Profitability depends on your ability to turn visitors into users and users into paying customers. This is the double-conversion dilemma. Even small conversion gains can make a difference.
That’s why SaaS conversion rate optimization (CRO) is essential for driving growth.
In this guide, you’ll learn about CRO for SaaS companies, how it improves SaaS growth and profitability, and what CRO strategies are needed to strengthen your sales funnel and improve lead generation.
Conversion rate optimization, or CRO, is the art and science of continuously raising the value of website visitors. It’s the ongoing process of increasing the rate at which visitors take specific actions, such as subscribing, requesting a demo, or completing a purchase.
Conversion rate optimization for SaaS applies this process to the SaaS customer journey, improving the flow from sign-up and trial to purchase, onboarding, and beyond.
How is this done? With the scientific method.
Six steps of the scientific method
For example, let’s say you’re trying to improve pricing page conversions. A CRO consultant will create hypotheses about how to improve the page’s performance and run a series of tests to discover what works. They will then repeat this process to achieve continuous improvements.
The optimization process is especially valuable to SaaS companies because their valuation is tied to long-term revenue growth. A conversion rate boost of 1% doesn’t just increase revenue by 1%. It increases the company’s value by 1%.
SaaS companies also have a longer, more complex customer journey. You must convince visitors to try the product, then onboard them sufficiently for them to get value out of the trial, and then entice them to commit to a longer-term purchase. This is not a linear process.
It is not unusual to increase the number of people signing up to try the app and then finding that fewer people overall are becoming buyers.
Additionally, many SaaS products will require a salesperson to get involved due to cost or complexity.
To ensure sales, you must improve conversion rates at each stage while maintaining the quality of the prospects — and every small increase can translate to significant growth in revenue.
The CRO process uncovers sticking points where people stop using the product or fail to progress through the pipeline. Through experimentation, it finds ways to unstick, re-engage, and turn those people into paying customers.
And here’s the interesting thing: In SaaS, conversion rate improvements are multiplicative rather than additive.
So if you improve customer acquisition by 20% and sales conversions by 10%, you won’t see a 30% lift. You’ll actually see a 32% lift.
Over time, this compounding effect can add up, making CRO a core growth strategy for SaaS companies.
2. CRO Lowers Acquisition Costs
Conversion optimization raises the percentage of leads or users that convert into customers, giving you more sales without an increase in customer acquisition costs (CAC). This improves the efficiency of your ad spend, making your marketing dollars go further.
It also creates a virtuous cycle. By testing every element of the conversion funnel, you can uncover the friction and pain points that lower conversion rates. This gives you the insight to create highly effective campaigns that convert well.
3. CRO Increases Organic Search Traffic
SEO and CRO are partner strategies, working together to improve traffic and conversions. SEO attracts qualified traffic. CRO ensures visitors have a good user experience and take their next step to becoming a customer.
4. CRO Improves The User Experience
To improve SaaS conversions, CRO removes friction points that can harm the user experience. It creates a site that puts users’ needs first, which boosts satisfaction and brand perception. The user experience of your marketing website sets the expectation for the user experience in the application.
CRO for SaaS can help you identify the markets and channels that will be most profitable for you. And as we’ve already seen, it can lower acquisition costs, making your SaaS company more profitable.
How to Measure Conversion Rates in SaaS
The conversion rate formula is:
(Number of Conversions / Number of Visitors) * 100 = Conversion Rate %
Divide the number of conversions by the number of visitors, and multiply by 100. This gives you the conversion rate of whatever you’re testing — form completion, download, or purchase, for example.
Keep in mind, because SaaS has multiple touch points and conversion events, measuring conversion rates can be tricky. You’ll need to track conversion rates across the entire customer journey. You also need to take into account your sales volume, the time it takes to close deals, churn rate, and customer lifetime value (CLV).
It can help to understand SaaS conversion rate benchmarks.
B2B SaaS Conversion Rate Benchmarks
Use these conversion rate benchmarks to gauge the success of your marketing and sales efforts.
SaaS marketing conversion rate benchmarks
Website visits to leads: 2-5%
Leads to marketing qualified leads (MQLs): 20-30%
High-touch SaaS sales conversion rate benchmarks
SaaS products that require a sales team generally have an ACV (average contract value) of $6K to $15K on the low end. Extremely large deals, often called enterprise SaaS, start at six figures. Here are the conversion rate benchmarks for high-touch SaaS sales:
Marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) to sales-qualified leads (SQLs): 13-27%
SQLs to Opportunities: 50-62%
Opportunities to Closed Won: 15-31%
Conversion rate benchmarks for high-touch SaaS (Gartner)
Low-touch B2B SaaS conversion rate benchmarks:
Low-touch B2B SaaS products have an ACV (average contract value) of $100-$5,000. These products are typically sold on a month-to-month subscription ranging from $10 to $500.
Free trials with no credit card required: 25% of SaaS businesses
Free trials with credit card required: 40-60%
Freemium conversion rates: 1-10%
More B2B SaaS conversion rate benchmarks:
User activation rate: 36%
Product adoption rate: 14-55%, with an average of 33%
Customer churn rate: 3-5%, with a goal of <3%
Customer retention rate: 79-90%
The SaaS Conversion Journey
As with other B2B products, the SaaS customer journey moves from awareness to consideration and conversion. But in SaaS, these stages are much more complex, and the customer journey continues long after the sale.
Because of this, it’s impossible to map the Saa customer journey in a way that applies to every SaaS business. We can, however, describe the key stages of a SaaS customer journey for both low-touch and high-touch SaaS products.
The Stages of a Low-Touch Saas Customer Journey
Awareness – The user becomes aware of their problem and your product.
Education – The user learns as much as possible about their problem, your product, and how it solves the problem.
Acquisition – The user downloads a trial or free version of the product.
Onboarding – The user goes through a tutorial to understand how the product works.
Activation – The user begins to use the product and recognize its value.
Conversion – The user decides they need all the features of the product and upgrades from the trial or free plan to a premium plan.
Retention – The product becomes an essential part of the user’s life. They use it daily or weekly and won’t consider churning.
Referral – The user is so happy with the product, they become an evangelist, giving you word-of-mouth marketing and referrals.
Renewal – Through renewals, add-ons, and upsells, the user continues to increase their lifetime value.
The distinguishing feature in this model is the trial or freemium offer. With most other online purchases, the customer makes the buying decision based on a product description, images, and testimonials. With SaaS, they want to be sure the user experience is good, the features do what they want, and the product will fit into their workflow.
Through the trial offer, users are able to experience the product themselves. Even a short trial gives customers a low-risk way to decide whether your product is right for them. The challenge, of course, is to avoid giving away too much.
If you’re offering a freemium model, you need to give users a stripped-down version of the product that lets them experience success but also leaves them wanting more. That’s a hard balance to strike, but if you can get it right, this model can bring in lots of new customers.
A free trial may give users access to all your features (including premium ones) for a specific time period. The trick here is getting the time period right. A trial of 7 days may not be long enough for users to fully explore your features. A 30-day trial will give them more time to fall in love with your product but can add to your costs.
The Stages of a High-Touch Saas Customer Journey
Awareness – The prospect becomes aware of their problem and your product.
Education – The prospect researches options, including features and benefits of products in their selection pool.
Demo – The prospect requests a demo, with key stakeholders present.
Product purchase – The prospect selects your product.
Implementation – The product is installed and configured for the customer’s specific needs.
Onboarding – Users are trained to use the product.
Adoption – The product becomes part of users’ daily routine.
Upsell – The customer upgrades or purchases additional features or seats.
Renewal – The customer sees the value of the product and renews their subscription every year.
Notice that this model doesn’t include a trial. High-touch SaaS products are usually more complex, which means a trial isn’t possible. Instead, prospects rely on a demo to understand how the product works.
Unlike a trial, a demo doesn’t let the buyer navigate the product themselves, but it does let them see it in action. It also lets them talk to an account representative and get their questions answered.
In both low-touch and high-touch SaaS products, growth is achieved through long-term subscriptions, upsells, and contract expansion. For that to happen, though, you have to help users understand the value of the product and not only adopt it but become super-users.
Conversion rate optimization allows you to improve every stage of the customer journey — regardless of the type or structure of your journey. It ensures a positive user experience that translates into better adoption rates, lower churn rates, and higher revenue.
Different Conversion Events in SaaS
To generate a sale in SaaS, you must successfully move users to action at multiple points along the customer journey. Let’s look at some key conversion points for SaaS.
Free Trial Sign-Up: When a user signs up for a free trial of your SaaS product, it indicates interest and the intent to explore your software.
Paid Subscription: The user upgrades from a free trial or freemium plan to a paid subscription. This is where you start generating revenue. It’s also the point at which you implement customer marketing to build loyalty and increase the lifetime value of the customer.
Onboarding Completion: Successful onboarding is key to user adoption and retention, so completion rates matter. Track user engagement throughout your onboarding sequence to understand where engagement drops. Then test different tactics, such as gamification, to keep users engaged.
Adoption: One of the key challenges after purchase is getting users at a client account to use the product. This requires helping a champion sell your product internally. New accounts, log-in rates, and session lengths will tell you how well you’re doing at that. The usage metrics tracked in CRO allow you to track the features people use most to understand where you can add or improve features.
Usage Frequency: When a user’s engagement drops, it generally signals that they’ll churn in a few months. As with adoption rates, CRO retention metrics track users’ log-in rates, session length, and the number of actions they take within a session. It’s a good idea to start customer re-engagement campaigns as soon as you see this metric lag.
Upgrades/Downgrades: Users might upgrade to higher-tier plans for more features or downgrade to lower-tier plans based on their needs. These actions impact your revenue and can indicate user satisfaction or changing requirements.
Referral Sign-Up: Happy customers tend to make referrals, but you can incentivise this action as well. To improve this metric, CROs optimize your process for engaging with prospects who enter the pipeline from a referral, while actively encouraging referrals from loyal users.
Renewal: Customer renewal rates directly impact your revenue. CROs know that it’s vital to track and optimize the timing and rate of renewals.
Unsubscribes: A low churn rate is another key to SaaS profits. The CRO process identifies events that trigger churn and develop campaigns to re-engage users. To optimize those campaigns, CROs use data around the events that can make a churning customer change their mind and decide to continue their subscription.
These conversion events are key to growth, which is why conversion rate optimization for SaaS focuses heavily on testing unique ways to improve them. One of those methods is conversion funnels.
Mapping Conversion Funnels and Key Moments
While running routine tests to improve key SaaS metrics, optimizers create conversion funnels for each stage of the customer journey. For example, they build funnels that:
Increase trials or demos
Boost acquisition
Improve onboarding
Raise retention rates
Maximize lifetime value
Each funnel focuses on a specific micro-conversion. Together, they improve conversion rates across the entire customer journey.
To understand how this works, we’ll need to look more closely at conversion funnels and how they work.
A conversion funnel, also known as a sales or marketing funnel, is a framework used in digital marketing to illustrate the stages a prospect goes through before taking a desired action.
It’s called a funnel because, similar to a real-world funnel, there are fewer people at the bottom of a funnel than at the top. The top of the funnel will include anyone who lands on your website or engages with your content. Your goal is to engage qualified prospects and weed out everyone else. As a result, every stage of the funnel has fewer people in it, and at the bottom, you only have serious prospects.
Prospects don’t necessarily move through a funnel in a linear fashion, but the funnel model helps optimizers know how each stage of the customer journey is performing as part of the whole.
We typically break the funnel into three broad stages:
TOFU: top of funnel
MOFU: middle of funnel
BOFU: bottom of funnel
In SaaS, it’s also important to include a fourth stage: Below the Funnel.
Each part of the funnel aligns with a specific stage of the customer journey, giving you eight distinct stages in a B2B SaaS conversion funnel. Keep in mind, though, this also gives you eight drop-off points where prospects can leave the funnel.
Awareness Stage (TOFU): At the widest part of the funnel, the prospect has just become aware of your product. This stage is optimized by raising awareness of your brand and product. Strategies include content marketing, social media, SEO, and advertising. Frequency of impressions is essential at this stage.
Interest Stage (MOFU): In this stage, users are aware of your brand or product and have decided to learn more about you. They may engage with your content, sign up for newsletters, or explore your product’s features and benefits. Content such as ebooks, webinars, and case studies can be effective here. WIth gated content, you are building an ever expanding list of prospects to move to the next stage. Relevant content is the driving force at this stage.
Consideration Stage (MOFU): Users at this stage are considering your offerings more seriously. They may compare your product with competitors’, read reviews, and seek additional information. They may also consider a trial subscription or look for a walk-through video to understand how your product works. Anticipate their questions and objections at this stage.
Intent Stage (BOFU): At this point, users are actively considering making a purchase or taking a specific action. They may add items to their cart, request a quote, or sign up for a free trial. Conversion optimization and targeted messaging are essential here. Strategies for removing friction from the sign-up processes proliferate here.
Evaluation Stage (BOFU): The user is now in a trial or evaluating a demo. At this stage, the on-boarding process must be optimized. In a product-led growth (PLG) approach, the product is designed to make it intuitive and easy to use. However, optimizers know that instructional materials will be needed to help users be successful with the product quickly..
Conversion Stage (BOFU): This is the ultimate goal of the funnel. Users convert by making a purchase or upgrading from a free plan. The application becomes the salesperson. Optimizers look for ways to highlight upgradeable features and offer ways to reduce costs by increasing the length of the commitment. .
Post-Conversion Stage (Below the Funnel): Use and adoption are the focus at this stage of the funnel. Look for opportunities to nurture customer relationships, provide excellent customer support, and encourage repeat purchases or ongoing engagement. Your CRO should have usage metrics at the ready to evaluate usage and adoption rates. Done right, optimization at this stage boosts loyalty and advocacy.
Advocacy and Loyalty Stage (Below the Funnel): Loyal customers who love your brand will often become advocates, referring others and doing word-of-mouth marketing.
Elevate Your CRO Game: Next Steps for Your SaaS Company
Even small improvements in your conversion rates can impact revenue and growth.
At Conversion Sciences, we’re not a standard CRO agency. We use the scientific method to identify and fix the issues causing SaaS revenue leak. Contact us today to talk with our experienced full-service team of Conversion Scientists today.
Steve Krug’s book Don’t Make Me Think captures a core tenet of conversion optimization: People have a limited reserve of energy when researching a solution to their problem. Don’t make them think too hard about how your website or product will solve that problem. If it isn’t intuitive, if it doesn’t provide an obvious and engaging user experience, they will leave.
But giving your users a clear journey is harder than you might think. So in this article, we’ve compiled our top SaaS website best practices, including actionable strategies for improving conversion rates.
The Importance of CRO for SaaS Websites
Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is especially important for SaaS websites. Revenue growth depends on your ability to convert visitors to trials, trials to paying customers, and customers into long-term, loyal users.
