September 2023

Maximising Paid Ad Returns: Is Your Website Ready?

In the transformative landscape of digital marketing, the power of paid advertising is undeniable. However, the efficiency of a paid ads campaign doesn't solely depend on the ad itself, it also depends on how well a website and landing pages are optimised. After all, what’s the use of driving traffic if a website isn’t ready to welcome and engage visitors effectively or relevant to the ad content?

Website Optimisation Tips for Maximising Paid Ads

Delve into our detailed guide below to fortify your website to support better paid ads returns.

Tip 1: Prioritising Page Load Speed

In today's digital landscape, speed reigns supreme. In the split seconds it takes a website to load, users are already forming opinions and making decisions. Should a website lag or falter, it risks losing a potential customer's attention.

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Website Optimisation Techniques for Speed

Responsive Design: In an era of high-resolution displays, visuals play an important role. However, they can be hefty. Tools like TinyPNG or Compressor.io come to the rescue, helping images maintain their quality while reducing their file size and load times.
Browser Caching: Think of caching as a website's short-term memory. Instead of reloading all assets each time a user revisits, caching plugins remember previously loaded resources, which can lead to a dramatic speed increase.
Reduce HTTP Requests: A cluttered, overloaded webpage isn’t just an eyesore; it’s a time-drain. Streamlining elements on a page, like limiting excessive images or redundant scripts, can not just enhance aesthetics but also boost speed.

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GRAVITATE Digital | Website Optimisation | Prioritising Page Load

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Tip 2: Mobile Responsiveness is No Longer Optional

The era of desktop dominance is waning. With the proliferation of smartphones and tablets, mobile browsing has become the norm. It’s important for websites to not just be viewable, but be intuitive and aesthetic on smaller screens.

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Website Strategies for Mobile Optimisation

Responsive Design: A site's design should be like water—adapting to its container. Whether on a tablet, smartphone, or desktop, the experience should remain seamless and user-friendly.
Touchscreen Adaptability: In the mobile age, the finger is the new cursor. Buttons, sliders, and other interactive elements must be optimised for touch, so that usability isn't compromised.
Image Adaptability: Different devices have different resolutions and sizes. Adaptive image techniques look to make sure that visuals aren’t too large or too small, but just right for every viewer.

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Responsive Design Deep Dive

Beyond the basics, there are numerous advanced strategies and techniques to enhance responsive design. We've outlined a few below:

Fluid Grids: Instead of designing with fixed pixel values, try using percentages. Fluid grids adapt content layout to a device’s screen size, making sure it fits well irrespective of the device.
Media Queries: With CSS media queries, different styles based can be applied on specific device characteristics, like its width, height, or orientation.
Flexible Images: When images are flexible they can scale within their containing elements. This looks to prevent them from breaking out of their containers.
Hide/Reveal Portions of Images: On smaller screens, consider displaying only the most pertinent parts of an image. This is where techniques like "art direction" in responsive design come into play.
Prioritise Content: On smaller screens, less is more. Decide what content is crucial and prioritise its visibility, hiding non-essential elements.
Mobile-First Design: Consider starting designing for smaller screens first and then expand the design for larger screens. This means prioritising essential elements.
Utilise CSS Frameworks: Explore frameworks like Bootstrap, Foundation, or Materialize that provide pre-made grids and components optimised for responsive design.
Implement SVGs: Scalable Vector Graphics (SVGs) aren’t pixel-based, so they always appear sharp, no matter the size of the screen or the resolution.
Avoid Fixed-Width Elements: Fixed elements can break layouts on smaller devices. Always aim for flexibility.
Test, Test, Test: Utilise tools like BrowserStack or the built-in device emulators in browsers like Chrome to see how the website design looks on various devices.
Typography: It's not just about images and grids. Text needs to be legible and appealing across all devices, so consider using relative units like "vw" for text size.
Touchscreen Consideration: Navigation and other interactive elements are must be finger-friendly. Consider adding states for hover, active, and focus to provide feedback to users on touch devices.
Utilise Performance Tools: Tools like Google's PageSpeed Insights or Lighthouse are useful to test the responsiveness of a site.
Limit Use of Heavy Frameworks: While frameworks can speed up the design process, they can sometimes include a lot of unnecessary code. Try only using the parts of the framework that are needed or opt for custom code when necessary.

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GRAVITATE Digital | Website Optimisation | Prioritising Mobile

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Exploring these responsive design techniques for a website can help to cater to users across all devices, as well as improve the overall user experience, keeping visitors engaged and reducing bounce rates.

Zoe

Read Time

3

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Tip 3: Crafting Irresistible Calls-to-Action (CTAs)

It's not enough to just draw users in; you must guide them. CTAs serve as waypoints, directing visitors towards desired actions and outcomes.

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Website CTA Optimisation Tips

Prominence: A CTA shouldn't be a needle in a haystack. It should stand out, immediately drawing the eye.
Explicitness: Ambiguity is the enemy of conversion. A visitor should instantly understand what action a CTA is guiding them toward.
Motivation: Language is powerful. Verbs like "Discover," "Explore," and "Grab Yours" ignite excitement and curiosity, encouraging clicks.

