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Your marketing campaign is only as successful as your landing page is. While many may deter you with countless metrics to track, there is only one that needs your complete attention.
And that is the landing page conversion rate.
However, improving this metric is not the easiest job in the world. If it was, there wouldn’t be any bad landing pages and marketers would be the richest people on earth.
If you’d rather make the latter a possibility, stick around because we’ll be sharing 23 tried and tested strategies for improving landing page conversion rates.
Here’s a quick look at what we’ll be covering in this article:
The landing page conversion rate measures the number of people who complete a call to action on your website’s landing page as opposed to the total number of visitors.
This call to action can be anything you want it to be – a purchase, newsletter sign-up, or an eBook download.
A high conversion rate suggests that your landing page is successful in persuading visitors to perform a desired action. On the other hand, a lower rate signals issues in your landing page message and design.
But how does one calculate landing page conversion rates? Let’s find out.
The landing page conversion rate can be calculated using the below formula:
Landing page conversion rate = (Total number of conversions / Total number of visitors) * 100%
This metric can be calculated for different time periods depending on when performance is reported in your company, say on a monthly or quarterly basis.
Fortunately, you don’t need to do the actual math the next time you need to monitor this metric – your website analytics tool should do this automatically.
Calculating just the conversion rate of your landing page isn’t enough; you need to compare it to industry benchmarks to conclude whether you’re on the right path or need to correct your way.
A good landing page conversion rate is between 21% and 50%. This is what the majority of the 50+ marketers we surveyed reported.
Now, before you start rushing to optimize landing pages for conversions, just know that a good conversion rate is subjective. It depends on numerous factors, some of which are seasonality, target audience, and competitive landscape.
Perhaps, the most important determinant here is the industry your company belongs to. E-commerce companies often have better conversion rates because the purchasing process is straightforward, and most visitors are ready to buy.
Contrarily, real estate websites usually experience a lower landing page conversion rate because of how high the value of the transaction is.
Your best bet is to monitor the average landing page conversion rate of your industry and then strive for a better one. For this, there is no better place than Databox Benchmark Groups, which provides exclusive access to crucial metrics of companies similar to yours.
If your landing page conversion rate is far below the industry standard, it’s time to return to the drawing board. But before you start optimizing a landing page for conversions, you need to understand the source of the problem.
If your landing page is not converting enough, it’s probably because of:
If you’re a digital marketer, you know the drill.
If you’re like most marketing teams, you’re doing this multiple times on multiple pages and offers. So how can you assess your landing page engagement as a whole? By looking at Google Analytics 4 metrics and answering questions like:
You could certainly do this by digging through a variety of Google Analytics reports and dashboards, but wouldn’t it be nice to consolidate that information in one dashboard?
Now you can benefit from the experience of our Google Analytics 4 experts, who have put together a great Databox template showing all the most important KPIs for your landing page(s) performance.
It’s simple to implement and start using as a standalone dashboard or in marketing reports, and best of all, it’s free!
You can easily set it up in just a few clicks – no coding required.
To set up this dashboard, follow these 3 simple steps:
Step 1: Get the template
Step 2: Connect your Google Analytics 4 account with Databox.
Step 3: Watch your dashboard populate in seconds.
What are some strategies that actually increase landing page conversion rates? This is what we asked the marketers we surveyed and trust me, you’d want to stick around for them.
Let’s have a look at the below strategies in detail:
Guesswork rarely works when optimizing an important metric like the landing page conversion rate. Even if you have a hunch about the culprit, you’re better off conducting a root cause analysis before brainstorming techniques to increase conversion rates.
Regarding this Alex Birkett of Omniscient Digital Notes suggests carrying out a “generic, repeatable conversion research audit.”
Birkett further shares, “There are so many components that can impact the conversion rate of a landing page. Let’s assume you’ve optimized the quality of the traffic coming to the page and the offer itself, meaning you’re bringing the right type of person to the page and promoting the right offer — if it’s still not converting, what then?”
For this Birkett recommends using the ResearchXL model for conducting the research audit.
Here’s what you need to do, “Diagnose the probable causes of the suboptimal conversion rate through quantitative and qualitative research and hypothesize some potential treatments for those issues (and then run experiments to quantify the improvements).”
