Why should a potential client buy from you instead of someone else? This question has become even more puzzling now that online buyers have access to millions of different providers after a quick Google search.
The goal is to make your brand visible and your buying process as easy as possible. So, we must choose the right manner of presenting our products to potential buyers. There are two main ways we showcase products - a landing page for a product and a product description page. This can be daunting for many to navigate - we are going to set out the lay of the land.
First, we need to recap the basics of landing pages. A landing page is a standalone page, independent of your website, focused on campaign-specific conversion. Users are directed to a landing page after clicking on an ad or link. For this reason, one often reads about ‘post-click’ landing pages.
The purpose of a landing page is to convert customers - all landing pages have a call-to-action (CTA). Because landing pages are campaign-specific, a well-rounded digital marketing strategy will have many different landing pages.
A landing page for a product is a landing page that is designed to sell a particular item - physical or digital. It demonstrates the benefits of the item and encourages the user to buy (CTA).
A product description page (PDP) is a part of your website, it’s purpose is not to push customers into the conversion funnel, but showcasing your catalogue.
A landing page designed for a product has one clear CTA, while PDPs may have a buy button they are not geared towards a particular CTA.
A landing page for a product has less copy than a PDP - only essential information is included in a product landing page.
For a PDP, external and internal links may be included, there may also be a navigational header and footer. These are not included for a landing page designed for a product.
As with all digital marketing tools, using a landing page for a product or a PDP depends on the context of your campaign.
The Monetate Ecommerce Quarterly showed that the conversion rates of product landing pages outperform that of PDPs. Using a landing page for a product instead of a PDP normally works well because:
Customers engage less with PDPs than with product landing pages. This is shown by the increase in bounce rate and decrease in conversion.
In general PDP visitors are 50% less likely to make a purchase.
PDPs are distracting - lots of places to navigate to - therefore high bounce rates.
Please, don’t think that we are telling you to get rid of your PDPs - they do have their place, as we will explain.
The key to perfecting your online sales is diversity. Both a product landing page and a PDP have their places. In the same way that both Facebook and LinkedIn can be used in a social media strategy. Below is an outline of the best places to use PDPs or a landing page for a product.
A PDP is an integral part of your eCommerce website. A potential client should be able to see the different ranges of products when exploring your website. When a user is browsing, and they are interested in a product redirecting them to a landing page for a product may be frustrating.
The user might not be ready to buy that particular item, rather just looking at your collection. So, directing them away from your website will be extremely cumbersome. This layout is targeted at your organic SEO traffic.
For your PPC campaigns, whether it be on social media or Google Ads, you want to use a landing page particularly crafted for a product. You are paying for each and every visitor, so of course, you want the highest possible return on that investment. To drive conversion, it’s best to employ a product landing page. Remember, the goal of a product landing page isn’t showcasing your catalogue. Your goal is to sell.
The situation, however, grows more complex. A landing page for a product will perform better if the customer is already familiar with your product or at least your brand. So, the function of your PDP is to boost search engine visibility and showcase your range of products. A well-performing PDP feeds directly into optimizing the performance of your landing page designed for a product.
Making the best product landing page for your campaign is dependent on context. There are three main types of product landing page designs for inspiration:
SaaS product landing pages are product landing pages that focus on selling software. Many software companies have one main product, which can then be upgraded with different plug-ins. This makes using a landing page for a product relatively simple.
The landing page need only promote the one product - while you might use more than one landing page for each product, only a comparatively small amount is needed.
Ecommerce product landing pages are more difficult to manoeuvre. Ecommerce sites typically have multiple products. Take Amazon, for example. Amazon has a catalogue of over 350 million products. It’s not practical for them to design a separate landing page for each and every product.
A large portion of their sellers are independent businesses using Amazon as a platform - ‘Amazon sellers’. Amazon sellers often make eCommerce product landing pages for their individual product ranges.
Many eCommerce firms use landing pages for their star products or special offers while using their PDPs for the rest. Remember, your strategies must make sense for your unique business needs.
‘Product’ is a catch-all term, we tend to think of a product as an item we can own - whether it is a physical or digital item.
This definition is insufficient for our evolving economy. Many businesses sell webinars, online courses and memberships. Even though one can’t technically own an online subscription - it’s still a product. So perhaps our definition should be ‘anything physical, or digital that is sold by a business - including access rights’.
These landing pages are a mixture between an Ecommerce Landing Page and a SaaS landing page. Companies may need to adapt their approach depending on the number of products they sell. Capturing personal information such as email addresses is even more essential with this type of landing page.
We have established that a landing page for a product will have higher conversion rates than a PDP. This is why we interchange between the two formats depending on the source of traffic.
For SEO, we want to introduce the user to our brand and our product; we also want to make sure that our site is visible on Google. Because PPC landing page campaigns are more focused on sales - product landing pages are ideal.
There are two main reasons that product landing pages convert more than PDPs - 1. Structure, 2. Optimization
Everything about a landing page is designed to get the user to convert. The structural layout of the page is crucial in this regard. These are key structural elements that the best product landing pages use to improve conversion:
It takes microseconds for users to bounce - so your headline needs to grab their attention. Data shows that while all users read the headline, most only read 20% of the copy.
It is essential that the message of your headline, ad and copy are all congruent. Clicking on an ad for a 25% discount on SEO software, only to be directed to a page that has no mention of a discount in the title or copy, will cause users to bounce. There are two reasons that the user loses interest - either they think they clicked the wrong link or because the mixed messages tarnished the page’s credibility.
Think of your user as a curious puppy. If something seems interesting, they will click on it without returning to your product.
Remember your page is trying to convert users into clients - so you need to lead them very carefully along the path to conversion - without losing their interest or letting them get distracted. You want to bring your puppy home, so to speak.
In practical terms, this means:
No external or internal links of any kind
No verbose copy
Easy to follow instructions
Lots of videos and images
It is imperative that your landing page for a product only has one CTA - when there are multiple CTAs, the conversion rate of each is decreased. One landing page per campaign.
Show your users your product in action. You know your product, so you know what your buyer needs to see. Accompany this video or image with a list of product features and benefits.
Unfortunately, the internet is full of fraudsters. When you are trying to sell a product online, you are asking the user to trust you with their personal details, including their banking information. You need to earn that trust. Trust indicators may include:
Badges showing awards, or ratings from companies such as Trustpilot
Social Counters - showing the number of social media followers you have without linking to your social media pages.
Customer Testimonials
Iron-glad guarantees free cancellations, money-back satisfaction guarantees and warranties
These are great for instantly answering customers’ questions and keeping customers engaged.
Here are some examples of our best landing pages for a product and our best Unbounce landing page designs.
You might think you have the best product landing page. That doesn’t mean you can’t make it better. After you launch your landing page, you can perform landing page tests to optimize each of our different landing pages features. A/B Split Testing is an easy method to compare the conversion rates of different versions of your landing page. See our blog to learn more about landing page tests.
The digital marketplace is constantly evolving, and as sellers, we need to evolve with it. It may be confusing at times, but taking the time to strategize can make all the difference in the long run. While a landing page for a product and a PDP undoubtedly have similarities, their differences dictate how and when we use them. The most important considerations are the goal of your campaign and your target audience.
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Founder & CEO of Apexure, Waseem worked in London’s Financial Industry. He has worked on trading floors in BNP Paribas and Trafigura, developing complex business systems. Waseem loves working with Startups and combines data and design to create improved User Experiences. Read more
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