Getting the Most Out of PPC Landing Page Tests: Coastal Insurance Solutions [Case Study]

Coastal Insurance Solutions is a company that specializes in homeowners and flood insurance on Long Island and in New York State.  SiteTuners redesigned their pay-per-click landing page to increase conversions and lower PPC costs.

The PPC funnel lift was validated through a series of split tests.

We conducted a Diagnostic Audit of Coastal Insurance Solutions’s landing pages. We identified design and usability problems on their mission-critical pages and recommended fixes and improvements to address conversion issues and capture quick wins.

Based on SiteTuners’s recommendations, Coastal Insurance Solutions changed their PPC landing page and ran an A/B test against the original. The new version that incorporated SiteTuners’s proposed changes resulted in a 78.5% increase in conversions and also lowered the cost per acquisition.

To make sure that Coastal Insurance Solutions was going to test a truly conversion-optimized landing page, SiteTuners employed the following steps in the Tactical Redesign process:

1. Fix obvious problems first
2. Ensure mobile usability
3. Scale testing wins

Fine-Tuning Coastal Insurance Solutions’s Lead Generation Pages

SiteTuners guided Coastal Insurance Solutions through the entire of the PPC landing page “facelift” process. The company created the optimized version of the landing page based on SiteTuners’s recommendations and then ran an A/B test to compare the performance of the original to the improved variation.

Prior to the facelift, Coastal Insurance Solutions’s PPC landing page converted at a rate of 11.54%. Most of their visitors were from New York and accessed their landing page from mobile devices.

Below are the original and optimized versions of Coastal Insurance Solutions’s PPC landing page:

Coastal Insurance Original versus New Landing Page

Coastal Insurance Solutions sends their paid traffic to the landing page above.

Once visitors click on the “Get A Quote Now” button, the next step is for them to fill out and submit the form:

Coastal Insurance Original vs New Form

Increased PPC conversions for Coastal Insurance Solutions meant that the landing page must be trustworthy and persuasive enough for visitors to want to get a quote and complete the form.

To achieve this, SiteTuners helped Coastal Insurance Solutions implement the Tactical Redesign process which followed these steps:

1. Fix Obvious Problems First

Readability

People generally don’t read on the web – they scan the pages for vital information.

This was a big issue on the original PPC landing page with its big chunks of text and tiny font sizes.

SiteTuners recommended reformatting text blocks into bullet points and increasing the font size to improve readability and support web users’ scanning behavior. We also suggested that the content be rearranged based on which information is most important to visitors in their decision to convert.

Value Proposition

A strong value proposition is important in persuading visitors to take the desired conversion action. The value proposition lets visitors know what’s in it for them.

Coastal Insurance Solutions’s original page was missing this element, which meant they missed the opportunity to communicate to visitors the value of the offer.

As seen in the new landing page, SiteTuners recommended the inclusion of a sub-headline and bullet points which succinctly conveyed to visitors what action was expected of them and what they would get in return.

Consistency

A landing page must be consistent in its look, branding, and messaging in order to build visitor confidence. The original landing page was sorely lacking in consistency with its multitude of fonts, misaligned elements, and unorganized images.

To achieve consistency, SiteTuners recommended the use of fewer font types and more uniform images. We also suggested the proper alignment of header elements as well as moving the phone number to the far right, based on web design conventions.

Form Experience

The form is a critical tool in lead generation pages. To users, however, the form is a hurdle that stands in the way of them getting what they want from your site. Hence, users must perceive a form to be as easy and effortless as possible to encourage them to complete the form.

Coastal Insurance Solutions’s original form looked like it would take forever to complete:

• The vertically-placed radio buttons made the form look longer than it really was.
• The organization of the form field questions, which prioritized information on the prospect’s property, also prevented the early capture of contact information that was most useful to the company.

Here, SiteTuners recommended breaking up the long form into a 2-step form to make it appear less intimidating. We also suggested the inclusion of a short introductory text that explained what the form was asking to set visitor expectations.

Last, we changed the organization of form questions so that it asked for visitors’ personal and contact details first before delving into questions about their property.

2. Ensure Mobile Usability

Mobile usability and user experience have become vital to the success of a company’s online presence as more and more visitors access websites from mobile devices.

The majority of online visitors to this site came from mobile devices. The highest conversion is seen on iPhones. It was imperative to pay attention to how even small changes to the landing page affected the mobile experience.

One of the first things that SiteTuners checked during the Diagnostic Audit was how the PPC landing page appeared on mobile. We recommended making the company’s phone number bigger since it was almost unreadable on mobile devices.

3. Replicate Testing Wins

Aside from quick wins, a major benefit of testing is that it provides valuable insights into what works on the landing page conversion-wise. This helps companies easily scale their testing wins to other pages or even other areas of their digital marketing.

In Coastal Insurance Solutions’s case, for instance, the conversion-optimized design of their winning landing page was adapted to other landing pages that had relatively similar goals. The design of the winning version also served as the framework for creation of localized, more relevant versions of the PPC landing page.

Below is the localized version of the PPC landing page, which is a spinoff of the test winner:

Coastal General Mobile PPC Landing Page and Localized Mobile PPC Landing Page

Testing Results

The results of our test showed that the optimized version of Coastal Insurance Solutions’ PPC landing page increased conversions by 78.5%. It also decreased cost per conversion by 29.67%.

About Coastal Insurance Solutions

Coastal Insurance Solutions was founded in 2001 by David W. Clausen.  After working in his family’s insurance agency, which opened in 1979, it became clear that there was a need for someone to specialize in Coastal Insurance on Long Island.

Mr. Clausen’s challenge was to seek out insurance companies which would offer well-priced, coverage-rich insurance products for homes located on Long Island.  The insurance carrier’s lack of appetite for coastal risks coupled with his client’s needs set the stage for Mr. Clausen to develop an agency that specialized in coastal insurance products.

And so in 2001, Coastal Insurance Solutions was founded around its core values of family, honesty, integrity, trust, and respect.

About SiteTuners

SiteTuners is a strategic conversion rate optimization agency that has worked with more than 1300 companies worldwide since 2002. Our clients include well-known brands like Google, Sears, Yahoo, Nestle, and Expedia.

We work with companies of all sizes to grow their online business and dramatically improve their internal optimization capabilities. We provide services for high-converting website redesigns, landing page testing, and ongoing conversion management support.

Our team of conversion experts have many years of experience in usability, web design, and testing methodologies. SiteTuners’s CEO Tim Ash wrote the bestselling book on Landing Page Optimization and is a recognized industry authority. He also founded the international Conversion Conference, now known as the Digital Growth Unleashed conference series.