Landing Page or Website With Ads?

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‍What’s The Difference Between A Landing Page And A Website Page?

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Both of them live online, have a unique URL, are built with code (commonly a mixture of HTML and JavaScript with CSS to control the look and feel) and they can be made to look similar by applying your brand styles.

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The key difference is that a landing page is just a single page, that is totally separate from your main website with no navigation menu leading elsewhere. It is typically only accessible by someone with the link. A website page, as the name suggests, exists within your main website, nested somewhere among all the other pages, and can usually be accessed via the navigation menu, or a hyperlink from another page, meaning it can be found by people who don’t have the link.

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Pros and Cons of Landing Pages Vs. Website Pages When Combined With Ads

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Given the obvious similarities, let’s contrast them by comparing pros and cons.

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Landing Pages

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Pros:

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• Lightweight: because they don’t suffer with bloat, they tend to load quickly

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• Message matching: it’s easier to ensure that your destination landing page looks and feels like an extension of the ads that lead people to it

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• Distraction-free: without additional clutter, menus, and linked pages, it’s easier to focus people’s attention on the reason you brought them to your landing page

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• Tracking accuracy: it's easier to track conversions on a landing page because that's the only thing people can do when they are there; on a website, it gets messy - visitor arrives on the page you sent them to, then uses the menu to navigate around the site, clicks on a few contextual hyperlinks, and eventually returns to the original page where they convert (but not until 8 days later having left it open in a browser tab), do you attribute the conversion to the ad or could something else have prompted it? 

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Cons:

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• Limited scope: the flip side of the distraction-free nature of a landing page is that there’s no room for providing additional content to support decision-making

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Website Pages

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Pros:

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• Built-in credibility: surrounded by your other content that shows off your bona fides, such as case studies and reviews

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• Upper funnel engagement: people who aren’t quite ready to convert can explore other services etc.

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Cons:

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• Lower Ad ROAS and ROI: because your website is packed with escape routes, links to follow, and other distractions, conversion rates will typically be lower

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• Slower to load: being part of a bigger and more complex site can reduce page load speeds which is a major source of conversion friction

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When To Choose A Landing Page For Your Ads And When To Use A Website Page

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The deciding factor is your goal, because this then defines the purpose of the page.

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If you’re running digital ads, whether these are on search engines or social media, you should already have a solid idea of what you’re trying to achieve, mapped to the various stages of your customer / supporter journey and the typical three stage marketing funnel. 

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👍 As a quick rule of thumb: choose a landing page where your advertising goal is a conversion action of any kind; use a page on your website for everything else.

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When your focus is on just letting people know who you are and what you do, your website is the best destination for this: think Homepage, About Us, and Service or Product explainers. This is what we call 'top of funnel' content.

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For those people who already know about you, and are doing a deeper dive to satisfy themselves you can be trusted, your website is best for this too because it provides what we call 'credibility scaffolding' - the content that shows-off your bona fides. For this, think: testimonials, FAQ pages, blogs, and case studies in particular. This is your 'middle of funnel' content.

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When you're ready to try and get your aware audience to take action once they're happy they can trust you, it's time to bring out the dedicated landing pages. Free of all other distractions, you want people to focus entirely on the reason they are there, essentally giving them a binary choice: "take this action or leave", it's that simple. At this stage, you no longer want them wandering off and roaming around your website, you want them to either take the specified action or not. Use landing pages for: enquiry forms, gated downloads (like product specifications, pricing guides, detailed explainers etc), product sales, event registrations, and, if you're a charity, support requests and donations.

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A Practical Example Of The Differences

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Take a look at this page on our website and this dedicated landing page which relates to the same service.

We don't use ads to send people to the website version, that's there for those who find it when navigating the site. We use the landing page, hosted on a subdomain, because it's cleaner, has fewer distractions, and has a single focus: getting people to book a discovery call.

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BONUS CONTENT: How To Pair Your Landing Page With Ads When Conversions Are Your Goal

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When you're running top- and middle-of-funnel ad campaigns that send visitors to your website, you can just point them to the relevant section or page on your website and leave them to it (within reason). But when you are using ads to secure conversions on a landing page, it's different. Here's a quick guide to help you:

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Your Ads

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• Keep them succinct: Convey your offer in as few words as possible (without making your ad copy sound glib or like gibberish)
• Use a bold creative: If you're using ads on a platform that permits images and videos, make sure they 'pop' to get attention
• Be direct: Use action-oriented language that tells people exactly what to do ("donate £10 today to help a child in need")
• Set expectations: If you're expecting people to buy, make that clear with the CTA button choice (i.e "Buy Now" not "Learn More")

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Your Landing Page

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• Image match at the top of the page: Feature the image from your ad at the top of the landing page for consistency
• State your offer or 'ask' right away: Running a discount offer or asking for donations? Make it the first thing people read
• Less is more: Keep copy and images to a reasonable minimum, with lots of clean white space; make the page easy to decipher
• Give multiple conversion opportunities: Distribute multiple instances of your 'Buy', 'Enquire', 'Download', or 'Donate' CTA buttons

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Found this blog useful and informative? Know someone else who could benefit from its wisdom? Then share it and show it some love on social media! Want expert, hands-on help building ad campaigns and landing pages? Give us a shout 👉 here.

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