5 Facebook Ad and Landing Page Combinations Critiqued

There are two rules which, in the past year or so, have framed the way I think about marketing:

1. There is no point in driving traffic to a website not optimized to receive it.
2. There is no point in creating an optimized website if there’s no traffic being driven to it.

These two rules are the foundation of the entire sales funnel as well as the entire idea of “return on investment.”

Driving traffic to a website not built to turn traffic into leads and sales is a waste of money. Equally, building a website optimized to turn people into leads and sales is a waste of money if nobody ever sees it.

This article will break down some Facebook Ad and landing page combinations. These ad examples showed up on my own feed and, when clicked on, sent me to the corresponding page of the advertiser’s website. These combos come from both B2C and B2B companies, so we’re all represented.

Want to improve the conversion rate of your whole sales funnel from top to bottom? Let’s get started.

Dollar Shave Club

Dollar Shave Club is an online company targeting men. They deliver shaving supplies in the mail every month to their customers.

The Facebook Ad:

What I Like About this Facebook Ad:

• The targeting is good: I’m a male between 18 and 65 (pretty wide target market) but I’m also a young professional with little time and a surplus income for little luxuries like this one. I’d guess that Dollar Shave Club has tried to hone in on their specific target audience as closely as possible.
• The message appeals to the target market as well: “No commitment. No BS” is clearly targeted at younger men.
• Millions of members is used to create trust. If other men like me are using it (millions of them) then it must be good.
• The value proposition is solid: “Get an amazing shave delivered for just a few bucks.” Value (amazing shave) + affordability (just a few bucks) = recipe for success.

The Landing Page:

What I Like About this Landing Page:

• The color palate is consistent between the ad and the landing page (brown, which appeals to men). Consistency is huge when it comes to ad and landing page combos.
• The landing page is clearly designed for the target market: very simple, limited text, clear CTAs, bullet-pointed value points and clear-cut images. This landing page says “This is what you’ll get for this price,” which appeals to men.
• Personality of “it’s like a personal assistant for your face” and “for guys who dig” makes the visitor like the brand.
• The middle option (clearly the best-seller) also includes small-printed “The Lover’s Blade.” which, totally subconsciously, would impact the chance of it being the most desirable.
• Clear focus on the CTAs. Limited nav bar (I’d actually recommend less) and great color/size contrast between CTA button and page.

HockeySockey

HockeySockey is a merchandising company targeting hockey fans. Simple ecommerce.

The Facebook Ad:

What I Like About this Facebook Ad:

• Bright colors attract the eye and show you the product before you read a word.
• Timely and season-sensitive. There’s no point in promoting these onesies in July and there’s no point in promoting baseball hats in December. Also, referring to them as “the perfect gift for under the tree” inspires people to buy as a present.
• Value point with “super fast shipping too.” This assuages people’s concerns that the onesie won’t come in time for Christmas as well as allows HockeySockey to run the campaign longer before the holiday.
• “NHL Licensed” is, essentially, a trust symbol (which you’ll see as well on the landing page below) which creates trust. Even if I’ve never heard of HockeySockey, I’ve heard of the NHL. And if the NHL trusts this merchant I can too.

All of that said, what I don’t like about this ad is the targeting. It would be very easy to create a few different ads and run them to different areas of Canada. This is particularly important with sports merchandise. As a Canuck fan from Vancouver, I’m extremely unlikely to buy something with a Calgary Flames logo, as they’ve been our rivals for decades.

I’ll get into this a bit with the next ad and landing page combo as well, so look out for that.

The Landing Page:

What I Like About this Landing Page:

• The customer testimonials at the bottom are a great way to create trust. As a possible customer, I’m far more likely to believe an impartial previous-merchant than I am a company.
• The “276 5-star reviews” is also a great little trust symbol, though many people might say “out of how many?” If you’re going to include something like this, be sure you put it in context otherwise you run the risk of looking like you’re hiding something.
• The landing page is very standard for ecommerce product pages. I’d like to see fewer options (I’ve cut about 5 rows out of this landing page so you don’t have to scroll for half an hour) and a more prominent “select your product” toolbar.

NHLStore.com

NHLStore is the official merchandiser for the NHL. It’s a huge organization (naturally) and ships all over the world.

The Facebook Ad:

What I Like About this Facebook Ad:

• The targeting is excellent. I live in Vancouver. I’m a Canucks fan and Henrik Sedin (the player shown) is captain. All of this appeals. I’m also male, which (though by no means a deciding factor in sport promotion) should be considered).
• Featuring the price, twice (both in the copy and the image) is a great way to communicate the value of engaging. Canucks jerseys are usually more than 100, so this is a serious sale, and featuring that prominently is crucial to its success.
• The professional image works well. If you compare it to the HockeySockey ad above, it looks significantly cleaner. Without the green line this image would be too blue, and blend into the Facebook newsfeed.

