Paid advertising is one of the most effective ways to generate leads for businesses. However, running unoptimised ads can quickly result in wasted resources and missed opportunities. On the other hand, a well-optimised campaign can significantly increase leads, conversion rates and deliver a higher ROI.
In this article, we’ll take a look at how lead conversion works in paid ads and strategies you can use to optimise your campaigns.
Understanding The Lead Conversion Process in Paid Ads
As the name suggests, lead conversion refers to the process of converting a potential client who interacts with your ad into an actionable lead. In other words, someone who completes an action like filling out a contact form, subscribing to a newsletter or making a purchase.
Paid advertising often acts as the entry point to the marketing/sales funnel and are considered the first crucial step in lead generation. Thus, making a good first impression is really important.
Generally speaking, the effectiveness of your ad campaign can depend on three core elements — targeting, ad design and landing page optimisation. Together these three elements can improve conversion rates and decrease your cost-per-lead (CPL). All of which help maximise your return on investment (ROI).
Targeting: Ensure that you target the right audience.
Ad design: Designing eye-catching visuals and thought-provoking copy that resonates with the needs of your target audience. In other words, your copy should emphasise how your product/service will solve your customer’s pain points. This is one of the most crucial components in helping you gain more qualified leads.
Landing page alignment and optimisation: Your landing page should clearly reflect what the ad promised.
Strategies to Optimise Your Paid Ads and Convert Leads
Let’s break down the three points mentioned above a bit further and go into lead conversion strategies you can use to optimise your paid ads.
1. Define Your Target Audience
The main goal is to create ads that resonate with users. The reason for this is simple — ads that leave a lasting impact on users are far more likely to result in conversions. One of the best ways to do this is to ensure you target the right audience.
Therefore, effective audience targeting is at the core of lead conversion. Here are a few factors to help you target the right set of people and attract quality leads:
Conduct audience research: For your ads to have the best chance of converting, you need to ensure that you clearly understand your target market. Conduct in-depth research to see where they spend their time, what interests they have and what problems they usually experience. All of this will give you a better idea of how to tailor your advertisement for the biggest chance of success.
Create buyer personas: Create different detailed profiles of your ideal customers. Take an in-depth look at factors such as client pain points and any possible purchasing triggers they might have.
Lead scoring
2. Use Compelling Ad Copy
This strategy goes hand in hand with the one mentioned above. Remember, the goal is to create ads that resonate with audiences. And while it is incredibly important that you ensure you target the right audience, the second thing is that you target them with the right messaging. Well-written sales copy is one of the leading factors for successful advertisements.
When someone sees your ad, it should pull them in and create intrigue. You want the viewer to immediately look at the advert and instantly know what it is about. Also, the aim is to let the messaging come across like you’re talking to them directly. Below are a few quick tips to help you craft more compelling ad messages:
Use headlines that can quickly capture viewer attention: Apart from the visual side of your ad, the part that quickly pulls a user’s attention is the headlines you use. Ensure the headline is strong and eye-catching enough to quickly grab the focus of anyone who sees it. This part is so important because it draws users in and convinces them to slow down and look at the rest of your advert.
More about the problem it solves than the features it offers: Many advertisers make the mistake of solely focusing on a product’s features to convince the user to make a purchase. Instead, the focus should be on the problem that the product or service solves for the customer. This way, you target more of an emotional response and the potential prospect clearly understands how your service will help them.
Clearly highlight your unique selling point (USP): Your USP is the thing that makes your product or service different from your competitors — your hook. Think of the last time you saw an advert that really resonated with you. What was the thing that you could not get out of your head? Whatever that component may be, chances are it was most likely that company’s unique selling point. Find yours and clearly highlight it throughout your ad copy.
Always include a strong call to action (CTA): CTAs are a vital component of any marketing campaign. It tells potential prospects what the next steps are that they should take. It is often the last factor, that pushes a viewer to go from potential prospect to paying customer.
3. Choose the Right Ad Format
When it comes to online advertising, there are multiple different ad types that businesses can use. The thing to remember is that every ad type can cater to different audience behaviours and campaign objectives. Therefore, ensure that you choose the best one that aligns the most accurately with your campaign goals.
