The landing page design is one of the most written about topics for any online marketer since it is also one of the most important aspects of a successful campaign. Even though there are many elements to making a perfect landing page, we have whittled it down to four points to make it easier for you to design your landing pages.

1. State Your Value Proposition

What are you bringing to the table? How is it benefiting for the customer?

The value proposition should be within the ad text of your landing page, and should be the first thing that should be stated in your content.

Generally, visitors will judge the look of your page along with the benefits that your product provides for them. Explain it clearly on the page describing the value to your customers, and add details to let them know how you are unique from the rest of the competition.

2. Use Appropriate Logo and Design

Visitors generally judge your landing page by appearance. Make sure to have sufficient quality for your page in order to look professional and show that your products are of high quality. Of course designing your webpage is subjective, so take a look around at your competitors and see what they are doing. How does your design stand up to theirs?

3. Use Crystal Clear Call to Actions

What type of action do you want your visitors to take on your landing page? Make sure that it’s clear to them by adding large action buttons and link text bold. Have benefits surround your calls-to-action on your page to show visitors what to expect after they have made the action.

4. Trust Elements

These are factors that would encourage your customers to stay on your site and be your customer. Having contact information, security insurances, and privacy statements are a must, but also ensuring that your page has no spelling errors, fast load times, and your page is not cluttered and have clear and easily understandable content is also important.

By keeping all of the points above in mind, you ensure that you give the best experience to your visitors when they land on your landing page. Use these points as a guideline when you’re creating landing pages to ensure the best response for your campaigns.

Also, make sure to sign up for a YesUp Central Account so you can organize all of YesUp’s services under one central account.

Online Advertising Marketplace has provided incredibly effective to advertisers for gathering targeted audience websites and for generating sales leads. Which is why most advertisers are using Adonion to publish their ads or planning to create the campaigns soon.

This case study provides  some advanced tactics from Adonion advertiser – Weston Mitcham who surfs publisher sites in the marketplace and gets Fortune 500 sales leads.

CHALLENGE:

In August 2009, after a full year of development time, Weston Mitcham was ready to start selling his new CRM software for online marketing.

He didn’t have a big marketing budget to invest in painting advertising; so, he decided to concentrate 100% on Internet marketing. So he studied the Web sites for successful CRM software companies in his product price range, such as Salesforce and Netsuite, and launched sales site based on their tactics.

Weston said, “I tried the kind of informational approach they used. However, I believe it is not enough. I also need to find the targeted audience and buy my product.”

He started to research the online advertising network. Compared to Google Adwords and Yahoo PPC, Weston felt that Adonion was more suitable to him. He considered that he would spend more time to do the keyword research and ad copy. He wanted to see the immediate result. Adonion provided transparent marketplace with higher quality web-content sites and pop under ad format. He only needed to choose the websites which could display his CRM landing page via pop under format. This process really saved Weston more time.

IN ADONION NETWORK:

The success of campaigns running in Adonion network is based in one simple thing – you have to target the right websites.

Within a few weeks, sales got a bit better. But the number of sales was not the one he expected. Weston was not pleased the result. He began to rethink his site strategy. Instead of copying sites that (apparently) successfully sell software, Weston contacted Adonion representative how to improve the sale lead.

Adonion representative studied his landing page and we pointed out three ways in order to improve sale lead:

1. Add Google Analytics and Adonion ROI code.

Adonion representative noticed that Weston did not add any tracking code (Google Analytics and Adonion ROI code) in his landing page. Tracking the results was probably the most important key to being a successful advertiser in Adonion. The advertiser needed to eliminate the publisher sites that were costing money but weren’t resulting in any sales.

Adonion representative recommended Weston to add the Google Analytics to the landing page. Since Google Analytics could check time that the visitors stayed. Notice that 0 second in Google Analytics might not mean the visitors who did not stay on the website. The Time on Page for page A was calculated by subtracting the page A timestamp from the page B timestamp. If you noticed all visits from one publisher site which is in 0, this mean the visitors not interested to the landing page. The advertisers could opt out this publisher website.

Adonion ROI code was the important index to see whether the traffic could generate lead or not. It was usually added at “Thank you” page or the page after the visitors had taken any action.

1. Add “Action” button

Action button can encourage visitors to sign up or download something. This  is one of the most important component of the landing page. Obviously, the landing page from Weston was lack of this “call to action” button to urge the visitors and buy a CRM software.

