bet it's a targeting issue.

The crowd isn't starving.

 

[Andy Black]

WHY you're screwing up

You're thinking about yourself.

You're thinking about what YOU want.

I get it.

WiiFM is the most popular radio station in the world.

We're all tuned to it.

WiiFM - "What's in it For Me?"

You're interested in what YOU want, which is to get a signup, get someone to fill in a form, get a quote, make a sale, whatever...


Except your visitor is just like you.

They're tuned to WiiFM as well.

They visit your site (aka "hit your landing page"), and they don't want to signup.

They don't want to fill in a form.

They don't want to get a quote, make a sale, or whatever YOU want them to do.



They have a problem they want to solve.

Can you solve it for them?

It's as simple as that.


Seriously... I've been talking about this a lot.

I mentioned it in this post about my learnings from 700+ PMs with fellow forum members.

I mention it in various videos in that post.

Damn it, but I even did a recent hour long radio interview and talked at length about it. (I humbly suggest you listen to it here.)

 

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[Andy Black]

A sure sign you still don't get it


You talk about "traffic".

... I need to generate more traffic.

... where can I get cheaper traffic?

... where can I get traffic that converts?


You talk about "clicks".

... how many clicks did I buy yesterday?

... how many clicks did I send through each ad in the split-test?

... how many clicks do I need before I know this business is a dud?




Seriously?

WTF is "traffic"?

WTF are "clicks"?



Traffic?

Is that what's hitting your website?

Are you "buying traffic"?



Clicks?

Where do I buy them?

Can I buy them in packs of 100, or is the smallest order size 1000?

What's their expiry date?

Where can I store them?




Guys...

Traffic and clicks are VISITORS.

They're PEOPLE, just like you and me.

People with hopes and dreams.

People with fears and worries.



They sat down and did a search on Google a few seconds ago.

Or they were thumbing through Facebook amusing themselves with funny videos, or catching up on friends and family.



Get it?




You know something else that bugs me?

"Users", "subscribers", and "signups".

How many users signed up yesterday?

How many subscribers do we have at the moment?


Errr... those people didn't come to your site to USE your site.

That's a bit presumptuous isn't it?

They came to your site to solve THEIR problem.

They signed up to your newsletter to solve THEIR problem.



For the love of God... please stop calling them users/signups/subscribers.

They're PEOPLE. Not users.



At the very least, if you've built a directory for plumbers, then call them plumbers.

Or if you've built a blog for cyclists, then call them cyclists.

But even then, remember they're only a plumber on your site.

They're a van owner, dog owner, dad, son, husband, holiday maker, or gambler to other people.

And a person like you and me at the end of the day...

 

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[Andy Black]

A couple of tips about TRAFFIC and CONVERSIONS:

1. You’d do better not to call it traffic. Remember that those "clicks" are real life people visiting your site. People with dreams, fears, hopes, and worries.
2. Websites and landing pages don’t convert. People do (into subscribers, buyers, etc). Sales happen when you get the right person to the right offer at the right time.

Remove the words "traffic" and "conversions" (and even "clicks") from your vocabulary and you'll stop thinking of shuffling electrons around, and focus on serving people instead.

Do this and good things will start to happen.

 

[Nicoknowsbest]

The sad reality:

I worked in an advertising agency for nearly two years and was involved in building various landing pages.

Some of them were built for world famous brands.

These corporations usually pay astronomical sums to so-called experts in order to build their landing pages.

The motivation within such an agency is usually like follows:

• The big client wants to have the newest gimmick and cool features on his landing page. He wants to appear innovative.

• The boss of the agency wants to make the big client happy, no matter what. I mean, the money has to be rolling in, right?

• The creative director wants to use the publicity for winning awards with the design. Winning an award is a big brush for one's ego. And CV.

• The graphic designer wants to maximize his creative input without harming the corporate identity guidelines. He has to prove that he is a rising star.

• The copywriter prefers working on the new print ad campaign. Chances for awards are higher in this area.

Everybody cares about their own, selfish goals.

I mean, which landing pages get awards for simply making people call/order/sign up/download etc.?

That's not sophisticated enough.

We need big clients. We need creativity. We need awards. We...

WE, WE, WE, WE...

Recognize the pattern?

The sad truth?

Nobody cares about the actual purpose of the landing page.

Nobody cares about the people visiting it.

I saw it with my own eyes.

People getting paid a ton of money, calling themselves experts, and LITERALLY making every single mistake mentioned in this thread.

But hey, it has to look creative, right?

After quitting and changing my perspective I now build trust pages (thanks @Sanj Modha, great input).

 

[DaRK9]

So what do I need to do to get my landing page to convert?






But seriously, I'm fixing someone's PPC campaign and they were worried about their landing page and A/B testing when their targeting was completely effed up. Local business bidding on national search terms wondering why their 5k/mo budget wasn't making them returns.

