Editors Note: This was post was co-written by CRO Manager, Samantha Kerr, and Account Manager, Kelsey Hadaller.
At Hanapin Marketing, we have dedicated roles for Conversion Rate Optimization, PPC Account Management, and routine PPC account tasks. CRO Managers and Account Managers have very different focuses, but find a way to work together to integrate CRO and overall PPC strategy. One of the most common ways we accomplish this task is through testing language in ads and landing pages.
Ad And Landing Page Tests
When it comes to copy, PPC and CRO can work hand-in-hand. In your PPC accounts, you will always want to be testing your messaging. From these rounds of testing, you will find out what ad copy best speaks to your customers and which copy produces the most conversions. The next step is to A/B test this copy on the landing page. This will create congruency between your ad and landing page, which can also help boost your quality score. You have found what works best for your customers and given them this same language on the landing page.
You can also start this process on the landing page and then apply this knowledge to your PPC account. Start with the A/B test on your landing page. Is there copy on your landing page that is a good opportunity to test or do you want to highlight a benefit or feature of your product or service? Test this copy and once you’ve declared a winner, take these results back to your PPC account.
Did you add a benefit or feature to the copy on your landing page? Once your customers arrive to your page, they may be noticing this new benefit or feature you’re testing, leading them to convert. It’s worthwhile to test incorporating this new benefit into your ad copy in order to draw your customers to your ad. This tactic is also useful when A/B testing call to action button language. By aligning the call to action verbiage in text and image ads to the copy on the landing page, you’re guiding the user to convert and eliminating confusion.
Aligning Landing Pages To Ad Copy
Another way to make sure your CRO and PPC efforts align is to focus on user intent.
When creating PPC campaigns and analyzing landing pages for CRO, it’s important to ensure you have the users’ intent in the back of your mind. If a user is intending to buy sunglasses, he/she should see sunglasses immediately after clicking on the sunglass-specific ad.
There are a couple different ways to analyze this intent. The first is taking a CRO approach and looking at ways to optimize the pages that users are being sent to. Below is an example of an ad for sunglasses.
The user expects to see sunglasses immediately after clicking on the above ad. However, when they land on the page, this is what they see:
Again, users expect to be able to shop for sunglasses once clicking on such a specific ad. However, there are not any images of sunglasses upon entering the site. Even though the text “Ray-Ban Sunglasses” appears above the fold, users are more likely to focus on the images. One way to begin optimizing this page is to bring some of the product images above the fold. This would require making the hero images smaller or eliminating some of this content. By bringing some of the products above the fold, users will clearly see sunglasses upon clicking the ad. There won’t be any hesitation or wondering if they’ve landed on the correct page.
Another way to analyze your pages to ensure you’re meeting user intent is to take a look into your PPC account. Do an analysis of which landing pages you’re taking your customers to. Are we sending users to the home page when we should be sending them to a specific product page? Are we sending them to a general product page instead of a page specific to what they’re searching?
For example, when searching for cat eye sunglasses, users see an ad saying “Shop Cat Eye Sunglasses at Target!” However, below is what is above the fold on the landing page:
Not only is the user presented with 0 products above the fold, but he/she is also taken to the general sunglasses page. Target could eliminate a step in the shopping process by using a landing page that is already filtered for cat eye sunglasses.
Final Thoughts
Even though the roles of CRO Managers and Account Managers vary, there are many ways to work together to benefit the overall PPC account and the team as a whole. By integrating CRO and PPC, you maintain an enhanced knowledge of users and create congruency between the two efforts.
