How to improve the CVR (Conversion) and CTR (Click Through) of your Landing Pages?

Landing pages are like salespeople, they have dramatic effect on the conversion rates of our campaigns. We all know that a good Landing Page (LP) can mean the difference between a profitable and a losing campaign. In case you’re not familiar with the Landing Page concept, please read my older article that deals with Landing Pages and explains why you have to use them : http://www.matuloo.com/landing-pages-what-they-are-and-why-use-them/

There are two main performance factors, that determine the quality of a Landing Page. One is the CTR (Click Through Rate) and the other one is the CVR (Conversion Rate). In order to profit, we need to reach good numbers for both of them.

This might sound as an easy task, but it’s not 🙂 The fact is, these two usually work AGAINST each other. The higher the CTR, the lower the CVR. And vice versa, LPs with high CVR usually have low CTR. I will get back to why this is the case a bit later on.

Some affiliates would argue that all that matters is a high Conversion Rate, which is true to some extent … but if you have a Landing Page with very low CTR, the high conversion rate will not save you.

Let’s take a look at an example.

The CTR % tells us how many visitors of the LP actually clicked on something on it, usually some Call To Action (CTA) button. CVR means how many of those who clicked on something, and got to the offer, actually converted into a subscriber, member or made a purchase.

LP1 : 20% CTR and 10% CVR

LP2: 5% CTR and 20% CVR

Let’s say we send 100 visits to each LP, this means that LP1 will send 20 clicks to the offer and 2 of them will convert. LP2 will send 5 clicks to the offer and 1 of them will convert. So even thou LP2 had double the CVR of the first one, it still made us less money.

I know this was a very simple math example, but I just wanted to have it here anyways in order to clear any possible confusion 🙂

There is one point we need to take from this calculation : in case the CTR is too low, we are not getting enough % of the traffic to the offer, which effectively makes every LP click too expensive and we cannot profit on it anymore – no matter how high the actual CVR is.

We need to stay realistic, no offer will convert every single visitor, so if we have to pay more $ to achieve 1 LP click, than the offer pays per registration for example.. it simply cannot work.

When working with a vertical/niche for some time, you will figure out what a REALISTIC conversion rate is, and you will be able to judge LP’s based on this faster.

Ok, we know that both the CTR and CVR rates need to be as high as possible, so how do we increase them?

Let’s start with the Click Through Rate:

There are 2 main things that influence the CTR of a landing page. It’s the ANGLE (Sales Pitch) and the PRESENTATION (Layout).

I already wrote an article about Angles, check it out here : http://www.matuloo.com/angles-what-they-really-are-and-how-to-utilize-them-properly/ for a better understanding of the meaning.

The angle will have direct impact on both the CTR and CVR of your Landing Pages. You need to realize one thing now, the angle that would produce the highest CTR would most likely also sell the LEAST. It’s all about finding the balance.

If you promise the heaven and moon, people will click through, but as soon as they realize you just lured them into clicking, they will leave and conversions won’t happen. In order to reach high CTR, you have to heat the user up indeed, but its very important to keep a tray of REALITY!

But since we are talking about the CTR of your Landing Pages now, let’s focus on it first. CTR has a lot to do with grabbing the attention of the user, you only have a second or so to do it, that’s why the HEADLINE and IMAGE content is the most important to achieve high CTR.

Short, clear and aggressive headline, large font, some capitalization and top center placement … this always worked the best for me. You can always use longer explanation and sales pitch below it, but if the headline is poor, people won’t care about the rest.

Since many people respond better to image content compared to written word, it’s extremely important to use quality, straight to the face graphics too. Never settle with poorly optimized images, don’t use the same as everyone else … take the extra step to get your own screenshots, images of products, use properly sized images that don’t look to small or big compared to the rest of the layout.

Think about what you are promoting and pick the images based on that – use game screens when promoting games, use high-res images of products that you are selling, use hot women whenever you are selling something to male audience AND ALWAYS stay on subject! Don’t be like the lazy guys who have images of Samsung phones on LPs promoting iPhone Sweepstakes … you wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve seen this 🙂

People MUST see what you are selling, throw it into their faces, be as clear as possible. You have a few seconds to sell your stuff, don’t let the visitor take ANY guesses.

Don’t forget about “supplemental” graphics that can increase the CTR. ALWAYS have a CTA button in place, try to put it above the fold whenever possible. Having to scroll to actually see a clickable link, will ALWAYS decrease the CTR. Animated CTA almost always wins over a static one, make it blinking/flashing at least.

Try to use arrows to help the user with navigation, point them to the CTA, make sure they don’t have to search for anything, your LPs must be intuitive and easy to navigate! Don’t make the users think about the next step, navigate them yourself!