1. Create A/B testing

A/B testing or bucket testing is a method of marketing testing by which a baseline control sample is compared to a variety of single-variable test samples in order to improve response rates. We noticed that the landing page from Weston provided more information how his CRM software worked. Sometimes this kind of campaign could not catch the visitor notice. So we recommended Weston to setup one more campaign with the landing page which had more images with few words.

RESULTS

Within 1 week of the landing page update, Weston online sales rose 70%. Aside from higher sales, the inquiry also increased 120%. Despite the global economy recession, Weston said, “I make the right discussion to advertise in Adonion.” So far, he’s made few thousands of dollars.

In addition, Weston learnt one important thing – use web analytics report for improving site performance. Right now, Weston did not only sit back and wait for sales to pour in. Instead, he monitored both Google Analytics Report and Adonion ROI Report. If there were some websites which only spent without generating any action, he would opt out these sites.

Third, Weston checked Adonion Site Directory (http://www.adonion.com/market/offer/zones) daily. When there were more than 100 new sites listing in site directory, he made sure he did not miss any websites which could generate sales to his business.

Next, Weston has big plan to implement more feature in CRM software within the month, as well as continuing to monitor his campaign for maximum sales conversion.

Popunders are the ads that popup behind the browser being accessed. It is non-intrusive and always is there waiting to be viewed. There is no click needed. Once a site is accessed that contains a popunder, it will pop in the backgroundbehind the browser being used. Since it is non-intrusive, it does
not frustrate the user by blocking their content. Once the initial browser that contained the popup is closed, it will be viewed by the user to provoke some type of action or it can be closed, but your branded site would have already been positioned in their mind for a later date.

Popunders are generally more expensive than graphical banner ads, but their success rate is 13 times more effective than banner ads according to Mark Glaser on OJR: The Online Journalism Review. Popunders are quiet, stealthy and effective.

Here are some tips when deciding to create a popunder ad or if you will be using your website as a popunder:

• Use a catchy, powerful
  headline
• Make the headline bigger than the rest
  of the text
• Embed major benefits within the
  headline
• Use an incentive to boost the
  response
• Make sure the message is to the point
  and short
• Request visitors to take some type of
  action

By and large, popunders are very effective and achieve the task set out to be accomplished. It is no wonder why they are so popular.

AdOnion is an advertising network that is transparent for all advertisers and publishers. This means that there is no blind targeting of sites. You know where your money is going and can maximize the use of converting sites or pause other underperforming ones.

Advertisers gain from the benefit of having advertising packages by the ease of use of the account setup that takes about 1-2 minutes. Having an advertising package also means that you save time in choosing sites, even though you can visit the site directory and choose other sites that are suitable for your campaign at a later point in time.

In addition, advertising packages allow for immediate traffic to be started once it is activated by an Account Manager at AdOnion. The use of a package, adds multiple sites opted-in within the program, to be added at a moment’s notice resulting in more traffic immediately.

Below is a list of the packages offered by AdOnion (you can click on it to find out more information):

So to sum it up, advertising packages are very useful and can be used in  conjunction with targeting specific sites and ad zones in an ad campaign for the following reasons:

• It is transparent
• It is easy to setup
• It is convenient – Saves Time
• Gets immediate traffic

An advertising package supplemented by targeting specific sites and ad zones is a sure way of getting that traffic you are looking for and getting the conversions you want.

Getting impressions are important for publishers since advertisers are looking for the better rate and impressions that publishers have to offer. Publishers attempt to monetize their site by placing ads such as text, graphical banners, popunders and interstitials. But what if your impressions have slowed down and the revenue from your site is not like it used to be? So what to do now? You need impressions fast to help you and advertisers earn money. Yes you can use twitter and facebook but that means it may take some time creating a fan page and building your twitter followers. The easiest and fastest way would be to advertise using a network whether it be AdOnion, Google or Clicksor.

At AdOnion not only do you know where your ad is targeted, but you can also pause sites that are underperforming and increase the funds spent on those sites that are performing. Publishers can use AdOnion’s advertiser services to increase the impressions on their site and increase their overall potential revenue. For example, using a graphical banner will cost you $0.20 CPM. Let’s say your daily budget is $2. That is for 10,000 views. Then let’s say 10% of the people click on your ad and your site pops up. That’s 1000 clicks. Having popunders in ‘package A’ they are $4 CPM.

