Happy Sunday!
If you’re reading this, I hope you’re sitting back, relaxed, on plushy couch, with your feet up, AC on, and a beverage in your hand. Today’s newsletter is all about how to make your landing pages 1% better, based on the traffic source they’re coming from.
In case you missed it, Moiz and I dropped another episode of Limited Supply this week. We talked about fad-based brands, the future of PRIME, OWYN protein, PE brand roll ups and acquisitions and a lot more. If you like to hear Moiz and I discussing and dissecting some existing DTC and omnichannel brands, listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Sharma Brands, where all of my insights and learnings are derived from, is hiring for 3 roles on our team. If you don’t know about Sharma Brands, picture us like McKinsey meets a performance agency. We work with category-leading brands on their marketing strategy, acquisition and retention marketing, and creative production/execution. We also build beautiful websites. We have 3 roles we’re looking to hire:
- Retention Coordinator — we’re looking for someone who’s hungry to get their foot in the door and get their hands dirty on all things retention.
- UX/UI Designer — join the award-winning design team at Sharma Brands to support website and landing page work.
- Junior Copywriter — work with our incredible CRM team to produce copy for email and SMS, but also copy that optimizes a brand’s subscription and loyalty programs.
This week, I want to talk about one of my favorite aspects of ecommerce and that's landing pages. Specifically, I want to talk about which kinds of landing pages you should use for different channels/traffic sources. The only way in which a landing page is effective, is if it’s also the right type of page for the traffic that’s arriving there. You want to make sure people packed clothes for the right destination… not bring beach clothes to Ohio.
I’ll go through, quickly, but in a detailed way, what I think works best based on the different channels you’re sending traffic from. My hope is you get 2 nuggets from this newsletter that you can go apply this week on your own funnels and landing pages, or if you need these built out, then hit us up: Hey Nik, build my funnels!
Okay, let’s dive in:
The Macro
For context, I’ve been building custom landing pages for brands since 2014. It was one of the earliest and most important levers that I identified to drive better performance, reduce bounce rates, increase CVRs, and lower CPAs when sending traffic from paid ads. The reason I think I have always had such a good understanding of landing pages is because when I learned paid social, it wasn’t within eCommerce, it was to understand how we drive engagement for internet publishers — my job was to drive traffic that stayed for 5-7 page views on a website. It makes you think more about building a tailored experience and hosting content people want to stick around for.
My team and I at Sharma Brands have designed and developed hundreds of landing pages for so many of your favorite brands. Our LPs have helped these companies do hundreds of millions in sales, and have hovered between 4% and 12% conversion. For some of our clients, a single landing page can be worth $2,000,000! Others though… $66? More often than not, our pages are printing money, but not to say there aren’t some that just don’t hit — that’s okay! If all your ideas/tests are winning, you’re not trying a wide enough breadth of tests.
We’ve constantly seen how simply updating a brand's LP can lead to double digit percentage increases in CVR or double digit percentage reductions in CPA. Much of the secret sauce is about understanding the source of traffic, the messaging/positioning, the merchandising, and ensuring it feels cohesive to whomever is going through that funnel.
Let’s say you decide to run TV ads… you wouldn’t run your Snapchat ad creative on TV, right? Similarly, you have to think about using different landing page types for different sources of where people are coming from. I hope today’s email also helps to clarify what you could consider upper, middle, or lower funnel channels. You’ll see the more upper funnel a traffic source is, the more you need to get someone bought in, maybe even lead with entertainment versus the sales pitch. As it gets more lower funnel, the goal is to get people to click the buy button.
The 4 Part Quartet of DTC:
When it comes to nailing customer acquisition on DTC, there are 4 things that you really need to get right — the angle, the ad creative, the landing page, and the offer.
The Angle is your reason why you’re going to be a valuable solution to a problem someone has. When I worked at Hint water, a big angle for us was to ditch diet soda. We weren’t promoting that it has zero calories (yet), but we needed an angle that got us “in” with you first.
The Ad Creative is how you visually show and attract someone into your brand world or through your funnel.
The Landing Page is the site experience someone gets to when they click an ad. For most brands, they go to unoptimized collections pages or product pages only for people to be bored, not understand what is being sold, and leave.
The Offer is what makes the landing page even stronger. Without the offer, a landing page can still work, but with a good offer, you’ll get to that 10% conversion rate level with your landing page.
To make these pages pair well with traffic sources, it’s all about reverse engineering the consumer psychology of that specific channel and catering your LP approach to match the channel intent. That’s why there are different LP formats that work on Meta vs Google vs TikTok vs TV, etc. It’s not a one-size fits all situation. Oh also, this is a great situation where Heatmap.com makes a lot of sense to leverage.