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Here are 10 CTA examples that can be used across various platforms and industries:

"Start Your Journey" - Ideal for travel sites, educational platforms, or any service that promises growth or a transformative experience.
"Unlock Your Offer" - Creates a sense of exclusive access or a limited-time deal, often used in e-commerce or subscription services.
"Get My Free Trial" - For software, apps, or any service offering a trial period to entice users to test out the product.
"Join the Revolution" - Perfect for innovative products, services, or movements that aim to differentiate themselves from the norm.
"Book My Spot" - Suitable for events, webinars, or any limited-capacity offering, emphasising the need to secure a place quickly.
"Discover the Secret" - Invokes curiosity and is effective for products or services that promise unique insights or exclusive information.
"Save My Seat" - Ideal for webinars, online classes, or events, emphasising the exclusivity and limited availability.
"Claim Your Discount" - Direct and appealing for sales or special promotions in e-commerce.
"Watch the Magic" - Good for product demos, teaser videos, or any content that promises a transformative visual or learning experience.
"Dive In Now" - Great for immersive experiences, whether it's exploring a content-rich site, starting a course, or trying out a new software feature.

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It's important to remember when crafting a CTA, that it's essential to keep the target audience in mind and align the action verb with the desired outcome. The CTAs should resonate with the user's needs or desires, prompting them to take immediate action.

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GRAVITATE Digital | Website Optimisation | Clear CTA

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Tip 4: Consistently Fresh & Aligned Content

The promise of an ad sets the stage, but the landing page delivers the performance. It's vital that the content lives up to, if not exceeds, user expectations.

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Tips to maintain high-quality website content

Staying Relevant: Align website content with the promises of the ad campaigns. False promises can lead to lost trust.
Keeping It Fresh: Staleness is unappealing. By updating content to reflect the evolving nuances of a brand or industry, a site can remain to be seen as a relevant resource.

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Tip 5: Robust Hosting Infrastructure

All the above optimisations mean little if the foundation is shaky. As paid ads amplify site traffic, it's paramount that hosting infrastructure can shoulder the load.

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Website hosting considerations

Ample Bandwidth: Think of bandwidth as a highway. As more users (cars) visit, more lanes are needed to prevent congestion. Look to confirm that hosting services can handle the traffic.
Reliability: Downtimes are digital dead-ends. Opting for a host that guarantees 99.9% uptime means that the digital door is always open for visitors.
Stellar Support: Issues are inevitable. However, a robust customer support system means that these challenges are mere blips, rectified before they escalate.

Ready to take your digital marketing to the next level with GRAVITATE?

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The Importance of Landing Page Relevance to Paid Ads

When deploying a paid ad campaign, many digital marketers become hyper-focused on the ad's visuals, wording, and targeting. However, there's a pivotal component that sometimes gets overlooked: the website landing page. The importance of a relevant and optimised landing page can't be stressed enough.

Why is website landing page relevance so important for paid ads?

User Experience (UX)‍

Imagine a user clicking on an ad about a new fitness product, only to land on a generic homepage or a page discussing a completely different product. This disconnect not only disrupts the user experience but also makes it more likely they'll bounce without making a purchase or taking a desired action.

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Ad Spend Efficiency‍

Every click on your ad costs money. If users consistently find a landing page irrelevant, ad spend becomes less efficient, driving up the cost per acquisition and decreasing the ROI.

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Quality Score‍

Platforms like Meta assess the relevance of landing pages in relation to ads. A higher quality score, driven by relevance and usefulness, can lead to lower ad costs and better ad placements.

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Meta's Recommendation

Meta (formerly known as Facebook) has always emphasised the importance of relevance in advertising. Their recommendation is straightforward: ensure that ads and landing pages are relevant and useful to the target audience. This means that the content, imagery, and call-to-action on the landing page should align seamlessly with the ad's message and the audience's expectations.

A cohesive and relevant journey from ad to landing page can significantly boost conversion rates, as visitors are more likely to take the desired action when they find what they're expecting. This consistency in messaging can also help to establish trust. If a user feels that the ad's promise is delivered on the landing page, they're more likely to trust your brand and its offerings.

While crafting a compelling ad is essential, it's only half the battle. Ensuring that the user's journey from the ad to the landing page is seamless, relevant, and valuable is pivotal in maximising the returns of paid advertising efforts.

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GRAVITATE Digital | Website Optimisation | Website Landing Page

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Is your website up to scratch for paid ads?

Diving into paid ads without ensuring your website is optimised is akin to lighting a beacon without a clear path to follow. While paid ads drive potential clients and customers to a website, the user experience on the website can often determine conversion. By diligently focusing on website optimisation, every click from an ad campaign can be a step closer to a fruitful business relationship.

Want to learn more? Reach out to the GRAVITATE team today for a chat.

Yours,
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Frequently asked questions

Why is page load speed so important for my website when running paid ads?

Page load speed is vital because in today's fast-paced digital environment, users expect instant access. A slow-loading page can lead to higher bounce rates, meaning potential customers leave before engaging with the content. When running paid ads, the aim of the game is to drive the highest conversion rate possible. This is more achievable with a fast-loading website.

How do I determine if my website is truly mobile-responsive?

Tools like Google's Mobile-Friendly Test can be used to evaluate a website. However, the real test is manually checking the website on various devices, looking at whether graphics, texts, and interactive elements load correctly and are easily navigable on tablets and smartphones of different sizes.

My CTAs are clearly visible. Why aren't visitors engaging with them?

Visibility is just one aspect. The messaging, colour, and positioning of CTAs also matter. They need to resonate with the visitors, be compelling, and align with the content they accompany. Regularly testing and tweaking CTA design and copy can help improve engagement rates.

How often should I update the content on my website to keep it 'fresh'?

There's no hard and fast rule, but regular updates, such as monthly or quarterly, can keep content aligned with current industry trends and user expectations. However, if there are significant changes in an industry, product, or service, immediate content updates are advisable.

I’m new to this; what’s the first step to ensure my hosting is up to par for paid ads traffic?

Begin by evaluating the current hosting package. Check bandwidth limitations, uptime guarantees, and customer support quality. If you're expecting a surge in traffic from your paid ads, consider other plans or switching to a more reliable hosting provider for a more seamless user experience.

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