Landing page revisions boosted conversions by 150%!

Following Part 1, we spoke with Kosuke Takeshita from Dentsu Digital Inc. Marketing Center's Web Integration Department and Yohei Harada from Nextedge Dentsu Inc.'s Production Direction Group about the creative and operational aspects of direct response advertising.

*Nextedge Dentsu Inc. became "Dentsu Digital Inc." effective July 1, 2016.

Conversion rate increased by 150% through target audience reevaluation

──In Part 1, we discussed how focusing solely on efficiency in direct response advertising can lead to overly narrow targeting. Conversely, are there examples where finding new customer targets led to success?

Harada: We have an example involving a landing page designed to acquire new sign-ups. The client offered web-related services and faced the challenge that as their service became more widespread, acquiring new customers became increasingly difficult. Users with high intent to use the service had already become customers, and the existing target audience had reached its limit. We proposed broadening the landing page's target audience and revising its content.

The previous landing page targeted users with a high level of service understanding, so it focused on detailed specification explanations and content using specialized terminology, creating a high barrier for users with less understanding. We reorganized the content and changed it to use plain language that even beginners could understand. This resulted in a 150% increase in conversions. Applications started increasing from users who had previously been out of reach.

──What defines communication in direct response advertising?

Takeshita: To move users emotionally and make them think "I want to buy this," you must consider who you're speaking to and how to get their response when creating copy and banners. If you operate with a mindset of speed, mass production, and mass consumption just because it's a small banner, you tend to get caught up chasing short-term results.

Direct response advertising connects you with users who think, "This is exactly the product/service I've been waiting for."

In cases where good results were achieved, it's often because the entire team, including the client, reached a consensus and had a clear goal. It's crucial to look at the entire series of measures, not just judge based on momentary metrics like click-through rates, but see if those clicks led to the final conversion. To do this, we need people who can step back and make judgments from a bird's-eye view, not just focus on the immediate numbers.

A common pitfall is when each person starts optimizing only their own immediate area. For example, there are banners that get clicked easily. Sexy images or shocking visuals attract clicks, but if the content they lead to doesn't meet those expectations (laugh), the bounce rate will be high, and users won't fall for it a second time. It's not just about boosting numbers; sincere communication is essential.

The Misfortune of the Internet Flooded with Negative Approaches

──Could you discuss the challenges in direct response advertising creative?

Takeshita: In direct response, you need to trigger psychological change, and there are fairly established elements and techniques to achieve that. One such technique is called the negative approach—expressions that tap into insecurities, like "Can you go to the beach with that body?" The flow is to startle them with a banner, then show them the solution (the product) on the landing page. This pattern existed even before digital marketing.

In traditional direct response marketing, even if the ad entry point was negative, the solution was presented immediately afterward. This ensured the overall ad communication concluded on a positive note.

However, in digital marketing, after conveying something negative via the banner, the solution is only accessible after clicking. This creates a disconnect between the negative and positive elements. The negative expression alone ends up scattered in highly visible places. While a trend toward "avoiding excessive expressions" is emerging within the industry, the reality is that expressions that trigger insecurities often yield high click-through rates and subsequent conversion rates, making it difficult to break away from this approach.

However, for the majority of users who don't click, it leads to negative perceptions like "I don't want to see such expressions" or "I dislike companies that run ads like this." It also damages trust in the internet and digital marketing as a whole. Building a brand through small banners is extremely difficult, but it's easy to become disliked through excessive expressions.

What can be achieved by merging content marketing and direct response advertising

──What direction do you think direct response advertising should take going forward?

Harada: Direct response advertising requires continuous PDCA cycles with clear objectives. Recently, ads that aren't immediately recognizable as such—like feed-style ads—have become widespread. If a user clicks expecting an article only to find a pure product promotion, they feel deceived and ultimately leave. Whether it's direct response or feed-style advertising, we must consider both user sentiment and the brand's communication approach.

Feed-based ads share similarities with content marketing, which is often perceived separately from advertising. It's about the lead generation approach: providing valuable content to potential users as a brand, gradually increasing their interest in your products, and ultimately converting them into customers. Such strategies require designing a fusion of branding and direct response advertising. At Nextedge Dentsu Inc., members specializing in direct response and those specializing in content planning work together on the same team to provide services, enabling us to offer unique solutions.

Takeshita: Before digital marketing, direct response was something you "deliberately" chose to do. Due to distribution channel or business scale constraints, companies would deliberately adopt methods like taking orders by phone or postcard and delivering them, without having physical stores. Back then, touchpoints were limited—flyers, catalogs sent to purchasers, direct mail, phone calls—so it was relatively easy to fit into a framework, and there were proven success patterns.

Digital marketing, however, is direct response itself. It has become so commonplace that branding has been left behind, creating a reversal of the traditional flow. Yet the era where digital marketing could win based solely on tactics and techniques is over. We're now in an era where success requires considering both direct response and branding. We need to think about "marketing" in its essential meaning.

In digital marketing, the explosive growth of possibilities driven by technological evolution tends to focus attention on tools and techniques. However, tools should not be the goal. To deliver experiences that users find "fun" and "love," and to become a brand users choose, we must consider what to use and how to use it.

Previously, only banners and landing pages were considered creative. Now, every touchpoint with the user—including timing and location—falls within the creative solution domain.

Going forward, the ability to design 'digital marketing' in a much broader sense will be required. And it is precisely because Dentsu Inc. possesses marketing and communication expertise cultivated over its long history that it can deliver essential value even in this rapidly changing era.

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Nextedge Dentsu Inc. will merge into 'Dentsu Digital Inc.' starting July 2016.

Focusing primarily on performance marketing and digital advertising operations—key services provided by Dentsu Digital Inc.—we will continue to work diligently, grounded in delivering "results" for our client companies and contributing to their "growth." We look forward to your continued support.