We live in a world where consumers want everything here and now, with minimal delays, and no issues… the online space is no exception.
Most consumers expect a fast mobile experience. Whether it’s booking a hotel, looking for a restaurant, enquiring about a specific product or searching for the cheapest flight, the key to creating mobile-first experiences has been repeatedly emphasised over the last couple years as we have seen mobile device usage take off.
It is no secret that faster and simpler landing pages can lead to more conversions and better user engagement.
Think with Google recently completed a study to understand the correlation between page load speed and bounce rate (see table below). They found that as page loading time increases from 1 to 7 seconds, the probability of the mobile site’s users bouncing increases by 113%.
Yes, that’s right… 1 to 7 seconds is all it takes to have someone instantly bounce off your site.
Regardless of how ‘good’ your site looks or how much you pump into marketing to drive traffic to your site. If the time to load your page is slow, you will lose customers. It’s that simple.
Image: Chart shows benchmarks for when users typically bounce from a website
Faster is better
So, we can confidently say that faster is in fact better. It is crucial that businesses can differentiate themselves from competitors and provide customers with a seamless, fast mobile experience. This is where Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) can help.
The open-source AMP project launched 18 months ago to help make the web faster and better for everyone. In May this year, it was announced at the Google Ads, Analytics and DoubleClick Announcements Keynote, that there is now the ability to use these fast-loading AMP landing pages for Search Ads. This is an exciting opportunity for advertisers to provide a seamless, ultra-fast mobile experience which will be rolling out to all AdWords advertisers globally this week.
So, what exactly is AMP?
AMP stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages, which is a Google-backed project designed to improve web speed and performance on mobile devices. AMP pages are incredibly fast and in most cases, appear to load instantly.
To put it simply, AMP is a stripped-down version of the mobile web which runs on a reinvented version of the language that is used to create web pages; HTML. This re-engineered version of HTML, known as AMP HTML, removes the majority of the elements which typically cause web pages to load slower on mobile platforms (such as embedded JavaScript elements and third-party scripts)
What does AMP mean for your mobile landing pages and Search Ads
AMP landing pages help build compelling user experiences through instant loading, smooth scrolling and providing flexible styling and branding to ensure you can maintain your core website elements. By directing your Search Ads to AMP landing pages, you can create super-fast and enjoyable mobile experiences that customers will expect and ultimately drive better results.
Interested to see how this looks for the end user? Watch the demo.
It’s no surprise that AMP has already been so widely adopted, as more than 2 billion AMP pages have been published from 900,000 domains [1]. So, the time is now for businesses to jump on board and embrace AMP to ensure they meet the needs of today’s customers. Delivering the speed and performance of AMP to advertising will help businesses deliver more effective campaigns that will ultimately keep up with the continuous growth and complexity of consumer expectations.
Interested in getting your mobile landing pages ready?
We thought as much! If your current agency is not talking to you about site speed and why it’s so important for improving conversions and lowering your bounce rate, then get in touch. One of our Digital Marketing Consultants will be happy to come and chat to you about your options, provide analysis on your current landing pages and give you recommendations for how we can improve your campaigns.
References:
1 – https://adwords.googleblog.com/2017/05/bringing-speed-of-amp-to-search-display.html