Why Your PPC Campaign Needs a Landing Page

Every marketer knows that Pay-per-click (PPC) ads are a cornerstone of digital marketing. On search, these Google Ads are the quickest way to rise to the top and generate clicks and conversions from target audiences. 

PPC campaigns don’t just allow you to meet customers — which could be anyone — at the start of the shopping journey. Rather, you meet the right customers defined by their Toronto location, demographics, and psychographic characteristics. With ads crafted to their exact needs and targeted to their characteristics, these customers are much more likely to engage with your brand and convert.

Landing Pages for PPC Campaigns

But crafting a compelling PPC ad is just the first step. The real work from click to conversion happens on a landing page. 

As the term suggests, it’s where customers “land” on your website. Ideally, it’s a page specifically designed for an ad, whether it’s a limited-time offer, new product, or other brand awareness and sales goal.

The best-performing landing pages are hyper-focused on a single offer or topic, with a clear call-to-action. But you’ll be surprised how many Google Ads simply direct to a brand’s homepage. 

When that happens, a lot of potential customers bounce out because they “land” in a place where they can’t take direct action on the exact offer they clicked on. Instead, they get lost—and likely overwhelmed or frustrated—by the number of actions they can take, as opposed to one specific to their search.

Yes, You Need Targeted Landing Pages

Now, think about where you are directing prospective customers when they click on an ad. Do they like what they see? Is it targeted to their needs, or is it just a generic product or service page on your site?

Let’s take a look at your landing pages. And if you don’t have custom landing pages yet, here’s every reason why you need to rethink your Google Ads PPC campaign strategy with a well-designed landing page.

PPC Ads are All About Targeted Marketing

First, let’s get our facts straight: PPC Google Ads serve a very specific purpose — to appear at the top of the search, before organic results, and generate high-quality clicks from audiences designed to convert.

So when you send these clicks merely to a homepage or generic product page, you are very likely undoing the fine work of audience targeting. PPC ads are set up to display only to the most relevant audiences enticed by the premise of your ad, and likely ready to take action. When they don’t land on a page specifically designed to provide the information they need, you can easily lose these clicks along the conversion funnel.

Address the Conversion Funnel

But you don’t need just any landing page, either. One landing page may work for a specific customer segment, but not for another. This means you need a custom landing page designed for every type of offer, and every customer segment. Then, pair your Google Ads with the right landing page to ensure that clicks translate to conversions.

For example, if your PPC ad is built around a “buy now” message, customers who click on it likely belong to a ready-to-buy demographic. This means they need a short landing page that drives them to their desired conversion action — to buy right away. 

On the other hand, general brand or product awareness ads must be paired with a landing page that addresses the top of the conversion funnel: prospective customers who aren’t necessarily ready to buy but simply want informational content in order to decide.

Targeted CTAs

Following the thread of targeting and addressing the conversion funnel, your call-to-actions (CTAs) need to relate directly to your PPC campaign. Custom landing pages allow you to focus ads to specific CTAs, whether it’s to buy a product, sign up for a newsletter, or claim an exclusive offer. 

Without a custom landing page, you’ll end up driving the ad with just one or several CTAs — none of which effectively cater to specific customer segments and the conversion action that best fits with your campaign and their readiness to buy. For instance, a hard-sell “buy now” CTA won’t cater to audiences at the top of the conversion funnel, causing them to bounce out of your site even before you get a chance to engage them.

Find and Fix Weak Links

One of the most common mistakes you can make with Google Ads is neglecting well-performing PPC campaigns. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? Wrong. Just because certain PPC campaigns meet your click-through rate (CTR) target or the industry average doesn’t mean they can’t do better. In fact, with bids and cost-per-clicks constantly changing as competition grows, your Google Ads require constant optimization in response.

Designing new landing pages periodically is a great way to test and optimize PPC campaign performance. By tweaking and refreshing content, you can conduct A/B testing to identify areas for improvement, ultimately resulting in a higher ROI. You can also try pairing different PPC ads and landing pages to find the best combination — and there are only so many combinations you can do with the same old content.

Build Authority with Targeted, In-Depth Content

Finally, landing pages are a great way to demonstrate your expertise and gain credibility. While landing page design is often associated with content customized for target customer segments and specific offers, these help build brand authority in the process.

How? It’s all about the content you craft in response to the most popular search queries related to your brand and industry, and in line with your marketing goals. Landing pages offer a lot more real estate to drill down on in-depth industry expertise in a way that generic product or service pages don’t. 

If you’re running a PPC ad for a certain offer to convert audiences at the top of the search funnel, you can use the landing page to provide value-added information about the product, your experience, pricing, customer testimonials, and case studies pertaining to a target demographic. The landing page is a great way to show that you know your stuff to a specific audience in mind, unlike a product page that serves as a catch-all for various customer segments.

Expert Google Ads Management with Custom Landing Page Design

You may already have a compelling PPC ad campaign, but where do target audiences land? There’s more to Google Ads than just the headlines and ad text. To convert clicks and build a strong sales funnel, you need an equally targeted landing page.

As a premiere Google agency in Toronto, we’re here to help you build that conversion funnel. Consultus Digital is led by PPC campaign experts focused on driving conversions, sales, and customer satisfaction. Our full-service Google Ads management strategy is built on the entire customer experience, from audience targeting to first click and conversion actions throughout well-designed landing pages. With custom landing page design, we can help you drive conversions across target customer segments and build brand authority in the process.

Don’t have landing pages or need an update? Consultus Digital can help in Toronto. Let’s talk more about optimizing your Google Ads campaigns with custom landing pages for each PPC campaign.