  We develop and discuss in technical detail an infrared-finite factorization
and optimized renormalization scheme for calculating exclusive processes, which
enables the inclusion of transverse degrees of freedom without entailing
suppression of calculated observables, like form factors. This is achieved by
employing an analytic, i.e., infrared stable, running strong coupling $\alpha
_{\rm s}(Q^{2})$ which removes the Landau singularity at $Q^{2}=\Lambda_{\rm
QCD}^{2}$ by a minimum power-behaved correction. The ensuing contributions to
the cusp anomalous dimension - related to the Sudakov form factor - and to the
quark anomalous dimension - which controls evolution - lead to an enhancement
at high $Q^{2}$ of the hard part of exclusive amplitudes, calculated in
perturbative QCD, while simultaneously improving its scaling behavior. The
phenomenological implications of this framework are analyzed by applying it to
the pion's electromagnetic form factor, including the NLO contribution to the
hard-scattering amplitude, and also to the pion-photon transition at LO. For
the pion wave function, an improved ansatz of the Brodsky-Huang-Lepage type is
employed, which includes an effective (constituent-like) quark mass, $m_{\rm
q}=0.33$ GeV. Predictions for both form factors are presented and compared to
the experimental data, applying Brodsky-Lepage-Mackenzie commensurate scale
setting. We find that the perturbative hart part prevails at momentum transfers
above about 20 GeV ${}^{2}$, while at lower $Q^{2}$-values the pion form factor
is dominated by Feynman-type contributions. The theoretical prediction for the
$\gamma ^{*}\gamma \to \pi ^{0}$ form factor indicates that the true pion
distribution amplitude may be somewhat broader than the asymptotic one.
