Often overlooked when one is tweaking bids and refining keywords lists within an AdWords campaign, is the importance of landing pages. You can have the most appropriate keywords, be targeting the best possible traffic and have perfectly crafted and compelling advert copy, yet lose reservations because your landing page is not effective. Making changes on your pages together with tweaking your campaigns, will improve the account and convert good click-through rates into lucrative reservations. Here are three simple steps you should follow to make sure you do this for your hotel.
1.Are your users getting what they want?
When a user clicks on your sponsored link advert, they already have specific expectations about the page they are being transferred to. If you’ve stated ‘beautiful golf courses within walking distance’ or ‘10% discounts online’, it is essential that these promises are repeated in a prominent position on the landing page. Cohesion of messages creates synergy between the sponsored link advert and the hotel and its facilities. If you fail to meet these expectations, your landing page will fail to resonate with the user. This, in turn, leads to a higher than necessary abandonment rate and far fewer reservations. To decipher which pages may be letting you down, you must critically analyse your adverts and their landing pages, and re-work the positioning of your “call to action” phrases where necessary. Google analytics will give you bounce rate statistics per landing page – this is valuable information and allows you to evaluate the effect that re-working your landing page has on your abandonment rate.
2.Are you using ‘call to action’ ?
A ‘call to action’ is a phrase that entices a web visitor to do something, for example the statement “buy now” is a call to action. Website visitors clicking through with the intention of making an enquiry or reserving a room on your web site, can falter if clear ‘call to action’ phrases are not used on the landing page. Hiding contact forms or ‘reserve online’ buttons amid unnecessary on-page clutter, dilutes the impact of the call to action. You must add a very clear call-to-action, such as a large button - this will increase web site conversions by giving the reader a clear path through to the web booking engine.
If your landing page has more than three or four paragraphs of text, or is otherwise quite ‘busy’ due to graphics, make sure you use ‘calls to action’ consistently throughout the page. You should not leave your website visitor scrolling back up and down the page in order to find the online reservation link. Remember you have paid for that click; therefore you must give your hotel the best chance of converting that click into a reservation.
3.Have you performance-tested your adverts?
Testing performance is a pretty simple piece of advice, but it is surprising how many advertisers let this basic good practice guideline fall by the wayside after the first flush of enthusiasm has passed. Testing a landing page’s effectiveness can be as simple as trying two different page titles or as complicated as changing form layout, number of fields, content length and style.
Getting the most out of your landing page will often also hinge on how visitors got there in the first place. So, while you’re in a testing frame of mind, you could at the same time check the messages used within the advert text. Typical parameters include changing titles, the inclusion of different special offers and discounts, and using varying ‘call to action’ phrases.
Following these three simple steps will ultimately optimise each of your landing pages and secure your hotel an increased return on investment from your paid adverts on Google. These activities are equally important to consider within best practice SEO. Whilst they may not turbo your organic rankings, they do play a positive role within your digital marketing strategy in its entirety.
About GlobRes
GlobRes provides hotel reservations and digital marketing solutions for hoteliers globally. GlobRes offers Google AdWords account management, online reputation management and social media management. Complete our online contact form for more information.
Editors Note: Samantha Hasler leads the Digital Marketing Team at GlobRes www.globres.com. Please direct all press queries to marketing@globres.com
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