Landing Page Catch-22

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xmcp123

xmcp123

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Sep 20, 2007
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Ok. I'm having landing page problems, yet again.
Bear in mind everyone, this is for an LP that requires a purchase, and has a $19-$26 payout per sale.
I had an old "review" style landing page. It was converting at 1:10-1:15 on people that actually clicked through from my LP to the offer. But it only had a 40-55% clickthrough. Which sucks.

So I decided to redo it last night. Add in some more relevant products, put the facts about the product a bit higher up on the LP, more distinctive links, etc.

So I've been running that today. And the CTR from LP->offer absolutely BLOWS. 25-30% it's looking like.
HOWEVER, it's still running as profitable, because out of those people 1:5-1:6 make the purchase.

So I've got an LP that makes the sale very very well, but apparently only for a limited audience.

I think it's gotta be either the layout or maybe overly positive reviews? Because the people coming into my LP are really people who could ONLY be searching for what it is I'm offering.

But anyone have experience with a page like this before? What did you end up doing to bring that CTR from LP->Offer up, without sacrificing the forcefulness that led to such a good conversion ratio in the first place?
 


Split test the two pages, to see which is doing incrementally better.

Then, start with the better version and make small changes that gradually push it toward the other version, split-testing each change as you go. At some point you should reach the most profitable compromise of the two versions.

It's not the fastest answer, but at least it will have the benefit of being empirically sound.
 
2 Inch animated arrows haha

Did you change the color scheme around? Or just the layout? You said something about overly positive reviews? Did you add more reviews? Take away Negatives?
More distinctive links... Hmmm what are your users clicking? A Text / Banner / Button link?

Your laying a whole lot of different variables out there
 
DelJean said:
Split test the two pages, to see which is doing incrementally better.

Then, start with the better version and make small changes that gradually push it toward the other version, split-testing each change as you go. At some point you should reach the most profitable compromise of the two versions.

It's not the fastest answer, but at least it will have the benefit of being empirically sound.
Click to expand...
Yeah so far the new one comes out ahead. I suppose a compromise might work, but really I was trying to get higher CTR than the original, not make up for lost ground. Having profit at a 25-30% CTR makes me thirsty for that 75%, not 50%.
Any reccomendations on changes to make? General things that normally work. Bearing in mind I don't have a lot of whitespace to work with. :\
 
Do you have everything above the fold by chance?

Also, if you've only been running the new landing page today I'd let it run a little longer to get more stats before making your decision.
 
kjb1891 said:
Do you have everything above the fold by chance?

Also, if you've only been running the new landing page today I'd let it run a little longer to get more stats before making your decision.
Click to expand...
Everything isnt above the fold, but a fair amount is. You can see all the products and key points. Full length reviews are lower.
It is a bit on the wide side though.
 
xmcp123 said:
Everything isnt above the fold, but a fair amount is. You can see all the products and key points. Full length reviews are lower.
It is a bit on the wide side though.
Click to expand...

I guess as long as the headline, main image(s), call to action, and main link are all above the fold then that should be good.
 
You may be giving to much info in the reviews on the LP. They may read the review then hit the back button to go back and click on the next "xyz review" ad. I've had that problem.

One thing I did to boost my review-type LP ctr was give less info in the review and never give a 100% positive review.

I give a short review that starts with something like "XYZ is a great product with only a couple of faults. The things I like about XYZ are ...", then I will end with something like "The only problem I had with XYZ is ... more" where "more" is a cloaked link to the offer. I let them know at the beginning of the review that here is something I don't like about XYZ but give the positives first. I believe that gets them to read the entire (short) review.

Now, you've at least set the offer's cookie so if they back out before buying, you may still get credit for the sale later if they don't click another affiliate's link first.

I also quit using things like stars (say, an image of 3 1/2 stars) or anything that would give the visitor any kind of quick way to tell what I thought of the product. I want them to read the review.

