• Search Marketing Standard , Monday, January 28, 2008 1:15 PM

Not as much as you might think it does, according to Kevin Gold. His theory is that for particular kinds of purchases and emotionally charged offers, the initial ad copy can be compelling enough to cause customers to "plow into a landing page with tunnel-vision seeking only to take the offer." Using two examples, Gold aims to illustrate that searchers often don't pay attention to the images, calls-to-action and other carefully chosen landing page elements after clicking on an ad.

In one instance, the company was featured on the popular TV series "Extreme Home Makeover," and sought to leverage that exposure with a search campaign. Needless to say, including "as seen on 'Extreme Home Makeover'" in the ad copy helped to drive a tremendous amount of traffic and leads. But further qualification found that roughly 25% of the leads were from people who wanted to be on the TV show themselves (or recommend family or friends).

Gold says that nothing on the landing page indicated that the company was giving away products or services for free--or that there was any way to sign up for the show. Other than a small "as seen on Extreme Home Makeover" tagline and logo, all of the landing page copy and images were focused on the company's own products--and their customer benefits. He argues that this is a prime example of how consumers can ignore everything on a landing page but a submission form if the ad copy sparked enough interest.

Read the whole story at Search Marketing Standard »