This means that for popunders only, you would have made $4 from the 1000 clicks to view your site. Plus on your site you will have other ads such as text, graphical banners and interstitials. This means you will more than double your money and make the increased returns you always wanted from your site.

This not only helps you, but also advertisers as they would have advertised on your site and are looking for more traffic and conversions. Overall, this is not only good for publishers to increase their impressions and revenue, but it is also good for advertisers too. For advertisers, they will benefit by having increased traffic and more exposure of their offers to be promoted online resulting in better conversions.

If you are now starting off using creative’s, then it is quite good to have a few to test to find out which one(s) are the most effective and convert better for you. Creative’s carry weights once uploaded. The higher the weight on a
creative, then the more often it will appear in comparison to another creative of the same format or size. The weights of similar creative’s must add up to a total of 100. For example, having 5 creative with equal weighting would mean a weight of 20 for each creative.

To add a new creative to the set of creatives, simply click ‘add new’ and follow the instructions. Whereas to remove them, simply select the ones to remove by checking the box on the left hand side and then click ‘update.’ Remember that the creative is your key to grabbing a user and converting them to a sale, so it does take some work and testing to ensure that the
right creative yields the right results.

For CPC if you enter a rate of $0.10 then this means that you are willing to transact with ten cents per click. CPM rates mean that you are willing to pay a specified amount per 1000 impressions. For example, a CPM rate of $1 means that you will pay $1 for every 1000 impressions of an ad.

For CPI and CPV, be very careful when entering your rates. For example, take whatever you would like to make and divide it by 1000. So if you want to receive or are willing to pay $2.75 for 1000 interstitials or views then you would enter $0.00275 ($2.75/1000). This will give you the CPI or CPV rate you are willing to accept or charge. If you simply enter $2.75 instead of $0.00275, then you are charging or accepting a rate of $2750 for every 1000 interstitials or views.

As a publisher or advertiser, it is your responsibility to ensure that the rate offered or willing to receive is exactly what you want. After all, no one will pay $2750 for 1000 interstitials or views. Please be mindful that the correct rate will also play a factor in accepting and rejecting offers between publishers and advertisers.

For further clarification, feel free to contact us.

Regards,

AdOnion Team.

We’ve added the following countries in addition to our country list that we already have:

• Estonia
• Algeria
• Cameroon
• Crotia
• Cyprus
• Egypt
• Hungary
• Iceland
• Kuwait
• Latvia
• Lithuania
• Luxembourg
• Mauritius
• Morocco
• Oman
• Poland
• Qatar
• Slovenia
• South Africa
• Tunisia

What does this mean?

For advertisers, now  you will be able to target your campaigns to the above countries in addition to our original list providing you with a better reach to your audiences.

For publishers, with more countries you are able to earn more from visitors in different regions visiting your site.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. Thanks!

Regards,

AdOnion Team

Here are some things you might want to think about when planning for your campaign:

• Be more flexible and think positive: I know that thinking positive maybe hard during the rough times as you have budget to reach, but thinking positive will help relieve stress and help you think and plan better. Step back, put yourself in different roles, such as your consumers and your company and see what have been overlooked during the good times. At this stage it is equally important to be flexible and open to all options and evaluate all options that can help your marketing goals.

AdOnion’s Tip for Advertisers: If  you need any help, you can always contact a network representative and ask if they have any new features rolling out. Or ask them about your marketing goals and see if they have some suggestions for you to carry out the plan that you may have overlook. At AdOnion we provide a variety of ways that you can contact us by using our contact form, email or live support.

• Planning/Setting your marketing goals: When planning marketing goals, many people will use the SMART approach which stands for S = Specific, M = Measureable, A = Attainable, R = Realistic, and T = Timely. Your marketing goals should have the following elements in order for you to come up with a plan, execute it and evaluate it accordingly.

AdOnion’s Tip for Advertisers: During the rough times your SMART goal setting would need to be tailor so it meets the economic situation today and not last quarter or last year. It is important to know how your industry is performing overall, how your competitors are doing and your own company’s performance in the last quarter and how it has changed and most importantly your or the economy’s anticipation of this current/next quarter. Remember your goal should be realistic to today’s economy and not last year. Setting a realistic goal will also provide employees motivation as they see that the company is reaching their goal and knowing that your company have a plan waiting to be executed and not sitting there and waiting.

• Designing your ad copy/creative: When you design the ad copy keep in mind that now everyone is on a tight budget, so use words that provide incentives such as free, you save $20, now only $1.99, limited time offer, buy 1 get 1 free, buy now and receive a free copy of a book etc. These words will appeal to all users who are surfing around the Internet looking for deals or not, they see these words and you’ll attract them to your site.