To help, SaaS optimization generally focuses on four key components:
A landing page that sells the next step
A call to action for taking that step
An optimized way to take action (content form, sign up process, etc.)
A “Thank You” experience that helps the visitor be successful at this new step
The landing page will make or break your SaaS conversion rates. The landing page can serve traffic from outside the website, or satisfy on-site offers, such as the ubiquitous “Learn more”. Every one of these pages should be enticing the prospect to go to the next step.
Optimizers treat almost every webpage as a landing page, giving the visitor what they are looking for and asking them to take the next step.
Web Design Elements to Consider for Optimal SaaS Website Performance
CRO for SaaS websites is largely about improving the user experience. For example, these elements can make or break your SaaS conversion rates:
Clear value proposition
Engaging CTAs pointing to the next step
Trust indicators, payment partner logos, security badges, and links to your privacy policy
Social proof, including customer testimonials and customer logos
Page load speed
Mobile optimized template
Helpful navigation
To optimize your SaaS website for conversions, a memorable user experience is created at every touchpoint, but especially on these web pages:
Product page: Provides all of the information a visitor needs to move to pricing
Pricing page: Helps the visitor understand their choices and offers trial or purchase
Homepage: Directs traffic to the landing pages within the site
Contact page: Catches those who fall out of the typical journey
When a user clicks on one of these pages, they should see the information they expect. A product page should tell them all about the product, answering their questions about what it does and how. A pricing page should show visitors their buying options and what they get with each package. Sitewide, visitors should be able to find the information they’re looking for in just a few clicks.
The challenge is creating that experience. It’s impossible to know in advance what will work — and your own preferences don’t matter. To design a website that attracts and converts your best customers, you need to test everything.
In short, you need to leverage CRO best practices to continually refine and improve your website.
Proven CRO Strategies and Tips for SaaS Website Success
CRO tactics include a wide range of disciplines: testing, usability improvements, marketing, design best practices, and more. Here are nine strategies proven to improve SaaS website conversion rates.
CRO Strategy #1: A/B Testing
A/B testing, also called split testing, gives us a highly reliable way to test an idea, or hypothesis. It’s based on the scientific method and attempts to disprove a hypothesis about how a page could be changed to improve a specific conversion rate. If the hypothesis cannot be disproved, it is assumed to be true.
A/B testing starts with a hypothesis. For example, if we believe our customer logos are too far down a page, our test hypothesis would be:
If we move the portion of the landing page containing customer logos to below the hero area, we expect more visitors to complete the form as measured by conversion rate.
An experiment is then designed to test the hypothesis. In the case of our hypothesis, a variation of the page is designed. Traffic is sent equally to the original and the variation.
Then we see which generated the most conversions. If there is a statistical improvement in the performance of variation, it becomes the new page — and new control to be beat.
Optimizers take great care to ensure statistical relevance is achieved with each A/B test. The variation with the statistically higher conversion rate becomes the new page to be optimized.
A/B testing delivers incremental gains in SaaS conversions month over month. Use it to put upward pressure on your sales funnel conversion rates and improve lead generation campaigns.
If your messaging doesn’t address the user’s problem or desire, or if it’s confusing on any level, there is very little we can do to improve your conversion rates.
Compelling messaging establishes your value proposition in your visitors’ minds. A study by Nielsen Norman Group found that a page with a clear value proposition can hold people’s attention longer — as much as one or two minutes longer — but you must communicate your value proposition within 10 seconds.
Optimizers will focus on the opening statements. This should express who you are and what you do as quickly as possible. It answers two questions:
Am I in the right place to solve my problem?
Is there a good reason to keep exploring this solution?
CityCliq improved their positioning and increased the clickthrough rate of their home page 90%. Their original positioning statement didn’t communicate what they do: “Businesses grow faster online.” The new positioning statement was a direct statement about what the user gets from their product: “Create a webpage for your business.” This change improved clickthrough in two weeks.
To be effective, your messaging must meet the user’s expectations. Optimizers try to give visitors the right information on the right page (e.g., pricing information on the pricing page). The goal is to answer their questions completely, anticipating their questions.
Here are a few ways to improve the messaging on your SaaS website:
Be direct, clear, and action-oriented.
Use graphics and video that enhance your messaging.
Use layout to place your message in the right place.
Personalize when possible.
CRO Strategy #3: Personalization
Personalization is an effective way to improve engagement — and this often means more conversions. According to McKinsey2, 71% of consumers expect you to deliver personalized interaction, and 76% get frustrated if you don’t.
McKinsey found that consumers expect personalization from the brands they choose.
To create loyalty and improve conversions, optimizers look for ways to personalize people’s experience. Here are some tactics for doing that:
Personalize emails:
Address the recipient by name in emails.
Segment emails, so your messaging fits the recipient’s stage in the customer journey.
Align messaging to the user’s previous purchases or behaviors.
Create unique email sequences for users at key conversion stages, such as onboarding, adoption, and churn risk.
Add dynamic content to landing pages, so they speak directly to the user.
Use calls to action (CTAs) that align with the user’s readiness to convert.
Keep your messaging clear, concise, and compelling.
Personalize search and retargeting:
Use geolocation to display ads that align with the user’s local conditions, like ski equipment ads in Denver or swimwear ads in Miami.
Use retargeting to deliver ads that are appropriate for the user’s online behavior and interests.
Create a natural flow within conversion funnels — messaging and design should be consistent on the ad, landing page, form, and emails so trust levels remain high.
A/B tests offer excellent data for personalization. For example, we have created A/B tests that looked inconclusive initially. When we looked at the impact of the test on mobile visitors, we often find that visitors on an Android device preferred the variation while those coming on an iPhone preferred the control.
This becomes an opportunity to personalize based on device. The Android users will see the variation and the iPhone visitors will see the control. Personalization tools allow this kind of personalization.
Other segments to analyze for personalization opportunities:
First-time visitors vs. returning visitors
Current customers
Visitors who are on your mailing list
Geographic location (city, state, country)
Gender (be careful not to stereotype)
Mobile vs.desktop visitors
Time since last visit
The advantage of using A/B testing to drive your personalization is that you have the data that tells you what the different visitors want and an easy way to target them when they are on your website.
CRO Strategy #4: Retargeting Campaigns
When people engage with your website but don’t convert, you can continue to engage with them off-site through retargeting ads.
Retargeting delivers targeted ads to users across the web, in apps, and on social media, reminding them of your offer and encouraging them to engage with it further. It can be an effective way to get people to return to an abandoned shopping cart, revisit a product page, or review related content.
Keep in mind, flow is important. You’ll need to tailor a message that matches their previous interaction, so you can create a personalized experience that resonates and reinforces the value of your product.
Here are some tools to set up effective retargeting campaigns:
NOTE: Retargeting places a cookie on the visitor’s browser to identify them when on other websites. This tells the retargeting company to show them your retargeting ad. The use of these “third-party” cookies is being curtailed due to privacy concerns by the major browser manufacturers. Alternatives tracking technologies will need to be put in place.
CRO Strategy #5: UX and UI Optimization
UX (user experience) optimization focuses on creating a seamless and meaningful experience for visitors.
UI (user interface) optimization improves the appearance and usability of the website, page, or app.
Both rely on intuitive design, which aims to build trust by ensuring a page/site feels intuitive and performs as expected. It looks for anything that creates friction and adjusts as needed to create a smooth experience.
A good example is 37signals. They saw a 102.5% boost in Highrise signups after adding a picture of a customer to the page.
To optimize UX and UI, you need to understand how visitors interact with the page or site. For example, are they getting stuck? Can they navigate the page/site easily? Do they stay on the page long enough to read your messaging? (Most users leave a page in 45-50 seconds3.)
For UX and UI optimization, optimizers use tools like these:
Heap Analytics, for retroactive analysis of user behavior
CRO Strategy #6: Friction Points
If a good UX improves trust, friction destroys it. Anything that frustrates, confuses, or slows a visitor can create friction. A visitor comes to you with a reservoir of mental energy. Each mistake or moment of confusion drains that reservoir, increasing the “cognitive load.” For example:
Unclear messaging or value proposition
Cluttered web pages
Too many choices
Information that doesn’t anticipate their questions
Hidden pricing
Convoluted navigation
Lengthy forms
To improve conversion rates, optimizers remove friction. They seek a page that is well-designed, with clear messaging and CTAs, and good flow. Make it easy to find buttons and fill out forms.
CRO Strategy #7: Page Load Speed
One of the biggest frustrations for visitors is a slow website. When they click, a slow response slows their momentum and decreases their perceived credibility of your business. This is especially true on mobile devices.
Website conversion rates drop by 4.42% with each second of load time. (Portent5)
70% of consumers say they’re less likely to buy from a slow website. (Unbounce6)
A page that loads in 1 second has a conversion rate 3x higher than a site that loads in 5 seconds. (Portent)
Compare these statistics to the average website load time in 20237: 2.5 seconds on a desktop and 8.6 seconds on a mobile device. To remove this friction point, you need to beat the average, reducing your load speed time as much as possible.
Here are a few ways to do that.
Quality website hosting
Compress images and deliver properly sized images
Leverage browser caching
Minimize plugins
User Content Delivery Networks (CDNs)
Reducing redirects
Minifying CSS and JavaScript
We find the reports generated by the free tools at webpagetest.org to be fantastic at diagnosing the causes of slow-loading pages.
CRO Strategy #8: Gathering and Acting on Feedback
However much you may try to improve your user experience, friction points may still exist. The best way to find them is to get real user feedback.
Given the chance, they’ll let you know that your signup forms need fixing or your site navigation is confusing. They can also review your changes and give you direct feedback.
For example, the Dropbox Community gives users a place to get quick answers to their questions, but it also helps the Product team know where and how they can improve. When they changed their estimated time to sync feature with a progress bar, users complained. This feedback told Dropbox that time was a “critical unit of measurement” and that features should help users manage their time.
The Dropbox team now uses the community to prioritize the issues they tackle. You can do the same, using customer feedback to find friction points, provide a better user experience, and improve messaging.
Here are some tactics for gathering user insights:
Through user feedback, you can identify page elements or experiences that harm trust. But you can also add trust elements to your pages to build trust and improve conversions.
For example, many SaaS companies display awards to quickly communicate their value:
SaaS awards can quickly communicate value
Low-touch SaaS products that have a checkout page on your website can use ecommerce trust badges. Ecommerce company UnderstandQuran added two trust badges to their sign-up page — a money-back guarantee badge and an Apple app store badge — they saw a 32.57% increase in sales over an 11 day period.
Trust badges increased sales 32.57%.
Here are some trust signals that improve SaaS conversion rates:
SSL certificates
Transparent privacy policies
Security badges and certificates
Customer reviews and ratings
Awards and recognition
Elevate Your CRO Game: Next Steps for Your SaaS Company
There’s no better way to ensure SaaS growth than with CRO for SaaS. Through conversion rate optimization, you can make incremental improvements in your conversion rate at every stage of the customer journey, helping you get and keep your valuable customers.
Need help? At Conversion Sciences, we’re not a standard CRO agency. We use the scientific method to identify and fix the issues causing SaaS revenue leak. Contact us today to talk with our experienced full-service team of Conversion Scientists today.
If you’re looking for lead generation landing page examples to help you craft the perfect landing page, beware.
Many of the landing pages you see online are not actually working. In fact, many of them turn more people away than not.
Lead generation landing pages and squeeze pages can attract and convert a high percentage of new leads for your business, keeping your pipeline full. But there’s a science to landing page lead generation — and that’s what we cover in this guide.
Keep reading to learn how and why lead generation pages are different, what makes a successful lead gen landing page, and 17 landing page examples (that are working and not working) — with expert tips on how to improve them.
Landing Pages vs. Web Pages: What’s the Difference?
The public-facing pages on your website are largely informational. They’re designed to keep people on the site as long as possible, and they do that with smart internal links and valuable content that answers questions and educates visitors.
Web pages are great for attracting traffic and positioning your products or services. They aren’t that effective at converting visitors. For that you need lead generating landing pages.
Landing pages have only two jobs.
To keep the promise made in the ad, email, social post, or link that preceded the page.
To ask your visitor to do something.
Landing pages work because they don’t encourage browsing or exploring. They’re designed to promote one specific offer and drive visitors to complete one designated course of action.
One of the most common uses for landing pages is to generate leads.
A lead generation landing page is a landing page that focuses on capturing visitor data by offering something of value in exchange for their information. It’s one piece in a conversion funnel, and it’s designed to attract qualified leads for further marketing and sales.
A good lead gen landing page appeals exclusively to your ideal prospects. Typically, it offers content that helps them solve a problem or gives them advanced information they want. But it could also offer a free trial, an app, a demo, or a short consultation.
Lead generation landing pages that convert are very simple. They’re typically short, with a few key elements:
An attention-getting headline
Copy that explains the value of the offer
An image of the item being offered
A form where visitors can enter their information to claim the offer
Why Do You Need a Lead Gen Landing Page?
To understand why you need lead gen landing pages, let’s take a quick look at how they work.
The best way to leverage lead gen landing pages is to design campaigns around specific offers. (More about that in a moment.)
Once you have an offer your ideal prospects can’t resist, you’ll build a landing page for it. This page will be designed specifically for your target audience and offer. It will leverage the words they use to talk about their issues. It will address their concerns. And it will offer a specific solution that they already want.
This landing page will probably never appear in your site navigation. Instead, it will live in the background of your website. When you want to turn on your lead gen campaign, you’ll start sending traffic to it through ads, blog posts, social media posts, and emails.
With this approach, each marketing campaign exists in its own silo. You can test and optimize every element until the page is working perfectly.
The result?
Dedicated campaigns that you can turn on and off at will
Higher conversion rates
Lower acquisition costs
Your website should generate traffic and educate visitors, but your web pages shouldn’t be overly salesy. Lead generation landing pages, on the other hand, can be as salesy as they need to be. They bridge the gap between traffic generation and lead conversion, delivering the highest qualified leads from start to finish.
What Makes a Successful Lead Generation Landing Page?
This is the million dollar question every marketer wants answered. Like every profitable online experience, it starts with an irresistible offer.
Your offer must be both relevant and qualifying.
It needs to attract the highest possible number of qualified prospects, and it needs to offer information they’re already looking for. This isn’t the time to create interest. You need to tap into an existing desire.
The easiest way to do that is to:
Review your PPC (pay-per-click) data. What are the ads with the highest clickthrough rate?
Evaluate competitor ads. What are they offering?
Analyze your social media posts. Which topics get the most engagement?
Look at your email analytics. Which topics have the highest clickthrough rate?
Email open rates tell us which topics our readers are most interested in.
There’s more to a lead generation landing page than a compelling offer. Here are a few landing page optimization themes that we touch on again and again — not only in this guide but also and with our clients.
An effective landing page is also intuitive. Your visitors shouldn’t have to think for even a millisecond. They should be able to understand and respond whether they’re reading or skimming the page.
