• Optimize & Prophesize, Tuesday, April 8, 2008 1:45 PM

Toyota's new oddball Matrix campaign is not a dedicated search initiative--in fact, it's a display-based campaign. But as Jonathan Mendez points out, its still a great lesson on why an ad's landing page needs to jive with the ad copy--no matter whether it's text or image-based.

The Matrix ads are appearing on a number of tech-oriented blogs and sites, and they feature fake products like animal lingerie, ham radios and pub fighting lessons. The problem is that the joke doesn't continue once viewers actually click on the banner. Users are taken to a landing page that is not quite related to the original ad. But it dos feature an invitation to prank their friends by entering some PII. "If, after all this, I happen to be interested in the Toyota Matrix, neither the image nor the text description of it are clickable," Mendez says. "In fact, there is no clear navigation or call to action on the landing page other than the prank."

A landing page with no navigation or call to action is not very useful--and as for snagging conversions (getting people to enter their info), Mendez says that the overall experience is a deterrent. "If you want to play a joke on consumers in an online ad you should keep the joke running on the landing page. Ads set expectations. Landing pages need to meet or exceed them - no matter what," Mendez says.

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