How to Use Google AdWords’ “Optimize” Feature To Create Custom Landing Pages – Info Advertisement

Creating unique landing pages for Google Ads campaigns is a must.

Want cheaper ads and better results? That starts with improving your quality score. 

And landing page experience is one-third of the quality score pie.

You need good landing pages that are specific and keyword targeted to succeed. But therein lies the problem:

Creating tons of unique landing pages is difficult and takes tons of time and even money if you can’t create them yourself.

Even having just five campaigns with multiple ad groups means dozens of landing pages from scratch.

Thankfully, Google Optimize is now linked to Google Ads.

Here is how to use Optimize to create custom landing pages for your next campaign.

What is Google Optimize?

When was the last time you searched for a product or service using Google?

Sometime in the last few days? Most likely, if not just a few minutes ago.

When searching, did you find what you were looking for with ease? Was it clear, concise, and accurate to your search?

You might have even had to search multiple landing pages to find what you wanted.

Although landing page strategies have been around for years, many landing pages on Google Ads still aren’t unique to the search.

They might not even contain the keyword being searched.

And that’s bad for business.

According to Google, one of the three major quality score components is “landing page experience.”

What does that mean?

Essentially, it’s a measure or ranking of how relevant and useful your landing page was to the user who clicked via search ads.

Google says:

The landing page experience status describes whether your landing page is likely to provide a good experience to customers who click your ad and land on your website.”

But that’s not all they said.

Here are the meat and potatoes:

Landing pages with higher ratings are usually well organized and have text that relates to a person’s search terms.”

Text that relates to the person’s search terms.

Want better landing pages? They need to be both well organized (user-friendly) and contain relevant text regarding the search.

If someone Google searches for Facebook Ad Scheduling Tools, your landing page should contain that search term or LSI keywords for it.

It shouldn’t be your homepage, and it can’t contain generic social publishing information.

The search was Facebook-specific. The searcher knew what they wanted, and it’s your job to deliver it.

And that’s where Google Optimize comes into play.

Google Optimize is a free service that you can connect to your Google Ads account that allows you to test variations of your landing page by editing it through Optimize.

Instead of creating more landing pages on your content management system, you can use Optimize to produce similar variations with different copy and images to reflect new or different campaigns.

For example, if you currently have a landing page for your SEO Tool campaign, but want to launch a Social Tool campaign, you could use Optimize to duplicate and edit your landing page, editing copy and images on the fly for quick landing page creation.

Pretty cool, huh?

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With Google Optimize, you can:

• Create variants of any page on your website, including homepages
• Deliver custom messaging at points of decision, like the cart or checkout screens
• Run A/B or multi-variation tests where Google will choose the top performer for your customers
• Connect to Google Analytics for better targeting and reporting

The great thing about Google Optimize is that it’s great for non-technical users.

If you don’t have tons of experience creating dynamic landing pages or editing content, you can still use this platform to make changes without worrying about damaging your site.

On top of that, it’s fast.

You don’t need to go back and forth with a web developer to get your landing pages live.

Using Google Optimize, Spotify was able to increase their landing page conversion rate by 24%. Simply editing their text using the Optimize editor, they created personalized pages that spoke to users:

Here’s how to link Optimize to your Google Ads account to get started in just a few minutes.

How to Link Google Optimize to Your Google Ads Account

To get started with Optimize, head to Google Optimize and create your free account by clicking “Sign Up For Free.”

Next, click “Get Started” and accept the terms and conditions.

Once you’ve done this, your new account should be live and created, directing you to your dashboard:

The next step is linking your Optimize account to Google Analytics first.

On the right-hand side of your Optimize dashboard, you should see a “Link to Google Analytics” section:

Connect your accounts and then head back to your Google Ads dashboard.

From here, locate the linked accounts section:

Scroll to find Google Analytics and click “Details.”

Now, you should see the ability to enable Optimize to work with your Google Ads account.

Turn on Google Optimize sharing to allow the connection:

You still with me?

We are almost done…

Head back to your Optimize dashboard and install Optimize to your website.

This will prompt you to add a code to your website:

This snippet of code is essential for running A/B tests and experiments with Google Optimize.

Once you’ve added the code, linked Optimize to Analytics, and enabled Optimize within Google Ads, it’s time to get down to business.

How to Edit Landing Pages with Optimize

Non-tech users or small businesses without dedicated web developers rejoice, Google Optimize is one of the easiest landing page editing software solutions out there.

And if you are a tech mogul, don’t worry, Google has a high-tech code editing platform too.

If you use Google Optimize, you have three different options for editing your landing page information:

1. WYSIWYG editing (easiest option):

   WYSIWYG, also known as “What you see is what you get,” editors are common on website building platforms and content management systems like WordPress:

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These editors contain tons of elements to help you create amazing landing pages without any coding or ever touching the HTML side.
All you have to do is click elements and edit them. Easy enough, right?
If you have no experience coding or do most of the website work yourself (or simply need fast changes without waiting), this is the option for you.

2. Mobile Web Editor:

   The mobile web editor is a wonderful addition to Optimize that helps you manage landing page experiences specifically for mobile users.
   You can select specific device types to target based on your campaigns and Google will help you create landing pages that fit perfectly on their screens.

3. Sophisticated Code Editing:

   Comfortable with coding? Editing Raw HTML, JavaScript, or CSS? The code editor is your new best friend.

To start using these editing formats, you’ll need to create and run your first test/ experiment.

Here are the current options and a step-by-step tutorial on how to get going!

How to Run Tests Using Optimize

One of the best aspects (performance wise) of using Google Optimize is their testing features.

Other A/B testing tools are often difficult to integrate with Google Ads and can cost a fortune. Let alone paying someone to do the tests for you.

With Google Optimize, you get more than just A/B testing. In fact, you get three different testing types to choose from:

1. A/B or A/B/n testing:

   A/B testing on Optimize allows you to test variations of a given landing page on your website. At the end of the test, Google will start to display the page that produced the best results.
   For example, if variant B generates a higher conversion rate, that page will become your new final URL. A/B/n testing allows you to create dozens of variations of a page where only a single element changes, like CTA text or placement on the page itself.
   Then, Google lets you know the top performer at the end of the test based on your selected metrics.

2. Multivariate testing:

   Unlike A/B testing which only allows you to test one element at a time, like CTA text, multivariate tests enable the testing of two or more page elements.
   For example, you could test both CTA copy and placement at the same time.
   This type of testing is great for making more extensive changes on your page once you’ve found great success with A/B testing.

3. Redirect testing:

   Redirect tests are a different type of testing that allows you to test two separate web pages based on URL strings.
   For instance, if you have two completely different landing pages that you want to test, this is the best route. Maybe you just redesigned a page and wanted to see if it will boost conversions? Redirect tests are perfect for this.
   Google recommends this option for testing “two very different landing pages.”

And now let’s start working.

To start creating an experiment and editing your landing pages using the WYSIWYG editor, design a new experiment from your dashboard:

Next, follow three easy steps:

1. Name your experiment.
2. Enter the URL of the landing page that you want to edit. This will be the base page that you edit from depending on what experiment type you choose. For example, if you select the multivariate test, you will have more editing options due to the experiment type.
3. Select the experiment type that you want to use. 

After entering the three steps above, you can begin to create variants:

Using the WYSIWYG editor, you can literally click, select, and change anything on your landing page in just seconds:

Want to change copy? Click existing text and edit it. Want to change CTA button colors and copy? Do the same.

When editing with the visual editor, you have a few key components to be aware of:

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• App bar:
  the first section shows your app bar, which contains elements like experiment, name, status, settings, and more.
• Editor palette:
  the editor palette is where you can easily and quickly edit the majority of your landing page content. For example, text, dimensions of images or page elements, the location of CTAs, and even changing typography like font, size, and bolding text. Made a mistake? Just hit the revert button.
• Selected content:
  section three of the image shows what it looks like when you highlight or select copy elements on your landing page.

To edit between devices and customize landing pages with the mobile editor, click on the web browser icon and select which device you want to optimize your landing pages for:

Clicking on each will dynamically update your landing page to that device ratio.

Keep in mind, you will have to do some editing occasionally as compressing it can often change elements.

If you want to change landing page elements like the color of your call to action buttons, simply select your CTA button and choose between color choices:

Right-clicking on a given image, element, or portion of your landing page will give you access to the code editing functionality:

If you are familiar with HTML and JavaScript, this is a great way to make changes.

As always, moving images and page elements around is easy. Justy drag and drop images to new locations to test them.

Using the visual WYSIWYG editor, all you have to do is move elements around and edit text.

Once you’ve done that, you can save the variant and start running your test.

You can schedule tests to last a specific length or let them continue until results stack up.

Conclusion

Creating detailed and unique landing pages that speak directly to the customer’s search is key when producing ads on Google.

But we all know that’s easier said than done.

Landing pages take tons of time to create. Not to mention money, too. Having just a few campaigns and ad groups can set you back weeks in landing page creation time.

Thankfully, you don’t have to do it that way anymore.

Instead, link up Google Optimize with your ads, allowing you to edit landing pages on the fly and create new variations that target your keywords without starting from scratch every time.

Run tests using Optimize to continually improve your performance and landing page success.

Don’t waste time on brand new landing pages. Just use Google Optimize to speed up the process.