Landing Pages vs. Websites: Here’s What Actually Matters

Are you running paid ads through your website and wondering why they aren’t converting?

Well, guaranteed you’re missing one very important element in your lead generation tactics.

They are called landing pages, and we have seen over double the conversion rates with our contracting clients who use them versus traditional websites.

Keep reading to find out why landing pages are the perfect tool for contractors to use to generate more leads in place of the conventional website model.

Let’s start right from the top, shall we?

A lot of contractors we meet say that they have no idea what a landing page is, or that they are exactly the same as a home-page on a website.

Car-mel, Cara-mel, right?

Well, not exactly.

Although they might seem like the same thing, both serve different purposes and are built completely differently.

So what is a landing page, you ask?

A landing page is a single web page dedicated to one specific service. It is short, sweet, to-the-point, and has a single focus goal (also known as a call to action). Many times, it is also the first touchpoint homeowners have with contractors so it is important that it represents your brand properly!

That’s the magic of landing pages; they are designed to feel like a fancy-dancy website, but without all of the fuss so that only one option is being offered.

They are created to go hand-in-hand with paid advertising campaigns, so if someone clicks on an ad from a digital media platform such as Facebook or Google, they will be taken to the designated landing page where the goal is to get that client to convert into a lead.

Let’s look at roofing as an example.

If someone is using the search term “asphalt roofing contractor”, not only can we inject that into the ad copy, but we can also place it front and center on the landing page.

This way, we can be sure the language is on par with what the homeowner is searching for.

For example, we want someone who is searching for “asphalt roofing contractor”, to land on a “asphalt roofing” landing page-nothing else!

What sets landing pages a part is their ability to be branded and hyper-focused on the specific service or product. The homeowners who visit your landing page will know exactly who you are and what you are offering them.

No distractions, no surprises.

Now that you know what a landing page is, let’s talk about what they should consist of.

Much like a car, and how all of the parts come together to start the engine, each element of a landing page works together to form a fully cohesive page that is optimized for conversions.

For each type of landing page you create, there will always be some sort of standard format to follow to ensure things run most efficiently.

This is especially true for landing pages we create for home improvement contractors.

Where is the fun in that, you ask?

Well, the fun comes from the customization and the testing (we’ll get to that later) that we get to do!

Let’s talk formulas for a quick second here…

Although no two landing pages are alike in design, style, or feel, they all follow the same formula.

After nearly a decade of building out landing pages, here is our tried and true 5-step formula for creating high-converting landing pages:

Here’s an example of one of our high converting landing pages that one of our designers created!

As you can see, both follow the formula but are filled with branded elements that bring life to the landing pages.

Each has its own character that is representative of the brand.

Like I said earlier, your landing page should be an elevated version of your website. Because they are customizable and easier to build out than a website, we can really bring that wow factor in a shorter amount of time.

Pro Tip: Homeowners should be able to look at a landing page and within 5 seconds know exactly what services you are offering. If not, then some tweaks have to be made so that your message is clear as day!

One feature about landing pages that is often overlooked in the home improvement industry is the ability to customize them to your services.

For example, let’s say there is a hail storm in your area, and you need a storm damage roof repair page up and running quickly in order to get ahead of the game.

With a landing page, we can tailor the content to storm damage and dedicate specific locations where there was more damage to target homeowners who need to see it.

This feature is crucial as it allows you to stay at the forefront of the industry with time-relevant advertisements.

Now that you know what a landing page is and what it is composed of, let’s get into one of the biggest controversial topics in the marketing world.

Luckily, we are here to set the record straight so that you can make the best decisions for your business!

As we already know, a landing page is tailored to your material type, service, (one particular topic). So much so that all of the content from the images to the copy are all focused on that one particular thing so that when we integrate it with ads, that ad content and the landing page content are really working in tandem to be hyper-relevant.

A website on the other hand is like a short story about your business.

I won’t go too far into what a contractor website should actually contain, but you’ll have around 5-7 sections on your website all bringing the visitor to different pages and information.

These pages will usually include sections about who you are, what services you offer, how to get in contact with you, FAQs, and a careers page to name a few!

The goal of a website is to have a space where homeowners can come to learn more about who you are and what you do.

If you have ever looked at updating your website, you’re going to know how time-consuming and expensive it can be.

We’re talking upwards of $15-$30K and you’re looking at a timeline of 3-4 months before it will be ready to go live.

Whereas landing pages are stand-alone systems, they don’t require heavy backend work like your website would. Which is why we are able to get them up and running fast!

What’s even better is we don’t charge extra for our landing pages- they are included in your Webrunner package when you sign on with us!

This way, you can update the look and feel of your brand and increase conversions, without that big price tag and timeline that comes with a website.

On top of that, because landing pages are so tailored, you’re going to be saving money on all of your paid-per-click ad campaigns because there will be way less wasted clicks.

Each click you get on your ad will have a higher chance of converting, meaning that you will have a greater chance of having a high marketing ROI.

Every homeowner who clicks on your ads and lands on your landing page knows that is exactly the service they are looking for, and you are exactly who they are looking for.

Don’t get me wrong, websites are a necessity for all businesses and it will be the starting point for all primary interactions with homeowners, and how they will get to know you and your business and build trust.

However, it must be noted here that websites are not designed to convert leads.