The page should load in less than 2 seconds. The faster the better. Any longer, and your prospect will move on.
The page should be mobile friendly. More than half of your visitors will likely visit the page on a mobile device. Make sure it’s readable and easy to operate from any device. (Use a platform like BrowserStack that makes it easy to view your lead gen landing page on multiple devices.)
Your page should follow the rule of one. It should have one clear goal and one clear CTA. That’s it. Because visitors with too many options usually choose no option.
Finally, A/B split test your page to continually improve its performance over time.
How to Evaluate Lead Generation Landing Page Examples
In a minute, we’ll look at 17 of the best landing page examples we could find. But before we do, let’s look at how you need to evaluate them.
When evaluating a landing page, ask yourself if it’s executing its two jobs effectively.
Does the page have a compelling offer? Is it clear what promise was made to the visitors?
Does the page ask the visitor to make a choice?
Next, look at the page’s trust and value signals. To do that, answer these two questions:
Do I feel like I’m in the right place? Does this page flow seamlessly from the previous page/post?
Is there a reason to keep reading?
Finally, evaluate the elements of the page:
Unique value proposition in words and images
Effective layout of content
Credibility and authority signals
Social proof
Risk reversal
One more helpful tip: When evaluating someone else’s landing page, use a browser plugin like Wapalyzer, Ghostery, or Builtwith to see if the page has an A/B testing tool installed. If it does, you might give more weight to it, as they could be testing their designs.
Ready for some landing page ideas to start generating leads?
17 Lead Generation Landing Page Examples
The best landing page examples show you what’s working today. But as I mentioned above, many of the landing pages online today haven’t been optimized for conversions, which means they aren’t actually working as well as they could.
To help you know the difference, we’ve scoured the web for good and bad examples of lead gen landing pages. And for every example, we tell you what they’re doing right and what they need to improve.
We don’t know the conversion rates of most of these pages. However, you can use these landing page examples and our tips as a guide when designing your own effective pages.
Example 1: Don’t “charge” too much for your offer
A lead generation landing page offers something for free — but visitors must still pay. Rather than paying with money, they pay with their information.
As with any pricing strategy, you need to offer enough value to justify your “price.” That means keeping your forms as short as possible.
Take this landing page by Applause.
Do you need nine fields on your landing page?
This offer is clear: to get access to a targeted white paper.
The summary gives three compelling reasons to take action.
The form lies at the top of the page, and will peak above the fold on most monitors.
Credibility is provided through customer logos, and social proof is presented through social media testimonials.
What could we improve?
The form asks for a lot of information. Is this reasonable for a white paper? Maybe not.
The form is laid out in 3 rows of 3 columns. This can make the form seem larger and more time-consuming.
The typical direction visitors would go to fill out this form would be to start in the first column from top and go down to the bottom. But the first field says “First Name” with the “Last Name” field jumping over into the next column
This layout makes the form feel difficult. And difficulty creates friction, which lowers conversions.
Example 2: Make your offer clear and direct
Messaging on your landing page needs to be clear and concise. But it shouldn’t be too concise. You need to include enough information to communicate persuasively.
Take this example from Uber:
Uber’s promise is clear and specific.
The promise is clear: at least $2,160. Note: this specific number is more persuasive than something like “$2000+”.
The CTA is clear: Sign up now.
But without more information, the page is more about a dollar figure than becoming an Uber driver.
Uber can assume that everyone knows who they are and, therefore, details aren’t necessary. But your brand likely doesn’t enjoy this level of recognition..
At a minimum, it needs a unique value proposition in both words and images. It could also use some trust and credibility signals, such as numbers of drivers, testimonials, or real earnings.
A visitor landing here has to work hard to understand that they’re signing up as an Uber driver.
Keep your message as clear and direct as possible. Make sure you provide details about the offer and the benefits of taking action. And don’t rely on fine print to explain the offer — that’s a sure way to erode trust.
Example 3: Be careful with conceptual landing pages
Landing pages need to be clear and direct. If you try to be too clever or conceptual, you can confuse (and lose) prospects. A conceptual page is one that sacrifices clarity to be cute or clever. This forces visitors to connect the dots between the message and the offer rather than having it clearly spelled out for them.
Much like this page.
Clarity beats cleverness every time.
Here, Planhat’s headline is direct: Choose Planhat, not GainSight. They throw in a cute image to try to communicate their point. But there’s no value statement that tells a visitor why they should choose one over the other.
Their CTA, “Book a demo to find out why,” leverages curiosity. But you must look below the form to see the benefits and trust signals that might drive conversions.
This page has several good conversion elements:
Customer logos
G2 rating and logo
Three benefits of using Planhat
But without a clear, strong headline, it falls short. A high-converting landing page has a clear, direct headline that tells visitors what they’ll get when they engage with the page. The hero image works with that copy to fully communicate value.
Don’t try to be overly cute or clever. Clarity wins every day.
Example 4: Establish a visual hierarchy
Your landing page needs a good hierarchy of information, so it’s easy to understand for skimmers and readers. This landing page by LinkedIn is a good example.
Do you immediately know what action you should take?
A visual hierarchy is designed to help the visitor see what is most important. The job of the visual hierarchy is to help them choose an action. Contrast and white space are two ways designers establish a visual hierarchy.
In this page, there are two calls to action in the hero area, both dark blue on a blue background. This doesn’t help the visitor discern one from the other visually. And if the visitor doesn’t know the difference between “Core” and “Advanced” they will not click. This page needs to present the difference to the visitor.
Designers love to be consistent with colors, but this works against the visual hierarchy. All buttons are within the color of the page’s palette. They are on an equal level with other dark blue elements.
It is the video that is at the top of the visual hierarchy. It “pops,” elevating it. If this is the most important action the visitor can take, then this is helping them choose.
The landing page has three distinct sections, each with its own purpose: to communicate value, make a promise, and highlight the key benefits.
At the top of the page (above the fold) is the value proposition: “From sales prospecting to closing deals, do it all with Sales Navigator.” Details are available in the one-minute video. And you can take action right away by clicking the appropriate button.
The second section contains a clear promise, proof elements, and the mechanism for delivering that promise.
Promise: beat quota.
Mechanism: build relationships that last.
Proof: the average results achieved by social sellers.
Social proof: LinkedIn’s 1+ billion member network.
Notice the call to action, “Start your free trial,” in both columns of this section. That makes it easy for people to take action as soon as they’re ready.
The final section is similar to the P.S. of a sales letter. It summarizes the page by listing the three biggest benefits of Sales Navigator for B2B salespeople. Each is illustrated with a colorful icon so people who process information visually or are just scanning the page will quickly understand the value of Sales Navigator — and hopefully scroll back up to read the copy more closely.
The only thing missing is one final CTA button below these benefits, so visitors don’t have to scroll back up to take action.
Example 5: Remove extraneous information
When building a landing page, we recommend starting with a clean page, not your corporate template or, in this case, the blog template.
The corporate pages and blog pages introduce content that doesn’t fit the two jobs of a high-converting landing page. Page templates usually come with navigation that invites qualified prospects to delay their action.
What not to do:
Your landing page shouldn’t look like a blog post.
The sidebar is inviting the visitor to leave the page before they’ve even seen that they can take action. A good landing page holds on to the visitor until they’ve made their decision.
Replacing this competing content with the submission form, which is way at the bottom, would make it clear that they can take action.
The top of the page should have the value proposition and promise, so visitors immediately understand the offer.
Instead, visitors have to scroll down nearly half of the page before they see the offer and form.
Don’t make visitors scroll to find your form.
Start fresh with a minimal template for your landing pages. Examine existing landing pages for any information that doesn’t make the visitor feel comfortable and confident taking action.
Example 6: Don’t assume we know what you do.
Fovitech offers affordable photo and video studio lighting solutions.
Unfortunately, they were leading visitors straight to this page from a pay-per-click ad.
Visitors should know right away what you’re offering.
It’s hard to know where we’ve just landed because all they talk about is getting the best price. Guaranteed. But they’ve failed to tell us what it is they are actually offering.
Most people won’t care about price until they first know whether or not you have something they’re even interested in.
Example 7: Sell the offer, not just the product.
You’ve probably noticed a recurring theme in our review of these landing page optimization examples: Your landing page needs to be all about your prospect and their fears, hopes, and desires.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of promoting your brand or the product. But lead generation is about getting people into your conversion funnel. Not selling. Not yet. You want them to subscribe or download your offer. So your sole focus is to sell the offer.
Let’s look at an example:
Are you selling your offer or your product?
Wiser lets you capture in-store and online data, making it easy to turn insights into actionable data. Their Live Price Check app is a smart lead gen offer since it is closely related to their products.
This landing page makes a compelling offer: check product prices 75% faster.
However, they talk only about the product, and not the offer, which is a free trial.
This section focuses primarily on the product.
Visitors are likely asking themselves: Will I be able to actually do price analysis during my trial? Will I get immediate access or do I have to talk to someone? Will I need training to use the software?
This is a common mistake. Landing pages that offer reports fail to sell the report. Is it long or a quick read? Is it written by a third party? Does it have lots of graphs and images?
This page has some strong elements. Above the headline, it gives social proof: trusted by 500+ retailers and brands.
And the above-the-fold copy promises a compelling outcome while explaining what the app does: Jump ahead of the competition with Live Price Checker’s FREE actionable pricing insights.
This page is well structured and easy to scan. It tells you how the app works and the benefits you’ll gain from using it. And they make it easy to gain access — you only have to enter your email address to get free access.
It repeats the offer at the bottom of the page, as all landing pages should. However, here we learn that the offer is actually a “conversation.” I suspect that this turns many potential prospects away.
If your call to action doesn’t match your initial offer, you’ll lose trust.
Example 8: Don’t offer too many choices.
It’s tempting, once you get people on your landing page, to show them all their options and let them choose the offer they like best.
But more options are not better, according to a 2000 study by psychologists Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper. When presented with too many options, we actually find it harder to make a choice. To make matters worse, when we finally make a decision, we’re less satisfied with whatever choice we make.
This is called choice overload, and it’s the reason every landing page should have just one message, one offer, and one call to action.
Take this landing page as an example.
Choice overload can lead to no action at all.
This page has multiple offers:
Book a call
Chat with us
Get 50% off
Get a free quote
Subscribe
There’s so much going on, it’s hard to know where to start. You can hear the voices in the visitor’s head: “If I book a call does that mean I miss out on 50% off?”
Despite the clear messaging on this page, a first-time visitor will struggle to understand what action they should take. The messaging pulls them in different directions, creating a sense of overwhelm.
A good solution is to create unique landing pages for each call to action and each customer segment. That way, you can focus the message and give visitors one action to perform.
Example 9: Choose images that support the value proposition.
Take a look at this section of the Gusto landing page. Which of these images is “real” and which are stock photos?
Real photos of real people build trust.
It’s obvious to almost every human, even before you notice that two of the images are captioned.
Too often landing pages are designed with placeholders for images, and someone goes to a stock photo site to get happy people that look like the target customer.
Give your images the “Caption Test.” If you can’t write a caption that matches the intent of the image, it’s not a good image. For example, the intent of the second image is “Pay contractors in more than 120 countries.” The image caption is “Woman on a laptop in no place identifiable.” It’s the wrong image. The image should give some visual clue that this person is in another country.
It is much more effective to take the extra step and show real clients and real employees. Adding the caption assures the reader that they are seeing real people, and that gives the page credibility.
Example 10: Make your content readable.
If you want people to enter your conversion funnel, your landing page needs to be easy to read and easy to understand. To achieve this, you need to merge good design with good copywriting.
Take this landing page example from Samcart:
You can improve readability with good design and good copywriting.
This page is easy to read both visually and textually. White space and a strategic layout work together to guide visitors’ eyes as they scroll down the page.
At the top of the page, the value proposition and offer are clear, though much of the message is conveyed through the hero image. If you fill out the form, you’ll get an ebook, The Profit Playbook, with 53 strategies that can double your profits.
Black text on a white background is easy to read and small pops of color draw the visitor’s eye. Lots of white space keeps page elements from competing with one another. As you can see on this landing page, less really is more.
Readability is key to high conversion rates. Make sure your visitors can see and understand your offer. Keep the messaging and layout as simple as possible.
Example 11: Don’t assume your clients understand your jargon
Speaking of clarity, jargon may show off your industry knowledge, but for newcomers, technical terms can be confusing.
Take this landing page, for example:
Jargon may look impressive, but it can be confusing.
This offer is confusing on multiple levels, but the jargon only makes it worse. Some people may know what MFA and SSO mean, many don’t — even qualified prospects who are early in their research.
LastPass does explain these terms in the copy — which helps — but having jargon in the headline makes it harder to convey value.
And even after explaining the terms, the value statement is confusing: “Are MFA and SSO enough to cover all your organization’s identities?” Only people with deep industry experience will understand what that means. Most other people will likely consider exiting the page without filling out the form. After all, if they can’t understand the landing page copy, they probably won’t understand the ebook.
Example 12: Don’t let your hero image compete with the message.
Clarity is king on landing pages. We’ve already talked about the importance of readability. This landing page example shows why that’s so important.
Here, the hero image not only draws attention away from the value statement, it makes it difficult to read.
Make sure your words are easy to see and understand.
This landing page has a good value proposition, but the feature image is so busy, it doesn’t allow you to focus on the message. Not only that, there isn’t enough contrast between the white text and the wheat-colored background. As a result, the top-of-page copy is virtually unreadable.
To add insult to injury, the image doesn’t really advance the value proposition. As we said above, it’s best to use images of your product, your clients, or your employees. As it is, the black call to action button, which should be high in the visual hierarchy, blends into the black color in the image.
A few more layout changes should also be tested. For instance, the form should be moved up, next to the promise: Get All Relevant Data in One Place. Currently, it’s at the bottom of the page.
This form would perform better if it were higher on the page.
Above it are images that appear to be proof points, but they need context to communicate more clearly.
Images usually need context to communicate more clearly.
These images could be used to highlight the product’s benefits by reducing their size and adding a blurb of copy beside each.
This layout change also gives you a visual hierarchy, with the value proposition and promise at the top of the page and benefits/outcomes below that. It only needs a strong summary statement and call to action at the bottom of the page.
Example 13: Establish value with the headline and subheading.
Everything on the page should support the promise.
Ceros puts their value statement front and center with the headline: “Interactive content marketing — no code required.”
The top-of-page then adds context and makes the promise. It answers the question, who is Ceros (an AI-powered content creation ecosystem). It explains in one sentence the types of content you can create (reports, ebooks, etc.). And then it shares the promise: faster and increased content output.
Everything on the page supports this promise. The subheads, for instance:
Easily design & publish interactive content
Track content engagement in real time
And the call to action: Create the content your audience deserves.
It also offers good social proof: 850+ of the world’s leading brands use Ceros, with a few highly recognizable logos.
Example 14: Present one clear message that drives one response.