Another way through which you can identify potential issues is by understanding how visitors behave on the landing page and how they interact with its different elements. Doing so will help you identify where they spend most of their time, face friction, and engage in rage-clicking.
So, for instance, you may notice that visitors start filling in your contact form but leave without completing it because of too many form fields. With this information, you can either remove unnecessary fields or make some optional.
But how do you get access to such insights? Through session recordings, heat maps, and customer feedback surveys. This can’t be done without the right tools, of course.
Olivia Tsang of SuperMoney recommends, “Use insight tools such as Hotjar or FullStory in order to see how visitors are really using your website and collect user feedback.”
Nate Rodriguez from LIFTOFF Digital also suggests using Hotjar. Rodriguez says, “Hotjar allows you to record visitors and create a heatmap of your landing page. Depending on where users are falling off, you can see exactly where your page is confusing users or what you need to do to make it frictionless.”
Creating your landing pages without knowing who will be visiting them is a recipe for disaster. A beautifully designed landing page with a persuasive copy wouldn’t help here if it doesn’t resonate well with your audience.
Hence, taking the time to get to know your potential customers is always worth the effort.
Mike Lieberman of Square 2 Marketing also recommends focusing on “strategy before tactics.” Lieberman says, “Instead of jumping in and building a landing page, we take the time to understand who is going to be landing on that page, what we want them to read, watch, and how we want them to feel when they land on this page. This is critical to getting that conversion.”
Gaining this information early on helps to personalize experiences further and push leads further down the buyer’s journey.
Anneline Breetzke from Big Splash Social reinforces this, “Today, consumers demand personal treatment, and when you’re moving them along a path with strategic targeting and retargeting, you’re able to position the appropriate landing page for where they’re at.”
Breetzke shares further, “When I started mapping out traffic systems like that, my conversion rate increased from 1.3% to 3-11% (depending on where in the customer journey the page was injected).”
Key Insights: So far, we’ve concluded that it’s crucial to research your target audience before creating landing pages. But where do you gain such vital information? If you’re looking for the answer to this question, I’d suggest you read this article on conducting customer research, which shares 17 methods that you can use.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise – you need a good copy on your landing page to witness an increase in conversion rates. But remember, you’re not trying to impress your high school teacher but rather your customers. So it’s not only important to use their language but also address their pain points and, even better, present solutions.
Ashlee Rolkowski from Lone Fir Creative shares the same opinion:
“They (brands) are not sure what their customers want or what they’re looking for, so they end up with messaging that doesn’t connect with them. The key to a successful landing page starts with empathy. Relating to the customer on their level and letting them know you understand their problem is the basis of smart marketing strategy.”
Rolkowski suggests using the StoryBoard framework to help you create a copy that creates an impact. Here’s what it entails:
Key Insights: Even with following frameworks similar to the one above, it can be difficult to phrase the actual copy. Once you’re familiar with the problems your prospects face, there is no harm in using an AI writing tool to assist you. This article shares 10 AI writing tools recommended by 200+ marketers!
Truth be told, you won’t be creating just one landing page. You’ll need different landing pages for your multiple use cases, the industries you cater to, as well the diverse buyer personas you have. One thing that may suffer when creating such a high volume of landing pages is the value they offer.
Nili Zaharony of Penguin Strategies describes this better, “It’s easy to go on autopilot when creating landing pages.”
“Duplicate a previous landing page, and update the text so it reflects the new offer. With so many different tasks on our plates, it’s easy to take these shortcuts. What suffers the most is the value proposition.”
But instead of running on autopilot, Nili recommends, “Take a moment to step back, think about what value you’re giving away, why people should care, and ask if it’s worth the amount of information you’re requesting in your form.”
The value you provide can be anywhere from a free eBook to a 15% discount voucher. Just make sure it’s interesting and isn’t misleading.
Regarding this, Daniel Lynch of Empathy First Media says, “People are sick of clickbait and hunting for details, give people what they are looking for, and if they are qualified they will move through the conversion process.”
