What is a landing page and how many do you need?

You run a campaign on Google, LinkedIn or Meta and people click on your ad. Where do they end up? If that is your homepage, you lose most of them again. Too many choices, too little focus. A landing page solves that. In this article we explain what a landing page is, what belongs on a good landing page and how many landing pages you actually need.

What is a landing page?

A landing page is a web page with one goal, built for visitors who arrive via a specific campaign or search. The page matches what that visitor has just seen and asks for one action: request a demo, download a whitepaper, sign up for a webinar or request a quote.

Everything on the page works towards that one action. There is no extensive menu, no sidebar with other articles and no footer full of links. That limitation is exactly what makes a landing page effective.

What is the difference between a landing page and a website?

A website helps visitors orient themselves, a landing page helps them decide. People arrive at a website via all kinds of routes. They look around, read about your services, view case studies and may come back later. A landing page catches visitors who arrive with a concrete question and already half know what they want.

You usually need both. The website is the foundation: findable, informative and built to create trust. Landing pages are the specific entry points for campaigns. Whoever wants to convert straight away does so on the landing page. Whoever first wants to know more clicks through to the website. How to set up a complete site for conversion, you can read in our article on a conversion-focused website.

Which elements does a good landing page have?

A good landing page consists of six fixed building blocks. The order can differ per page, the elements themselves do not.

A headline that is immediately clear. Within a few seconds the visitor must know what they get and why it is valuable. No vague promise, no jargon.

A subheading that explains. The headline grabs attention, the subheading explains in one sentence how it works or who it is for.

Benefits instead of features. Not what your product has, but what it brings the visitor. Time saved, mistakes avoided, a result achieved.

Proof. A customer experience, a review, a case study or a quality mark. Something that shows others already trust you.

One clear call to action. A button or form with text that says what happens when you click.

An answer to the last doubt. How long does it take, what happens to my data, am I tied to anything? Answer those questions before the visitor asks them.

Why does one goal per page work better?

One goal per page works better because every extra choice draws attention away from the action you want. A landing page with a whitepaper, a demo request and a newsletter sign-up asks the visitor to choose. Many people then choose nothing.

The same goes for links to the rest of your site. Every link that leads away from the page is an exit. So decide on one goal per page and remove everything that does not contribute to it.

Why should the landing page match your ad?

The landing page must match your ad because visitors check within seconds whether they are in the right place. If the ad promises an e-book about leadership, the page is about that e-book. Not about your company in general and not about all your services.

That is called message match: the same promise, the same words and preferably the same image as in the ad. The better that match, the fewer people leave straight away.

How many landing pages do you need?

In principle you need one landing page per combination of audience, offer and campaign that genuinely differs from the others. An IT manager searching for implementation has different questions from a director searching for digitalisation, even if they end up at the same service. With one page you only half address both. With two pages you speak to each in their own language.

Three rules of thumb help. Every campaign with its own promise gets its own page. Every audience with different problems or objections gets its own page. And every offer, such as a specific event or a specific download, gets its own page instead of an overview where people have to search themselves.

Do not start with dozens. Start with your most important campaign or audience, get that page right and expand as you see what works. Look at where you currently send campaign traffic. If it lands on your homepage or a general page, that is where the first gain lies.

How do you keep many landing pages manageable?

You keep many landing pages manageable with templates, clear names and fixed moments to clean up. With a set of building blocks in your CMS, your marketing team puts together a new page without a developer, and everything stays within the brand style. How to set that up, you can read in our article on managing your own website.

Give pages a URL that says what they are for, keep track of which page belongs to which campaign and clean up pages from finished campaigns with a redirect to a relevant place. For a bigger launch with several pages, a campaign website is sometimes more logical.

Why are speed and mobile extra important on a landing page?

Speed and mobile are extra important on a landing page because visitors from an ad have no bond with you yet and little patience. If the page loads slowly, they are gone before they have seen anything. And because a lot of campaign traffic comes in via social media, a large share of visitors view the page on a phone. The form must be easy to fill in there and the button easy to tap. With performance optimisation we make pages as light as possible.

How do you improve a landing page after launch?

You improve a landing page by measuring, changing one thing and measuring again. Which headline works better, does an extra piece of proof make a difference, is the form too long? Change one element at a time, so you know what caused the effect.

Many landing pages are launched and never looked at again. That is a shame, because a few targeted changes often deliver more than a new campaign. Do make sure you measure conversions properly, otherwise you do not know what works.

When is a landing page not enough?

A landing page is not enough when your product needs more explanation than fits on one page, when there is no traffic yet to send to the page, or when the offer itself does not convince. In those cases you first need a stronger foundation: more content, a different channel or a sharper offer.

Want landing pages that match your campaigns and that your team can expand themselves? On our page about landing pages you can read how we build them, and on the page about marketing websites how they work together with the rest of your site.