Inconsistent messaging can hurt your conversion rates.
The core elements are here, but the message is disjunct, making this offer less compelling than it should be.
The headline is the title of the ebook, but that’s not clear. There are several ways to fix this, all of which should be on your landing page checklist. There is no picture of the ebook or its cover. This would have made clear what was being offered. The form has no call to action at the top, such as “Get your free Ebook.” The button could say “Download Your Ebook.”
In the body, the opening line says that now is the time to embrace AI. This still fails to establish the value of the offer and, worse, it insinuates that the visitor doesn’t already know that. This introduces a bit of mixed messaging, which continues throughout this landing page.
The next paragraph tries to make the connection between AI and higher deal velocity and higher conversion rates. But because it doesn’t state this explicitly, the visitor has to connect the dots.
Paragraph 3 finally has the promise: learn how AI helps you create and close more deals. This would have more impact if the copy had made the connection between AI and better sales performance.
And finally, the call to action is, “Don’t get left behind.” Again, this creates mixed messaging. This statement assumes the visitor is resistant to AI, which contradicts the headline’s assumptions.
Listing the authors is a great way to build the credibility of the ebook. None of this messaging aligns.
Example 15: Provide a navigation menu specific to the offer.
Founded in 1932, SNHU has transformed from an accounting and secretarial science school to a university offering more than 200 programs in business, education, social sciences and liberal arts.
With over 3,000 students on campus and more than 170,000 online, SNHU claims to be one of the fastest growing universities in the entire nation.
Let’s take a look at how their lead gen page is attempting to make it grow even faster.
Any navigation should be specific to the page.
The form fields speak directly to the visitor’s needs which makes it feel very personalized and helps to qualify.
It’s also supported by strong benefits.
The page removes the main menu found on the Home page below and replaces it with a menu that is very specific to the landing page.
SNHU’s main menu
Example 16: Make your offer match the ad, email, social post, or link.
Any disconnect between the messaging, layout, or call to action within a marketing funnel can create distrust. That’s why continuity is so important. As users click from the email or ad to the landing page and beyond, each page must look like it flows from the previous page.
This example from Salesforce starts with an email.
The email
The email is short and sweet:
Title of ebook: Learn how to optimize advisor productivity.
Graphic: Combines photos with illustrations.
Button: Read the report.
The promise: Learn how to improve advisor productivity.
Text link: Read the report
When the user clicks, they’re taken to this landing page.
The landing page
Here, there’s good continuity from the email, but it could still be improved.
For example, the value headline on the landing page doesn’t match the email. In fact, wealth management wasn’t even mentioned in the email. That could create some confusion.
The subhead and body copy get back on track. They reproduce, almost word for word, the email copy, creating some continuity in the messaging.
Visually, the graphics are similar, with the photo and illustration combo. But the primary color in the email is blue. Here, it’s purple.
Details like these can interrupt the continuity and degrade trust.
Example 17: Use a quiz instead of a form.
Rhino Fleet Tracking offers GPS tracking systems that enable businesses to monitor trucks, vans, trailers and improve the communication between drivers, managers and staff to maintain a high level of security.
Instead of using a “pancake form” where form fields are stacked like pancakes on a plate, Conversion Sciences created a more interactive quiz style form. Before it asks for personal information, it asks qualifying questions to bring visitors into the form.
The quiz starts by asking a question directly related to the visitor’s problem.
By asking for details about visitor’s situation, the quiz demonstrates that the company is not just trying to get their contact information to send to the sales team. The copy “We can help” is a nice confidence booster.
By successfully answering these questions, the visitor gains momentum for the rest of the steps. The visitor is ready to provide some personal information.
Only now will the quiz ask for contact information and opt-in permissions.
It is tempting to ask for an email address up front in case the visitor abandons the form. We have found that saving this for last is more effective. However, it might be smart to ask for the email before requesting the remaining contact information, which is found in the final step here.
The original landing page had a regular “pancake” form, as shown below.
We ran an A/B test of this form against a version of the quiz-style form.
In an A/B test of this page against the quiz-style form, there was a 61% increase in completion rates for the quiz over the single-page form.
We believe the reason completion rates are higher for this kind of form, even though it has more steps and asks for more information, is due to two things:
We have more room to explain why we are asking for the information.
The visitor may feel the effects of the Sunk Cost Fallacy, in which they don’t want to lose the work they’ve done.
Time to Optimize: Your CRO Journey Begins Now
As you can see from these examples, landing pages are not your average web page. Landing page designs and copy are focused on two jobs: keeping the promise and asking the target audience to make a choice. .
The best landing pages not only convert more prospects, they can lower ad spend and yield a higher ROI while opening the gates to fill your pipeline with quality leads.
But as you’ve seen, there’s a science to creating a lead generation landing page that converts. You need to understand your target audience, their pains and hopes, and the type of offers they’ll respond to.If you’d like to remove more of the mystery and apply our proven formulas to your lead gen landing pages, let us know. Conversion Sciences is a conversion rate optimization agency that specializes in conversion rate optimization services.
How predictable are people when they are on the Web? As it turns out, they are not very predictable at all. For any site, the audience is very different, even among sites in the same business.
Whenever we try to predict how people will behave, we are trying to predict the future. This is how we forecast outcomes and the potential revenue behind an idea or campaign. As a result, it’s vital to understand how this is done.
Here are four ways we tend to do this on the Web. (Note: not all of them are recommended!)
1. “What worked for others will work for us in the future.”
Predicting the future based on what your competitors is doing is like painting a room to match your neighbor’s furniture. Your site is different. Your audience is different.
And what others are doing may not be working for them. They may be just copying someone else.
There was a time when everyone used rotating images on their homepages. In our tests, we found that rotating header images rarely beat static images.
We see that all the time. A tactics that works for one website becomes a trend. Everyone follows without testing its effectiveness for their audience and their website.
2. “What I like is what everyone will like.”
Most of our sites suffer from what we call “selling to ourselves.” The major problem with this approach is that everyone on your team is a different self. The designer designs for herself, the writer writes for himself, and the marketing exec approves what they themselves approve of. The site will speak with many different voices, both visually and textually.
This approach only predicts the future for visitors who are like the members of this team, who have the skillsets that the members of this team take for granted.
3. “What we have today will continue to work for us.”
While things can change, this is one of the more reliable ways to predict the future. We say that, based on past experience and data, we can predict what will happen tomorrow.
This method predicts the status quo, but does not properly incorporate sales growth into the future vision.
4. “We must experiment to see what will work in the future.”
When we say, for example, “Our competitors are using video, therefore we should use video,” we are stating a hypothesis.
When we test this hypothesis, we are finding out if our statement predicts the future. Then we can say, “Our test shows that video led more visitors to buy, so we can assume in the future that video will generate more sales.”
Likewise, saying, “I don’t like watching videos when I shop online, so visitors will not like video on our site,” can also be stated as a hypothesis, though the opposite of the one we stated above.
If we had already tested video, we would be able to predict if visitors like video or not based on the sales generated. We don’t need to guess because we have gained the ability to predict the future.
A Unified Fortune Telling Technology
Only the fourth option relies on the scientific process. With this approach, every idea becomes a hypothesis to be tested, and it becomes possible to tell the future with more accuracy.
We always test from where we are today, adding our hypothesis to the mix and testing it against the page as it is.
It makes sense to consider what others are doing and our personal taste when coming up with ideas. It is when we put those ideas in the context of the existing site and test them that we gain a future-seeing goggles.
Full funnel conversion optimization – or the Conversion Sciences Profit Funnel™ – provides the analysis and insights to help you prepare for the future and positively impact your business bottom line.
Getting form optimization from your landing page templates goes beyond knowing the key components of a landing page form. It’s about creating a user journey that guides visitors toward an informed choice.
Let’s unravel the blueprint for landing page form optimization best practices that are not only user-friendly but are conversion-optimized powerhouses.
1. Keep it Simple
Everyone starts a form with a certain amount of cognitive energy. The more motivated they are to complete a form the bigger the bank of energy they have. However, if you deplete their cognitive energy before they complete the form they abandon.
When optimizing forms, make everything clear and easy for people to fill out. When forms are simple, users can quickly give the information needed without any stress. Here’s how to simplify web form optimization:
Fewer fields: Reduce the number of fields and ask only what you need to know.
Clear field labels: Use easy words and clear language that everyone understands.
Logical order: Arrange questions in a sensible order.
Ease of navigation: Make the form easy to get through with clear steps.
White space: Leave enough open space to avoid a crowded look.
Make sure the form loads fast to keep people’s attention. Give easy-to-understand help messages if someone makes a mistake. Make it responsive on mobile phones, tablets and computers.
Is this asking too much information to simply register for a webinar?
2. Write Clear Field Labels for Optimizing Forms
Clear field labels are the road signs in the journey of filling out a form. They tell users where to go, ensuring they don’t take a wrong turn and abandon the process out of frustration. Follow these guidelines to craft a clear landing page template when optimizing forms:
Be direct: Use simple words. For instance, instead of saying, “Proceed to input your electronic mail,” just say, “Enter your email.”
Use top-aligned labels: Placing labels above the fields is often the best choice as it makes it easier for users to scan and complete quickly.
No technical jargon: Avoid using technical terms that might confuse users; keep the language simple and universal.
Mandatory fields: Clearly indicate which fields are mandatory to fill out, usually with an asterisk (*), so users know they can’t skip these.
Field length: The length of the field should match the length of the answer. For example, a phone number field should be a manageable length.
It’s almost always unwise to place form labels below the fields.
3. Include a Visible, Contrasting Form CTA Button
Forms act as highly visible “conversion beacons” on landing pages, making it clear to the visitor that they are being asked to do something. However, a visible, contrasting call to action (CTA) button will reinforce the desired action.
A form CTA should grab the users’ attention, nudging them naturally and assertively toward making that click. It’s more than a button. It steers users in the right direction. The button should contain contrasting colors that draw the eyes and break visual monotony, creating a focal point that’s almost magnetic.
The button size should be substantial enough to be noticed but not so large that it overwhelms other content. Position it strategically, ideally in a central and prominent spot, where users’ eyes naturally drift. Pair it with compelling text that drives action — steer clear of generic phrases like “click here.”
The design of this form downplays the call to action.
4. Provide Visual Cues and Instructions
Visual cues and instructions help users move through a form intuitively, without feeling lost. When optimizing forms, consider these tips and strategies for implementing visual cues:
Icons and imagery: Use icons to indicate different steps or types of information required, helping users quickly understand what’s expected.
Step indicators: In multi-step forms, use step indicators to show users their progress, giving them a sense of accomplishment and urging them to continue.
Tool tips: Consider tool tips that offer additional information when hovered over, helping to clarify any potential doubts or questions.
Color coding: Use different colors to indicate the status of each field (e.g., red for errors, green for correctly filled fields), providing real-time feedback.
Arrows and pointers: Use arrows to guide the user’s eye flow, subtly directing them from one field to the next in a logical manner.
5. Use Smart Placeholder Text
When making a landing page with form layouts, it’s a good idea to use placeholder text. The placeholder text is the faint text you see in the boxes where the user will type information. It helps people know what they should put in each box.
Placeholder text shouldn’t replace the primary field labels that tell people what each box is for; it’s just there to give extra help.
Keep the placeholder text short and simple. Use everyday words that everyone can understand so people aren’t wondering what they should do. The text color should be lighter than the color people see when they start typing so they can see the difference between their words and your hints.
Test your form to make sure the placeholder text works well, and the layout looks good on different devices such as phones, tablets and computers. That way, visitors will have an easier time using your form, no matter what they use to view it.
6. Implement Progressive Profiling
Progressive profiling is a technique used in digital marketing to gradually collect information about a lead over time rather than asking for all the details at once. Progressive profiling reduces form length, eases the user’s experience and enriches the data profile of the user as they continue to engage with your site or offerings.
The perks? Users are more likely to complete shorter forms with a simpler layout. As they see value and build trust with your brand over time, they’ll be more inclined to share additional information, enabling you to fine-tune your marketing efforts.
Follow this step-by-step guide to implement progressive profiling for form optimization:
Determine priority information: Decide the most crucial details you need from a user on their first interaction.
Set up marketing automation: Use a marketing automation platform that supports progressive profiling.
Establish triggers: Set up triggers based on user behaviors. For instance, on a user’s first visit, they can be asked to provide their name and email. On their second interaction, you might ask for their job title or company name.
Limit the number of fields: Each interaction should introduce only a couple of new fields. This ensures that users are not overwhelmed.
Provide value in exchange: Each time you ask for more information, ensure you’re offering something of value in return.
Ensure data privacy: Be transparent about how you’ll use the data and comply with data protection regulations.
7. Aim for Mobile-Friendly Landing Page Form Optimization
In 2023, 59% of website traffic came from mobile phones, and that percentage is trending upward. Making your landing page mobile responsive ensures a positive user experience that’ll likely result in more completed forms.
To make a mobile-friendly landing page form, start with an uncluttered layout that’s easy to navigate on smaller screens. Make the text readable with buttons large enough to tap effortlessly. A good user experience occurs when the visitor doesn’t have to struggle to read tiny text or tap small buttons.
One of the best ways to improve the mobile form experience is to deliver the proper keyboard for each form field. Both iPhone and Android have special keyboards for:
Numeric fields for phone number, credit card, etc.
Email fields
Fields that ask for a URL
Text fields
Choose the right keyboard for each form field.
Test the landing page template on different mobile phones and browsers to make sure it works flawlessly. Pay attention to load times. If the page or the form loads slowly, you’ll lose potential customers. Ensure that everything looks right and works correctly. Usability sets the stage for a seamless interaction with your potential customers.
The regular keyboard capitalizes and inserts spaces, which are not good for a website address.
8. Include Trust and Privacy Indicators
Building trust with users is a pivotal step. Certificates, privacy policies, and trust badges reassure users that their information is secure and will be handled properly. Here is how to effectively include trust and privacy indicators that give you credibility.
SSL certificates: These are proof that your website is secure. This proof of security is usually represented by a padlock icon in the browser’s address bar. Make sure to obtain one for your site to guarantee data security.
Privacy policy links: Always include a link to your privacy policy near the form. This should detail how user data will be used and protected, offering assurance to users.
Trust badges: Adding trust badges from well-known security firms or payment systems can give your users peace of mind. Place them in visible areas, such as near payment information fields.
Plain language: Use clear, straightforward language to explain the security features so users understand your safety measures without feeling overwhelmed with technical jargon.
Testimonials and reviews: If possible, include reviews or testimonials near the form. Positive feedback from other users can bolster trust.
Displaying these elements prominently (but not intrusively) can strike the right balance between providing assurance and maintaining a clean design. Encouraging trust facilitates a smoother path to conversion.
This form has two links offering risk reversal.
