How Smartsheet Uses Segmented Search Ads & Post-Click Experiences to Increase Customers

The primary reason 96% of ad clicks don’t convert is that digital advertisers fail to connect their PPC ads to relevant post-click landing pages. That means the post-click stage doesn’t tell the same message and story that the ad began in the pre-click stage. Being consistent throughout both stages is the best way to get more conversions from your ad clicks.

One company that understands this connection is Smartsheet. With this extremely effective advertising technique, the platform is now used by over 80,000 brands (including over 75% of the Fortune 500) and millions of individuals.

See for yourself how the Smartsheet post-click landing page is consistent and relevant to the company’s pre-click experience in the following examples.

How Smartsheet uses segmented ads & relevant post-click landing pages

Project management software

Either one of these Google ads might show for someone at the top of the funnel exploring their different project management options, depending on their search query:

Both Smartsheet ads are closely related to their particular search queries, as each headline includes a portion of the search term: “project management.”

The description copy in each ad also lets prospects know they can find what they’re looking for because the first one contains the exact search phrase “project management software” and the second uses the word “collaboration.”

Clicking either Smartsheet ad headline takes users to this page below — the post-click stage of the customer journey:

Analyzing the post-click landing page

When users land here, they know they’re in the right place and this page is connected to the ad they clicked. It continues the relevancy from the pre-click stage and tells the brand’s story as it relates to project management software:

• What the offer is for — The headline reassures visitors they can find project management software on this page. It also immediately explains the unique value proposition (UVP) to communicate the results customers can achieve by using Smartsheet — increased productivity.

The subheadline expands upon the offer by expressing that Smartsheet is an “easy-to-use work execution platform” to aid in both “project management and collaboration” (message matches the keyword phrases).

• Why Smartsheet project management is a great option — This part of the story is told throughout multiple parts of the page, starting with iconography, bold copy (easy, flexible, collaborative), and brief descriptions immediately beneath the fold.

Next is a short video that introduces Smartsheet, explains how the software works and makes the offer more engaging and easy to comprehend.

Then, more benefits of the software (pre-built templates) are highlighted with iconography and very brief descriptions.

What is interesting about this page is that while the UVP is delivered in the headline, it’s continued throughout the rest of the content as well. There’s even a comparison chart to Microsoft Project and Basecamp to explain how Smartsheet distinguishes itself from the competition.

• Who else is connected to Smartsheet — The next chapter of the story talks about who else can relate to Smartsheet in various ways — again, told throughout the entire page. It begins at the top showing visitors that the software has 3 million users, including 70,000 organizations, across 190 countries.

Directly above the video is more social proof — a statistic showing that 96% of customers recommend Smartsheet to their colleagues, as well as customer testimonials from Cisco and Behr.

This part of the story also tells which popular apps and providers integrate with Smartsheet for project management, like G Suite, Dropbox, and Salesforce.

Lastly, two more customer testimonials — one from Brad Martin at Extreme Networks, and one from Jodi Hadsell at SAP — both serve as more evidence that Smartsheet has helped many other businesses.

• How to take action — Finally, prospects can redeem the offer by entering their work email address and clicking any of the four green CTA buttons, all of which take prospects to this signup page:

Here, they can complete the process and start using the project management software.

Now, compare that story to the company’s homepage.

The Smartsheet homepage tells a different story

Searching for the company name alone provides people with a very different experience because while four other companies advertise on their names, Smartsheet doesn’t.

There’s no longer a paid ad shown, but rather, just the brand’s homepage listed at the top of the organic search results list:

Clicking the organic link goes to the Smartsheet homepage, rather than a personalized 1:1 post-click page, and tells a much different story from top to bottom:

Instead of focusing on a single product offering, all visitors see the same page designed solely for a browsing experience. This is evident because it includes:

• Full-sized header navigation with dropdown menus
• A customer login option
• The ability to customize the website based on user location
• Many contrasting CTA buttons to other website pages throughout the content
• Social media links
• A footer with even more links to other website pages, like the investment team, careers page, help center, and more.

The post-click pages above don’t have these elements because they are specifically targeted for a distinct keyword query. The person’s search intent varied from the service provided versus researching the company name.

Deliver unique post-click landing pages for each ad like Smartsheet

As a digital advertiser, you know you must segment your audiences to constantly deliver the most relevant, personalized ads. It’s equally as important to provide matching, unique post-click landing pages to those segmented audiences to make the customer journey flow smoothly and avoid any gaps.

Use inspiration from Smartsheet and start segmenting your ads and providing dedicated pages for each target audience. See how Instapage can help you do just that — and learn why customers see 4x the average conversion rates — with an Instapage Personalization Demo.