Designing the perfect Landing Page for PPC (Pay Per Click)

The Long & Short of Landing Page elements

The short answer:-

1. Know your 'ideal' targets
   'Know' what your visitors have searched for.
2. 'Results' first
   Lead your content by: answers to their searched problems.
3. 'Engage & Convince'
   Visually appeal within seconds, engage (retain their interest) and win their Trust (convince them).

The longer answer (and the correct answer)...
The perfect landing page requires... All 3 of the above be constructed from attention to potentially hundreds of elements and lots of time building, monitoring and testing.

A Check-list Guide of Landing Page Do's & Don'ts - Top 10.

Test your landing page content against the following and you'll be off to a great start! Thereafter it will largely depend on how much time you dedicate to applying the following in a analytical and thoughtful way.

DO

1. Write in the formation of R.A.T.S.
   Results - Sell the Benefits to the reader (keep asking why until you can no longer).
   Approach - How your approach differs and is better for their situation.
   Tasks - The hurdles to overcome if you like OR the visitor's issues your product/service deals with.
   Situation - If the reader is still interested (well done!), they can read on about various situations your Product/Service assists with and/or your background.
2. Enable people to quickly scan & locate the info they're after. e.g.Break up your content into sub-headings that inform them what each paragraph is about.
3. 'TRY' to let people see who they are buying from. eg.Usually a little more difficult to execute this one, as generally you want to do it in a way which looks acceptable / professional - NOT amateurish.
4. Ensure your "message" / solution matches what your visitor searched for - sounds obvious, but don't be one of those who doesn't know what Search Terms are leading to your pages views.
5. Ensure the key points are not hidden - eg.amongst text or too far down the page - This kind of ties in with no.1.
6. Give much advice - elaborating in a way which requires people to click for more or request more, is a good way of avoiding clutter yet convincing prospects that you have a great solution to their 'searched problem'. Showing people and where possible in detail can position you as the go-to resource for a given fix.  This can also help increase your Search Engine traffic.
7. Maximise Enquiries & Sales. Ensure your page content covers various stages of your product / service life-cycle - Top Goal, Middle Goal and Bottom Goal. Eg. An electrician might target 'House Re-wiring jobs' as their ideal Prospect and therefore content. However, some of those visitors may need smaller jobs and some of them will most definitely be up for advice. Offering or mentioning all 3 options, will help pay for your PPC costs, grow your Client base and grow your Sales.

DON'T

DESIGN

1. Have too much clutter
   eg.too many colours, varied imagery sizes, varied fonts etc.
2. Have lots of menu options eg.Links and navigation menus.
3. Have Amateur / DIY imagery.
4. Have lots of scroll bars.
5. Have an essay of text (see 'Do' no.2)

CONTENT

1. Drone on about you, your company history or how great your product / service is.
2. Sell your product (see 'Do' No.1 - sell the benefits).
3. Have too little content (see'Do' No.6)

WINNING CONFIDENCE

1. Use superlatives eg.the best in my country etc (unless for humour).
2. Base writings on your opinion (keep it factual).
3. Bad mouth others (eg.your competitors).

Visual examples of a Perfect Landing Page