9. Minimize Distractions
Creating a space free of clutter allows users to concentrate solely on the form and steer clear of any hindrances that might disrupt the flow. It retains the user’s attention and subtly nudges them to fill out the form, thereby improving conversion rates.
Limited navigation: Reduce the options for users to navigate away from the page. It could mean having no menu bar or limiting the number of clickable links.
Simple design: Embrace a clean, simple design that highlights the form rather than overshadowing it. Use whitespace effectively to draw attention to the form.
Focused content: Ensure the content on the page aligns with the goal of the form. Avoid adding irrelevant information that doesn’t support the user in completing the form.
Subdued colors: Choose a color scheme that’s pleasing to the eye and doesn’t distract users from the task at hand. Avoid bright, flashy colors that can divert the user’s attention.
Relevant images: While images can enhance a page, be sure they’re not distracting users from the main action point, which is your form.
No CAPTCHA: All of the research we have seen indicates that CAPTCHA tests designed to reduce spam significantly reduce form completion rates. Just don’t do it.
Don’t make your prospects play games to complete a form.
10. Consider Error Handling and Validation
User-friendly error handling and validation are keystones in landing page form optimization. They ensure users can easily correct mistakes. They also foster a smoother, frustration-free experience, which, in turn, amplifies conversion rates.
Here are the best techniques for handling errors and validation:
Real-time feedback: Implement real-time feedback to instantly inform users of any errors, allowing them to correct mistakes as they go rather than after submission, which can be more frustrating.
Specific error messages: When an error occurs, provide clear, specific error messages. Error messages should indicate exactly what the issue is, guiding users to a quick resolution.
Highlight errors: Use visual cues like color changes or icons to pinpoint exactly where the error occurred, making it easier for users to spot and correct.
Friendly language: Use friendly, supportive language in your error messages to avoid frustrating users.
On mobile, beware of validation error messages that appear off-screen. It is recommended that error messages appear on or near the field that needs attention. Avoid posting error messages at the top of the form or the top of the page, as these may be off-screen for a mobile user.
Which fields are incomplete? (I was never able to complet this transaction.)
11. Perform AB Testing and Form Optimization
A/B testing is a must-have in the digital landscape. It allows you to make informed decisions based on data and performance metrics. A/B testing and optimization includes refining and optimizing to ensure your landing page form is performing at optimum levels, which bolsters conversion rates. Here’s a step-by-step guide that helps you do it correctly:
Define your goal: Clearly establish what you aim to achieve with the test, be it increasing the conversion rate, reducing form abandonment, etc.
Create a hypothesis: Develop a hypothesis that you intend to test based on your observations or analytics data.
Identify variables: Pick out the elements you wish to test. It could be the form’s layout, the number of fields, the color scheme, etc.
Develop variants: Create at least two different versions of your landing page form (A and B), altering the identified variables.
Run the test: Execute the test by routing one-half of your visitors to version A and the other half to version B.
Collect data: Let the test run for a sufficient time to gather a substantial amount of data.
Analyze results: Scrutinize the data to find out which version performed better in line with your predefined goals.
Implement changes: Based on your results, implement the winning strategies from the more successful version.
Post A/B testing, continuous optimization comes into play. It’s about nurturing perpetual improvement, where insights gleaned from one test feed into the hypotheses for future tests.
12. Use Analytics and Tracking
Use analytics and tracking tools to understand user behavior and the overall performance of your form. These tools track a variety of metrics that give you the actionable insights you need to continually refine and optimize your form.
Metrics to keep an eye on include:
Form completion rate: This metric tells you the percentage of visitors who took the desired action, giving a direct measure of your form’s success.
Form abandonment rate: Keeping track of how many users start but don’t finish the form can help you pinpoint the problematic areas that need attention.
Field abandonment rate: Measures the percentage of visitors who leave before completing a specific field.
Field completion time: This tells you how long, on average, a visitor took to complete a field. Delays can indicate user confusion or resistance.
Time spent on page: Analyzing the time users spend on your form page can offer insights into the form’s complexity and user engagement level.
Error messages: Monitoring the frequency and types of error messages displayed can help you identify areas that need improved user experience.
By looking at user behavior and form performance, you begin developing optimization strategies that can improve your form completion rates. You will craft a form that’s user-friendly and finely tuned to facilitate higher conversions. It’s about blending science with strategy to foster a landing page form that’s primed for success.
Better Form Optimization Leads to More Conversions
Effective form design is crucial for form optimization, enhancing user experience and increasing conversion rates. You can significantly improve conversion rates by adhering to best practices such as simplicity, clear CTAs, and intuitive layouts. Regular testing and refinement based on user feedback are essential for maintaining optimal form effectiveness.
In digital marketing, landing page forms are essential for transforming casual browsers into engaged customers. Forms serve as a first handshake, introducing individuals to your brand while gathering vital information to personalize their experience.
When crafting these forms, the golden rule is efficiency. A well-structured form respects the user’s time and demonstrates a focused approach, asking for only what’s necessary to kick-start a relationship for you and a potential customer.
Below, we share valuable tips for landing page best practices and how to design and optimize your forms to convert more leads into loyal customers.
Completing a contact form: Here, visitors are reaching out, offering a direct line for you to showcase what your brand can do.
Signing up for newsletters: When visitors decide to stay looped in, they hand over their email addresses to get regular updates.
Downloading resources: Be it an insightful ebook, a white paper, or a podcast, if a visitor downloads it, that’s a conversion.
Requesting a quote or information: This signals a deeper interest as visitors are asking to know more about what you’re offering.
Making a purchase or signing up for a service: When a visitor opens their wallet and makes a purchase, it’s a conversion you want to celebrate.
We divide conversions into two main types:
In a primary conversion, the visitor hits the bullseye and helps you meet the main goal of your landing page by making a purchase or filling out a contact form.
Secondary conversions are additional actions users take if they need more time to complete the primary conversion but demonstrate interest, such as subscribing to a newsletter or downloading a whitepaper.
In either case, the goal of your landing form is to capture essential information from visitors, helping to transform them from casual browsers into qualified leads.
Why Use Landing Page Forms?
Forms are the backbone of any successful landing page strategy. They’re like friendly greeters at a store’s entrance, helping to introduce potential customers to what the business offers while gathering helpful information along the way. A successfully executed form also allows you to connect with, learn about, and encourage your visitors to act.
Connect With Your People
These forms are all about making connections. By encouraging visitors to share some information about themselves, you build relationships with people who are genuinely interested in your offering. We call it capturing leads.
Learn About Your People
Forms are a goldmine for gathering customer data. They help you gain insights to refine your approach and offer products, deals, or information more aligned with what your audience wants. It’s a smart way to keep people engaged and coming back for more.
Encourage Your People to Commit
Let’s not forget about sales! A well-designed form can smoothly guide a visitor from browsing your site to purchasing. It’s like having a helpful shop assistant who knows exactly when to step in and offer just the right suggestion to help a customer make their choice.
In this article, we focus on landing page form optimization, but as mentioned above, your form is part of a larger landing page strategy. Don’t forget to optimize your landing page for conversion as well. These landing page templates will help.
Key Components of a High-Converting Form
If you want your landing page forms to convert, have your endgame in mind. This ensures that every element of your form is strategically aligned to encourage users to complete the desired action.
Each field in the form reassures and motivates the user, helping them gain momentum and ultimately leading to a conversion. They provide a great user experience but also reduce submissions from unqualified prospects. The following elements help you achieve these goals.
Compelling Headline
A great headline is a firm handshake with the visitor; it grabs their attention and holds on tight. It should resonate with the potential customers and hint at the value they will receive.
Here are some pro techniques for writing winning headlines:
Keep it tight. The best headlines are no more than six to ten words. This makes it easier to read at a glance, and more importantly, to fit more easily on mobile devises.
Make it active: A good headline feels energetic. The best way to inject energy is to write the headline with an active verb, ideally in the present tense.
Omit the unnecessary: Strike articles (words like a, an, and the) whenever possible. And instead of conjunctions (think and or but), use commas.
Be specific: Vague is boring. Use specific numbers and details to capture attention.
Need some inspiration for your next compelling headline? Think of action phrases like:
“Unlock Your Exclusive Offer”
“Elevate Your Programming Skills in 30 Minutes”
“Order Today to Save 60%!”
“Advance Your Career by 5 Years”
“Discover 3 Secrets to a Healthier You!”
“Reduce Reverb with the Industry’s #1 Digital Mixer.”
These headlines are enticing, offering a promise of value and evoking a sense of exclusivity and advancement.
Clear Benefit Statement
A benefit statement goes hand in hand with the headline, offering a concise yet comprehensive overview of what users stand to gain if they take action. It could be phrased like any of these:
“Save Time and Money with Exclusive Deals Delivered to Your Inbox!”
“Gain Instant Access to Expert Advice and Industry Insights!”
“Join Now and Start Enjoying Members-Only Content and Resources!”
“Secure Your Spot to Get First Dibs on All Our New Releases and Discounts!”
“Complete the Form and Take the First Step Toward a Better You!”
Crafting a potent benefit statement involves pinpoint precision and a firm focus on value. When drafting your statements, remember these three quick tips:
Emphasize the unique rewards the user will gain, painting a vivid yet specific picture of the advantages.
Use energetic and affirmative language to foster enthusiasm and convey confidence; this is not the time for passivity.
Make it as concise as possible; every word should serve a purpose, driving home the benefit without meandering.
Highlight the benefits vividly, spotlighting the value of completing the form.
Clear and Concise Instructions
One of the biggest mistakes you can make when designing a landing page form is to assume users understand what they need to do next. It’s important to clearly communicate the purpose of registration forms, how to fill them out, and what happens after they do.
Your goal is to design a smooth user experience. Imagine that you’re having a direct conversation with your potential customers. Guide them in a friendly yet assured manner.
Make field labels clear and concise. This reduces guesswork and increases the likelihood that users will accurately complete every field. It can help to use some basic copywriting techniques:
Use words that are easy to understand — avoid jargon.
Be clear, not creative or clever.
Use the fewest words necessary to communicate clearly.
It may be necessary to write simple instruction, complete with checkboxes, bullet points, or numbers to guide the user through their next steps.
However you approach it, make sure you use a simple, less-is-more layout to reduce confusion. Good form design includes easy-to-read field labels, a clean layout, and responsive feedback that acknowledges correct user input. It also adopts a layout that looks good on phones and tablets since 45% of form data is submitted on mobile devices.
Proper Use of Form Fields
Form design studies have found that unnecessary form fields create friction and reduce conversion rates. The statistics are sobering:
81% of users have abandoned an online form after beginning to fill it out.
27% of users have abandoned an online form because it was too long.
67% of users will abandon a form forever if they encounter any complications.
To avoid form abandonment, it’s important to reduce complication. Think “less is more.”
Your form layout should include only as many fields as you need.
Are you offering a report or whitepaper? Users know you only need their email address to send them the information they’re requesting. They may be willing to share their name and phone number, but it’s unlikely they’ll answer a dozen fields asking for details about their job or their business.
Are they filling out a demo-request form? Users understand that you need more information to put together a demo. You can ask about their job role and business but you should avoid asking penetrating questions that can be asked face-to-face.
A smart strategy in form design is to leverage “stop fields,” fields that ask too much of your visitors when compared to the perceived value of the offer.
These fields tend to cause form abandonment — but keep in mind, there is bad form abandonment and good form abandonment.
Bad form abandonment occurs when a qualified prospect was unwilling to complete the form. Good form abandonment occurs when you discourage unqualified prospects from completing the form. And that’s where stop fields come into play. Used strategically, they can reduce conversion while increasing the quality of your leads.
Stop fields may include:
Mobile phone number
Dropdowns
Business revenue
Number of employees
Social security number
Date of birth
CAPTCHA
Dropdowns or checkboxes that do not include the “right” answer for a visitor will cause abandonment.
Form optimization is key. When designing your form, for every field in your form, ask two questions:
Do I need this information to fulfill the offer?
Will this field eliminate unqualified prospects?
Determining what information to ask for involves a careful consideration of your goals. Are you aiming to nurture leads, sign users up for a newsletter, or perhaps register them for a webinar? The nature of your offering should dictate the kind of information you require.
Primary contact details: Ask for basic contact details such as name and email address, which allows you to build a connection and communicate with the user.
Segmentation information: Include a field to gather segmentation information (like job title or industry).
Feedback or specific interests: Include a field where users can state their interests or ask questions.
Remember to keep your field labels as simple as possible, so they don’t reduce trust or increase abandonment rates.
Progress Indicators for Multi-Step Forms
Progress indicators offer a roadmap on longer or multi-step forms, letting users know where they are in the process and how much further they have to go. They enhance the user experience by providing a sense of accomplishment with each completed step and encouraging users to proceed to the next step.
Here are some guidelines for effectively using progress indicators in quiz-style or multi-step landing page forms:
Layout: Ensure that the progress indicator is clearly visible—ideally at the top of the form—so users can easily see their progress at any point.
Simplicity: Keep it simple. Use basic shapes and minimalistic form design to denote progress without distracting from the main task.
Step descriptions: Each step in the progress indicator should have a brief description, helping users understand what is expected in each section.
Active step highlight: Highlight the active step to provide a visual cue of the current stage in the completion process.
Dynamic feedback: Offer dynamic feedback, updating the progress bar as users navigate the form.
Also, use colors strategically, such as using a distinct color to denote completed steps and create a visual differentiation. Consider providing incentives for completing different stages, encouraging users to reach the end of the process.
Thank You Page or Confirmation Message
A well-crafted thank you page or confirmation message is a golden opportunity to further engage with users and create a lasting impression. It provides a satisfying closure to the form submission process, reassuring users that their effort was successful while enhancing their overall experience.
The thank you page also creates an “Endowment Effect.” This is the afterglow that kicks in once someone has decided to take action on your landing page. It “endows” your business with a heightened trust. This is an ideal time to ask users to do something more.
An effective thank you page or confirmation message can include a variety of elements, such as:
Confirmation details: Include a summary of the information submitted or the next steps, reassuring users that the process has been successfully completed.
Engagement opportunities: Offer additional resources, such as blog posts, ebooks, or webinars, to encourage users to explore further and stay engaged with your brand.
Social sharing buttons: Encourage users to share their actions on social media, potentially increasing your reach and attracting more visitors.
Subscription option: Provide an option to subscribe to your newsletter to foster a long-term relationship with the user.
Schedule a time: If the offer is for a demo or consultation, ask the visitor to go ahead and schedule a time with a calendar widget.
Provide feedback: We love to ask a question on the thank you page, such as “What almost kept you from requesting the report?”
Here are some examples of effective thank you pages or confirmation messages:
Content Download Thank You Page:
Message: “Thank you, [Name]! Your ebook is on its way to your inbox.”
Next steps: Share some popular blog posts they can read while they wait.
Sharing: Include buttons to easily share the ebook offer with friends on social platforms.
Webinar Registration Thank You Page:
Message: “You’re all set, [Name]! We look forward to seeing you at the [Webinar Name].”