I bring targeting issues up and the person (PPC manager of a local marketing company) who was running the campaign asks "A/B testing would resolve this and we can find out more data." and "Google's location technique isn't always accurate so we always spend more on non-local keywords."

Just like SEO, there are some terrible PPC management companies out there.

Andy is dead on (as usual) on starting with WHY.

 

[Sanj Modha]

I posted a Shopify thread and some people asked me what ad copy I use on the product pages. Here's the big myth - you don't need ad copy on the product/sales page.

The visitor is interested otherwise they wouldn't click on your banner ad/blogpost/forum signature etc. You need to provide a list of reasons why they should buy from you. That's called building trust.

So my point is...build trust pages not landing pages.

 

[Andy Black]

Bump.

I see a lot of threads by people asking others to review their website. I get a few PMs along those lines too.

Landing pages don't convert, people do.​

Create a simple landing page. Don't get precious about it. If you can't get anyone to it then all that work is wasted.

Then try and get visitors to the page (please don't call them clicks, or talk about traffic).

If you can get visitors who are interested in your offer to the page, consistently, then great. Now is the time to work out how to convert those visitors into enquiries, signups, or sales.

Stop judging your website or landing page in isolation.​

Get out of the echo chamber of your own head.

Move faster. Ship something today.

You don't learn until you launch.
(Dan Norris)​

Read these:

• The need for speed
• Launch and learn
• The biggest benefit of AdWords
• How to get profitable or fail fast with AdWords
• Start
• Need > Know > Want > Looking

If you haven't done so already, then I suggest you listen to these:

• The biggest reason websites suck
• AndyTalks to @The-J

 

[Andy Black]

So what do I need to do to get my landing page to convert?






But seriously, I'm fixing someone's PPC campaign and they were worried about their landing page and A/B testing when their targeting was completely effed up. Local business bidding on national search terms wondering why their 5k/mo budget wasn't making them returns.

I bring targeting issues up and the person (PPC manager of a local marketing company) who was running the campaign asks "A/B testing would resolve this and we can find out more data." and "Google's location technique isn't always accurate so we always spend more on non-local keywords."

Just like SEO, there are some terrible PPC management companies out there.

Andy is dead on (as usual) on starting with WHY.

Hahaha. Such a familiar story.


Our costs are too high!

Our landing page isn't converting!

We need some heat-map software to work out what people are doing on our site.

We need to look at Google Analytics.

Know any good landing page designers?

We need someone who specialises in landing page optimisation.

Isn't there some software that can do that automatically for us?




OMG ...

 

[Andy Black]

I love this concept of "trust pages" and I now realize why I always felt there's something wrong with "landing pages" in general. I always felt like I'm being baited on a landing page instead of feeling cared about and being served.
I also find it difficult to build landing pages for my business because of the same blocks: I don't wanna sound fishy but at the same time want my offer to be clear and easy to understand.
So "trust pages" is a cool new concept for me and I can make use of it right now.

Thanks @Nicoknowsbest & @Sanj Modha

It shouldn't feel fishy.

Someone searches for an "emergency plumber in Dublin" because they're trying to find someone to help them with a plumbing emergency they have.

The landing page in that case is as simple as a big headline asking "Looking for an emergency plumber in Dublin?".

Relevance/targeting trumps fancy sales copy IMO.

Give people what they're looking for.

 

[The-J]

Absolute great post.

I see this a lot with mobile LPs. I'd say the worst crimes of internet marketing are committed on mobile.

Search traffic is gold because people are literally asking a magic robot named Google to give them what they want. Mobile search accounts for a giant percentage of all total search volume, and yet mobile landing pages tend to commit the very crimes you've shown.

No clear CTA. Nothing useful above the fold. Landing pages that don't match what the ad is promising.

Businesses ignore mobile traffic at their own peril.

 

[Andy Black]

(Originally posted here.)


If your worried your bounce rate is too high, then you've still got it wrong.

I want my bounce rate as high as possible.

Visitors hit exactly the right page, see exactly what they need, and call my client(s).

There's no links to other pages to distract them (except links to Disclaimer, Terms, and Privacy in the footer).

Job done.



WHY do you want to reduce your bounce rate?

If your visitors need more information before they contact you or buy, then why is that information not on the page they landed on?

If they need to navigate to another page to find what they're looking for, then why didn't you send them to that page in the first place?

If they don't want what you're offering, then why did you get them to your site?



Bounce rate isn't a metric I'm interested in. I literally don't look at it. I don't care about Key Performance Indicators. I just care about Performance.

