Last updated on February 19th, 2025 at 04:56 am
When you’re driving traffic from paid platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Google Ads, influencers, or others, conversion rates can make or break your campaigns.
The last thing you want to do is send people that you paid good money for to a page that isn’t built to convert out of the gate.
Especially when you consider the rising ad costs so many platforms are experiencing today.
To help you keep from losing money, lower your cost-per-click and your cost-per-acquisition, and (ultimately) increase your profit margins, there’s a few key elements on your landing pages that you need to take a look at BEFORE you start sending traffic.
In this guide, we’re going to break down practical tried-and-true, tested tips that will help ensure you get the highest conversion rates possible.
By the time you’re done reading, you’ll be able to lift your conversion rates across the board and start building landing pages that convert on day 1 — instead of losing a ton of money through testing.
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Tip #1: Grab (And Keep) Attention
One of the biggest conversion-killers (and drivers) ever is the headline you use.
It’s your first impression on your audience and the one change you get to not only grab their attention but keep their attention long enough to ask them to take action on an offer you’ve made to them.
Crafting high-converting headlines, though, can feel like you’re learning a second language.
But what you’re actually doing is speaking the language of your audience.
To speak that language, there’s a few things you can do:
Know Your Audience
Understanding what appeals to your target audience is crucial for crafting effective headlines.
When you understand the words they’re using, you can repeat those words back to them, instantly grabbing their attention and making them want to see more.
Speak to the Benefits
Instead of focusing on the features of the product, focus on the benefits it provides.
The features tell people what they’re getting but the benefits help them understand why those features are important. We’ll touch more on this in just a bit. When you’re writing a headline, though, speak to the benefit they’re going to get by reading.
Hook, Promise, or Curiosity
An effective headline often incorporates one of these elements to draw the reader in and keep them interested.
You can hook your readers in with a bold statement about a pain or frustration you know they’re experiencing. Or you can make a big promise about an outcome they’ll get. You can also ask a question to pique their curiosity and keep them reading.
To help you understand how to craft a great headline, take a look at these examples:
Contrast
The headline above does a great job of contrasting where their audience is right now — serving “meh” meals — and where the outcome they desire to achieve — serving Michelin-quality meals.
In this example, the headline is suggesting that a simple change (using the spices in this box set) can help liven up the meals they’re serving.
Here’s an example of another great headline:
The Hero
In the example above, the headline works to empower their audience to believe in themselves enough to become the professional handyman or DIY’er that they don’t want to hire.
Suggesting that the use of your product will enable your customer to do something they would otherwise have to hire a professional to do is a great way to get their attention so they keep reading.
For your own headlines, think about who they want to become or what the “hero” looks like, and then tell them that you’ll help empower them to become that person or hero.
Below is another great headline formula:
Consistency
Another great headline formula is showcasing how consistent your product or its performance is.
The example above promises an ongoing positive impact from using the desk chair — making it incredibly persuasive. Suggesting consistent comfort and productivity helps their audience see why this is more than just another computer chair.
For your own headlines, consider the positive effects your audience will experience by using your product, and then use your headline to point out those effects.
Below is an example of a more controversial headline formula:
Disruption
The headline example from The Squatch immediately makes their audience rethink the quality of the products they’re currently using. It disrupts the pattern they’ve established in their minds.
This type of disruption also sparks curiosity and forces the reader to think about whether or not it may actually be true. It can be a risky strategy if it’s used in the wrong way, though.
If the disruption type of headline formula matches your voice’s brand and attitude, the level of risk in a headline like this could pay off in major ways.
Now, to help you get your creative wheels spinning, here are a few examples using these formulas:
“Who Needs A Barista When You Have ___…?”
(Espresso Machine)
“Transform Your Weeknight Dinners Into Gourmet Feasts”
(Meal Kit Delivery Service)
“Turn Your Home Into A Five-Star Resort”
(Luxury Bedding)
“The Last Fitness Equipment You’ll Ever Need”
(Multifunction Home Gym Equipment)
If you want to make sure you keep your audience reading until you get the chance to make an offer to them, test the different headline formulas on your own pages — and run with the winner.
