12 Landing Page Changes That Improve Google Ads Conversion Rates Without Increasing CPC

Even the most successful campaign using Google Ads can fail to bring profits if the conversion rate remains poor, regardless of its perfect click-through rate. According to WordStream, the conversion rate of landing pages stands at 4.4% mainly because people come to the page but do nothing more. All the advertiser paid for was a visit. Increasing the bid and narrowing down the list of keywords will not make any difference in the first three seconds following the load of the page.

This is where landing page optimization comes into play, and where the story of a particular campaign is written. Every visitor goes through a page while two systems are working at the same time. The first system tries to find proofs, facts, statistics. The second system responds to emotions created by the page: its tone, images, and overall level of security it provides. Building a page for one system is like working only with half of the brain, and this is obvious in the conversion rates. Below are twelve changes, which are made regularly by a Google Ads company in Dubai, and which do not require increasing the bid in order to achieve better results.

Intrinsic and Extrinsic: The Two Forces behind Every Conversion

All the decisions related to the landing page fall into one of the two categories: intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic factors include elements that are entirely within the advertiser's control: layout, copy, load time, form length, visual hierarchy. Extrinsic factors are partially controlled by the advertiser: the visitor's device, the intention behind the click, the ad that the visitor clicked on, and the competitive environment in terms of emails and posts on social networks. A CRO strategy should not ignore the second group of factors even if they cannot be changed, but instead design intrinsic factors in such a way that they will work effectively with the extrinsic factors.

This logic also works when it comes to processing of information by the brain. The logical left hemisphere of the brain needs proof, data and verifiable facts. The associative right hemisphere needs a story, which could be pictured. The best landing pages manage to address both hemispheres without them realizing it.

The 12 Landing Page Changes That Are Crucial for Successful Google Ad Campaigns 

1. Make sure that your headline matches the ad: The headline of the landing page must repeat the exact phrase from the Google PPC ads if possible. This is called a message match, and is one of the cheapest ways to increase conversion rate significantly. This also has a positive impact on the quality score and keeps CPC low, without changing the bid.

2. Make sure to optimize your website speed before considering redesigning your landing page: According to Google studies, the probability of bouncing increases rapidly when the time to load the page increases from one to five seconds. Page speed is intrinsic, measurable and usually can be improved through such techniques as image compression, lazy loading and reduction of third-party scripts. No copywriting trick will save a seven-second load time.

3. Place the primary call to action above the fold on mobile devices: In the UAE and wider GCC region the majority of traffic is coming from mobile users. If the main CTA button requires scrolling through three sections filled with trust badges to reach it, the visitor already decided to leave the page.

4. Change generic CTAs to outcome-specific: The left brain needs a concrete reward when asked to make a decision. "Submit" and "Learn More" require a guesswork. "Get My Free Quote" or "See Pricing Now" gives the left brain a specific outcome and thus reduces the risk of taking the action.

5. Place one proof element right next to the CTA, not five below: One powerful testimonial, list of clients' logos or even a certification mark next to the action button works better than five other elements placed somewhere further down on the page. Proximity trumps quantity in this case.

6. Remove all but necessary fields from the form: Each additional field is a tax on the user's intention. A four field form consistently beats a nine field form in almost any test conducted by a landing page optimization team, especially when dealing with cold traffic generated by prospecting campaigns.

7. Write the first two sentences as a story, not as a product spec: Here is when the right brain has its turn. Start with the customer's story before getting into features. Someone searching for "Google ads management agency Dubai" is not looking for a service category, but imagining a certain outcome: a phone call coming or schedule filling up.

8. Add directional imagery pointing towards the CTA: Eye-tracking studies always demonstrate an innate connection between humans where individuals follow the direction of gaze of a person in the picture. If the model in the picture keeps glancing at the button, the chances are high that the visitor would also check out the button.

9. Make separate landing pages for each campaign intent: It covers the extrinsic motivation here. A visitor who clicked an ad on web design pricing should never land on the page with general services information and have to search for the pricing himself. Specific pages per intent consistently increase conversion rates without changing anything else in the campaign budget.

10. Remove competing exits from the landing page: Navigation menus, footer links and irrelevant blog posts give the visitor a chance to leave the page before completing the desired action. Dedicated landing page eliminates those options, forcing the visitor to complete the intended action.

11. Answer the visitor's unspoken objection: Every service category has a typical objection that can be anticipated: price, duration of the contract or mistrust to the new vendor. Mentioning this problem explicitly in an FAQ block or in a single sentence near the form closes the gap that would cost the visitor the click.

12. Test one variable at a time and allow data-driven decision making: Conversion rate optimization requires an experimental approach. No matter how many campaigns and accounts a Dubai based PPC specialist works with, the results are always the same. The version that feels better internally loses to the tested version much more often than expected.

The Page Decides What the Ad Only Introduces

Not a single one of the twelve changes listed above touches upon bid strategy, keyword match type or daily budget. All these changes affect the page itself – that is the only thing in the entire funnel an advertiser owns completely. Paid search dollars buy the visitor's attention; the landing page decides what will happen with it.

Considering the conversion rate optimization as a separate discipline to Google Ads management is usually the fastest way to reduce cost per acquisition without increasing CPC. For the advertisers managing Google PPC campaigns in a competitive environment like the UAE, where clicks are expensive and visitor's attention span is small, the page the visitor lands on may matter more than the ad that brought him here.