• Pare down the text. Break up the content into bullet points or short paragraphs to make it easy for the user to skim for the most relevant information they need to make a purchasing decision, and place the major selling points at the top.

If the goal is to generate leads:

• Make the form a prominent element on the page, and create a form that is short and simple. Too many form fields and your users will balk (remember that finicky and impatient thing), and don’t put anything shiny around it to distract them.

• Design a page that is attractive and properly branded with your business information. You’re asking the user to provide personal information, and you want to make sure they’re comfortable and secure in the knowledge your business is legitimate.

• Optimize the form. Allow the user to tab to fields. Whatever you do, don’t use a “Reset” button. I don’t know anyone who uses it and it only leads to frustration.

• Include a link to your Privacy Policy. Again, make sure the user feels comfortable with providing personal data.

If the goal is to provide information:

• Make the page nice and clean, with plenty of white space to give the information room to breathe. Squished information is unread information.

• Include images, but don’t go overboard. Make sure they look professional and they’re relevant to the topic at hand.

• Edit, edit, edit. Take out all those superfluous adjectives and flowery prose. They worked in your 9th grade English class, but they won’t work here. Break up the copy into bite-sized chunks, and call out key selling points.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it should certainly get you started. I encourage you to learn more about the subject of good usability; there are lots of good websites and books on the subject and a good user experience can only enforce your brand as relevant and trustworthy.

Testing: A-B-C

One of the nice things about landing pages is the opportunity you have to test for effectiveness. You can create separate campaigns with different landing pages and see what works best with your audience (this is called “A/B testing”). What if you had a form with three fields instead of four? What if your product page offered more photos instead of less? What happens if you rearrange the key selling points? What if you put “Free Beer!” in the copy? (Um, don’t try that last one unless you’re willing to deliver.)

You won’t necessarily see dramatic results overnight (and if you do, we’d like to hire you). Creating effective landing pages as part of a successful PPC campaign is truly an art form, and creating art takes patience. Be prepared to monitor the results and tweak, tweak, tweak. Every audience is different, and what works for one may not work for another. Once you find that sweet spot, you’ll be rewarded with conversion rates that will make you glad you invested the time.

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