We’ll touch on how to actually find the winning headline in a later tip.
If you want even more ways to grab (and keep) attention, check out Copywriting Secrets.
There’s another big question that needs to be answered, though, before your audience will keep reading long enough to see your call to action…
Tip #2: What’s in it for Me…?
Every visitor that lands on your page is going to subconsciously ask themselves…
What’s in it for me?
What they’re wondering, though, isn’t just about the offer and what comes with it.
Things like what’s in the box, what they’ll get to download, and other assets that are included in the purchase they’re about to make are going to be important to them.
But what’s even more important is how those assets, what’s in the box, or what they’ll get to download is going to BENEFIT them.
That means you’re going to need to write copy that addresses what your unique selling proposition is so they clearly see what’s in it for them — and why they should buy.
Which, if you aren’t familiar, your unique selling proposition (or USP) is what makes your offer stand apart from your competition.
It’s what you do differently or better and focuses on the unique value and advantage that your product offers which can become key drivers for improving the conversion rates on your landing page.
It also addresses the specific benefits that customers are going to get when they choose your offer instead of one of your competitor’s products.
To begin developing your unique selling proposition, you want to start by identifying what actually makes your offer different (and superior) to your competitor’s offers.
This could be anything from a unique ingredient, the method you use to achieve a transformation, the design of your offer, or even the service you provide after the sale.
This uniqueness factor is what makes your product or service stand out in a crowded marketplace.
To help get your creative wheels spinning, check out how it’s done in these examples:
The example above, from The Squatch, focuses on the fact that it only uses natural ingredients while its potential customers may be purchasing mass-produced products that use man-made, harsh chemicals.
In the example below, the products are set apart from the competition by focusing on what matters to their work-from-home audience: affordability, durability, comfortability, and efficiency.
Finding relevant benefits for your product or service requires a good understanding of both your product and your target audience.
Here’s a few ways you can start identifying the benefits that matter most to your audience:
- Product Analysis – The first step is understanding your product inside and out. Look at each feature your product offers and ask yourself, “So what?” In other words, why does that feature matter? What does it accomplish for the user? Why should that feature matter to them?
- Customer Interviews – Speak directly to your customers. Find out what they like most about your product or service, and what they feel it has done for them. Their responses can help you understand the benefits from a user’s perspective. Then, use those same statements in the copy you use on your landing pages — remember, they said it best!
- Audience Persona – Develop a detailed persona of your target audience. Understanding their demographics, behaviors, interests, and pain points can help you pinpoint what benefits would be most appealing to them. You’re looking to identify your ONE perfect customer and speak directly to them on your landing page — not anyone and everyone with a wallet.
- Competitor Analysis – Look at what benefits your competitors are highlighting. This can give you a sense of what benefits are valued in your industry, and also help you find unique benefits that your competitors aren’t promoting.
Copy Quickstart Secrets can help you take what you’ve learned by doing the research above and apply it to the copy you write so you’re hitting the “What’s in it for me…?” for your one perfect prospect, every time. Once you’ve uncovered that, it’s time to show people what’s in it for them.
Tip #3: What are They ACTUALLY Getting?
Knowing how your offer benefits them is one part of the puzzle.
You can’t neglect what they’re actually getting, though.
On top of diving deep into the benefits, showing what’s inside a product or providing a detailed overview of what they’re going to get can help boost your conversions, too.
When potential customers can see what they’re getting, it removes uncertainty and helps build trust in the benefits that you’ve told them they’re going to get.
They can begin to piece together those benefits to each piece of what’s inside the offer to determine whether or not you’re being honest about how they’ll get the benefits you’ve promised.
This directly increases your conversion rates — or causes them to plummet if you ignore this tip.
To see it in action and help get your ideas flowing, check out these examples:
In the example above, everything that comes in the toolbox is laid out for their audience.
From the toolbox, itself, to the 13 essential hand tools, and the organizers, their audience knows exactly what’s going to show up after placing an order.
