Custom pages for competitor PPC campaigns: +47% conversion rate
Test run byKlientBoostCRO agency
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsCustom landing pages for competitor search campaigns, launched with rebuilt AdWords campaigns, came with a reported 47% rise in conversion rate for LemonStand.
KlientBoost ran this engagement for the ecommerce platform software company and published it as a PDF case study.
Ads, remarketing, tracking and pages changed together, so the page's own share of the lift is unknown.
- Conversion rate: +47%, reported for the whole engagement.
- Click-through rate: +259%, which reflects ad changes rather than the page.
- Average ad position: improved 73%.
- No sample size, duration or significance was shared. LemonStand's founder described the work as early, with more to do.
Control
LemonStand had stopped its PPC because the numbers were not profitable. There were no dedicated pages for searchers looking at rival platforms.
Variant
KlientBoost built landing pages for competitor-term campaigns, aimed at people searching for other platforms. It also rebuilt the AdWords campaigns, added remarketing and set up analytics tracking.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- Competitor searchers arrive comparing options. A page that speaks to that comparison fits their intent better than a generic home page.
- Better ads and remarketing likely sent warmer visitors, which raises conversion rate on its own.
- The modest lift compared with other KlientBoost studies fits how hard competitor traffic is to convert.
Caveats: Agency-reported before/after result for a whole paid-media engagement, not a split test. Ads, keywords, targeting and landing pages all changed together, and no sample size, test duration or significance was shared.
Who ran it
KlientBoost ran this test for ecommerce platform software and published the results (KlientBoost case study (PDF)). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on KlientBoost →
How to run this test on your site
- Hypothesis
- If we send competitor-keyword traffic to a page that addresses why buyers switch from that competitor, then conversion rate will rise because the page answers the comparison the searcher is already making.
- Primary metric
- Trial or demo sign-up rate from competitor-keyword clicks
- Guardrails
- Cost per sign-up
- Trial-to-paid rate for competitor-sourced sign-ups
- Who should test it
- SaaS companies bidding on rival brand terms. It probably won't move much if competitor terms are a tiny share of your paid traffic.
Questions
Should competitor PPC campaigns have their own landing pages?
Usually yes. People searching a rival's name are comparing, so a page that explains the differences and the switching path fits them better than a general home page.
Can I credit a PPC lift to the landing page alone?
Not when the ads, keywords and targeting changed at the same time.
To isolate the page, send the same paid traffic to the old and new page in a split test.