The Landing Page:

What I Like About this Landing Page:

• It delivers value twice, once with the top headline and also in the sidebar. That said, these percentages should match (also, 3% discount is not even worth promoting, and strikes me as an error).
• Unlike the HockeySockey landing page, this one is focused solely on Canucks gear. It also features male jerseys at the top of the page.

To be honest this landing page is primarily interesting to me because of how impressed I am with the campaign. The page’s URL finished with /603. When you changed that number (which I did, as I had a sneaking suspicion I knew what was going on), the jersey and player name changed to other NHL players and names. I tried this a few times, and found that every player in the NHL (there are hundreds) had their own product page.

To me, this indicates that NHL is running at least 30 Facebook Ads to each NHL city with the same kind of target audience. Each ad has its own corresponding landing page. As I mentioned in the HockeySockey ad/landing page combo breakdown, targeting sports fans with players or teams who may be rivals is missing the mark. NHLStore, though, has it down.

And creating this many landing pages isn’t actually that hard. Provided the copy is limited, 90% of it is duplication (a crucial part of any landing page builder) and a simple drag and drop of a few new images. I’m confident, provided I had the images handy, I could easily create 30 simple landing pages like the one above in a single morning.

Ancestry.com

Ancestry.com has collected a huge amount of travel, immigration, birth, marriage and death records from all over the world in order to help people learn their family histories.

The Facebook Ad:

What I Like About this Facebook Ad:

• The headline incites curiosity, tempting viewers with the possibility of a family surprise (Piracy? Royalty?).
• The subheader (“Enter your last name…”) tells people exactly how easy it is to convert. If you’re lowering the conversion ask within your landing page, make it clear in your ad right off the bat.
• The copy appeals to something larger than just information, by referring to a “sense of identity” and “discover who you are.”
• The image, though it could be a bit more engaging, is (at least) a contrasting color, and catches the eye as it’s not the kind of image we see often. Not bad at all.

The Landing Page:

What I Like About this Landing Page:

• I like that the headline for the landing page is identical to that of the Facebook Ad. This kind of continuity is great for conversions, and should be repeated wherever possible.
• The clear benefit list below “Some of the interesting facts you’ll learn about your surname” offers something for everybody. That said, this ad should have been targeted at Canadians, so the “when your family immigrated to the US” point is alienating to the target market.
• The customer testimonial from Mary is a nice touch, particularly as she speaks exactly about the “2-week free trial membership” which is the landing page’s conversion goal.

The two CTA buttons (“Search” and “Try FREE for 14 days”) might be confusing visitors. Whenever possible, try to restrict your landing pages to one single conversion goal. And make sure that conversion goal is the one advertised.

Wishpond

Might as well critique ourselves. Below is a Facebook ad we’re currently running for our Photo Contest tool.

The Facebook Ad:

What I Like About this Facebook Ad:

• We’ve tested the question as a headline against other hooks, and it’s the proven to be the most reliable. Particularly when marketing on the Facebook platform (and targeting marketers), this question is one you (even subconsciously) respond positively to.
• The image is professional and appealing. The red hat, in particular, is a nice touch, as it contrasts well with the rest of the Facebook newsfeed. Little details like that can make all the difference in advertising.
• The subheader “Turn fans into paying customers with a photo contest” is objective-driven and also speaks to the value of a photo contest. Simple but effective.

The Landing Page:

What I Like About this Landing Page:

• Very limited copy. The goal of this page is to supply lead information (that’s it). There’s no paid conversion, and visitors can start creating their campaign immediately.
• The above the fold section is simple and to the point: very straightforward headline coupled with a subheader which re-iterates the value of a photo contest and a simple form. Almost everything else is below the fold and visible only if a visitor scrolls.
• Four-part benefit list: “Easy to Use,” “Social by Nature,” “Beautiful Designs,” and “Works Everywhere” effectively communicate the value of conversion, and the sentences below the icons expand on those four benefits.
• Trust symbols and a customer testimonial mean the visitor isn’t just relying on the business (Wishpond) to be telling the truth about the value of a social promotion. The six well-known businesses show that you can trust us like they have, and the testimonial puts a personal touch on the section.

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Wrapping it Up:

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Hopefully critiquing these five ad and landing page combos has given you a bit of insight into how important it is to optimize both the top and middle of your business’ sales funnel.

I’d be happy to give feedback for any Facebook ad/landing page combos you’re concerned with. Even the smallest changes can have the greatest effect!

Get the conversation started in the comment section below.