AdOnion’s Tip for Advertisers: When setting up a campaign is it always important to test with more than 1 creative, you should have several creatives with unique tracking to determine what works for you. It is very common to test, as the audiences for one network are usually different compared to another network so one ad copy will not work for everyone or every network.

In addition, when creating your ad copy make sure you tell the user what is it that you want them to do, whether it’s purchase, subscribe/sign up etc. A lot of creatives don’t tell the users what they are looking for, you only have a few seconds to tell the users what you are looking for before they move on. Make your ‘action items’ apparent to the users.

• Communication: It is important to establish good communication with your ad network, as it will help your campaign tremendously. Communicating clearly with your account representative about your marketing goal, how the campaign is performing, and what needs to be improve or what is done right at every stage of the campaign will help make your campaign more effective.

AdOnion’s Tip for Advertisers: At AdOnion we encourage a culture of communication, we believe that in order to provide you with what you are looking for we need your feedback no matter if it’s good or especially the bad ones. For us to be able to improve we will need to know where we can improve, sometime we may overlook factors which are important to you.  We offer different modes of communication such as our contact form, email or live support.

• Putting your ad copy to work: With an attractive ad copy now on hand, it is time to test the creative. I know right now testing doesn’t seem to sound right as advertisers are looking right away for conversions. But unless you work on a CPA basis all the other networks will require some testing before you know if it is the right fit. There are a of things you can look for when doing testing with an ad network in order to get the most result.  You can look for cost per click (CPC) options, so you are only paying when someone actually express interest in your offer by clicking on it and landing on your landing page. You can also narrow the campaign targeting to a specific geo-graphical region, keywords, and categories so you are reaching your targeted audiences.

AdOnion’s Tip for Advertisers: At AdOnion we offer CPC packages for both text and graphical banners at a fixed rate of $0.04 per click. We offer our advertisers to geo-targeting, broad keywords and categories match, daily spending caps, and a frequency cap up to 7 days. We also offer other campaigns on a fixed rate such as for graphical banners the fixed rate is $0.20 per thousand impressions, popunder with a fixed rate of $0.0025 per visit, and interstitial with a fixed rate of $0.0045 per interstitial. You can review our packages here.

• Know where your ads are displayed: With the rising demand of advertisers, many of the networks are able to provide a list (some may provide you with a partial list, just ask your account representative) of where your ads are displayed. Make use of these information, these are key information that can help with executing an effective campaign.

AdOnion’s Tip for Advertisers: At AdOnion we know the importance of providing you with all the necessary information to helping you make your campaign to succeed. Therefore, we do offer advertisers with full transparency, we have an advertiser marketplace with a list of publishers in our network so advertisers can purchase the ad zone on the specific website only providing you with more control over the campaign. You are also getting a more cost effective campaign as you are only displaying ads on websites that are highly targeted to your offer. To visit our marketplace, you can go here. In addition, if you want to advertise via our packages you are provided with a site list and you can block any sites at anytime. You can always contact us or email me and let me know what you are looking for and I can gather some websites for you to review.

• Monitoring/Optimizing the campaign: Once the campaign is up and running it is also important to monitor the camaign for their performances and optimize the campaign so that it is performing more effectively and increasing your ROI. You can use tools such as frequency caps or IP caps, daily limit, time parting, pixel codes or ROI codes to help optimizing the campaign.

AdOnion’s Tip for Advertisers: AdOnion provides advertisers with a variety of tools to help monitor and optimize the camaigns. We provide advertisers with a frequency cap of up to 7 days which means that within the 7 days no same IP will view your ads more than once, daily limit to help you control your spending, and reports. We provide you with a general report telling you about the impressions/click/spending per day and a site report with more information such as impressions/click/spending per site and the amount of conversions if pixel codes are used. We also provide the ROI codes for advertisers to place on their keypage(s) to monitor the page views, leads, sign ups and purchase, form these key indicators we are able to optimize your campaign according for a performing campaign which reaches your ROI code.

Well this concludes some of the tips I have for all the advertisers, this may sound familiar but a lot of people may forget a few steps or overlook a step. I hope that this post will be able to help you in achieving a successful campaign in this economic situation.

Wish you all a prosperous 2010!

For more information on how to set up your creatives in the merchant’s directory, please watch the video below: