So what is a “custom landing page”? In a pay-per-click marketing context, custom landing pages are web page destinations with a specific call-to-action, that exist separately from the main website, and have fewer distractions because they typically don’t have a header or a footer menu. Custom landing pages serve a unique purpose and highlight an action, which can range from downloading an eBook to registering for an event.
Congratulations! You’ve won 20 XP for learning the basics of Custom Landing Pages. Now let’s kick-off the real quest:
Level 1: Fewer distractions
The problem with sending people from your Paid Search or Paid Social campaigns to a webpage that is built-in to your main site, is that it includes the header and footer menu, providing an average of 30-50 ways to click-off of the page that you specifically paid to get them to.
Even with our own experiences clicking on digital ads, we know how easy it can be to get distracted and to end up hopping around the landing page, often forgetting to circle back to the intended action. These kinds of distractions dilute a campaign’s effectiveness by taking potential leads away from the Call-to-Action.
Creating a custom landing page for the destination of your ads is an easy fix for this. Because these custom pages exist separately (in another dimension, if you will) it’s not automatically tied to the many distractions of your main site: pop-up forms, chat bots, social media icons, and the aforementioned header and footer menu.
+1,000 XP – You’ve just leveled up!
Level 2: Streamlined A/B Testing
How many site developers would recommend that you have multiples of the same landing page on your site, only with slight differences on each so that you can A/B test performance? Hopefully, none, since you definitely should not do that– It would create a messy and confusing browsing experience. The issue that this creates is that A/B testing messaging and design on your landing pages becomes impossible without the flexibility of an A/B testing add-on.
Because custom landing pages are not intricately webbed into your main site, and therefore not accessible from your main site, you can create as many variations to test as you’d like. For example, in the initial launch, you can A/B test different CTA text. Once your results on that test are conclusive, you can test 4 form fields against 6 form fields. On and on, you can A/B test to your heart’s content.
+3,000 XP
Level 3: Focused Messaging
This point is similar to the A/B testing benefit mentioned above. The ability to create multiple landing pages for the same offer, with small differences, also allows for the flexibility required to adjust messaging for specific audiences. For example, if you have a LinkedIn campaign targeting Sales professionals and a different campaign targeting Marketing professionals, and you want to appeal to both of them in unique ways to attend the same event, you can create a distinct custom landing page for each persona with focused messaging.
By speaking to your Sales persona and Marketing persona in their respective lingo, and highlighting the benefits that specifically matter to each group, your conversion rate will be higher compared to a landing page that attempts to hook both personas at once.
+10,000 XP
Level 4: Simplified Campaign Data
Imagine comparing your Mario Kart fastest time to your latest Rocket League ranking– you can’t, because they’re entirely different games. Similarly, having organic and paid traffic all mixed into the same pot can be confusing. Sure, you can set up filters and labels and hope that everything works exactly right so you can measure the performance of your Paid Search and Paid Social traffic separate from all other avenues, but I propose a simpler solution.
The beauty of custom landing pages is their distinct purpose. The custom landing page that you create for a specific campaign lives only in the ads for that specific campaign. You can even create separate custom landing pages for Search and Social. The result is clean and trustworthy data on page traffic, engagement, and best of all, conversions.
+100,000 XP
By now, you’re probably wondering where custom landing pages happen. Where can I make one? Great question! Many Marketing Automation platforms, like Marketo and Hubspot, have the added feature for building and launching custom landing pages. There’re also third-party platforms that exist for this specific service, like Instapage and Unbounce. While all of these are good options, they require different levels of coding knowledge, so take that into consideration when deciding among them. Many marketers are already paying for a platform with custom landing page capabilities built-in. Well, here’s the nudge you’ve been waiting for to finally try them out.
+5,000,000 XP
Thanks for Playing!
