How to Assess the Quality of Your Campaign Pages

A page that you send campaign traffic to can make or break campaign results. A poorly designed landing page will confuse, overwhelm or distract a visitor, and decrease the odds of conversion. When evaluating the strength of a landing page design, use this checklist to help determine if sufficient best practices are being leveraged, and sound conversion design principles are being followed.

Is there message match between the ad and landing page copy?

Look for words and phrases that are used in the ad to be echoed on the landing page. Message match should be extremely obvious, not hidden or inferred.

Is there motivation match?

This is a little more subtle than message match, but equally important. Every ad holds the promise of a ‘carrot’. That’s what gets the user motivated to click. The landing page needs to stay focused on the carrot and the visitor motivation. If the ad is a promise (“click here, get this”), the landing page should pay off the promise.

Is there visual match?

If the traffic is arriving at the landing page from display, social, email or other visually-oriented sources, ensure a tight visual match between the ad and the landing page.

Do you use directional cues?

The landing page needs to literally show the visitor what you want them to do. What’s the action you want people to take on the page? Directional cues are design elements that point the user towards the desired action. Don’t be afraid to make it very visually obvious—use cues such as arrows or fingers pointing to the call to action. Even a photo of a model with her/his body angled toward the call to action can be an implied directional cue.

Is the page focused and simple?

It’s easy to clutter up a web page. Much harder to pare it down and keep it focused. But clarity leads to focus and focus leads to conversion. Stay on point—both the content and the visuals need to be clear, simple and focused. Strip away unnecessary navigations or links away from the page, or anything that detracts from conversion.

Is the important stuff above the fold?

Instantly when arriving on the page, is it clear what action the visitor can take? Is call to action, offer conversion point and main value all located above the fold?

Is the call to action positive?

Users don’t want to ‘submit’. Don’t make your call to action a command, make it something they want to do. Make it about the promise of your conversion. For example, use “Get started” instead of “Submit”. Or “Download tips to boost performance” instead of “Download”.

Is the copy scannable?

Copy-heavy pages are dense. Dense looks like work, and work doesn’t convert. Use bullets and keep them short. Use subheads and short copy blocks. Vary your sentence length. Make sure your copy looks easy to scan and easy to read. Based on a quick scan of the page, will the visitor get the point?

Is the experience device specific?

Visitors expect a great experience regardless of the device they arrive on—desktop, tablet, phablet or smart phone. Use responsive landing page design to automatically adjust the page to the visitor’s screen size, or create device-specific versions of the pages.

Is the page trustworthy?

Use trust assurances to indicate to the visitor that you are worthy of having their trust. Include social proof such as customer testimonials, customer & partner logos, community ratings, or social plugins for Twitter & Facebook. Also, make sure the page includes a privacy statement, or link to a privacy policy, and any third-party verification that’s applicable, such as TRUSTe, Verisign, etc.

Is the value clear?

Don’t assume the visitor is going to automatically want what you’ve got to offer. Remember to merchandize & pitch it. Emphasize the value of the offer and use a strong value proposition with features, benefits and offer details, when applicable.

ls the barrier to conversion low?

A big, long, complicated form or registration process feels like work to the visitor. Create the appearance of a low hurdle to conversion. Break up long forms into multi-step experiences, using a simple 1 or 2 field form as the first step. For longer registrations, set visitor expectations by giving progress bars and/or written & visual indicators of what to expect.

Does the page make the user feel good?

This is subjective, but important. Is it visually appealing? Does it make sense? Is it awesome? Don’t underestimate the power of the landing page brand impression—visitors are likely to landing & leave if the page isn’t appealing. Often the landing page is the first impression a visitor has of your company—make it a great one.

Use this scorecard to assess the quality of your campaign landing pages (click to enlarge)

Landing Page Toolkit

Get this handy checklist, along with 12 additional landing page tools in our 28-page Landing Page Toolkit. The toolkit includes tools for design, testing & management.

Register to receive Toolkit via email!