Clients tend to ask for my opinion on which landing page to use when linking their banner creative. Of course, my recommendation is going to be based on the campaign type (e.g., branding,
direct response) and its objectives (e.g., drive leads, product awareness). I have an idea which existing Web site page will create the best user experience based on continuity of message and logic,
but, more often than not, I am not in the campaign's targeted demographics.
We recently completed three different landing page tests, using two different approaches. One was for a financial
institution, an e-commerce site, and the other an over-the-counter medication.
The test for the financial institution started with a methodological A/B/C split test, followed by
multi-variant to further optimize the winning page. We started with the control that had two tabs (to explain its two-step offer), and tested it against two one-tabbed designs. They were identical
except for different background colors. I was surprised when one beat the other by 20%. I was convinced the green would win. I was more amazed at how different the results were, and all just because
we changed the accent color.
Phase II was more surprising, when we found adding a hero image beat out the control by an astounding rate, more than 30%. Had the client asked me to choose
which page to use instead of testing the landing pages, I would have hindered the campaign success to the tune of over 1,000 new customers.
The e-commerce site was having trouble getting
consumers to add items to their cart. We tested the "add to cart" button first, and the control button won by a few percentage points. Then we shifted the product image to the right of the product
page from the left. At first, it looked like, again, the control was the stronger performer -- until we segmented the results by traffic source. There was an increase of over 20% in revenue from
Google-driven site visitors -- just by moving the image from right to left. Slight and subtle changes were all it took.
The objective of the landing page test for the OTC medication
was to determine if consumers were more likely to click for the coupon from the homepage or the product page. We created duplicate pages for each (so users couldn't get to the page unless they came
from a display ad), and drove equal traffic to each of the two pages. Again, if the client asked me which page we should use for the landing page, I would have told them to use the product page to
give the consumer an opportunity to read the benefits about the product. And, I would have been wrong. The click-to-coupon conversion rate was more than 25% from the homepage, compared to the product
page.
The moral of the story is that advertisers need to test, test, and test again. We (media and creative professionals alike, and self-proclaimed numbers geeks like myself) think we know
what is right, but we don't. We are often not our client's target audience.
Landing page testing does not need to cost anything but time. Start by doing an A/B split on site traffic (which
you can set up in under 10 minutes); you would be amazed at how you can optimize your campaigns without changing one thing on your media buy.