When it comes to landing pages it is still common to uncover a fundamental mistake amongst marketers and web designers: The desire to add too much content leads to too much distraction on the page.

As a consequence, the landing page performance may be suffering.

What is a landing page?

By ‘landing page’ we mean the pages that visitors initially arrive at on your website. These pages should ideally be standalone and created with a single focused objective. This is key, the page should have a ‘single focused objective’ and that’s where you need to consider one of the most important aspects of your landing page…… Attention ratio.

What is Attention Ratio?

Let’s start with a definition of attention ratio (as defined by Unbounce co-found Oli Gardner)

Attention Ratio: The ratio of links on a landing page to the number of campaign conversion goals. In an optimized campaign your attention ratio should be 1:1. Because every campaign has one goal, every corresponding landing page should have only one call to action – one place to click.

So considering that each of your marketing campaigns (delivered through channels such as PPC, Display, Email) have a single goal, then this goal needs to resonate and be the only focus point on your landing page.

Furthermore, you need to ensure your campaign messaging matches to the corresponding landing page. Making your ads and landing pages offer the same user experience is known as maintaining ad scent.

The action you want the user to take following the campaign click should form the entire basis of your design and copy. Whether it’s sign up for free trial, fill out a lead generation form or click through to the next stage of your e-commerce funnel, your ad campaigns will be suffering if your goals are not aligned with the landing page.

The homepage vs. landing page

Think about the difference between a homepage and a landing page. How many links and navigational options are clickable on your homepage? How many call to actions and competing elements are there?

The attention ratio is always tremendously higher on a homepage. This is fundamentally why you shouldn’t send ad campaign traffic to your homepage page. Homepages are designed with a more general purpose in mind. It’s your brand central point and speaks your overall brand and corporate values. The page is typically loaded with links and navigation to other areas of your site and designed to encourage exploration.

In contrast your dedicated landing pages are designed for one purpose only: conversion

Every link on your pages can be viewed as leaks. Each link that doesn’t support your conversion goal is a distraction that can dilute your campaign message and reduce your conversion rate.

That’s why landing pages produce better campaign results. By dedicating themselves to just one action with an attention ratio of 1:1 – they narrow a visitor’s focus and get more people to follow through with your call to action.

Example

An example business who knows how to do this well is Shopify…

For businesses and individuals looking to create an online store they serve a separate landing page for their AdWords campaign.

This is their landing page:


Notice how Shopify only has one clickable element the ‘Get Started’ call to action. The attention ratio of this page is 1:1. (1 link and 1 campaign goal). The page is laser focused with a single goal to get visitors to start their free trial. A very well optimised landing page.

Contrast this with their homepage:


There are approximately 53 links on the page.

If Shopify sent their AdWords campaign traffic to their homepage they would have an attention ratio of 53:1. (53 links and 1 campaign goal). All these competing elements dilute the campaign goal and serve as a distraction. Not to mention the customer would be confused by the lack of message matching from the Ad. As a consequence, the conversion rate for sending traffic to the homepage would be considerably lower and also impacting the ROI from paid traffic.

So ask yourself….

· Am I sending campaign traffic to my homepage?

· Does my landing page resonate with my ad campaign?

· Does my landing page have a clear goal? And is clear what action I want the user to take?

· What is the attention ratio of my top landing pages? (aim for 1:1)

· Are there any elements of the page that don’t contribute towards the goal of the page?

For further ways to evaluate your landing pages download our useful Landing Page Scorecard.

At SearchStar we strive to improve your paid digital marketing performance and conversion rate optimisation efforts. One of our specialities is landing page optimisation.

Why not get in touch today and see how we can help you and your business?