Sweat Pants with Neckties?

(A.K.A., If You’re Doing This, Your Advertising Strategy Needs Serious Help!)

I have a buddy who swears that in the late 80s I used to wear sweat pants with a dress shirt and tie. I didn’t, but he’s convinced I did.

Let’s put aside the fact that I only had one pair of sweats and the ONLY time I wore them was with sneakers when playing ball. What I DID have, though, was several pairs of “Hammer Pants” (also known as harem pants) and I DID sometimes wear them with dress shoes, a skinny tie, and a matching “Hammer” coat. I also wore them the way people wear “lounge pants” today, usually with an oversized t-shirt and espadrilles, and then sometimes less casual (but not formal) like the picture below, left. I’m sure to a lot of people, they just looked like weird sweat pants, hence the distorted memory of my friend.

Now sweat pants with a tie, that would be easily recognized as an odd and confusing combination, even for the most fashion-challenged among us. You’d wonder, “What kind of person does that? That’s just weird.” And then you’d probably just keep your distance.

This same idea also applies in the world of advertising. There is a well-known axiom concerning the consistency that exists between an ad and the landing page it is linked to. This is known as “conversion coupling” (CC), a term coined in 2009 by Oli Gardner, co-founder of Unbounce, the world’s leading landing page platform.

Unbounce defines CC as “the bond that exists between the pre-click experience and the corresponding post-click landing experience. … Your ad message and design should match the feel of your landing page; the closer they’re coupled, the stronger the scent.”

I love the simple way lead generation expert Matthew Hunt sums up the idea: “A confused mind never buys.”

In other words, if an ad is sweat pants and the landing page is a shirt and tie (or vice versa), you’d be confused. You’d think they clearly don’t go together. And you’d probably just keep your digital distance. A confused mind never buys.

Conversion coupling has two critical components:

1. Message Match—All the keywords and key phrases, as well as the overall message, of the ad creative, should match the keywords, key phrases, and overall message of the landing page and vice versa.
2. Design Duplication—The colors, images, fonts, and design elements should be re-used from one to the other, ensuring the look, feel and sentiment is the same in order to enable a seamless transition between clicking the ad and completing a conversion.

But don’t just take my word for it.

Natalie Russo, paid search strategist with Tinuiti (a truly massive performance marketing firm) compares it (as I do) to visual branding, stating “the landing page on the other end shouldn’t overwhelm the user with unexpectedly different or off-putting visuals. Instead, the visuals on your landing page should mirror the ad creative.”

Raphael Paulin-Daigle from Splitbase says “such mismatches inevitably results in high bounce rates, wasted clicks (don’t forget you’re paying for your ad clicks), high costs of customer acquisition, and of course, a low conversion rate. In other words, you’re throwing your money out of the window for nothing.”

Holly Winn from Performance Marketing Agency KlientBoost says, “The expectations set by the ad is what drives viewers to click, so you want to follow through with providing that offer or content which was advertised. Otherwise, prospects could quickly lose trust in the credibility of your brand. … Does it really matter to keep this consistency? People can subconsciously feel something is ‘off’ without knowing why. These subtleties can make a difference in comfort level of visitors and building their trust in the information we provide.”

And George LaRochelle from Carnegie (a higher education marketing firm) says, “There was a reason why they clicked on the ad with that specific copy in the first place. You already have a completed micro conversion—why would you want to stop there? Keep the momentum with a consistent message. Reinforce your message and help your visitors get what they want.”

That just makes sense, right?

I had a friend from my days in youth ministry who used to say “What you win kids with is what you’ll keep them with.” In other words, if you need certain bells or whistles to get them in the door, you’ll usually need those same bells and whistles to make them stick around.

The ad is how you attract customers to your offer, and the landing page is how you keep and convert them. Make sure they go well together through Message Match and Design Duplication.

And please: no sweat pants with dress shirts and ties. Ever.