In paid search campaigns the majority of organizations simply use their web site (typically their home page) as the destination for the respondent that clicks on their ad.
In most cases this is absolutely the wrong thing to do.
Think about it. The respondent is searching for something very specific, and they are sent to your home page. If it’s like most home pages it’s actually designed to serve the needs of all sorts of site visitors, with many different goals. So the responded is forced to stop, think and then click around to find content that is relevant to them. If they don’t find what they are looking for in 5-10 seconds, they will simply go back Google and check out another link.
That’s why I’m such a huge proponent of using smart post-click marketing programs to manage the visitors experience much more tightly. In many instances, these can be built around simple custom landing pages that direct respondents to content that is aligned with their search term. (In B2B, this usually equates to a conversion centric landing page, designed to generate leads by offering some value added content in exchange for some contact information.)
However, if you want to increase your conversion rates, I recommend getting a little more sophisticated, by implementing fully-fledged conversion paths.
What’s a Conversion Path?
A conversion path is a linear landing experience, specifically designed to convert incoming traffic from your online marketing campaigns. It allows you to segment and qualify your online respondents from paid search, increasing the likelihood that they will take action once they get to the conversion point.
Conversion paths help a respondent to move easily from click through to conversion, using a series of connected pages.
Start With Segmentation
A conversion path typically starts with a segmentation page, served up directly after the respondent clicks on your ad in Google. It is very simple in design, and asks the visitor a question so they can identify who they are and what they are looking for.
For example, I have a client that sells Electronic Document Management software to Banks and Credit Unions. A simple segmentation page for them might have two big buttons on it that ask the visitor: “Are you a Bank” or “Are You a Credit Union”. This is easy for the visitor to answer, so there is little to no friction and they simply click through on the correct button.
Now we know a little more about them we are able to serve up a landing page that is more relevant, with an offer that’s more closely aligned with their particular profile.
Alternatively, we can further segment the visitor by serving up a sub-segmentation page that helps us understand their profile even more precisely. For example, if they identified themselves as a credit union we might then serve up a page that asks Do you have “More Than 5000 Members” or “Less Than 5000 Members”. Using this additional insight allows us to then serve up a landing page that speaks even more closely to their own particular needs. For example, for the small credit union we might serve up a landing page that talks about our SaaS capabilities and offers a while paper on the “Benefits of SaaS Solutions for Small Credit Unions” - since market intelligence and sales history show that it’s the smaller credit unions that are attracted by the low cost and ease of implementation that SaaS solutions offer.
The key to segmentation and sub-segmentation is that each click delivers a new page that’s relevant to the respondent but also low in friction and therefore keeps them engaged. Rather than sending respondents to a web site and hoping they will randomly surf around to find the information they are looking for, a conversion path makes it easy to serve up truly relevant content to your audience.
Don’t Forget to Say Thank You
Once you’ve elicited a conversion, which in B2B is typically a registration for some value added content, don’t forget to serve up a thank you page. It serves two purposes:
1. It’s an opportunity to provide the visitor with access to site content that’s relevant to their profile, as identified by the conversion path they took. Information that, had it been included elsewhere in the path (e.g. as optional links in the landing page), would only have served to distract the visitor from the ultimate goal, which was to get them to convert on the landing page.
2. It’s where you put the Google conversion code so you an easily track conversions in Google AdWords!
Conversion paths won’t always be a good fit, especially if you can’t create a clear, simple and unequivocal segmentation of audience. But when you can, they can do wonders for your overall conversion rates.
With thanks to Anna Talerico for some of the concepts covered in this posting.
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Sean O’Donovan is the owner of FunnelBuilders, an internet marketing consultancy that helps technology organizations develop and implement post-click marketing strategies that generate actionable in-bound sales leads - www.funnelbuilders.com