Before we begin, let’s come to terms with some hard facts:

“Around 96% of Ad clicks do not convert.”

Shocking, isn’t it?

Why are the clicks not turning into leads? Why should I burn a hole in my pocket for just a bunch of useless clicks that generate no value for my business? Where did I go wrong?

Such questions might be plaguing your mind once you find out that your Ads ain’t working as well as they should.   

A killer Ad copy, an eye-catching creative and spot-on targeting alone is not enough to get the conversions flowing in.

The truth is, the period between an Ad click and the actual conversion is critical to determining the success of the campaign.

It is also the period during which post-click optimization (PCO) can work its magic.

Before getting to the ‘how’ of PCO, let us get clear on what it is and why it is important for digital advertisers.

So, you think that you own the advertising game. You put in every last bit of advertising expertise you have into creating the perfect ad and targeted it to be displayed to the right kind of audience. And obviously, you got the click-through rates you were aiming for and you give yourself a pat on the back for providing your audience with the ultimate pre-click experience.

But does the customer journey end with an ad click?

Unfortunately, the answer is no. The pre-click experience merely sets the stage for the post-click experience where you can really draw in your customers to actually convert.

Post-click optimization is all about the user experience following an Ad click.

It consists of a dedicated landing page with a message identical to that shown on the Ad copy, a crisp CTA button and a very grateful Thank You page.

Now, let’s take a detailed look at the elements that constitute post-click optimization:

The Landing Page

Landing pages have now become an integral part of ad campaigns. Earlier the most common practise was to direct the Ad click to the advertiser’s websites. There are people who still take this approach, but from our experience, we would say that a dedicated landing page has more power when it comes to turning clicks into conversions.

In addition to optimization, personalization also plays a major role in determining how conversion oriented the landing page is. Personalization makes the landing page more relevant to the visitor thereby making him/her more likely to convert. This insane conversion trick outshines even the best audience targeting you can come up with.

Amazon does this particularly well with the help of personalised ads based on your search or purchase history that directs you to personalized landing pages with great offers on products you might be actually interested in.

Landing pages can be personalized based on visitors name, device & browser, Ads they clicked on and also based on the nature of prior engagements with your business.  

CTA Button

A call to action button that stands out from everything else on the page is an important element of an optimized landing page. It should clearly state what the user is supposed to do so that he/she can spring into doing the desired action and move on to the next step towards conversion.

One golden rule of post-click optimization to be kept in mind is that one landing page should serve only one purpose and therefore should have only one CTA button.

Multiple CTAs and links on your landing page will act as a diversion, making the visitor stray away from fulfilling the conversion goal.

Since we are talking about distractions or in other words lack of attention, now would be a good time to define a parameter called ‘attention ratio’.

Attention ratio is defined as “the ratio of links on a landing page to the number of campaign conversion goals.”

Since an optimized landing page should feature only one call to action button, it is said to have an attention ratio of 1:1.

You can use multiple CTAs at various points on your landing page where people are most likely to click. But these CTAs should have the same conversion goal so that the attention ratio is locked on at 1:1.

This ratio is another reason why we don’t recommend using your website as your landing page. Your website will obviously have many links on it that will distract the user and he might click away and get farther and farther away from conversion.

Thank You Page

We all dish out a lot of ‘Thank You’s thoughtlessly in our day to day interactions. It is also the logical thing to do when someone does something in your favour.

But what do you think is the psychology behind those two words when it comes to post-click optimization?

A cheerful Thank You page can make the user feel good about the action he performed on your landing page and combat buyer’s remorse (or subscriber’s remorse) if any.

Acknowledging the customer’s efforts by saying Thank You following conversion provides you with an opportunity to build a stronger, long-lasting relationship with your customer.

So, on a concluding note, let’s reiterate back to a few points we discussed earlier: Ad campaigns do not end with creating Ads. You definitely need a landing page (it’s worth the investment). Thank You pages are important. And lastly, post-click optimization really matters!