How to Craft High-Converting Landing Pages for Ecommerce
While your paid ad strategy may drive traffic, it's your landing pages that ultimately convert curious searchers into loyal customers. Instapage tested whether a dedicated landing page converted better than a brand’s homepage and found that the landing page almost tripled the conversion rate.
But crafting a high-converting landing page isn’t a simple feat. Its purpose is to continue your conversation with potential customers who come to your site from paid ads. This requires a thoughtful approach to every element on your landing page and the psychology behind it.
Today, we’re sharing copy, design, and personalization tips to help you craft high-converting landing pages that align with your customer journey.
How to create high-converting landing pages: 3 key elements of user experience
Understanding what motivates, influences, and even frustrates potential customers is key to building a landing page that resonates deeply. User experience principles can help you create effective landing pages in multiple ways, and Nielsen Norman Group lists the following as some of the top considerations:
1. Focus users’ attention
People often see only what they immediately notice. Use visual design principles like scale, hierarchy, and contrast to make the most important information stand out on the page.
You can also use Gestalt Principles to clearly define which landing page elements go together. For example, use a colored background or border to tie your hero section together.
2. Make decisions easy
Offer the right information at the right time to simplify decision-making.
Humans can only store about seven pieces of information in their short-term memory—and this is forgotten in about 20 seconds. Users also tend to satisfice, or settle for something that may not be an optimal choice but meets basic needs.
Improve recall and reduce information overload by focusing only on the essential elements customers require to make decisions.
3. Add helpful context
Users take actions that seem most likely to meet their needs. Provide clear context with link anchor text to help them take the right actions—and use the Gutenberg Principle to understand where users’ eyes travel as they view your web page and ensure that conversion elements fall in that viewing pattern.
7 copywriting tips and high-converting landing page examples
Messaging is everything. The best landing pages speak directly to your target audience with user-specific copy that’s clear, concise, and persuasive.
Many people mistakenly think this means copywriting needs to be overly logical and boring. But it can be true to your brand voice—and the most effective copywriting appeals to emotion.
Here are seven tips for using ecommerce copy to convert your landing page visitors:
1. Do your research
Without research, your landing page will likely try to address all potential customers. But this approach isn’t effective. When you try to convert everyone, you end up converting no one.
Qualitative research tells you what your target audience truly cares about. It uncovers the questions, concerns, needs, and wants your copy must address in order for users to convert.
Take these two high-converting landing pages that SplitBase designed, for example:
- Laura Geller: This text-heavy landing page appealed to the brand’s customers, who wanted more in-depth information.
- INH Hair: This listicle-style landing page featured short and snappy facts, which the brand’s audience craved.
2. Show the benefits
Tovala’s landing page uses clear, benefits-oriented copy. (Source: Tovala)
Powerful copy focuses on benefits rather than features.
If your product solves a specific problem, your copy should help potential customers understand what not solving that problem feels like. At the same time, it should express how much better their lives could be if they use your product to solve their pain point.
Gartner recommends using the headline and a subheading or short paragraph to highlight your product’s value proposition.
3. Use copywriting formulas
OSEA’s product landing page uses the AIDA copywriting framework to convert customers. (Source: OSEA)
Not sure how to structure your landing page copy, or even what to write? Copywriting formulas like problem, agitate, solution (PAS) or attention, interest, desire, action (AIDA) are proven to motivate users to convert. Use these frameworks across your entire landing page, in individual sections, or even within sentences.
4. Match ads and landing page copy
Done, an ADHD support solution, matches its Instagram ad copy to the linked landing page. (Source: Instagram and Done)
If you’re building a landing page for a specific ad, make sure the landing page copy matches both the ad and the call to action (CTA) or featured product. Inconsistent messaging across channels is something that 27% of customers say frustrates them most, according to the MoEngage Personalization Pulse Check Report 2021.
This is especially key for creating listicle landing pages. These read like content, so your ad should look like it’s promoting an article rather than selling your product.
5. Delete fluff
Asystem’s landing page headline uses three words to convey the product’s benefits. (Source: Asystem)
Reduce clutter, remove unnecessary words, and keep only what is meaningful. This is especially crucial for your headline and subheadline.
Concision takes practice, so it’s important to rely on a good editor, whether you’re writing your own landing page copy or you’ve hired someone else to do it.
6. Include clear CTA buttons
NeuroMD uses “Get Relief: Start 60-Day Trial” as a CTA to invite users to take action. (Source: NeuroMD)
Your CTAs should be action-oriented and clear. Some examples of this include:
- Shop now
- Subscribe
- Unlock offer
Experiment with different CTA language, A/B test your landing page designs, and check metrics like bounce rate, click-through rate, and average order value to see which version converts best.
