| Internet marketing |
|---|
| Affiliate marketing |
| Search engine marketing |
| Mobile advertising |
Landing page optimization (LPO) is one part of a broader Internet marketing process called conversion optimization, or Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), with the goal of improving the percentage of visitors to the website that become sales leads and customers. A landing page is a webpage that is displayed when a potential customer clicks an advertisement or a search engine result link. This webpage typically displays content that is a relevant extension of the advertisement or link. LPO aims to provide page content and appearance that makes the webpage more appealing to target audiences.
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There are three major types of LPO based on targeting[1]:
There are two major types of LPO based on experimentation:
Experimentation-based LPO can be achieved using A/B testing, multivariate LPO, and total-experience testing. These methodologies are applicable to both closed- and open-ended experimentation.
A/B testing, or A/B split testing, is a method for testing two versions of a webpage: version "A" and version "B". The goal is to test multiple versions of webpages (e.g., home page, product page, FAQ) to determine which version is most appealing/effective. This testing method may also be known as A/B/n split testing; the n denoting more than 2 tests being measured and compared. The data for A/B testing is usually measured via click-through or conversion.[2]
Testing can be conducted sequentially or in parallel. In sequential testing, often the easiest to implement, the various versions of the webpages are made available online for a specified time period. In parallel (split) testing, both versions are made available, and the traffic is divided between the two. It is not recommended that sequential split testing be performed, as the results can dramatically be skewed by differing time periods and traffic patterns in which the different tests are run.
A/B testing has the following advantages:
A/B testing has the following disadvantages:
Multivariate landing page optimization (MVLPO) accounts for multiple variations of visual elements (e.g., graphics, text) on a page. For example, a given page may have k choices for the title, m choices for the featured image or graphic, and n choices for the company logo. This example yields k×m×n landing page configurations.
Significant improvements can be seen through testing different copy text, form layouts, landing page images and background colours. However, not all elements produce the same improvements in conversions, and by looking at the results from different tests, it is possible to identify the elements that consistently tend to produce the greatest increase in conversions.
The first application of an experimental design for MVLPO was performed by Moskowitz Jacobs Inc. in 1998 as a simulation/demonstration project for LEGO. MVLPO did not become a mainstream approach until 2003 or 2004.
MVLPO has the following advantages:
MVLPO has the following disadvantages:
Total-experience testing, or experience testing, is a new and evolving type of experiment-based testing in which the entire website experience of the visitor is examined using technical capabilities of the website platform (e.g., ATG, Blue Martini Software, etc.).[3] Rather than creating multiple websites, total-experience testing uses the website platform to create several persistent experiences, and monitors which one is preferred by the customers.
An advantage of total-experience testing is that it reflects the customer's total website experience, not just the experience with a single page. Two disadvantages are that total-experience testing requires a website platform that supports experience testing, and it takes longer to obtain results than A/B testing and MVLPO.