Details: Include a summary of the webinar details (date, time) and an option to add it to their calendar.
Preparation: Add links to pre-webinar reading materials or relevant videos.
Strong Call to Action (CTA)
A strong and clear call to action (CTA) isn’t just a button or a small part of your landing page forms. It’s essentially the crescendo of your user’s journey on your page. It’s the final nudge that encourages the user to take the desired action, steering them from being a visitor to a potential lead or customer.
A well-crafted CTA can significantly boost conversions and play a pivotal role in a successful landing page. Here are a handful of examples of successful CTAs:
“Get My Free Ebook Now!”
“Join the Webinar”
“Start My Free Trial”
“Yes, I Want Exclusive Access!”
“Subscribe & Save”
Notice how these CTAs use enthusiastic and encouraging language, coupled with a value proposition, to make the action more enticing.
Use these simple techniques for crafting persuasive CTAs:
Be clear and direct: Use straightforward language that clearly indicates the action you want the user to take.
Create urgency: If appropriate, create a sense of urgency by using time-bound language to encourage quick action.
Highlight value: Showcase the value proposition prominently, highlighting what the user stands to gain from taking the action.
Use actionable verbs: Start with verbs that encourage action, like “Get,” “Join,” or “Discover,” to foster enthusiasm and a readiness to act.
Optimize size and placement: Ensure the CTA is a noticeable size and placed prominently on the page to grab attention.
Better Forms Lead to More Conversions
We’ve dissected the pivotal role forms play in digital marketing, emphasizing the elements that can boost conversion rates. From understanding the essence of conversions to identifying ways to improve form design and so much more, we gave you the inside scoop on creating compelling landing page forms that take potential customers across the finish line.
There’s no greater skill than self-reliance. Generating data to support your designs, ideas, and strategies gives you a freedom not available to marketers 10 years ago.
Conversion rate optimization is the segment of digital marketing that seeks to maximize the value gained from your website’s visitors. We seek to convert a visitor to a customer, a lead, or an email subscriber. In short, conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the discipline of getting the most value from the visitors to your website. Businesses get value from their visitors when they begin a conversation with them or convert them to customers.
Without a CRO program, you lose qualified visitors, leaving money on the table. This is why these skills are in high demand from businesses in all industries.
Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he can charge up to $29.99 a pound for fresh salmon.
In this article we’ll discuss conversion rate optimization training, how to set learning goals, define essential concepts, funnels, UX, A/B testing, courses, e-books, and communities.
So, grab a pole and a net. We’re going to make sure you’re not left talking about the ones that got away.
What is Conversion Rate Optimization?
CRO increases the percentage of visitors who become buyers with the guidance of analytics to determine what is happening behind the scenes on your pages and then implementing the creativity of winning messages, images, and calls-to-action.
Why is CRO Important?
CRO is one of the most important aspects of digital marketing.
Sitting at status quo could leave you stuck if you don’t implement a CRO program. There’s a direct connection to the amount of time, effort, or money you put into CRO and the resulting ROI benefit.
If your landing experience is converting at less than 2%, it doesn’t really matter how much traffic you throw at it. Your acquisition cost is going to remain high.
Getting Started with Self-Paced CRO Training
The first step to learning any new topic is to understand how you like to learn. Learning in your own way ensures that you absorb the information that you can then use for the lifetime of your business.
There are four common ways people learn*.
Methodicals: You need to become an expert in conversion rate optimization. You will read blogs, watch videos, scour reports, and attend events before you dive in.
Competitives: You need to be able to apply what you are learning to your current problems. You will look for content and training that addresses CRO to reduce acquisition costs, decrease shopping cart abandonment, or other specific issues.
Humanists: You learn with others. You are looking for trusted experts and communities in the CRO space that are providing content and recommending resources for you to explore.
Spontaneous: You need to jump in and start doing things. You learn fastest by trying things and making mistakes.
Being honest with yourself about how you learn allows you to tailor your learning program.
Evaluate Your Current Knowledge
CRO is about applying data to business problems. Why not collect some data on yourself?
We recommend that you look at your Myers Briggs type, Strengths Finder strengths, or the Kolbe A Index to understand how you learn.
Assessing your skills will keep you from investing in resources that you ultimately won’t get value from. Doing so will help you to prioritize your goals.
How much experience do you have with CRO? How in depth are your skills in copywriting, usability, consumer psychology and behind the scenes coding?
Set Learning Goals
To help you prioritize goals, use the SMART method for defining them. SMART helps you to become specific in finding measurable goals that are achievable, relevant and met in a timely manner.
Here’s an example of how you can do this with a CRO goal.
Specific – Create copy for a page that increases conversion rates.
Measurable – How many conversions does a page with the copy contribute to?
Achievable – An increase of 10% to 20% in your conversion rate would be helpful and achievable.
Relevant – More conversions will mean more revenue for the business.
Time-Bound – I can accomplish this within 3 months.
Essential CRO Concepts to Master
The core principles in CRO include:
Conveying a unique value proposition
Building trust
Increasing relevance
Providing clarity
Amplifying desire
Eliminating friction
Adding urgency.
As you begin to master CRO skills, you will be able to apply and test these concepts in your own marketing.
The Conversion Funnel
Your campaigns are a series of steps. Each step is an opportunity to apply CRO to move a visitor forward in their evaluation of your offering. So, it’s important that you look at the entire journey as a whole and pay attention to how it all works together.
Top of funnel activities are usually focused on awareness.
Your home page is a top of funnel hub that directs visitors to areas of your website that are relevant to them when they visit.
Here are some things to focus on for the home page:
Fast page load speeds will keep visitors on the site.
Great navigation will make it easier for your visitors to find their way around.
A strong unique value proposition will help visitors to commit to further engagement.
Elements in the middle of the funnel focus on getting visitors to look at specific products and services.
Great content will engage them with your products or services and build trust. Clarity will help define which products or services they should look at.
Bottom of funnel elements strive to close sales.
Use comparison pages, demos, and testimonials to help visitors pull the trigger. Eliminating friction will help move visitors through to the end of the funnel. And adding urgency might make it more likely to happen quicker.
User Experience (UX) and CRO
In digital marketing, much of the customer journey boils down to UX. Is the design of your site helping them understand what is important to focus on??
There are two competing forces at work in UX: familiarity and novelty. We don’t have to work too hard if we are familiar with the UX. Novelty can grab our attention, highlighting what is unique about the business.
We can use the example of shopping in a brick-and-mortar store.
Grocery stores that use the same standard universal aisle layout across stores make it easy for shoppers to find what they’re looking for if they find themselves shopping at the same store in a different city. This approach leverages our familiarity with how grocery stores work.
Novel UX requires us to teach shoppers a new way of doing things. Save it for truly novel situations.
In a grocery store, self-checkout, however, is a novel way to pay. It makes it quick for those who have small orders but requires more work on the part of the customer.
So, make the usability of your online store smooth in this same fashion. Make your navigation seamless, add upsells and make your checkout process simple.
A/B Testing
One of the best ways to know if a change to your website will be preferred by your visitors is with A/B split tests.
A/B split tests can scientifically tell you with statistical accuracy which change will increase your conversion rate.
It works by loading the current existing web page along with a competing test page into split testing software. Half of your visitors will see the original version while half of your traffic will see the test page.
Conversions are then tracked for each page and a winning page is declared. It’s beneficial to get on a split testing program of at least one test per month.
An example of a basic split test would be testingtwo2 different calls-to-action to see which yields the most sales.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
There are many KPIs that will tell you if your CRO work is improving things for the business.
Measurement is critical to CRO work, and website analytics is the source for most of your KPIs. If you are unfamiliar with website analytics, we can recommend MeasurementMarketing to gently get you up the learning curve.
Here are some KPIs to consider in your digital marketing endeavors.
Bounce Rate/Engaged Visitors
Your bounce rate has been defined by the ubiquitous Google Universal Analytics as the percentage of visitors who leave your site after visiting only one page. Less blunt measures of bounce rate use the time a visitor is on the site or to indicate a bounce, or some combination of time and pages visited.
For example, Google Analytics 4 uses such a combination of metrics to determine which visits are from engaged visitors. The inverse of this is equivalent to the bounce rate.
A high bounce rate, or low engagement rate, tells you that you are getting qualified visitors from your search, ads, emails, and other traffic sources. They quickly see that they are in the wrong place.
Click and Scroll Depth Metrics
Platforms such as Hotjar and Microsoft Clarity show you where people are clicking on your pages, where they’re not clicking, and how far down a page they are scrolling.
This gives you on-page information that unearths problems with your UX, messaging, and design.
User Path
Most analytics products will show you how visitors are moving through your website. You will see where visitors are getting stuck or dropping out of the funnel.
Time on Page
Google Analytics shows you how much time, on average, your visitors are spending on your page to evaluate engagement.
It is important to realize that time on page may not correlate with higher conversion rates.
Exits
The exit rate tells you which pages are causing visitors to leave your website. Take a close look at pages with high exit percentages.
Conversion Rate
And finally, don’t forget to measure your actual conversion rate. Measure it using this equation…
(Number of conversions / Number of visitors) * 100 = Conversion rate %.
Best Resources for Self-Learning CRO
There’s a myriad of CRO resources that will help you learn how to increase your conversions rates and practice developing new skills.
It’s important that you follow reputable digital marketing sources. Here are a few resources both free and paid to add to your CRO learning program.
Online Courses and Certifications
A CRO course is one of the most effective ways to get training under your belt. With a regimented course plan and quizzes, it’s a great way to test, develop and practice skills. Some conversion rate optimization training courses offer a CRO certification, which can be a nice addition to your resume.
We can’t recommend a training resource more than CXL Institute.
Our own Brian Massey teaches the introduction to the CRO mini degree, which has the detail that Methodical learners will love.
With 90 digital marketing courses, Competitive learners will be able to find something that focuses on their current problems.
CXL draws from industry experts, so Humanists are likely to find a trusted source to learn from.
Market Motive offers a low-cost but comprehensive conversion rate optimization training course. Market Motive offers hands-on projects for our Spontaneous learners to try out what they learn.
The bite-size lectures found on Udemy will also appeal to our Spontaneous learners.
For our Humanist learners, we recommend live and online workshops, like those offered by SMX, Digital Summit and others. These provide a way for you to interact with the trainer and the class as you explore topics in CRO.
Regardless of your learning style, your ability to create words and images that are relevant and compelling to your visitors is crucial. For this reason, we love Copyhackers online courses for copywriting.
Books and E-books
Many CRO experts have written books that should be in every budding analyst’s library to help them learn more. A comprehensive list wouldn’t be that useful to you.
Instead, we offer one or two resources for each of the learning styles we’ve highlighted in this article.
For our Competitive learners, we recommend Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think Revisited. For decades, this book has changed the mindset of readers and experimenters.
For our Methodical learners, we recommend a detailed top-to-bottom overview of CRO.
This book focuses on landing page optimization with before and after results.
Forums and Online Communities
Being able to openly ask and answer CRO questions is a valuable place for people to broaden and learn more CRO skills. It’s a place of precision learning. It’s also a really great place to meet other CRO folks.
Check out the Moz CRO forum where you can learn techniques by meeting like-minded people and interact with questions and answers.
Practical Tips for Applying CRO Knowledge
Finally, there will come a time to apply your CRO knowledge in a real-world setting. It’s important that you adjust and refine based on outcomes.
You should have access to a website with at least 100 conversions a month if you want to start exercising your new CRO skills.
Start Small
You don’t have to perform a complete web redesign in order to get results. In fact, it’s not advised because multiple changes can skew results making it difficult to know what changes helped or hurt a page.
It’s advised that you start with small changes so you can gauge exactly which changes increase and which changes decrease conversions.
Even a small change such as changing the copy on a CTA button can yield significant results.
Analyze, Iterate, Improve
The beauty of CRO is that at each step you can take what you learn and build and improve upon that improvement.
Don’t be afraid of failed tests. There is opportunity to gain insight from failed tests as well.
Take what you have learned from both your winning and losing tests and then use that information to iterate with a new test.
Stay Updated with CRO Trends
As with any arm of digital marketing such as CRO, it is always evolving. New platforms are always emerging that could change the game enabling you to learn more.
Make sure you’re signed up to newsletters that will help keep you up to date on the latest trends. Follow blogs for new articles that showcase new technologies and trends. And follow influencers on social media.
FAQs
How do I get good at CRO?
Practice really does make perfect. If you follow all these guidelines and maintain a learning program and you will notice that as you go along, things really start to click and make sense in new ways as you continue to learn.
What skills do you need for CRO?
You need analytical skills to sort through data that will help you make informed decisions. And you need creativity skills to write copy and messaging that resonates with your audience.
What is the best degree for a CRO?
A marketing degree with a focus in digital marketing is highly beneficial to a CRO specialist with a concentration in CRO related classes.
What makes a successful CRO?
A successful CRO makes decisions based on data, not assumptions.
Analysis is just one part of the game. You will also want to work on your ability to present your findings in a way that others will understand.
How long does it take to become proficient in CRO?
There is a lot of skill developing when it comes to CRO. It often takes time for things to truly click. It typically takes a couple of years if you stick to your learning program and have opportunities to exercise your skills.
Are there any industry-recognized certifications for CRO?
CXL Institute offers certification that is generally recognized by the industry.
How do I measure the success of my CRO efforts?
Measure your KPIs and make sure that they are moving in a positive direction.
How do I balance user experience with aggressive CRO tactics?
It’s always important to make sure that your user experience is effortless. If aggressive CRO tactics interfere with a user experience, it might be in your best interest to forego those tactics.
What are the most common pitfalls or mistakes when starting with CRO?
Testing everything can be a problem as many tests don’t end up yielding wins. Focusing on the wrong things can also be a waste of time. Spend extra time on choosing which ideas you test, which you just change, and which you ignore. This is part of the process of becoming good at CRO.
How often should I update or revisit my CRO strategies?
Updating your skills should be an ongoing process. New strategies are being tested by other CRO professionals, and many of them share their results. A year away from newsletters and articles on CRO could cause a huge gap that results in a lack of updated information.
Kickstart Your CRO Journey Today!
Now that you’ve been given the tools and map to teach yourself CRO, it’s time to get started.
Assess your current knowledge and set realistic SMART goals to implement a successful learning program.
Master essential CRO concepts such as conveying your unique value proposition, building trust, increasing relevance, providing clarity, amplifying desire, eliminating friction, and adding urgency.
Understand funnels, UX, A/B testing and KPIs. Take courses, read books, and join forums. Start small and iterate on your advancements while always updating your skills.
And if you need a little extra help, Conversion Sciences is here to offer a hand. We’ve been thought leaders in the space since 2007. Through our books, blogs, podcasts, and trainings, we’ve taught thousands of people how to excel in CRO. We can help introduce you to CRO 101, share a few more CRO resources or offer more in-depth CRO training.
