Most people are used to seeing ads pop up based on their browsing behaviour or previous search history. Had a little browse for cosy jumpers on ASOS recently? Oh look: an ad for even MORE cosy jumpers. Standard.
One thing that may be a little less obvious, however, is personalised landing pages (i.e. a personalised page you click through to from a Google ad or search query).
These are what’s known as dynamic landing pages, and essentially, they are a way of customising landing pages to individuals – often based on their location, keywords, and interests.
But are they really worthwhile?
Here’s a bit more on what dynamic landing pages are, their benefits, and reasons why they might be worth considering.
What exactly is a dynamic landing page?
A dynamic landing page is a page that displays different messages to different users, depending on key variables such as location or keywords.
Dynamic landing pages can be optimised for organic search, however, they’re largely used for PPC campaigns, in order to match ad groups and align with key search terms.
Econsultancy’s PPC Best Practice Guide
The idea is that text (i.e. headline or body copy) changes to better match what the user has searched for, thus increasing chance of conversion.
Below is one mocked-up example from the marketing of landing page software company, Unbounce. In the image below, you can see how the headline text matches the ad copy (designed to match the search term), with the body text also aligning to the ‘work’ theme that the user is looking for.
Other providers, such as Wix or Instapage offer similar services, allowing you to build and optimise template-style landing pages, and change content accordingly.
Relevancy to increase conversion rates
One of the main reasons to consider using dynamic landing pages is the potential to increase conversion rates. The idea is that – instead of arriving on a blanket landing page, based on a single campaign or set of keywords – the page will be customised to be even more relevant to the user’s individual needs.
So, for example, if a user has searched for “dog walker” – a dynamic landing page would automatically change based on different factors such as the user’s location, e.g. “dog walkers in East London”.
More specific customisation can be highly effective for driving conversions – including the location solves the user’s query before they’ve even considered it themselves – e.g. ‘does the dog walker cover my area?’
One experiment by Periscope – which involved 50% of traffic to the cleaning website Housekeep being directed to a standard page, and 50% to a page which had user location dynamically inserted – found success.
Specifically, it found that desktop conversion rate increased by 9.2% with the dynamic landing page, as well as an impressive 25.2% on mobile.
What to optimise
Another benefit of dynamic landing pages is that multiple parts of the page can be optimised, not just a single element such as the headline.
Of course, the headline is always an important starting point, with users naturally engaged by headlines that are succinct, self-explanatory, and in line with what they clicked on to get there.
Another important element is the body text, which signals to the user that their needs will be met (and that the site’s service or offering is of value to them).
Lastly, and arguably most importantly, is the call to action. When it comes to standard landing pages, marketers get one chance to prompt the user into taking action – and it can be a gamble as to what phrase or word will resonate the most. With dynamic pages, the call to action can be tailored according to different variables.
This could be the user’s previous experience of the business, meaning that new customers might need prompts to sign up (where as existing ones do not). It could also be based on previous browsing behaviour, or even previous purchase history.
Improving quality score
Landing page experience is one of the key components that affects Quality Score – i.e. Google’s way of rating the quality and relevance PPC campaigns. This, in turn, is what helps to determine cost per click.
As a result, dynamic landing pages, which again, involves personalisation to make content more relevant, can indeed improve Quality Score. While this is not the main goal for most marketers, it is still something to note when considering setting up dynamic pages within a PPC campaign.
To enhance testing
As well as creating relevancy and higher conversion for significant campaigns, a big benefit of dynamic landing pages is that they allow marketers to execute a test and learn strategy.
As well as customising elements based on search terms and location, for example, a dynamic campaign could also test things like discounts and special offers.
Do certain users respond differently to different discounts, or how offers are worded? Essentially, dynamic landing pages can allow you to easily A/B test in order to find out which variables resonate the most.
This means that investment in dynamic landing pages may prove to be fruitful in terms of long term strategy, as well as short term gains.