On the other hand, once homeowners have reached your landing page, the chances of them converting are about 2x higher.

This is where landing pages come in and fills that gap!

Think of your website as a house, but the landing page is the front door to get into the house. They cannot exist without one another and work in tandem with each other to build trust with homeowners to get them to convert.

“So, what happens when homeowners visit the landing page and leave without filling out the form?”

This is where it gets fun!

We integrate with numerous different tools so that once the homeowner reaches the landing page, their journey doesn’t stop there.

Although conversion rates are statistically 2x amount higher with landing pages compared to websites, there are always going to be visitors who leave your landing page without taking the desired action (converting).

When they do leave, we call that a bounce.

We can track your bounces, and give you a bounce rate.

Once that homeowner does leave the page, we have tools and processes in place to ensure that you can follow up with that lead in the most effective way.

We do this through 2 integrations:

These two integrations work together to engage with your inbound leads and help you capture them with minimal effort.

Yes, you can finally say goodbye to chasing your leads!

Automations are key to any digital marketing campaign.

It can be nearly impossible for someone to follow up on all the leads in a timely and effective manner.

This is why we offer to integrate all of our landing pages with Simple Texting, a instant messaging platform that lets contractors connect with homeowners fast!

When a homeowner takes the desired action on a landing page (ie. fills out your form), we can automatically send them a text message or email notification with more information or a confirmation of them filling out the form.

Our clients have seen massive success with this integration as it takes the hard work off their plate.

Once that initial text is sent, contractors can then communicate in real-time with the homeowners or continue to send out automated messages until the desired action is completed.

With statistics showing us that on average, 98% of all text messages are read, and 90% of those messages are read within just three minutes. – it is a no-brainer to integrate this type of automation into our landing pages to increase conversion rates.

We talk about this one a lot here on the blog, but that is simply because it is one of the best and easiest tricks in the book for following up with bounces on your landing pages.

The Facebook pixel is a piece of code we install into your landing page that lets us measure, optimize, and build remarketing audiences for our ad campaigns.

When someone visits your landing page and then leaves without converting, the Facebook pixel is triggered and reports that action.

Overtime, Facebook’s machine learning can utilize these reports to retarget those bounces through Facebook ad campaigns.

Brilliant, eh?

The goal of retargeting ads is to gently remind the homeowner who you are and that you are an expert in the industry.

For this, we like to launch educational video content to engage with those prospects and hopefully, convert them into leads.

In short, the two goals of the Facebook Pixel are to:

Check out these retargeting ads we used for our clients!

On top of that, we integrate with almost all industry CRM’s (like MarketSharp and JobNimbus), meaning that all of your incoming leads from your landing pages will automatically be added to your CRM.

This is kind of like having hands-free driving. You can take your hands off the wheel of your incoming leads, and know that they are all being updated into your CRM without you having to worry your car is going to run off the highway!

The final cherry on top we do with our landing pages that will set you up for massive success is A/B testing.

A/B testing is the process of showing two variants of the same web page at different segments of visitors at the same time to determine which one brings more conversions.

This is how we optimize our landing pages for each campaign we run.

We even track the user actions such as mouse movements, scroll depth, and clicks to help with optimization!

All of these things come together to help get you the best ROI on your ad campaigns!

And who doesn’t want that?

Check out two versions of this landing page we recently launched! There were minor differences between the two, but version B brought in more conversions because of the added value that the client perceives from a complimentary gift – as opposed to seeing a monthly price estimate which might be outside their planned remodeling budget.

A/B testing is a powerful marketing strategy, however, it can only be done on landing pages as I mentioned earlier: they don’t require heavy back end work, therefore small tweaks like this can be made almost instantly!

Can you tell we really, really love landing pages?

Now, say you have a landing page and subsequent ad campaigns to go with it, but it doesn’t stop there.

In our digital world, websites and Google My Business listings have become the first point of contact and also the first step in the sales process for homeowners.

Searching for a product, brand, or service online before making a purchase has become second nature to all of us!

It is important to remember that people are not only doing this for restaurants and clothing brands, but they are also doing it for your company!

So if your website is old, outdated, or even filled with broken links, this is going to give homeowners a terrible first impression of your business.

More often than not, the trust that they get from you is going to be derived from your website and online presence (Google reviews, social media, etc.).

It is also vital to keep in mind the number of people who search on their mobile devices vs. a desktop computer.

In fact, nearly 51% of time spent online in the US is on mobile devices!

If things are not mobile-ready, it is important to remember that your competitor is only one click away!

Pro tip: Keep things as simple, clean and as updated as possible. Set reminders for you to check out your digital presence quarterly both on a mobile device and desktop computer to make sure that everything is running smoothly.

If there is one takeaway here it is that websites and landing pages aim to serve two different purposes, and their place in your digital marketing strategy should play to their strong suits.

Landing pages and websites both play off each other and work together to form a cohesive brand and build trust with homeowners, but they are two separate entities.

If you want to build your brand and focus on growing trust with homeowners, a website may be where you want to invest your marketing dollars.

But, if you want to increase conversions, generate more leads, and grow your brand, utilizing landing pages will be your best bet!

As long as you keep your digital presence up to date, follow our landing page formula, and do some A/B testing, you’re ready to rock and roll your ad campaigns and bring in those leads!