Unique URL's Will Rock Your Inbound Marketing World

I recently scanned a major trade publication and was surprised to see that virtually all of the ads directed readers to the advertiser’s primary URL (e.g., their home page, like www.acme.com). The missed opportunity associated with this one-page-fits-all practice is significant.

Regardless of whether you are advertising in print or broadcast media, using a URL unique to the ad allows you to:

1. measure the effectiveness of the ad design.
2. A/B test multiple ads and ad locations in the same publication to see which is most effective.
3. assess the effectiveness of the specific offer and/or call-to-action.
4. determine which publication dates or editorial calendar topics receive the most attention.
5. calculate the profitability of advertising with a specific publisher/station.
6. realize dramatically improved conversion rates by addressing the specific needs of a target persona through the use of a unique landing page.
7. gather insights about the buyer persona(s) responding to the ad.

The ease with which unique landing pages can be created today presents a wonderful opportunity to measure ad effectiveness, calculate ROI, maximize conversion rates, and learn about your customers. Given the high cost of ads, you don’t want to negate this potential by directing all prospects to your home page.

Just like utilizing unique phone numbers (which are getting cheaper and easier to acquire all the time), employing customized URLs in your ads can provide enormous insights into what’s working and what’s not. And, frankly, if you’re not doing everything you can to measure the results of your marketing efforts, well, that’s just crazy.

You should consider developing a strategy in which the URLs you create allow you to identify the design, copy/offer, publication, and edition or publication date of each ad. While you might benefit from creative domain names like OurFastPCs.com that help tell your story, you can also use variations of your base domain, like acme.com/nyOffer15. Then make sure you have the analytic tools and discipline to track the results. Whatever you do, just don’t be crazy!

Let us know why you agree or disagree with landing page strategy in the comments section below.