The top section of a landing page can determine its success or failure. If it’s not attractive, your prospect will leave the page before you can convince them not to. One way through which you create an effective above-the-fold section is by offering value straight away.
Regarding this, Lewis Kemp from Lightbulb Media says, “Resist the temptation to waste valuable real estate telling people who you are and what you do above the fold. Nobody cares. As soon as a prospect lands on the page you should be telling them how your product/service benefits their lives. Let them make the choice to scroll further to find out more about you as a business.”
What about the results? Kemp shares, “Switching up the standard layout saw one of our pages go from 9% to 23% conversion in two weeks.”
Daniel Heuer from Copyfluent shares a similar opinion, “The value needs to be front and center. Getting people to do anything is difficult, so the ‘what’s in it for me’ needs to be in the main headline.” Pair this with a great supporting copy and a clean UX to bring them [your visitors] down the page to a compelling CTA.”
What may be valuable for your audience might not be for another company. So, make sure to research your customers well and then add that value proposition in the above-the-fold section. For instance, if your target audience is very price-sensitive, make sure to highlight your free delivery or return policy.
Headlines are important, no doubt. Yet, some read like a narcissist’s autobiography – they just endlessly mention the product’s features without a regard for the visitor and their emotions.
Only those headlines contribute to increasing landing page conversion rates that solve customer pain points and evoke strong emotions in them. These can be emotions of happiness, nostalgia, safety, and sometimes, even fear.
Regarding this, Jenna Erickson of Codal says, “Chances are that the reader is not going to read every word on the page, but they will definitely read the headlines. You should change and test the copy of your headline, making sure that it is attention-grabbing, clear, concise, and sums up your value proposition.”
One of our survey respondents, Tamas Torok of Coding Sans, actually A/B tested headlines that trigger emotions. Concerning the result of this experiment, Torok says, “We were able to increase the conversion rate of one of our landing pages by 8.4% with only one experiment.”
Key Insights: Want more tips for creating high-converting landing page headlines? Read this article as it shares 18 tried and tested tips sourced directly from experts.
No matter the number of visuals on your landing page, it is the copy that builds credibility, promotes your product, and, ultimately, converts your prospects.
Ollie Smith of ExpertSure thinks the same, “In my experience, one of the most effective ways to improve your landing page conversion is to craft a compelling flow of text. You need your landing page copy to be convincing, to get the point across, and to be genuine.”
Think of the bigger picture when writing your landing page’s copy. Rather than just listing features or benefits, your copy should flow in a way that engages and captivates your readers, much like a well-crafted story.
One overlooked aspect when optimizing landing pages is addressing the visitor’s intent. Some are looking for helpful information, while others may be looking specifically to invest in a solution.
It’s important to understand this intent and address it via your landing page. So for instance, if you’re targeting an informational keyword like “email marketing guide,” you should present the landing page that lets visitors download your ebook on the same topic.
You must also not beat around the bush but address the intent as early as possible so your visitors don’t abandon your landing page for another.
Blair McKee from Constellix has some good advice regarding this. McKee says, “Answer or address user intent within the first paragraph of the page. You’ll need to suss-out the user intent for your landing page (and the keywords you’re targeting to drive traffic).”
McKee also shares how to put this into practice, “You could offer a solution to a problem, or incite urgency with a call to action headline that begins with an action verb. The latter validates the user’s intent and suggests that a solution is further down the page, or will be delivered after an action is taken (i.e., a form or signup).”
While copy has the power to convert, that doesn’t mean you can compromise on the visual design. Videos, specifically, help grab the visitor’s attention, visually provide more information, and encourage engagement.
There are so many ways you can go about it – add a product demo video, a customer testimonial video, or an animated one.
Hyfa of Aufait Technologies also believes in the power of videos for boosting landing page conversions. Hyfa says, “Your landing page should engage users to the point of converting them. One of the ways you can engage users on your landing page is by adding videos.”
Hyfa also believes adding videos can increase landing page conversions by 80%.
ClydeBank Media‘s John Donnachie is another advocate of this best practice. Donnachie shares what worked for them, “What we have found to work best is an honest, face-to-face, conversational format that addresses the viewer/prospect. We focus on ‘the big idea’ of the landing page and frame the offer using traditional sales techniques (overcoming objections, qualifying the audience, etc).”