Here are some thoughts on each.
Meta and Instagram
I think about Meta as the global news stand mixed with the global mall. People are constantly trying to show off and shout at each other about politics, their day, what’s happening in current events or the outfit they just bought. On IG it’s more about the aesthetic and visual appeal and showcasing the “best version” of people’s lives that may not always be true.
For the landing page from Meta, I like running what I call the hero lander — generally focused on a single collection/product or a value proposition. Others, like Everyday Dose on this example, have been very successful with a PDP-style landing page (think a landing page but beefed up below the shop section)
The hero lander is the LP that does it all. It gives you the offer, social proof, educational content and a way to buy all in one. Here is a great example from Lolavie running on Meta/IG.
I love having before and after sections with product in use content on any LP. It comes from a lesson about communication that we learned in 4th grade — show don’t tell. The picture is worth a thousand words here. Let the differences speak for themselves and demonstrate the benefits from a point of reference that the customer understands.
Reviews are probably the single biggest lever to increasing sales and boosting CVR on your LP. If you don’t have them, stop reading this email, and go get 20 right now. There are multiple studies that show that 95% of consumers read reviews before making a purchase decision. And 54.7% read at least 4 reviews before making a purchase. 58% of people also said they would pay more for products from brands that have good reviews.
The takeaway? There is never enough social proof.
Google Ads
Google is kind of the opposite of Meta. The ad creative is text based and it’s high intent search by people looking for something. This is where copywriting and presenting the offer/choosing the right keywords really matters.
Let’s look at this example from Lomi. When you search for them on Google, you are going to get this ad:
“Kitchen Composter — Lomi is able to reduce your weekly garbage by up to 80%. No Mess Clean-Up. Just one button. Lomi 2, an odor-free, mess-free solution for food waste. Get yours before it sells out.”
I like this copy because it clearly communicates what the product is (a kitchen composter) what the the value prop is (i.e “Reduce your weekly garbage by up to 80%”) and it adds a sense of urgency to click with “Get yours before it sells out.”
It’s simple and to the point and makes me want to learn more.
In general, when I’m designing LPs for Google traffic, I know that traffic is coming from high intent search. Typically, people search on google after they have seen a social ad. Perhaps they didn’t click the ad on Meta, but they remembered the product and wanted to do their own research a few days later on Google. I find this to be the majority of traffic that comes from these channels.
That’s why when I’m building an LP for Google ads, I like to create something that’s more educational and informational to help answer questions about the product a consumer might have. Sort of like an advertorial that explains the benefits and value props.
Check out this LP for Lomi that was made for Google Search. It’s really broken down into 4 sections that make it super easy to understand.
- Shop the Lomi 2
- How it works
- What goes in
- And their impact as a brand.
The Shop Lomi 2 is the CTA if visitors already know the product and just want to buy.
The next block which is the how it works section is like a “process” section on other LPs you might have seen. It shows you steps 1, 2, and 3 with visuals and text that makes the process of using their product compelling and easy.
Next they share a comparison chart to show how Lomi is better than the status quo. They list 4 benefits from using Lomi vs 4 pain points of traditional composting in a kitchen bin.
Next they have the “as seen on” brag bar with all of the press logos including Forbes, Bloomberg, The New York Times, Bon Appetit, The Food Network, etc which is similar to the Nori example. They do this to build instant credibility and trust.
Next they have a section on “What goes in?” What I like about this is that they showed and didn’t tell here. Instead of graphics, they used a simple marketing video that showcases the whole process of using a Lomi in about 6 seconds. To the right of that they have icons and text that further explains what you can put into their device.
Next they have an “Our impact” section that redirects you to a blog page about their goal of diverting 10 billion pounds of waste from landfills. My only opinion is that they should find a way to include more of this language directly on the LP vs linking out to the blog.
Lastly, they end with more super valuable reviews. This is key.
I would also add another opportunity to shop at the bottom of the page but they do have a “Shop Lomi 2” button that’s ever present on their header no matter where you scroll.
In general, I think this is a good example of an LP built for Google traffic that does a great job of showcasing and explaining the product in 10 seconds or less. It’s a quick scroll that stays focused on consumer education and the design is simple, elegant and clean.
For TikTok
TikTok traffic tends to be a little less friendly to the idea of shopping through the in-app browser and the vibe on the app is more playful. Because of that, you want to keep the landing page simple. If you aren’t running to TikTok shops, then a very basic LP that features the product and is focused on hyper-fast page load speed time is all you need.
