A few years ago, I did some work for a commercial finance broker who wanted to generate leads using Google Ads. The project ended up being a great case study that shows the importance of having a properly designed landing page if you want your Google Ads campaigns to be successful.
The Problem
Because he's an appointed rep for a network, the client, Rupert, had a template website that the network had provided.
He wanted to use Google Ads to generate leads for property development loans. But the page on his website was pretty poor to say the least:
Click to enlarge
There's a lot wrong with this page. The main issues are:
- It's very text heavy (even the logo is pure text) and therefore difficult to read
- It does not have a clear value proposition
- There is no clear call to action
My advice was to build a new landing page before we started spending money on Google Ads. But Rupert wanted to see what could be achieved with the existing page first of all.
So we ran an initial Google Ads campaign for a couple of weeks to see what would happen. Unsurprisingly, after two weeks, we'd generated no enquiries at all.
The Solution
So then we did what I'd wanted to do in the first place.
I sketched out the design and layout for a new landing page that would sit separately from the main site and which would be used purely for the PPC traffic. And then we got a friendly web designer to build it.
Here's what the new page looked like:
Click to enlarge
The Result
Within just a couple of hours of us redirecting the Google Ads traffic to this new page we got our first enquiry. And this page continued to generate a steady stream of leads from then on.
Why Does It Work So Well?
There are several things that make this simple landing page so effective:
- It has a clear and prominent value proposition - Loans of Up To 100% for Your Property Development Project - which makes it obvious what service is being offered (loans for property development) and highlights one of the unique selling points (up to 100% LTV).
- We've made it personal. This isn't about getting a loan for any old development project. This page is offering a loan for your property development project.
- Below the value proposition, the key benefits are highlighted in an easy-to-read bullet list.
- There is a clear call to action - GET MY QUOTES - repeated throughout the page. Again, it is personalised. And it is worded in a way that reinforces what people will get if they click the button.
- One of the things that might put someone off getting a loan is that it seems like a long and complicated process. To address this objection we've included a section that reassures the reader that there are just three simple steps to getting a loan.
- Then, after highlighting some more reasons to choose this broker over any other, we show some testimonials (social proof) from other happy clients.
And the best bit...
This landing page cost very little to produce and it was created in about a week.
Yes, in an ideal world the client would have had a whole new website that was optimised to increase conversions. But as a quick and simple stop-gap solution, this single page worked a treat.