Reach out and let us know how we can support our CRO learning journey.
We ran an A/B test of a form against a multistep quiz-style form and found that it increased completion rates by 61%. Here’s what we learned.
Sometimes, we collectively overlook some of the most promising ideas to make things better for our visitors.
So many landing page redesigns leave one element largely unchanged:
The stack of fields we call a web form.
The forms may change, but the stack of fields approach seems to be the preferred way to get a visitor’s information.
Over the past few years, we’ve been experimenting with alternatives to what we call Pancake forms, with some incredible results.
We get higher conversion rates, better abandonment data, and more valuable customers.
Traditional Web Forms are rarely questioned.
It’s human nature to keep doing what we and others have done for a long time. This is why the people that Appled called “the crazy ones” seem to find success.
We here at Conversion Sciences are no exception. Here’s a page we completely redesigned. Just about everything on the page changed.
Except one thing.
Almost everything changed, except one element.
The one thing that changed little was the form, certainly one of the most important components of the page.
Limitations of Web Form Optimization
We have the ability to see how our visitors are using our web forms. A variety of tools will tell us what fields in the stack are causing problems.
But what do we do with the information?
We can instrument forms to see which fields cause people to abondon the form. Click to enlarge.
We can remove a problem field. Sometimes this is an option.
We can adjust the field. We often find that changing a dropdown to an open-text field will increase completions.
We can add some information next to the field. This often makes the form more intimidating to the visitor.
Here is a pretty typical lead generation form. It’s a stack of fields — a pancake form.
This looks like a simple pancake form. Certainly most visitors are getting through it, right?
How could we change this experience? How can we make it
more personal?
more mobile friendly?
better at collecting data about our users’ behaviors?
This is the solution we came up with. It’s a multi-step form, or a quiz.
Multi-step or Quiz-style web forms
This is the solution we came up with. It’s a multi-step form.
This version generated 61% more quote requests when we did an A/B test of the quiz.
This mulit-step version of the form asks more questions, yet has a much higher completion rate than the Pancake form.
Why do quiz-style forms often outperform standard web forms?
While we don’t expect this type of approach to work for all websites, it is curious that it works at all. The common belief among digital marketers has been that, if you require more clicks in a process, you give visitors more opportunities to abandon the site.
Clearly, quiz-style forms multiply the number of clicks required. Yet, despite the increased opportunities to jump out, quiz-style forms can significantly improve completion rates.
Heres what we think is going on.
When you have more room to explain why you need data, reasonable people give it to you.
When you start off asking about the visitor and their problem, you build trust.
Once your visitor is a few steps in, they figure they should just go ahead and finish (sunk-cost fallacy).
Each step fits neatly onto a mobile screen, meaning no scrollling around.
Things to try with Quiz-style Web Forms
Measure visits to each step of a web form.
Send an event to your analytics package at each step of the process. You’ll be able to create detailed funnel reports that tell you where your visitors are getting into trouble.
We can diagnose which steps cause more visitors to abandon the quiz. Click to enlarge.
This data allows you to A/B test different versions of the quiz to find the most effective.
Redesign steps that have high abandonment.
Once you know where the problem steps are, you should consider adding information.
Three variations of a step that had high abandonment rates. Click to enlarge.
Change the order of a web form’s steps.
We have found that asking for personal information at the end of the process is a good place to start. However, it is sometimes helpful to ask for this up-front.
A/B test the order of the steps on your quiz style form to see what works best.
Remove steps from a web form.
While we have found little correlation between the number of steps and completion rates, some steps will be more relevant to your visitors than others.
A/B test removing steps that provide information only important to you.
Add steps to the web form.
It may seem counterintuitive, but adding steps may actually improve completion rates. This is most often the case if you are adding questions that ask about the visitor’s problem, as opposed to questions that collect data for you.
This single field was replaced by two quiz steps. Click to enlarge.
Add steps after the conversion.
The power of this approach is that you will see the process of collecting information from your visitors as an experience, or a flow. This experience extends beyond the purchase.
The thank you page or receipt page is a great time to ask for more from your visitor. Try adding some of these:
Ask for feedback
Ask for social sharing
Let them schedule their demo or consultation
Upsell them on accessories
Invite them to subscribe to regular deliveries
Invite them to join your loyalty program
Ask them to create an account
Should you consider quiz-style web forms?
This approach has worked in numerous other A/B tests on a variety of websites.
We think you should add this to your own idea list.
How do you compare your data when you move from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4 (GA4), or some other analytics package? Learn how to size up a lot of data very quickly using a simple algorithm you learned in high school.
Once you move from Google Analytics to Ga4, you can be assured that your data will not match exactly. In fact it may be off by a percentage.
What is more important is that relative changes from day to day, week to week, and month to month are of the same magnitude in both systems.
Is the GA4 data correlated with the UA data?
For example, if we graphed the Universal Analytics (UA) metric Users against the GA4 metric Active Users, it might look like this:
It is clear that UA consistently reports more Users than GA4 active users on a day-by-day basis.
The blue bars are the users reported by UA and the green bars are the active users reported by GA4 on a daily basis. It’s clear that UA is reporting more users than GA4 is reporting acitve users.
This is to be expected, because active users are calculated differently by GA4 than is users.
What is more important is that they move similarly to each other day after day. In other words, if GA4 is going to report fewer active users, the magnitude of the difference between it and UA should be consistent, day after day.
For most days this appears to be true. But some days, UA reported many more users than GA4 reported active users.
Does this mean that we can’t trust one or the other? There is a way to find out.
Scatter Plots, Not Bar Graphs
The bar graph is a crude tool for comparing two data sets. In fact, any time-series graph is going to disappoint.
What we need is a Scatterplot.
The Scatterplot graph in Google Sheets
A scatterplot ignores the order of the date and instead compares the data on each day. On a day that UA reported 200 users, how many active users did GA4 report? We plot that point.
When we do it for each day in our data set, we might see something like this:
Scatterplot graph of Users from UA vs. Active Users from GA4
What you might notice is that this data lies in a straight line, for the most part. This is a good sign. It means that the GA4 data changes relative to the UA data for each of the days mapped.
This doesn’t mean that it’s accurate, though. Here’s a scatterplot of the same data, but I’ve artificially doubled the daily UA data.
A scatterplot in which the value of one dataset has been doubled. It looks pretty much the same.
This data looks good, but it’s not. How would we know?
Spreadsheets and your high school math teacher give us a simple way to evaluate the data like a boss.
Add a Trendline
First, Google Sheets will calculate a trend line for us. When at science events, we call this a linear regression. This is the straight line that best “fits” the points. If the points look like a line, then the trend line will be a close approximation of the data. In Google Sheets you’ll find this in the Customize tab under Series >.
These features exist in Excel as well.
Check the Trendline box in the Chart Editor of Google Sheets
When we add a trend line to our data, we see this:
The trend line matches the data very closely. But how closely?
That draws a pretty line right along with our data. How closely do the two data sets match? That’s what R2 tells us.
Google Sheets will calculate R2, but this is not enough. We want the equation of the trend line so that we know how closely related the two data sets are.
In Google Sheets, set the Label field to “Use Equation” and check the box labeled “Show R squared”.
There are some mathy looking bits in our legend now.
The R squared value tells us how closely the data “fits” our trend line and the equation describes the trend line in detail.
The R2 number tells us how well the trend line describes our data. A perfect fit would give us an R2 value of one. The closer to one it is, the more likely our two data sets are describing the same thing.
The equation is the one you learned in high school. It’s just the equation of a line.
The Equation of a Trend Line
This is one of those equations that you swore you would never use in math class. Today, it’s going to give you X-ray vision into your data.
y = mx + B
x is the GA4 Active Users
y is the UA Users
The choice of x or y axis is arbitrary for a scatterplot.
m is the “slope” of the line. It’s the “rise over the run”. If we expect our two datasets to be alike, we expect a slope very close to one.
B is the “y intercept”. It is where our line crosse he vertical axis, also called the “y axis” when x is zero.
We’re hoping that our GA4 data is as much like our UA data as possible. If the two were reporting the exact same number each day:
R2 would be 1
The slope (m) of the line would 1
The y intercept (B) would be 0
I compared two identical data sets to show this.
Two identical data sets. The R squared value is 1. The slope is 1. The y-intercept is 0.
So, what if our data isn’t perfect?
If R2 is significantly less than one, the two data sets are not well-correlated to each other. In other words, they are not describing the same thing. If it’s 0.9 or above, we feel pretty good about the comparison. If its below 0.8, we should be worried.
Even if R2 is close to one, the slope (right before “x”) might be significantly less than one. In this case, we would find that that one dataset is adding or subtracting a percentage of the true value. It could be doubling the count of users, or not reporting users on some percentage of the pages of your website.
If the R2 value his close to one and the slope is close to one, we may find the y-intercept to be higher than zero. This means that some consistent value is being added to one or the other dataset. One is counting something that the other is not.
Here are some common scenarios we see in comparing UA and GA4 data, and how the equation would be expected to change.
You’re comparing the wrong data.
Let’s start off by looking at a bad correlation. Here the R2 value and slope are near 0. The y-intercept is very high.
Something is just not right here. Maybe you’re not pulling the data right.
Both the R2 value and slope are near 0. The y-intercept is way above 0. This is data that doesn’t correlate.
Bot traffic is not being filtered in one dataset.
In this example, I’ve artificially added 50 users per day to one of the datasets. This is what it would look like if GA4 was filtering out a consistent traffic source, like bot traffic, but UA was not.
The entire trend line will is lifted by 50 users. Because it’s consistent, the slope and R2 values are not affected. But the y-intercept will rise precariously.
Adding 50 users to one dataset increases the y-intercept, even though the slope and R2 values are near one.
You’re double counting.
It’s remarkably easy to double-count by adding the Google Analytics tag twice. In this case, the slope will be close to 0.5 (or 2.0 if you flip the x and y axis in your scatterplot).
It’s not unusual for us to find a website that is adding pageviews using an on-page tag and a tag manager tag. This will double-count pageviews.
When you double the users reported in one dataset, the slope will approach 0.5 or 2.0.
You are “breaking” sessions.
If you are “breaking sessions” in either dataset, you’ll see inflation of sessions. This will be reflected in the slope. It will be significatnly above or below one.
For example, if you use a utm_ query parameter on a call-to-action button on your site, UA will start a new session, as if the user was just arriving on the site. GA4 doesn’t do this.
If your visitors are going to a third-party site and returning, you can get broken sessions. If you have cross-domain tracking setup in UA but not in GA4, you’ll see something like this for the segement of visitors that visit the other site.
The analytics tag is missing on some pages.
With this example, I’ve added 50% to the dataset on the Y axis. This simulates the scenario in which 33% of the pages on the X-axis dataset don’t have tags.
Note that the R2 value doesn’t change. However, the slope of the line is well below 1. In fact, it’s about 2/3 of a perfect slope.
When adding 50% to one dataset, you find the slope changing even though the R-squared value is the same.
Revenue, Transacations and Segments
This approach can be used to check most of your metrics and segments.
Not only can you evaluate the data you are collecting, you can evaluate your ability to pull data in GA4 that represents the thinking of the UA developers. UA data is pre-processed differently in UA than it is in GA4.
This is a great way to be sure you’re pulling similar data segments.
Compare Google Analytics to your sales data.
If you want to be sure Google Analytics is collecting ecommerce data, you can compare transactions from GA to transactions from your backend, such as Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, etc. This approach is great for that.
This is one of the first things we do with or new Conversion Catalyst clients.
The graphs look the same. Don’t be fooled.
Be careful when you move from Google Analytics to GA4.
In all of these examples, the scatterplots look pretty much the same visually. However, our high school math teacher has equipped us with the equation we need to diagnose our data.
When CRO and SEO work together, there is a cycle of increasing advantages, according to technical search engine marketer Jason Fisher. Find out how Jason combines SEO and CRO for a one-two punch that delivers results.
What if you were Google Search’s therapist? You would be tasked with understanding the mind of Google’s search algorithm, simultaneously seeking to understand the Google mind, and trying to help it make better decisions about the world it manipulates.
This, as it turns out, is the job of the search engine optimizer, or SEO. Maybe we should call them SETs: Search Engine Therapists. For they must not only understand the search algorithm, but they must also be able to help it make better decisions.
And they must do this with the active resistance of Google. Like humans, Google secretly does not want to be helped.
Our intrepid SETs will never have a complete understanding of the Google search mind. So, we are stuck with a simple mantra: “Take the best search traffic we can get and let the website sort it out.”
I’m the guy that focuses on “sorting out” the traffic. Making a website better at finding the buyers in your traffic is called Conversion Optimization, or CRO.
Here lies the delicate balance between making the search mind better at its job (SEO) and making the most of what comes your way (CRO).
Google is a cantankerous patient who makes the therapist pay for the privilege of helping it. We need to use all our weapons to maximize this traffic source.
This is why I invited Jason Fisher onto Intended Consequences. He is a search therapist who gets that the “sorting out” part of the equation is important.
* * *
Jsason Fisher has been doing search marketing for a long time. He cut his teeth on search engine marketing right at the beginning of the century, when search marketing was the like the Wild West. Some years later, he was working for a leading link development company, where he learned the power of back links.
He is filling the technical SEO skills gap, primarily for agencies. And he’s the kind of guy that throws around phrases like “competitor link graphs”.
I was curious how a guy like this sees conversion optimization in relation to his work. Here’s what I learned.
CRO vs. SEO: Advice to new online businesses.
We do a lot of consultations with businesses that aren’t ready for our conversion optimization services. My advice to them is this:
Start working on your organic search strategy.
Use search ads to begin bringing traffic.
Then look at optimizing the site to maximize revenue.
Organic search optimization takes 12-24 months to implement. It takes time to research, to create valuable assets, and to build relevant backlinks. But this cannot be easily taken from the business.
Paid search can begin working immediately, but is subject to the bidding of your competition and the whims of the search engine ad algorithms.
Of course, you don’t have to put conversion optimization on hold during this time, especially if your paid search campaigns aren’t yet profitable.
What are the components of SEO?
For established websites, Jason discusses four main components of an organic search program:
Accessibility
Indexability
On-page Success Factors
Off-page Success Factors
Portion of a hamburger with label “On-page/Off-page Factors”
These on-page and off-page success factors are the things the search engines look at to determine your authority for certain queries.
Off-page Link Graph: The quality and quantity of links
On-0page meta data: Title, internal and extermanl linking, etc.
Host performance is an on-page factor. If you have a good tech stack, you should be good.
Over-indexing and Under-indexing
An often overlooked aspect of your search strategy is that the wrong pages are being indexed.
Over-indexing and under-indexing are important CRO and SEO factors.
Do you have a lot of poor-quality pages indexed on the search engines? This can be a problem.
Do you have quality pages that aren’t indexed? Of course, this should be addressed.
