2008 Forecast: The Year of Landing Pages

If 2007 was the year that testing and targeting grew from a baby into a toddler, 2008 will be the year that this kid starts to walk. And like so much of leading edge digital marketing practices those first steps will take place in search, namely landing pages.

Most industry experts agree that fewer than 10% of Google’s 5000 largest advertisers are doing any form of advanced testing or content targeting. I expect this number to at least double in the next year and likely be at 50% by 2010. Why will there be such amazing growth in landing page optimization (LPO)?

Few Companies, Fewer Agencies are Doing LPO
As mentioned, less than 10% of Google’s 5000 largest advertisers are doing landing page optimization (LPO). For some reason both SEM and Traditional Digital Agencies have yet to embrace landing page testing and targeting as part of their tool set but competitive pressures will force their hand in 2008.

Soon, LPO Will Not Be Optional
Digital advertising inventory is limited yet spending on search and display advertising is expected by Forrester Research to double by 2010. The effect will be rising digital media costs and assurance that website and landing page conversion optimization will be the critical part of successful marketing spend.

LPO Technology Will Continue to Grow Quickly
According to eMarketer 56% plan to invest in the technology in the near future. 2007 saw the acquisition of the two largest optimization companies (Offermatica by Omniture and Optimost by Interwoven) VC money entering the market and Google’s Website Optimizer gain momentum. Without a doubt market penetration for optimization technology is expected to increase significantly in the next few years.

Landing Pages are the :30 Commercial of the Digital Age
In addition to measurable ROI performance landing pages have a growing importance as a the high impact advertising experience of the future where most consumers will connect with the messages and positioning of brands and businesses.

Optimizing Video is the Next Frontier
As more advertising dollars roll into video there will be a large opportunity both the publisher and advertiser side to optimize the presentation and delivery of ads and the video itself in order to maximize CPM, ROI and most importantly the emerging video engagement metrics such as interactions and time spent.

All this and I haven’t really taken into account publishers who will need to get onboard with LPO in 2008 as their business continues to be driven by search traffic and that extra click can make or break their results. Also there is huge market potential for advanced landing applications that use widgets and APIs creating highly dynamic and targeted mashups. I also have my ear to Silicon valley where there is a growing buzz on the importance of landing pages in Social Media.

Of course when every page is a landing page the market potential is unlimited. It should be an exciting year.