- Have an angle that speaks to the TikTok video that brought them there — ideally it’s an angle that is validated by an organic TikTok that did well. If you’re a brand that has a ton of organic product reviews already, like Bloom Nutrition, then you should just see how people talk about your product where it performed well, and copy that angle.
- Have an offer that is friendly to a lower AOV shopper — ideally under $50 and free shipping.
- Include social proof that feels like TikTok content, not just written reviews and testimonials.
- Include the “As seen on TikTok” badge — this just helps!
Another test I like to run with TikTok is to a funnel that just collects first-party data. If you’re able to gather someone’s email or number, then you can follow up to purchase or spend time educating them with content first.
I feel like TikTok has trained its users to have the shortest attention span of any social network. Most videos are only a few seconds long and the trained behavior is endless scrolling.
Anecdotally, I feel like the average TikTok shopper seems to behave the same way. They will click your ad and bounce fast, onto the next thing. That’s why when they click to your LP, you have to give them the goods fast.
If you’re running ads to TikTok Shop, then make sure your reviews are being collected, you have a fast response time to customers (that affects yours store’s rating), you ship on time, and you’re using the image carousel as a landing page.
Influencer Marketing
When it comes to working with influencers and designing an LP that can be paired with their traffic, you should always feature the influencer front and center above the fold on your LP. Whenever possible, you should also have testimonials and additional creative that features the influencer using or talking about the product to compliment the page. Bonus points if you have video.
On this page, a couple things you want to make sure you hit:
- Make it clear why this influencer and the brand or the product(s) being sold are a match. This is usually done with a storytelling section and demonstrates that the influencer is genuinely involved or a part of the brand. People can smell BS influencer deals from a mile away, so if you have inauthentic partnerships, then do a good job trying to hide it.
- A coupon code/discount code that reflects the influencer. So if the influencer is Cody Ko, for example, then the discount code should just be CODYKO. I purposely didn’t do CODY20 or CODY10 because the O’s and the 0’s get confusing when people move quick.
- An optional module to add is a listicle — “5 reasons why …” This gives the LP visitor a way to learn more about the brand/product’s benefits without it feeling like doing research.
Affiliate LPs:
One thing people don’t realize is there are tons of people who run their own ads and LPs as affiliates to other products where they take a revenue share or a fixed fee for a new lead or sale. Many times, these affiliates just try to outdo the actual brand by choosing a better channel, ad, and LP. The entire game for affiliates is that they think they have an arbitrage opportunity and can run more efficient and effective traffic than the actual brand by doing this.
They might also have an owned audience like an email or SMS list or even a large social page they can promote through or run ads on that will get them better CPMs and CVRs than the actual brand.
The way to approach funnels and LPs as an affiliate is to look at what the brand is already running and find ways to improve. Just like dissecting the LPs that I walked through above, affiliates should do the same for their offer of choice and look for ways to optimize the funnel.
Can you come up with better copy and positioning? Can you create a better offer or hook? Can you create a better comparison chart? Can you highlight different reviews from customers in a way that you think will convert better? Can you send traffic from a more effective channel?
This is what affiliates spend their time thinking about all day long and it’s the unlock to getting sales more efficiently and effectively than the actual brand.
I encourage you to find affiliates who are selling competing products to you and dissect their acquisition funnels. You’ll find a lot of editorial-style content like Character produces, but you’ll also discover the saaviest, most direct-response, to the point marketing.
Next week I want to dive into differentiating creative between each channel, and adding on Native and Programmatic ads to this list too. Would that be helpful? Let me know!
In the meantime, on to some fun stuff…
Vendor of the Week:
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LABL as a platform is unique in its approach to consolidating formerly bifurcated tech solutions (apps), adding multiple layers of fees and annoyances. This simplified approach reduces tech debt, streamlines issue management (claims, returns, exchanges, warranties), increases profit, and boosts customer satisfaction. Plus, LABL is giving away Taylor Swift tickets!!
Sign up here to win those tickets and a $1,500 travel stipend!
That's all for this week
It was sad to see the Knicks lose today, but what can you do when your best players are injured! We’ll get them next season. I hope you had an awesome weekend and you’re ready to get back to the grind. Sunday nights are my favorite nights of the week.
Make sure you get those 9 hours of sleep tonight, I know I will be lights off early tonight for a big week ahead.
If you have a landing page or a web page you want me to take a look at, reply to this email with the link and I’ll give you my honest thoughts over a Loom video recording. If nothing else, it may just inspire you to see your funnel differently.
Well, I hope you have an awesome week. I’ll see you next Sunday!