Donnachie also has some tips for you if you decide to add videos to your landing pages:
“Keep it simple, but a few video best practices apply – low volume background music increases the engaging quality of the video and helps mask audio inconsistencies. Captions keep viewers who have their devices muted (or browsers that mute autoplay video) engaged. Simple chyron (lower third graphics) can be used to amplify ‘the big idea’ and keep your videos focused. Videos make landing pages shine, and they don’t have to be expensive or complicated.”
Key Insights: Track the performance of your videos through this Vimeo OTT Traffic Overview dashboard. Monitor how many conversions your video brings, how cost-effective they are, and how much engagement you’re getting on them.
Including trust signals (G2/Capterra badges, customer reviews, industry awards, etc.) on your landing page adds instant credibility to what you offer.
When companies see others benefiting from your product/service, it encourages them to trust your brand and take a leap of faith. As you can imagine, they have a strong impact on increasing the landing page conversion rate.
Our survey respondents also endorse this strategy.
Market 8‘s Brian Schofield says, “Adding trust signals like previous clients, awards, certifications, or testimonials will work wonders.”
Jonathan Aufray of Growth Hackers also recommends this, “Customers trust other customers. Users trust other users. People trust other people,” and suggests collecting social proof by asking “your happy users or customers to send you a testimonial”, and then including “the best ones on your landing page.”
Just adding social proof isn’t enough. Where you place them also impacts the number of conversions you get.
Regarding this, Catalyst Marketing’s Ollie Roddy says, “Adding a relevant quote next to the form is a great way to improve conversion rate; it increases the trust in your piece and makes the action of filling out the form social proof.[…] Even placing a carousel of customer quotes next to the form on your ‘Contact Us’ page can work wonders for increasing response rate.”
The urge to add everything to your landing pages is real. You’re just so afraid of missing a crucial element that you just add everything you deem important.
The problem with this is that the landing page gets filled with fluff and distracts your visitors away from the main message. Think about it, is a carousel of customer testimonials needed on an ebook landing page? This directly lowers the conversion rate because your visitors get overwhelmed.
Your landing pages should be focused on one primary goal, and anything else should be removed. To help you create laser-focused landing pages to improve the conversion rate, our respondents share the following tips:
A landing page is not the appetizer but rather the main course. The appetizer is the ad or the content that redirects leads to that page. Just like the entire meal needs to be cohesive, the landing page and the pre-click experience need to be consistent.
This means that the messaging on the landing page should be an extension of your ad and all visual elements should blend in cohesively.
Omniscient Digital’s Alex Birkett considers this “really foundational” as it helps you “maintain your advertising scent.” Birkett further says, “What this means is the copy, design, and overall ‘scent’ of the message that leads someone to your page (generally called the pre-click experience) should lead seamlessly into the landing page experience, maintaining similar copy, imagery, and scent.”
All landing pages have calls to action, but do they all have bold, striking ones that compel the prospect to interact? That’s a big no.
Calls to action are the gateway to high conversions. If you need a refresher on why they’re so important, here’s what Laura Gonzalez of Audi Bellevue has to say, “Once your webpage visitors land on your page, they need signals of where to go next. A clear call to action will not only help your visitors navigate your site, but this is what will convert your visitors into customers.”
Not only this, but building strong and compelling calls to action has helped Storage Vault’s Kraig Martin experience “A marked increase in the number of conversions we’re now generating on problem pages – around a 40% improvement.”
How can you create calls to action that bring in conversion after conversion? Follow the best practices below:
Both B2B and B2C brands stand to gain greatly from promoting floating coupons. It doesn’t have to be something extremely over-the-top – just attractive enough that it encourages your prospect to purchase.
Jeff Rizzo of The Slumber Yard considers this the best strategy for optimizing a landing page for conversions. Rizzo says, “Hands down, the most effective format that we’ve tested is one that includes a floating coupon.”
What about the results? Regarding this Rizzo shares, “We’ve tried including multiple in-text buttons as the reader scrolls down, but got a 12% increase in our click-through rate by using a floating coupon. Even more astonishingly, that increase was 27% on mobile simply by having the floating coupon.”