Here is a quick general overview of some of the most used ad types:
Search Ads: Best for capturing intent-driven leads who are actively looking for a product or service.
Display Ads: Useful for building brand awareness and retargeting campaigns.
Images & Video Ads: Ideal for storytelling, explaining product features and capturing user attention.
Carousel Ads: Great for showcasing multiple features, products or benefits in one convenient swipeable advert. Carousal ads are also excellent for brand storytelling.
4. Optimise Your Landing Page
Even the best ads that drive countless clicks can fall flat if your landing page is not properly optimised for conversions. Here is a quick rundown of the factors you should keep in mind:
Align ad message with your landing page: It is incredibly important that your landing page reflect the same message as your advert. For example, if your ad is about running shoes, the landing page should reflect that and not show general sporting equipment. If you make it difficult for the prospect to find the thing that clicked the advert for — the reason why they clicked —, there is a good chance they will just leave.
Load speeds: The longer your landing page takes to load, the bigger the chance of users deciding to leave. In other words, drop-offs equate to you losing potential leads/clients. According to research, the probability of a user leaving increases by 32% if the page load time goes over three seconds.
Mobile-friendly: In today’s digital world, most people rely on their mobile phones to browse the Internet. If your landing page does not display correctly on mobile devices users will quickly leave. Ensure your page is easy to navigate and optimised for all devices.
5. Leverage Retargeting Campaigns
Most users do not convert after their first interaction with an ad, especially if it is a high-ticket item/service. Retargeting campaigns help you to stay at the forefront of user’s minds. Here are some useful tips to help you get the most out of your retargeting campaigns and increase your total number of leads.
Segment audiences: Tailor your retargeting ads based on previous user behaviours. For example, instead of re-engaging users who have only been to your website, target individuals who added an item to their cart or who filled out part of a submission form but did not convert.
Exclude existing customers: Ensure that you exclude users who have already converted unless your business evolves around repeating purchases or recurring orders. This approach results in a better user experience and minimises wasted ad spend.
Offer incentives: Use compelling offers to further encourage hesitant leads.
6. The Power of A/B Testing Your Paid Ads
The thing to remember is that optimising your paid ads isn’t just a one-and-done process and something that requires constant evaluation. This is where A/B testing comes in. This form of testing allows you to experiment with various elements of your campaign to determine what resonates most with your target audience. Below is a quick introduction of what you need to know about A/B testing:
Test one element at a time: Don’t change too many elements at once. For instance, compare two headlines while keeping other variables the same. If you change too many components it becomes difficult to determine what variable change resulted in the performance difference.
Focus on high-impact elements: Headlines, CTAs and visuals typically have the biggest impact on conversion rates.
Ensure statistical significance: After you have A/B tested your campaign, ensure that you prioritise statistical significance. What this means is that the performance differences that you see are a direct result of the element you changed and not something that occurred by chance.
Run A/B tests long enough: Ensure that you run your A/B test for an appropriate time duration as not doing so can drastically impact the results.
Not Iterating Based on Data: Ignoring data derived from A/B tests and analytics is a missed opportunity for improvements.
7. Analysing lead Conversion Metrics To Improve Ad Performance
While there are several metrics you will want your sales and marketing teams to pay attention to, there are some that carry more significance than others. Below are a few metrics you should consider keeping an eye on:
Click-Through Rate (CTR): Measure how often users click on your advert. A low CTR could indicate potential issues such as poor targeting or lacklustre ad copy/creative.
Conversion Rate: This is the main metric you should focus on, as it tracks how many users have taken your desired action.
Cost Per Lead (CPL): This will help you determine the efficiency and success of your campaign. A lower CPL indicates a better return on investment (ROI).
Optimising Your Paid Ads for Better Results
Optimising paid ads for better lead conversion involves a multi-step approach. You will need to refine your target audience, craft compelling ad copies and continuously make improvements where necessary.
If you feel like you need a bit more help in getting the most from your paid campaigns, fill in the contact form below and we’ll help you craft a marketing strategy that delivers impactful results.