This thread explains it:

• www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/online-direct-response-metrics.52781

 

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[JokerCrazyBeatz]

This is important , because I always told myself NO MATTER HOW BAD MY PRODUCT IS , IF I GET ENOUGH PEOPLE TO SEE IT SOMEONE WILL BUY! I always held that close in my mind but was never sure if that was the correct way of thinking but in my mind it just made sense. Now I understand that it's more factors then just exposure that wil get you conversions but the main thing is always exposure . Thank you for solidifying this for me . @Andy Black and @IceCreamKid give the best help and tips

 

[Andy Black]

Do yourself a favour

If you're doing anything with a website, or think you might do something with a website at some point...

... may I humbly ask you to please listen to this radio interview.

 

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[Sanj Modha]

I agree with everything said. Launch first then adjust along the way.

I am totally convince that this is the only way to learn.

Ready. Fire. Aim.

 

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[smarty]

I now build trust pages (thanks @Sanj Modha, great input).

I love this concept of "trust pages" and I now realize why I always felt there's something wrong with "landing pages" in general. I always felt like I'm being baited on a landing page instead of feeling cared about and being served.
I also find it difficult to build landing pages for my business because of the same blocks: I don't wanna sound fishy but at the same time want my offer to be clear and easy to understand.
So "trust pages" is a cool new concept for me and I can make use of it right now.

Thanks @Nicoknowsbest & @Sanj Modha

 

[Andy Black]

Andy, what I really hear you saying is stop looking at people as cattle and really get back to the essence of relating to others like ourselves who have issues and are looking for solutions. If we move out of the way so we can see someone else and not ourselves. Look to give value and look for nothing in return which is impossible in wiifm syndrome we will see other's become champions for us.....

Bingo.

If we truly served our fellow man, then we'd not see them as clicks or traffic.

It all boils down to the astonishing secret @IceCreamKid revealed here:

• www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/the-astonishing-secrets-thread.50097

 

[ChrisV]

Lol I love this post. Yes, sometimes people get too caught in the details. You can’t see the forest because you can’t see past the trees.

shuffling electrons around

Lol, I’m totally stealing this for whenever someone micro-manages.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[FastNAwesome]

@Andy Black Thank you for selflessly sharing knowledge. This could have easily been a paid course, or even an expensive seminar for PPC managers to step up their game.

 

[Sanj Modha]

The sad reality:

I worked in an advertising agency for nearly two years and was involved in building various landing pages.

Some of them were built for world famous brands.

These corporations usually pay astronomical sums to so-called experts in order to build their landing pages.

The motivation within such an agency is usually like follows:

• The big client wants to have the newest gimmick and cool features on his landing page. He wants to appear innovative.

• The boss of the agency wants to make the big client happy, no matter what. I mean, the money has to be rolling in, right?

• The creative director wants to use the publicity for winning awards with the design. Winning an award is a big brush for one's ego. And CV.

• The graphic designer wants to maximize his creative input without harming the corporate identity guidelines. He has to prove that he is a rising star.

• The copywriter prefers working on the new print ad campaign. Chances for awards are higher in this area.

Everybody cares about their own, selfish goals.

I mean, which landing pages get awards for simply making people call/order/sign up/download etc.?

That's not sophisticated enough.

We need big clients. We need creativity. We need awards. We...

WE, WE, WE, WE...

Recognize the pattern?

The sad truth?

Nobody cares about the actual purpose of the landing page.

Nobody cares about the people visiting it.

I saw it with my own eyes.

People getting paid a ton of money, calling themselves experts, and LITERALLY making every single mistake mentioned in this thread.

But hey, it has to look creative, right?

After quitting and changing my perspective I now build trust pages (thanks @Sanj Modha, great input).

Keep an eye on your biggest competitors. If Amazon changes the 'buy it now' from green to black - you need to ask yourself why?

Challenge everything. Be inquisitive.

 

[Azure]

It shouldn't feel fishy.

Someone searches for an "emergency plumber in Dublin" because they're trying to find someone to help them with a plumbing emergency they have.

The landing page in that case is as simple as a big headline asking "Looking for an emergency plumber in Dublin?".

Relevance/targeting trumps fancy sales copy IMO.

Give people what they're looking for.

" give people what they're looking for".

Too often people get caught up in the next big thing or little ancillary details like landing pages or what type of email follow up to pursue.

Deliver what the customer wants and you never have to worry about the little details, they'll fall in place afterward.

Don't try to trick mislead or conceive. Be honest and just do a good job, that's one of the more overlooked parts of the fast lane equation.

 

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[Sanj Modha]

The easiest and simplest way to approach this is take notes the next time you buy ANYTHING online from Amazon, eBay or whoever you like to shop with. What did you like? Was the checkout process easy? How can it be easier? What did you hate?

Now take this research and apply it to your own website, product or service. We're all customers - I'm constantly buying from my competitors from Amazon etc to make sure I can apply both the good and remove the bad from their customer experience and make mine the best that it can be.