Landing pages are not made in isolation. They are paired with marketing campaigns that capture interest and redirect them to the landing page, which then works toward converting leads.
Hence, it makes total sense that you filter out the people beforehand and only redirect those prospects with an actual probability of conversions.
Firstly, select the right buyer persona. And secondly, choose the right channels and keywords to reach your ideal target audience.
E.M. Ricchini from Noticed shares the same opinion, “When utilizing pay-per-click to drive traffic to your landing page, making sure that those clicking on it will already be interested in the content is probably the most important part of getting it to convert.”
You can take this a step further by launching a retargeting marketing campaign. This shows ads to those prospects who have interacted with your campaign before.
Richard Owens of firstfiveeight.com elaborates on this:
“By implementing a retargeting strategy to display social or Google Display Network ads to a user who has visited the landing page, but not seen the thank you page. […] This target audience has displayed an interest in the content and may be assessing alternative options before engaging with a website. By displaying ads to this audience, you stay top of mind for when the researcher decides to take the next step with a business. ”
A/B testing is a cheat code for marketers. It can tell you exactly what improves performance and what does not and trust me, the answers will surprise you.
Earlier in my career, I read a study that stated personalizing calls to action improves clicks and conversions drastically. I A/B tested this and the experiment proved, in my company’s case, that the simpler the CTAs, the greater the clicks.
You can also adopt A/B testing (and multivariate testing once you get the hang of it) to get insights into what increases the landing page conversion rate. Conducting small experiments over time is the key to improving conversion rates considerably.
Regarding this, Milan from Adoni Media says, “Tag everything. Put a number to all elements on the page and track their click rates, hover rates, etc., and look at what can be altered to increase engagement and overall conversions.”
It’s no surprise that over 90% of our survey respondents said they use A/B testing to improve their landing page performance.
Key Insights: Want to run A/B tests but don’t know how to? Read this step-by-step article on running A/B tests for optimizing success metrics.
Understanding what your visitors are doing on your landing page before they convert is crucial for increasing the conversion rate later on. This way, you can identify any rage clicks or unnecessary steps that confuse visitors.
There are many ways you can monitor on-site behavior – path analysis, heat maps, and session replays are my top picks.
For Jeff Stanislow of Chief Internet Marketer, it’s heat mapping. Stanislow says, “One great way is to use heat mapping, so you can see user interaction. I want to make sure that my top KPI matches user interactions. For a large online car shipping company, we noticed attempted user interaction on a non-actionable element below the fold.”
After following this approach, Stanislow says conversions increased by 5%.
Personalizing the experiences for landing page visitors is something we’ve concluded is important so far. However, this doesn’t mean you only need to look into the information they share themselves through contact forms. You can refer to your Google Ads data for creating tailored experiences.
Your Google Ads data is like a goldmine – check for keywords, device types, countries, and so much more. Lindsey Broussard of Online Optimism uses something similar, “Check in on QS frequently to make sure that the correct keywords are used.”
Luke from Ascesis agrees with using Google Ads data but has another technique. “If you find that your pages are converting for a specific keyword, create a separate dedicated landing page, advert & keyword selection to lower your CPC & CPL.”
Key Insights: If you’re looking to dive into Google Ads data for landing page optimization, say goodbye to the dated Google Ads dashboard. The Google Ads Performance Overview Dashboard from Databox shows key Google Ads data at a glance, and you can customize it further by adding metrics that are relevant and adjusting the date ranges.
Don’t get enticed by the next best practice you see for optimizing conversions on landing pages. Very rarely does the same strategy bring in the same results for two different companies. A better approach is to analyze the problem areas in the landing pages, observe user behavior, and then adopt strategies that solve that problem.
Sadi of RunRepeat reinforces this, “You cannot go around reading and implementing random tips from experts. The best place to find the problem and the answer to that problem is your site analytics and visual data reports.”
“Start from a session recording and replay tool to see how a typical visitor scrolls, clicks, or browse through your website. Use a heat map to see which part of the page is getting the most clicks and which part is getting ignored. You can also consider the live chat option to actually have a real-time chat with some of your visitors to see what they are looking for. All this data and information will help you make changes that actually make things better and improve conversions.”