Let me sum up the most important CTR related factors really quickly :

1. Short, straight to the face Headline, written in a large font, centered at the top. It must be catchy, defining the product promoted.

2. Corresponding graphics in high res, well optimized, in proportion to the rest of the page. Clear and always in line with what we are trying to sell.

3. Always have a CTA, animated if possible and placed above the fold. Properly chosen navigation elements can help the user with navigation and increase CTR too.

Let’s take a look at the Conversion Rates now, shall we?

Some things that help with the CTR will also improve our CVR – especially the ANGLE. While the headline itself helps with the CTR, the rest of the text (sales pitch) has more to do with the CVR. Let’s assume that we already have the attention of the user, because they liked the headline or the graphics, now we have to actually sell the product.

You need to explain the angle now : outline the problem and offer a solution, focus on the desire and offer a fix, heat the user up with a series of questions that will make him feel like the right candidate for the gratification you offer… Your users MUST understand that THEY are the right candidates for what you are offering and that they CANNOT get it anywhere else 🙂 If you achieve this, your CVR will skyrocket.

There are two ways of approaching this, you can be either very honest and present the product in a review style for example – you will obviously focus more on the pros, but generally speaking, you won’t lie. You’ll just market the positives of what you are offering.

Or, you can resort to the very opposite, post flat out lies, make unreal promises or scare the shit out of your users and offer a solution for their now deadly problem – this is what guys promoting fake antivirus do all the time. I don’t endorse this, but I won’t lie to you about it either … that’s the way it is.

Another very important factor that directly influences the CVR is “consistency”, you need to keep the flow all the way to the actual offer page. Let’s say you’re promoting a dating product for seniors … but there is a 18 year old hot girl on the offer page – that’s a clear mismatch and a CVR killer right there. Don’t promise something on the LP, when you know the offer is not offering it. It might help you to make people click, but they won’t convert as they will feel cheated.

It’s not about the message/angle only though, in many cases the CVR improved when I used LPs that looked similar to the offer page – so same colors, layout, graphics … Always worth a try to test this.

Another CVR booster is the “local” and “personal approach” factor – especially when it comes to services, people respond better to local offers. Call out the country/state/city on the LP in case you can detect it properly. “Properly” is the key, wrongly detected cities or even states will actually hurt your campaign.

The “personal” approach means talking to the prospects directly, by using identifiers that relate to them personally. Whatever you know about them, use it on the LP. Here are a few ideas that you can use : site that they are coming from, age/sex/name …, device they are surfing on, mobile carrier they use … Make a special offer for Orange users from Berlin, who use Samsung S7 phones … modern trackers collect a lot of data, so your fantasy is the only limit.

These days, the spytools became so popular, that pretty much any affiliate rips LPs from their fellow marketers. This is another thing I’m not exactly happy about, since many affiliates turned into copycats … but well, that’s the way it is, so I gotta accept it.

But the point I wanted to make : even when you’re using ripped LPs, you can still improve their CVR. Give them your personal touch! Edit the angles, rephrase, use different questions, use better graphics, change the CTA style … there is a lot you can do, don’t be lazy.

Let me end the CVR tips with one more, that is also related to CTR : SPEED. Loading speed is crucial, especially when working with 3G mobile traffic – the slower the connections of your target audience, the faster your landing pages have to load.

In order to achieve this, you need to optimize your LP source code, optimize the graphics, use CDN for static content. Make sure you tracking is hosted on a fast server or use a cloud solution. Optimize your DNS loading speeds and don’t use any 3rd party elements that you don’t need to. Test your loading speeds with tools like : https://tools.pingdom.com/

Quick summary again, in order to reach high CVR with your LPs :

1. Explain your angle in more detail : make it sound exclusive, limited, tailored to the needs of your prospects. Stay honest or use the other extreme : lie like mad 🙂

2. Stay consistent with your angle and the whole approach, from the LP to the offer page. Don’t promise something that the offer doesn’t promise too.

3. Add local and personal factors, call out the surfer with info you know about them.

4. Make your LPs unique, especially when working with ripped creatives – give them a personal touch.

5. Make sure your LPs load fast, test them from several locations in the world.

Find the synergy, the CTR and CVR of your LPs have to walk hand in hand together!

The best LPs have both high CTR and CVR, achieving that has to be your main goal. You need to learn how to achieve this. It’s all about finding balance, really. Learn how to sound exclusive, without actually promising something you cannot deliver. Or do the opposite, but make sure you promote something that plays the same game.

Do not settle with what others have designed, get inspired but learn how to make it better. AM is a competitive space, anyone can copy, but not everyone can innovate. If you want to survive in this game for some time, you need to learn how to do it.

Producing quality LPs is a skill you need to master, there are not many verticals left that can work without them.

Thanks for reading!

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