I also started placing a cloaked link below the review that say something like "Check for XYZ discounts", or "Current XYZ promotions"

My LP->offer CTR went way up.

I also had a similar problem to what you are having, the LP got a great CTR from the ad but LP->Offer sucked. The coversion on the offer was great, I just couldn't get them to click through to it.

After digging through the stats, I found that most of LP->offer click-thrus were late afternoon into the evening then almost nothing from midnight to 3 or 4 the next afternoon. I figured I was getting a bunch of lookers during the day (School, work?)

I set it to show only from 2-midnight and my ROI went way up.

Anyway, just a couple of things to consider
 
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Gumby! said:
You may be giving to much info in the reviews on the LP. They may read the review then hit the back button to go back and click on the next "xyz review" ad. I've had that problem.

One thing I did to boost my review-type LP ctr was give less info in the review and never give a 100% positive review.

I give a short review that starts with something like "XYZ is a great product with only a couple of faults. The things I like about XYZ are ...", then I will end with something like "The only problem I had with XYZ is ... more" where "more" is a cloaked link to the offer. I let them know at the beginning of the review that here is something I don't like about XYZ but give the positives first. I believe that gets them to read the entire (short) review.

Now, you've at least set the offer's cookie so if they back out before buying, you may still get credit for the sale later if they don't click another affiliate's link first.

I also quit using things like stars (say, an image of 3 1/2 stars) or anything that would give the visitor any kind of quick way to tell what I thought of the product. I want them to read the review.

I also started placing a cloaked link below the review that say something like "Check for XYZ discounts", or "Current XYZ promotions"

My LP->offer CTR went way up.

I also had a similar problem to what you are having, the LP got a great CTR from the ad but LP->Offer sucked. The coversion on the offer was great, I just couldn't get them to click through to it.

After digging through the stats, I found that most of LP->offer click-thrus were late afternoon into the evening then almost nothing from midnight to 3 or 4 the next afternoon. I figured I was getting a bunch of lookers during the day (School, work?)

I set it to show only from 2-midnight and my ROI went way up.

Anyway, just a couple of things to consider
Click to expand...
Thanks! Now that's the shit I'm talking about! :D
 
xmcp123 said:
Thanks! Now that's the shit I'm talking about! :D
Click to expand...

No problem, I've seen you share some solid info, thought I'd return the favor.


I wanted to expand on what I do with my reviews a little, I kind of over-simplified in the post.

I don't make it sound like there are major problems with the product then send them to the offer page where they would say "WTF, where are the problems?", I don't want to give them a reason to go off and search some more.

I start the review out hinting that there a couple of things I don't like about XYZ and leave it at that, then I go over all of the great things about XYZ product. Near the end I will usually give one of the things I don't like, and it's always something minor, something that will make them say "That's not bad" and I'll cut the review off with the "more" link before I get into the second thing I don't like.

Some other things I include are links such as "View Technical Details" (if applicable) and "View Video Demonstration" (if the offer has videos). And these are just cloaked links to the offer. Basically, all links go straight to the offer page. I just want to get them there so my cookie is set.

For the video link I'll (sometimes) take a screenshot of the page with the video and use photoshop to crop it then use that image as the link. It looks like the video is embedded on my page. I get a lot of click-thrus using that trick

I also use my own cloaking script to strip all info so I don't leak any keyword or search terms to the merchant and it lets me use links like:

mysite.com/info/XYZ/review/
mysite.com/promotions/XYZ/
mysite.com/info/XYZ/demo-videos/
mysite.com/info/XYZ/tech-details/

I think that helps, especially for more technical users, because I think they do take a look at the status bar before clicking the link.

I can't take full credit for the review idea. I adapted it from something I read quite a while ago about writing sales letters, and techniques to get the recipient to read the whole letter. And the "more" link is adapted from leaving the reader wanting more so they contact you.

