Through managing numerous pay-per-click advertising campaigns for clients, I have had a number of occasions to notice that adding multimedia to pay-per-click landing pages has increased the conversion ratio. In other words, adding audio clips or videos to your landing pages increases your conversions.
The sequence goes like this:
1. The person browsing looks up some keyword on Google. Your sponsored text ad appears on top with a yellow background or in the narrow right column.
2. The person clicks on your ad and arrives on your landing page. As covered in my other articles, your landing page should be a customized page that has sales text on it, pictures, and a form for the person to fill out. It should not have navigational buttons to the rest of your site. We want him just to fill out that form.
3. Now we are adding another element into the equation – adding an audio clip or video to that landing page. If you add an audio clip, program it so that it starts playing as soon as the page is loaded. But add a button so the visitor can turn off the clip if they want. If you add an audio, preferably make it so that it starts as soon as the page is loaded, again with buttons for the visitor to turn it off, watch it again, etc.
4. The person hears your audio or watches your video, then fills out your form and becomes a lead.
The conversion ratio is the relationship between the number of people who click through to your landing page, and the number of people who fill out your form and become a lead (also called a conversion). This is expressed as a percentage of the total people coming to the landing page that fill out the form.
I have seen the conversion ratio as much as double by adding audio or video to the landing page.
So what types of things should you put into the audio or video? Keep it simple. Talk about and show your product or service and sell it. Your audio or video can even say the exact same things as the text on the landing page. But the fact that it is now in multimedia form adds impact and will nearly always increase response. In this TV age people find it easier to watch or listen to something than to read it.
Your video on a landing page should be under 5 minutes. An audio clip should probably be under 2 minutes.
Your audio or video clip does not have to be as fancy or as “high impact” as a TV commercial. There is actually a big difference between the two media, even though they both utilize video. TV commercials fall into the category of what is called “interruption advertising.” In other words, they have to interrupt the person from what he is doing, and get him to pay attention to it. He’s watching some TV show. He has not particularly tuned in to see information about the new Ford F150. So the TV commercial has to have more visual and audio bells and whistles and fancy stuff to interrupt what he is doing and get him to decide to watch it instead of getting up to get a snack.
On the internet, particularly with pay-per-click, the visitor came looking for what you sell. So you don’t have to wow him with the sexy girl and the million dollar graphics. That’s not to say that your video should look unprofessional or shabby. But it also means you don’t have to spend $30,000 on the video production either.
The most important thing with a video on a pay-per-click landing page or on any part of a web site, is that it is professional looking, and gives lots of information. Your visitor is coming looking for information. Give it to him quickly, professionally, and with pizzazz. But you can leave the dancing girls and talking frogs at home.
