Selecting the Right Offer for your PPC Landing Page
November 5th, 2009 Posted by: Bill Gadless
What should be the offer on your B2B’s landing page, for visitors clicking through from a pay per click ad?
Many software and SaaS companies think that a downloadable trial version of their product is just the ticket. Why not just cut to the chase, and sidestep all that messy nurturing? And after all, our product is so good, it practically sells itself.
The problem with that is that it’s usually going to be a mismatch with… the stage of the visitor’s buying cycle. …or so says Howard Sewell in a post on Direct Connections. Unlike the visitor who clicks over from an email, a PPC click-through really has very little information on your company or product – in fact, only 105 characters’ worth, including the url. While (s)he may be anywhere on the buying-cycle spectrum, the odds are that (s)he is early-stage, performing initial research and self-education. Offering that person a free product trial is just way too presumptuous, and is likely to scare off many more visitors than it snags.
Along with most other authorities, Howard believes that offers of downloadable content – white papers, case studies, analyst reports, etc. – are a better fit to the PPC visitor’s likely stage and mindset, and thus more likely to result in conversion/registration. Ideally, marketers would prepare a spectrum of landing pages and offers, tied to keywords that differentiate visitors in the various buying stages …but the time and knowledge required to do that is not often available.
As a next-best-thing substitute, Howard suggests creating a downloadable information kit, and clearly describing its contents on the landing page. These work well as search offers because they enable you to present a spectrum of information, making it probable that each visitor will find something of interest. For example, your kit might include:
- an educational white paper, for the early-stage visitor seeking better understanding of his/her business problem
- a case study, for the more advanced prospect looking for corroboration of your widget’s use in companies like theirs
- an analyst report or press article, for the soon-to-be buyer compiling a short list of potential solutions
And that 60-day free trial of your product? How about including it as one option within your kit? Says Howard: “That way, the trial is available for those who want it, but it doesn’t scare off those who don’t.” Which really gives you the best of both worlds.
Entry Filed under: B2B Web Strategy, Converting, PPC