It definitely works (I wish I'd figured it out sooner), you may just have to tweak and experiment.

For anyone wondering how to get the info for the product review, I use amazon if it's available there, just read through the reviews and make notes. I also just do a google search and read the reviews.
 
Gumby! said:
No problem, I've seen you share some solid info, thought I'd return the favor.


I wanted to expand on what I do with my reviews a little, I kind of over-simplified in the post.

I don't make it sound like there are major problems with the product then send them to the offer page where they would say "WTF, where are the problems?", I don't want to give them a reason to go off and search some more.

I start the review out hinting that there a couple of things I don't like about XYZ and leave it at that, then I go over all of the great things about XYZ product. Near the end I will usually give one of the things I don't like, and it's always something minor, something that will make them say "That's not bad" and I'll cut the review off with the "more" link before I get into the second thing I don't like.

Some other things I include are links such as "View Technical Details" (if applicable) and "View Video Demonstration" (if the offer has videos). And these are just cloaked links to the offer. Basically, all links go straight to the offer page. I just want to get them there so my cookie is set.

For the video link I'll (sometimes) take a screenshot of the page with the video and use photoshop to crop it then use that image as the link. It looks like the video is embedded on my page. I get a lot of click-thrus using that trick

I also use my own cloaking script to strip all info so I don't leak any keyword or search terms to the merchant and it lets me use links like:

mysite.com/info/XYZ/review/
mysite.com/promotions/XYZ/
mysite.com/info/XYZ/demo-videos/
mysite.com/info/XYZ/tech-details/

I think that helps, especially for more technical users, because I think they do take a look at the status bar before clicking the link.

I can't take full credit for the review idea. I adapted it from something I read quite a while ago about writing sales letters, and techniques to get the recipient to read the whole letter. And the "more" link is adapted from leaving the reader wanting more so they contact you.

It definitely works (I wish I'd figured it out sooner), you may just have to tweak and experiment.

For anyone wondering how to get the info for the product review, I use amazon if it's available there, just read through the reviews and make notes. I also just do a google search and read the reviews.
Click to expand...

Great info. Rep added. Do you think add cloaked links into the product name and the screenshot of the offer page will help?
 
solution2u said:
Great info. Rep added. Do you think add cloaked links into the product name and the screenshot of the offer page will help?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the rep, everyone.

I cloak every link and everything on the page links to the offer page. There are no local site links above the fold, the only navigation is in the footer which is pushed as far down as possible without looking ridiculous.

The key is having everything link to the offer page without looking like it links to an offer page. Any images of the product link to the offer page, anytime the product is mentioned, it's a link to the offer page. Anything I can turn into a link to the offer, gets linked.

But it's not just a bunch of links that say "Click here to buy it now", there are links like "View Technical Details", "Watch A Demo", "View Current Promotions", "View More Pictures", "Read Testimonials", "Detailed Specs", "Current Discounts", etc.. All of these would link to the offer page but wouldn't look like they do because they are cloaked.

And I don't use the whole screenshot of the offer page. I was saying that, if the merchant has video demos of the product, I will go to the video demo page and take a screenshot of the page then cut out the image of the video (or however many videos they have) and use the image of the video player on the LP. To the visitor it looks like the video is embedded on the landing page when it's really just another link to the offer. I've even embedded the image in a flash file so it looked even more realistic.
 
Nice tips from Gumby there. Putting a cloaked link to the offer wherever I can above the fold is what I do too. Internal site navigation is only in my footer.

xmcp123 said:
So I've got an LP that makes the sale very very well, but apparently only for a limited audience.
Click to expand...

I dunno what sort of keyword grouping you have set up, but you should also try to present different landing pages to different groups of visitors. See if you can break up your keywords into groups of target demographics, as well as what they are looking for. Some are surfers, some are shoppers, etc. They expect to see different types of landing pages so show them custom pages (with inserted keywords, etc.)

Just my 2 cents. :)
 
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