You are getting clicks and sales from a few different sources. Great! But how do you know which of the sources is bringing the most business? Is it your pay per click advertising, your email campaign or some other venue? If your visitors are going straight to your home page, you have no way of knowing. You also have no way of capturing contact information to follow up with visitors who click on your ad in a PPC search engine.

Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to track where your traffic is coming from and be able to build your list? Both can be done with the use of landing pages. When you are in a bookstore, what catches your attention?

A book’s dust jacket, of course. The dust jacket is kind of like a landing page except it can’t gather contact information. It does give information about what is inside in an attractive way, though, like a good landing page does. A landing page offers a visitor a short preview of the product you are offering and/or a free download of a report or small e-book. To get the free download link, they will type in their name and email address.

Of course, some people are uncomfortable about giving their contact information on a page they found in pay per click advertising. It is important to have a statement just below the sign-up form that you will not sell or share their contact details in any way to protect their privacy.

Using this statement puts your credibility on the line, so be sure you abide by it. You also want to be sure to thank the visitor for visiting. A landing page really does help with keeping accurate track of visitors clicking your ad in a PPC search engine.

A landing page is basically a specialized portal page. There are several types of landing pages you can use, depending on your business and personal preference. Below are some of the most common.

Using a basic lead capture page in pay per click advertising

A basic lead capture page is great to use in a PPC search engine ad if you send out a regular newsletter or e-zine related to your business. You can create a simple page that includes a greeting and thanks for visiting with a description of your newsletter above the sign-up form.

After a visitor fills in their contact information and clicks submit, they are directed to your web site. If the visitor chooses not to subscribe, you will need to include a way for the visitor to go on to the web site. This is usually a ‘no thanks’ link below the sign-up form.

“Squeezing” contact information from PPC search engine visitors

Using a squeeze page in your pay per click advertising campaign is very good for building up your list and converting visitors into customers. Here, you can offer a subscription to an e-zine or newsletter in exchange for a free download and admittance to your web site. ‘Squeeze’ is a very apt description.

It gently squeezes information from a visitor. It should be attractive enough that visitors readily give their contact details. It can also be set up to personalize the sales page so the visitor is addressed personally when he/she gets to the sales page. This can boost conversion rates tremendously.

Make a big ‘splash’ in pay per click advertising

A well-designed splash page is a very attractive way to entice your PPC search engine visitor. It can include your sales letter along with a colorful image of your product. Through the use of a sign-up form, you can offer information on related products by email. Again, you want thank the visitor for coming to your page. After filling in the form or clicking on the ‘no thanks’ link, the visitor is redirected to you web site.

Add flash and dash to your PPC search engine traffic

Flash splash pages add animation to your landing page. You can include a flashy video about your company or other ways of introducing the visitor to your business. It is up to you, use your imagination. After the visitor views your presentation, a sign-up form should appear so they can get more information about you and your business. Then visitors are redirected to the web site. Of course, returning visitors may not want to see the presentation every time they visit, so you will need a ‘skip intro’ link to allow them to bypass the presentation.

Over all, this kind of landing page can maximize your conversion rate and help keep tract of your pay per click advertising.

One thing you want to be sure to do is use a different landing page for each different campaign. Then you will know exactly where the traffic is coming from. You don’t want the search engine spiders to index your landing pages either. This would make your statistics inaccurate. Be sure to install the robots.txt exclusion protocol to keep this from happening.

Try out one or more of the different landing page types and find what works best with you pay per click advertising campaign. And don’t forget to have some fun with it.

Joe Sansoucie owns and operates the pay per click search engine FrogSearch.com offering advertisers lower advertising costs with included features not found on the big three. To find out more visit Joe Sansoucie and let him know you wish to become an advertiser by registering here. FrogSearch offers bonus ad dollars for deposits over $20.00 up to $100.00 - matched dollar for dollar.

Keywords: ppc search engine, pay per click advertising