They also show each of the tools in the image to help people get a clear picture of what they’re getting.
Laying out what’s included like this gives you an opportunity to showcase the quality of the products you’re producing so visitors place more trust in what you’re selling.
Here’s another good example of showing people what’s in the box before they buy:
Transparency helps build trust — even if your products come in non-transparent packaging like the spices from Vahdam.
The example above uses a combination of copy and high-quality images to show people what’s coming when they order.
It also lets their audience know what type of thought process went into developing the product, ensuring they understand what sets this offer apart from the competition.
Many times, you have to spell it out for your audience — you can’t assume they simply understand the quality and attention to detail you’ve put into developing your product.
It doesn’t have to be super-complicated, either.
Take a look at this example from Hero:
In this example, Hero is showing the box and a sheet of their blemish-removing patches.
Then, they transition into showing the 2-step process for applying the patches so their audience can begin to visualize themselves taking ownership of the product and beginning to use it once it arrives.
On top of that, you can see how a bit of copy is being used to showcase how the blemish-removing pads have received an award for their performance, what they’re made from, and how quickly they work.
This is a masterpiece example of showing people what’s in the box while tying the copy surrounding it into making sure the “What’s in it for me…?” is being answered.
To ensure the highest conversion rates possible, though, there’s another element you want to make sure is included on your landing pages…
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Tip #4: Social Proof (Not Random Testimonials)
One of THE most effective elements you can include on your landing pages is social proof.
Not just any social proof, though.
Because one of the biggest misconceptions that marketers, entrepreneurs, and offer owners have is that they can just dump a bunch of testimonials on a page and it’s enough to get people to convert.
That simply isn’t the case.
And doing it that way can actually negatively impact your conversions by forcing people to tune out or scroll past a large part of your landing page to get back to the stuff they’re interested in seeing.
To avoid having that happen, you want to make sure you’re using the RIGHT types of social proof instead of just dumping a bunch of random testimonials onto the page and hoping for the best.
Here’s a handful of examples and why they’re so effective when used in the right way…
Benefit-Focused: Testimonials should talk about specific benefits a customer experienced from using your product or service. Avoid generic praise and instead highlight unique selling points.
Overcome Objections: Use testimonials to overcome common objections.
For example, if people often worry your product is too complex, include a testimonial from a non-tech-savvy customer talking about how easy it was to use. Or, if they feel like they won’t get support, use testimonials that highlight how superior your customer service is.
Transformational Stories: People love stories, especially ones involving transformation.
If a customer went from struggling to succeeding because of your product, make sure their testimonial tells that story. This is especially true if they provide a before and after shot (like the one below).
Expert Endorsement: It’s not always about quantity.
Sometimes, a single endorsement from a well-respected expert in your field can be far more powerful than dozens of testimonials from less-known users.
If you can get an expert to vouch for your product or service, that can significantly boost your credibility.
User Generated Content (UGC): Encourage and showcase user-generated content.
This might be photos of customers using your product, or short video testimonials.
Not only does this provide social proof, it also generates content for you and deeply engages your users by showing what can happen when they, too, purchase your offer.
Quantitative Social Proof: We often focus on qualitative social proof like testimonials, but don’t forget the numbers. They can also be powerful persuaders.
If you have impressive stats, like “Helped over 10,000 businesses grow” or “Rated 4.9 out of 5 from over 5,000 reviews”, highlight them.
Here’s another example that uses quantitative social proof to showcase how many other people have benefitted from your offer.
You can see from the examples above that they’re not a “vault” of social proof or a “tank” which is nothing more than a large section of your page that gets testimonials dumped onto it.
Instead, the best testimonials have been pulled and featured to help answer the “What’s in it for me…?” question each of your visitors will be subconsciously asking themselves.
When you use social proof in this way, you’re actually moving your visitors through the buying journey instead of just pouring a bunch of social proof on the page and saying “See? Look how great we are!” or by featuring generic testimonials like “Great company!”.
Having the right types of social proof in the right areas on your landing page is a safe way to dramatically increase your conversion rates.
