what is a landing page post

Digital Advertising 101: What’s a landing page?

Rebekah Pike

Learn how to use landing pages to convert that click into a sale

Part of our mission at Control Yours is to make marketing easy and intuitive for our clients. We know that running a successful campaign is a big project and if you’re new to digital advertising, it can definitely feel a bit intimidating! So let’s break down your potential customer’s journey and look at the critical midpoint between clicking a link and hitting that “purchase” button – the landing page!

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What’s a landing page?

A landing page is a standalone page on your website that exists to funnel customers toward making a purchase. Unlike the rest of your pages, a landing page won’t contain a lot of navigational links that encourage visitors to explore your entire website and learn every detail about your company. That’s not the goal here.

The goal is to clearly demonstrate to your customer that you have exactly what they need and make the next step as easy as possible.

However, a well-designed landing page shouldn’t feel like an aggressive, high-pressure sales pitch. Your customers would probably hate that, right? What you want is a convincing argument that persuades the customer to buy your product.

In fact, the best landing pages contain a call-to-action section (often called a CTA) that feels more like an invitation, rather than a “BUY NOW BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE” vibe.

Lead-capture vs. click-through landing pages

We’ve already established the primary function of a landing page: to sell your product. Pretty simple! But what that looks like for you depends on your business and your goals. There are many different subcategories of landing pages, but two of the most common types are lead-capture pages and click-through pages.

Lead-capture pages (sometimes called squeeze pages) are designed to gather the customer’s contact information, sometimes in exchange for a free resource or a special offer. Have you ever visited a site and been greeted by a pop-up offering free shipping or a discount in exchange for your email address? That’s a lead-capture page in action!

The goal of lead-capture pages is to curate a list of potential customers and start a conversation that hopefully translates into a loyal relationship. You’re basically getting a list of potential customers who you know are already interested and waiting to learn more. The marketing possibilities for email lists are endless!

Click-through landing pages are more sales-focused. The goal of these pages is to explain the unique benefit of a product, address any possible objections that the customer may have and direct them to “click through” a link on the page to the point of sale.

Here’s an example from a click-through landing page we created for our client, Ward Laboratories. We built a persuasive case for why Ward’s test kit will solve the customer’s problem and placed blue buttons with the CTA down the page, making the next step obvious and easy.

How does a customer get to the landing page?

As the name suggests, landing pages are arrival destinations. Click-through landing pages are typically developed alongside digital ads placed on Facebook, Instagram, Google or other platforms. Understanding where your ideal customer spends time online is the first step to developing your digital ad campaign.

Once you’ve chosen your platform, you can tailor ads directly to the demographic that is most likely to buy. When the customer clicks on the ad, they’ll be directed to the corresponding landing page and voila! That’s where the sales conversion magic happens!

Lead-capture pages can also be attached to digital ads, but because their primary goal is to collect information, they can also be integrated directly into your website. You’ll often see them as a pop-up page when entering a site or behind a “Subscribe” or “Learn More” button. Lead-capture pages are a terrific entry point for potential leads who aren’t quite ready to purchase but are eager to learn more about your company.

Ready to see better results from digital advertising?

We’re here for you! We build and manage successful ad campaigns that help our clients expand into new markets and reach more customers. We do the research, the copywriting, the designing, the optimizing, the tracking – the works! Check out our digital advertising services and schedule a meeting with us to get started!

Related: How to Get Customers for Life