How quickly a landing page loads is often one of the last things that marketers note. But, in reality, it’s crucial for optimizing the conversion rate.
Why expect your customers to wait around for your page to load when there are so many competing websites out there? A long page load speed will only result in missed opportunities as people will abandon your page before it even loads.
Simon Poulton from Wpromote reinforces this, “By far the most important aspect of improving conversion rates is to focus on speed & accessibility. It’s not a secret that this is important, but it is often overlooked in the CRO process. you could make a thousand optimizations to the page, but if 80% of users bounce because of page speed, you’ll only ever be able to optimize to the 20% that do wait. This is particularly important for landing pages with a majority of users visiting on mobile devices.”
But what is the average page load speed and how much the conversion rate will be impacted if I cross it? Kaitlin Cooper of 201 Creative lays it out for us, “On average, visitors expect pages to load within 2-4 seconds, and if your landing page is delayed by even one second, your conversion rate can drop by 7%.”
There are different ways through which you can achieve a quick-loading landing page. Let’s explore them:
Having a live chat on your landing page does more than just increase the work of your customer support team. It builds trust and credibility, helps reduce customer ambiguities, and collects crucial feedback regarding where visitors face friction.
Pair this with a resource center and you’ll be able to provide proactive support in case your customer support agents are unavailable.
This strategy is also a favorite amongst our survey respondents.
Acquire’s Ashwini Dave remarks, “A simple act of answering customers’ queries at the time of their purchase can mean the difference between bounce and sales because it is the most critical time. It leaves a positive impact on customers and they feel satisfied with your response and customer service.”
Eric Quanstrom of CIENCE Technologies comments that live chat is “Table stakes that when a visitor has questions, they should be able to get them answered immediately. Responsiveness matters.”
Key Insights: A live chat will only increase the conversion rate on landing pages if your customer service team is helpful and provides the assistance that is needed. To keep a check on their performance, use a Customer Support Overview Dashboard like the one below.
This dashboard fetches information from Databox Intercom Integration. But if you use another tool, you can easily connect to a different data source.
It is 2024 and marketers still ignore the importance of creating mobile responsive designs. Even if your brand is B2B, there will still be a sizable portion of your target audience accessing your content on their mobile devices.
It’s not even complicated to create mobile-friendly landing pages. Most website builders come with predesigned templates that offer a responsive design for different devices.
Hung Nguyen from Smallpdf is also an advocate for optimizing landing pages for mobiles.
Nguyen says, “More and more users are browsing the web and signing up for services via their phones. However, not all businesses recognize the need to optimize their website for a ‘seamless mobile browsing experience.’”
“Users’ behaviors will also vary, as the content is displayed differently. What fits on a PC monitor may not render correctly on mobile, which makes for a tedious scrolling experience. Microcopy that is of perfect length for desktop use may be too long for mobile.”
Nguyen suggests the following to help you design responsive landing pages:
It’s essential to work hand-in-hand with your UX designers to appease those who browse the web on their smartphones. Otherwise, it’s a significant loss of opportunity for businesses that omit mobile optimization from their goals.”
I’m sure you’ve picked up a few strategies to improve your landing page conversion rate. But remember, the job isn’t done yet – you still need to monitor the conversion rate frequently and tweak your strategy if needed.
There are a couple of ways to go about it. You can use Google Analytics to monitor and report on performance. But applying different filters, jotting down the information on spreadsheets, and then creating visual graphs is no less than a hassle.
The other option is to use Databox – a superior, stress-free solution for monitoring landing page conversion rates.
Connect Google Analytics (along with 100+ additional integrations) and display important metrics in visually attractive dashboards. You can choose from the gallery of 200+ predesigned templates or create your own dashboard through the drag-and-drop editor. Not only this but you can match your branding to give the dashboards a more cohesive look.
The cherry on top? Databox is completely free to start. Create an account today and put your performance tracking on autopilot.
Saffa is a freelance content writer for SaaS and B2B businesses. Besides writing, she enjoys indulging in the occasional Netflix binge, hanging out with friends, and cooking up a storm in the kitchen.
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