All too often we take over marketing for builders and find that they were previously using the homepage of their website as the place where all traffic was directed from Google, Facebook, Bing and other online marketing efforts. While the homepage of your website should provide a quick synopsis of who you are and what you do, it should not be a catch-all for inbound traffic.
Within your website, there are pages upon pages of information that are much more specific to the needs of potential homebuyers visiting your site, and as marketers, it’s our job to make it as easy as possible for your customers to find the information they’re looking for. In other words, if you’re searching for running shoes and you click on an ad and end up on the homepage of Nike, you’re not finding what you’re looking for. The ad should take you to a page for running shoes.
For homebuilders, this means that when an ad mentions a specific location, plan, or spec, the ad should direct the user to that location, plan, or spec. If an ad mentions a broad area, like a county or a state, then the ad should take you to a landing page for that county or state.
There are several reasons for not sending people to the homepage, not the least of which is user experience. Almost all digital advertising platforms choose whether or not to show your ad and to whom they show it, based on relevance. If the landing page doesn’t match the ad content, the ad is ranked lower and will have a harder time being served to the proper audience.
In addition, landing pages that match ad content, should have more opportunities for conversion than the homepage of the website. This is because most people don’t visit the homepage of the website and then immediately decide to make contact. Usually they dig a little deeper to get as much information as possible before converting. However, once on a landing page, they’re ideally presented with the information they needed and it’s at that point that they decide to convert.
This is important for two reasons. 1) Conversions are the whole reason you advertise. And 2) Digital platforms such as Google and Facebook have very powerful AI that learn from conversion actions. These algorithms use this information for targeting and learn to serve the ad to a more qualified audience. If there aren’t enough conversions happening after someone clicks on the ad, the AI suffers from Limited Learning and can’t perform to the best of its ability, thereby limiting when your ad is shown and to whom.
For better ad performance, lower costs per click and increased conversions, it’s imperative to choose your landing pages wisely. The homepage is a lovely introduction to your business as a whole, but it is not what customers want to see when they click on an ad. If you want your ads performing at their best, match the landing page to the ad content.