There's no need to reinvent the wheels guys. Find what works and use it. I always use Amazon as my benchmark because (and IMO) they do a lot of things wrong but when it comes down to testing conversion optimization and user interface - Amazon is second to none.

 

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[Johnny boy]

Andy's clients after hearing him rant because they asked for a performance summary and asked how many clicks they got on their campaign:

"Okay you little dickhead....how many people, with hopes and dreams, came to our site to 'try and solve their problem' yesterday?"

"4"

"F*ck!"

 

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[Andy Black]

Further reading (Technical stuff, aka "how-to" stuff)


The holy trinity of paid search


If you really want to get your head round this stuff, maybe spend half a day (or more?) reading the threads linked to in this post.

 

[Andy Black]

Absolute great post.

I see this a lot with mobile LPs. I'd say the worst crimes of internet marketing are committed on mobile.

Search traffic is gold because people are literally asking a magic robot named Google to give them what they want. Mobile search accounts for a giant percentage of all total search volume, and yet mobile landing pages tend to commit the very crimes you've shown.

No clear CTA. Nothing useful above the fold. Landing pages that don't match what the ad is promising.

Businesses ignore mobile traffic at their own peril.

100% !!

Most mobile landing pages suck soooo bad.

And therein lies our opportunity.

 

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[devine]

All your threads give me one single impression:
Holy. F*cking. Shit.

The amount of insights you give me even with stuff I already know is huge.

 

[PoGOOD]

(...) I tried (unsuccessfully!) to stop them "building" stuff and focus on helping people instead.

It is perfectly viable for "building" other tools or systems as well:
- Building customer service processes,
- building of call scripts,
- building other "conversion" tools in real, customer-facing business.

As long as we are stuck with "magic bullet" words like: conversion, pushing down the funnel, call to action etc., we are not able to create any value to our clients.

I need to show few of your slides to my old clients that were firm believers in "equipping" their sales personnel with the latest sales tools...


Wysłane z iPhone za pomocą Tapatalk Pro

 

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[PureA]

Hey guys, made some notes on the thread, hopefully useful to someone.

---

Notes:

* Lander is only as good as the quality and relevance of the traffic hitting it. Targeting is king.
* Best ad (top) is likely the top ad, we should study there campaigns and landing pages.
* A person has a problem they are looking to solve, its as simple as that. Can you solve it for them?(WIIFM) These are HUMAN people looking for solutions. NOT CLICKS/TRAFFIC etc.
* Mobile landers are 50-60% of the traffic and are often NEGLECTED. Ensure mobile lander hits on notes discussed here. They SUCK (a lot of the time - huge opportunity here)
* The biggest ad agencies in the world are making these mistakes because each person involved is pursuing there own selfish wants and needs (awards, recognition, money from big client, ego, CV accolades, ‘innovator tags’, notoriety etc) Optimise for solely for the client and solving the clients problem.
* "Long-tail to me just means to more specific searches with lower volume, but often a more specific intent."

Landing page 1 :
* Try images on the left as images catch the eye first, and we read left to right.
* Be specific with imagery. (If just laptop image, the thought is, is this just laptop insurance?
* Artificial fold good (to get customer to focus)
* Split test CTA button with something super specific (e.g. instead of ‘get an instant quote’ try ‘click here for your instant gadget insurance quote’)
Landing page 2:
* Congruent search to landing page is a must.
* Headline of page should echo back search term.
* Page makes visitors ask so many questions. Too many distractions, make it so its a slippery slope to the CTA
* Dont make the visitor ask ANY QUESTIONS - it should be very straight forward and clear what the next action should be.
Landing page 3:
* Dont use crazy colours elsewhere on the page that distract from what you want the user to do. The CTA should be the star of the show.
Landing page 4:
* The above the (artificial) fold is very clear and direct (how it should be)
* Site should look pro and trustworthy. Not like a bedroom project.
* IMAGES TO THE LEFT of CTA’s.

Overall Thoughts:
* The goal of the landing page is simple: drive visitors to the CTA.
* The goal of each focal point on the landing page is to get people to look at the next focal point (until they get to button).
* The purpose of the headline is to get people to continue reading the page. It does this by letting them know they are in the right place.
* Images draw the eye, and we read left to right, top to bottom.
* Images should be used to move the eye towards the next focal point.
* The “Button” (CTA). Should explicitly be about what the visitor needs to do, and what they will get in return. Assume people did not read anything else on the page, what would the button say? For our example the best CTA button would read “Click here to get your gadget insurance quote"

2 styles of campaign:
* "If I was to run +washing +machine +repairs +dublin then it would be throughout Ireland. Even if they’re down in Cork typing that in, I want the ad to show."
* "The other style is to have a campaign IP targeting the city of Dublin, where the keyword is +washing +machine +repairs."

On Landers:
* You can have one page with dynamic headlines. So you dont need to build a new page for every term.

 

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