Tip #5: Use Effective Calls-to-Action (CTAs)
Now, when you’ve worked hard to not only grab attention but to keep that attention long enough to actually put your offer in front of your audience and ask them to buy…
…the last thing you want to do is make it hard for them to complete their purchase.
If they have to search around your page to figure out where to click to take you up on the offer you’ve made, you could lose their attention — and send them looking for your competition.
One of the biggest mistakes people make with their CTAs is using basic, boring CTAs like “Buy Now”, “Download Now”, “Sign Up”, or “Subscribe Now”.
While those CTAs -can work-, they aren’t actually telling people HOW they can do the thing they want to do and get the thing they want to get.
They also don’t directly spell out the benefit of taking the action you want them to take.
Again, this goes back to the “What’s in it for me…?” question you need to make sure you’re getting answered every step of the way.
If your goal is to increase your conversion rates, using boring CTAs like that is a HUGE missed opportunity and one that can easily be fixed.
For instance, instead of including a call to action that says “Shop Now”, you could easily change it to “Click Here To Transform Your Work From Home Setup”.
The second example makes it clear what’s in it for them as well as specifically telling them what to do and where to click. It doesn’t leave anything up to change or force the visitor to figure things out on their own.
Below is another example of a good CTA.
Notice the copy surrounding the CTA. It’s 100% benefit-driven.
Their audience wants to smell great and not put harsh chemicals on their body.
Then, underneath the button, the 30-day satisfaction guarantee is included to help reduce any potential risk that may be lingering and keep people from making a purchase.
Below is another example of a benefit-driven call to action that’s been proven to convert.
Like the previous example, take note of the copy surrounding the CTA.
It focuses on the big benefit customers are going to get when they purchase: their tastebuds thanking them for using this new set of spices.
It also ties into a major benefit that comes with buying: upgrading their spice cabinet with a premium set of spices to breathe new life into the dishes they create.
Here’s an example that pulls together each of the tips we’ve given you in this guide and lays them out perfectly, leading into asking their audience to take an action.
From the social proof above the headline to the benefit-driven headline, itself, into the subheadline that tells people exactly what they’re getting, followed up by benefit-driven bullet points.
Finally, it’s all tied together when their audience is asked to “Shop Everyday Spices & Save 30%”, followed by a risk reversal.
Tip #6: Use the Right Tech Stack
Now, the greatest strategies and tips in the world can’t help you if you’re building your landing pages on the wrong tech stack.
Pages that take forever to load — or, worse, completely fail to load — will destroy your conversion rate before you ever get a chance to show people what’s in it for them & why they should buy.
Not to mention, the wrong tech stack keeps you from being able to test new ideas at scale so you can figure out which of those ideas is going to convert at the highest level possible.
With ClickFunnels, you can eliminate both of those problems so you get to spend more time testing ideas and less time dealing with the frustration of slow-loading pages and broken tech stacks.
Plus, the intuitive interface makes it easy to take each of the tips we’ve laid out for you in this guide and start putting together high-converting landing pages in minutes — instead of hours.
All without having to hire an expensive designer or developer to do it for you.
You can choose from dozens of different professionally designed templates to start with or start off with a completely blank canvas.
Then, all you have to do is drag and drop the elements where you want them.
Once your page is built and you’re driving traffic to it, you can click on the element (like your CTA) to see exactly how many clicks it’s generated — then compare that with the number of sales made.
You also get the added benefit of built-in split testing.
With ClickFunnels, you can divide your traffic between two different versions of the same page and ClickFunnels will help you see which version of the page was the clear winner.
This is great for testing new headline ideas, calls to action, bullet points, hooks, stories, and so much more. Most other platforms can’t deliver this level of analytics to your marketing campaigns.
If you haven’t already experienced the power of ClickFunnels (especially when you’re using the tips we’ve given you in this guide), click here to start your free 14-day trial now.
Then, as you’re building a new page, work through each of the tips we’ve given you to start getting higher conversion rates on every lander you build.