7. Add urgency
Canine wellness brand Reggie adds a sense of urgency to its landing page offer with a countdown timer and special discount. (Source: Reggie)
Use copy and imagery to create a sense of urgency or scarcity. As Search Engine Journal says, if your target audience doesn’t feel the need to buy your product now, they’ll likely delay making a purchase. This increases the chances they forget about your product.
Of course, this tactic is best used in moderation. If you overdo it, the sense of urgency begins to feel less genuine—as do your offers.
6 key design elements of great landing pages
Your high-converting landing page design should support your messaging, create trust, and position your brand. At the end of the day, a beautiful web page design can augment well-crafted messaging, but even the most beautiful design can’t make up for unhelpful copy or a poor user experience.
That said, here are six landing page design elements that can improve conversions:
1. Hero image or video
Sakara uses a high-quality, colorful image to draw attention to its nutrition-focused meal plan product. (Source: Sakara)
Your hero section is your first impression. This means imagery is critical to grab your target audience’s attention, introduce them to your product, and show them how it works.
As you build and test your landing page, optimize your hero section first. Use data like scrollmaps to see whether users travel from the hero section to your Add to Cart section. If your scrollmaps indicate a major drop-off at your hero section, you likely need to iterate on its design.
2. Navigation
Sunbasket’s landing page navigation doesn’t distract users from converting but offers just enough for those who want to dig further into the brand’s offerings. (Source: Sunbasket)
Landing page navigation is a hotly debated topic. Some argue that a navigation header causes users to leave your landing page without converting. Others argue that navigation gives users the autonomy to freely move around websites.
Ultimately, whether or not you should include landing page navigation depends on your target audience and goals. The only way to tell for sure is to do your landing page research.
3. Icons
Fragrance brand Oakcha uses icons to bring attention to its products’ key features. (Source: Oakcha)
Icons act like directional cues to highlight key information. Using universally recognized shapes can also add clarity.
In the example above, fragrance brand Oakcha uses an image of a rabbit alongside the text “vegan and cruelty free.” This matches the logo used by the Leaping Bunny Program, which is globally recognized to represent cruelty-free products.
4. White space
Juna, a wellness brand, uses white space to group related items together and create a logical flow of information. (Source: Juna)
White space draws users’ attention to your landing page’s most critical elements. It also reduces cognitive load by removing clutter and improving readability.
Pro tip: Landing pages with long-form content especially benefit from a liberal use of white space. SplitBase used white space to improve the readability of beauty brand Laura Geller’s landing page, which yielded a 43% boost in conversions.
5. Contrast
PrettyLitter, a maker of specialty cat litter, uses contrasting colors to ensure that users see its hero image, headline, and CTA. (Source: PrettyLitter)
One conversion rate optimization myth that somehow persists is that the color of your CTA button is important. In reality, the color doesn’t matter as much as how well the button stands out from the rest of your landing page content.
Contrast helps you lead potential customers from your hero image to your headline and your CTA button. If your button blends in, it becomes difficult to find and requires more effort from users to convert.
6. Trust signals and social proof
HighKey shares customer reviews and media logos to validate its claims that its cookies are delicious. (Source: HighKey)
Successful landing pages use social proof to build trust and convert visitors. A 2023 report by Brightlocal found that 69% of consumers would be happy to use a business with positive reviews, and Bigcommerce found that reviews generate 62% more revenue per customer.
The following types of social proof can boost your landing page conversion rates:
- Testimonials and reviews: Highlight positive reviews to share your product’s real-life impact.
- Media mentions: Include the logos of media outlets that featured or reviewed your product.
- Awards: Share any awards or recognitions your brand or product earned to demonstrate credibility.
How to personalize your landing pages
Personalization is essential to increase conversions. Hubspot's 2024 State of Marketing Report found that 96% of marketers claim that personalization boosts the chances that customers make repeat purchases, and 94% say it increases sales.
The most essential forms of ecommerce personalization are customized copy, imagery, and offers. These should all reflect the ad that led your potential customers to your site, as well as the behaviors linked to the channel they came from. This applies to all channels, including social media and search. After all, ads and landing pages are like PB&J—they’re better together.
For example, if customers visit your landing page from a TikTok ad, they’re likely to be impatient and have a shorter attention span. This means your landing page needs snappier copy and eye-catching visuals.
Replace your one-size-fits-all landing page with a data-driven approach
Your paid ads can only take you so far. Once potential customers click, it’s up to your landing page to motivate them to buy.
Using a landing page template or one-size-fits-all framework won’t cut it. You need a data-driven approach to craft high-converting landing pages that resonate with your audience. Contact SplitBase to begin optimizing your landing pages for the best possible customer experience.