It may seem counter-intuitive that you should remove some content from the search index. Jason says that there is a limited “crawl allotment”. You may be wasting yours on poor-quality pages by marking them as “no index”.
Where does link development fit in today’s digital marketing practice?
Link building starts with creating valuable assets, things that others want to link to. In this sense, Jason sees link development like public relations: you’re trying to get people with authority to link to your work.
It takes a lot of work. Of those solicitation emails that us publishers get daily, only 1% results in a backlink.
Evergreen Content
Content is the meat of the sandwich.
Evergreen content are those assets that can stand the test of time should be a focus of your efforts.
Update them and relaunch. Always be looking for ways to increase the quality. For example, transcribe videos on that page to text.
Content Blueprint
Start with the top keyword opportunities in your space. For those phrases that you don’t have content for, you can retarget existing content to them, or create new content that addresses them.
You are closing the gap on the most important search phrases for your business.
Your goal is to demonstrate to “the machines” that you are the authority in your space. People are going somewhere to get answers to questions relevant to your business. Why not your website?
Some of these topics may seem counter to your intuition. Why put DIY content on your site when you want to do the work for them? Because it tells the machines that you are the authority for those search phrases.
Can we outsource this content?
It depends on how complex your product or solution is. You may need a subject matter expert to truly develop quality content.
Content that gets visitors to stick around.
Content that gets others to link to it.
How can a website convert more visitors to prospects and customers?
Your website needs to
People overthink product and service pages. Jason likes to focus on those things that differentiate your offering.
Yes, testimonials and customer logos can increase your conversion rate. Yet, selling your brand and it’s values make a big difference.
This is harder than adding logos to your page.
It is especially difficult to do your own writing. We are too close to our businesses to present them in a way that the visitors need. Let an external resource start the page and then review it to ensure it reflects your advantages and brand voice.
All of this is the foundation for a great marketing program.
Search optimization provides the information that can be used across your marketing efforts.
Ads
Email
Converison optimization
Phone scripts
You will learn a great deal about your audience and your industry when you look through the eyes of the search landscape.
What do your prospects want? What are your competitors doing? What is missing from your messaging platform?
The content calendar is a marketing roadmap.
Understanding not only what you need to say, but when you need to release messages are key to success in search marketing and marketing in general.
When testing your website, you need to know when to run high-risk tests versus low-risk tests.
For example, during peak holiday traffic, you can learn much from low-risk testing during this high-traffic timeframe.
Write for the machines or write for the visitor?
Jason says that you always write for the visitor. Your selection of topics may be driven by the search engines’ understanding of your industry, but the content is for those entering the search phrases.
Links
Jason Fisher is an organic search marketing veteran with over 15 years of experience. Jason has helped numerous Digital Marketing Agencies all over the country increase their clients organic search channel sales & revenue by building & executing sound SEO Strategies.
Conversion Rate Optimization for SaaS Companies
Conversion OptimizationProfitability depends on your ability to turn visitors into users and users into paying customers. This is the double-conversion dilemma. Even small conversion gains can make a difference.
That’s why SaaS conversion rate optimization (CRO) is essential for driving growth.
In this guide, you’ll learn about CRO for SaaS companies, how it improves SaaS growth and profitability, and what CRO strategies are needed to strengthen your sales funnel and improve lead generation.
What Is CRO and Why Is It Crucial for SaaS?
Conversion rate optimization, or CRO, is the art and science of continuously raising the value of website visitors. It’s the ongoing process of increasing the rate at which visitors take specific actions, such as subscribing, requesting a demo, or completing a purchase.
Conversion rate optimization for SaaS applies this process to the SaaS customer journey, improving the flow from sign-up and trial to purchase, onboarding, and beyond.
How is this done? With the scientific method.
Six steps of the scientific method
For example, let’s say you’re trying to improve pricing page conversions. A CRO consultant will create hypotheses about how to improve the page’s performance and run a series of tests to discover what works. They will then repeat this process to achieve continuous improvements.
The optimization process is especially valuable to SaaS companies because their valuation is tied to long-term revenue growth. A conversion rate boost of 1% doesn’t just increase revenue by 1%. It increases the company’s value by 1%.
SaaS companies also have a longer, more complex customer journey. You must convince visitors to try the product, then onboard them sufficiently for them to get value out of the trial, and then entice them to commit to a longer-term purchase. This is not a linear process.
It is not unusual to increase the number of people signing up to try the app and then finding that fewer people overall are becoming buyers.
Additionally, many SaaS products will require a salesperson to get involved due to cost or complexity.
To ensure sales, you must improve conversion rates at each stage while maintaining the quality of the prospects — and every small increase can translate to significant growth in revenue.
For SaaS conversion optimization best practices, read this article.
Benefits of CRO for SaaS Brands
Let’s look at six benefits of CRO for SaaS.
1. CRO Increases Revenue
The CRO process uncovers sticking points where people stop using the product or fail to progress through the pipeline. Through experimentation, it finds ways to unstick, re-engage, and turn those people into paying customers.
And here’s the interesting thing: In SaaS, conversion rate improvements are multiplicative rather than additive.
So if you improve customer acquisition by 20% and sales conversions by 10%, you won’t see a 30% lift. You’ll actually see a 32% lift.
Additive: 0.20 + 0.10 = 0.30 * 100 = 30% boost
Multiplicative: 1.2 * 1.1 = 1.32 * 100 = 32% boost
Over time, this compounding effect can add up, making CRO a core growth strategy for SaaS companies.
2. CRO Lowers Acquisition Costs
Conversion optimization raises the percentage of leads or users that convert into customers, giving you more sales without an increase in customer acquisition costs (CAC). This improves the efficiency of your ad spend, making your marketing dollars go further.
It also creates a virtuous cycle. By testing every element of the conversion funnel, you can uncover the friction and pain points that lower conversion rates. This gives you the insight to create highly effective campaigns that convert well.
3. CRO Increases Organic Search Traffic
SEO and CRO are partner strategies, working together to improve traffic and conversions. SEO attracts qualified traffic. CRO ensures visitors have a good user experience and take their next step to becoming a customer.
4. CRO Improves The User Experience
To improve SaaS conversions, CRO removes friction points that can harm the user experience. It creates a site that puts users’ needs first, which boosts satisfaction and brand perception. The user experience of your marketing website sets the expectation for the user experience in the application.
5. CRO Optimizes Growth through Testing
SaaS growth has three levers: acquisition, sales conversions, and churn. All of these levers can be improved with a process of continuous testing and optimization.
6. CRO Provides Data To Improve Marketing Spend
CRO for SaaS can help you identify the markets and channels that will be most profitable for you. And as we’ve already seen, it can lower acquisition costs, making your SaaS company more profitable.
How to Measure Conversion Rates in SaaS
The conversion rate formula is:
(Number of Conversions / Number of Visitors) * 100 = Conversion Rate %
Divide the number of conversions by the number of visitors, and multiply by 100. This gives you the conversion rate of whatever you’re testing — form completion, download, or purchase, for example.
Keep in mind, because SaaS has multiple touch points and conversion events, measuring conversion rates can be tricky. You’ll need to track conversion rates across the entire customer journey. You also need to take into account your sales volume, the time it takes to close deals, churn rate, and customer lifetime value (CLV).
It can help to understand SaaS conversion rate benchmarks.
B2B SaaS Conversion Rate Benchmarks
Use these conversion rate benchmarks to gauge the success of your marketing and sales efforts.
SaaS marketing conversion rate benchmarks
High-touch SaaS sales conversion rate benchmarks
SaaS products that require a sales team generally have an ACV (average contract value) of $6K to $15K on the low end. Extremely large deals, often called enterprise SaaS, start at six figures. Here are the conversion rate benchmarks for high-touch SaaS sales:
Conversion rate benchmarks for high-touch SaaS (Gartner)
Low-touch B2B SaaS conversion rate benchmarks:
Low-touch B2B SaaS products have an ACV (average contract value) of $100-$5,000. These products are typically sold on a month-to-month subscription ranging from $10 to $500.
More B2B SaaS conversion rate benchmarks:
The SaaS Conversion Journey
As with other B2B products, the SaaS customer journey moves from awareness to consideration and conversion. But in SaaS, these stages are much more complex, and the customer journey continues long after the sale.
Because of this, it’s impossible to map the Saa customer journey in a way that applies to every SaaS business. We can, however, describe the key stages of a SaaS customer journey for both low-touch and high-touch SaaS products.
The Stages of a Low-Touch Saas Customer Journey
The distinguishing feature in this model is the trial or freemium offer. With most other online purchases, the customer makes the buying decision based on a product description, images, and testimonials. With SaaS, they want to be sure the user experience is good, the features do what they want, and the product will fit into their workflow.
Through the trial offer, users are able to experience the product themselves. Even a short trial gives customers a low-risk way to decide whether your product is right for them. The challenge, of course, is to avoid giving away too much.
If you’re offering a freemium model, you need to give users a stripped-down version of the product that lets them experience success but also leaves them wanting more. That’s a hard balance to strike, but if you can get it right, this model can bring in lots of new customers.
A free trial may give users access to all your features (including premium ones) for a specific time period. The trick here is getting the time period right. A trial of 7 days may not be long enough for users to fully explore your features. A 30-day trial will give them more time to fall in love with your product but can add to your costs.
The Stages of a High-Touch Saas Customer Journey
Notice that this model doesn’t include a trial. High-touch SaaS products are usually more complex, which means a trial isn’t possible. Instead, prospects rely on a demo to understand how the product works.
Unlike a trial, a demo doesn’t let the buyer navigate the product themselves, but it does let them see it in action. It also lets them talk to an account representative and get their questions answered.
In both low-touch and high-touch SaaS products, growth is achieved through long-term subscriptions, upsells, and contract expansion. For that to happen, though, you have to help users understand the value of the product and not only adopt it but become super-users.
Conversion rate optimization allows you to improve every stage of the customer journey — regardless of the type or structure of your journey. It ensures a positive user experience that translates into better adoption rates, lower churn rates, and higher revenue.
Different Conversion Events in SaaS
To generate a sale in SaaS, you must successfully move users to action at multiple points along the customer journey. Let’s look at some key conversion points for SaaS.
Free Trial Sign-Up: When a user signs up for a free trial of your SaaS product, it indicates interest and the intent to explore your software.
Paid Subscription: The user upgrades from a free trial or freemium plan to a paid subscription. This is where you start generating revenue. It’s also the point at which you implement customer marketing to build loyalty and increase the lifetime value of the customer.
Onboarding Completion: Successful onboarding is key to user adoption and retention, so completion rates matter. Track user engagement throughout your onboarding sequence to understand where engagement drops. Then test different tactics, such as gamification, to keep users engaged.
Adoption: One of the key challenges after purchase is getting users at a client account to use the product. This requires helping a champion sell your product internally. New accounts, log-in rates, and session lengths will tell you how well you’re doing at that. The usage metrics tracked in CRO allow you to track the features people use most to understand where you can add or improve features.
Usage Frequency: When a user’s engagement drops, it generally signals that they’ll churn in a few months. As with adoption rates, CRO retention metrics track users’ log-in rates, session length, and the number of actions they take within a session. It’s a good idea to start customer re-engagement campaigns as soon as you see this metric lag.
Upgrades/Downgrades: Users might upgrade to higher-tier plans for more features or downgrade to lower-tier plans based on their needs. These actions impact your revenue and can indicate user satisfaction or changing requirements.
Referral Sign-Up: Happy customers tend to make referrals, but you can incentivise this action as well. To improve this metric, CROs optimize your process for engaging with prospects who enter the pipeline from a referral, while actively encouraging referrals from loyal users.
Renewal: Customer renewal rates directly impact your revenue. CROs know that it’s vital to track and optimize the timing and rate of renewals.
Unsubscribes: A low churn rate is another key to SaaS profits. The CRO process identifies events that trigger churn and develop campaigns to re-engage users. To optimize those campaigns, CROs use data around the events that can make a churning customer change their mind and decide to continue their subscription.
These conversion events are key to growth, which is why conversion rate optimization for SaaS focuses heavily on testing unique ways to improve them. One of those methods is conversion funnels.
Mapping Conversion Funnels and Key Moments
While running routine tests to improve key SaaS metrics, optimizers create conversion funnels for each stage of the customer journey. For example, they build funnels that:
Each funnel focuses on a specific micro-conversion. Together, they improve conversion rates across the entire customer journey.
To understand how this works, we’ll need to look more closely at conversion funnels and how they work.
A conversion funnel, also known as a sales or marketing funnel, is a framework used in digital marketing to illustrate the stages a prospect goes through before taking a desired action.
It’s called a funnel because, similar to a real-world funnel, there are fewer people at the bottom of a funnel than at the top. The top of the funnel will include anyone who lands on your website or engages with your content. Your goal is to engage qualified prospects and weed out everyone else. As a result, every stage of the funnel has fewer people in it, and at the bottom, you only have serious prospects.
Prospects don’t necessarily move through a funnel in a linear fashion, but the funnel model helps optimizers know how each stage of the customer journey is performing as part of the whole.
We typically break the funnel into three broad stages:
In SaaS, it’s also important to include a fourth stage: Below the Funnel.
Each part of the funnel aligns with a specific stage of the customer journey, giving you eight distinct stages in a B2B SaaS conversion funnel. Keep in mind, though, this also gives you eight drop-off points where prospects can leave the funnel.
Awareness Stage (TOFU): At the widest part of the funnel, the prospect has just become aware of your product. This stage is optimized by raising awareness of your brand and product. Strategies include content marketing, social media, SEO, and advertising. Frequency of impressions is essential at this stage.
Interest Stage (MOFU): In this stage, users are aware of your brand or product and have decided to learn more about you. They may engage with your content, sign up for newsletters, or explore your product’s features and benefits. Content such as ebooks, webinars, and case studies can be effective here. WIth gated content, you are building an ever expanding list of prospects to move to the next stage. Relevant content is the driving force at this stage.
Consideration Stage (MOFU): Users at this stage are considering your offerings more seriously. They may compare your product with competitors’, read reviews, and seek additional information. They may also consider a trial subscription or look for a walk-through video to understand how your product works. Anticipate their questions and objections at this stage.
Intent Stage (BOFU): At this point, users are actively considering making a purchase or taking a specific action. They may add items to their cart, request a quote, or sign up for a free trial. Conversion optimization and targeted messaging are essential here. Strategies for removing friction from the sign-up processes proliferate here.
Evaluation Stage (BOFU): The user is now in a trial or evaluating a demo. At this stage, the on-boarding process must be optimized. In a product-led growth (PLG) approach, the product is designed to make it intuitive and easy to use. However, optimizers know that instructional materials will be needed to help users be successful with the product quickly..
Conversion Stage (BOFU): This is the ultimate goal of the funnel. Users convert by making a purchase or upgrading from a free plan. The application becomes the salesperson. Optimizers look for ways to highlight upgradeable features and offer ways to reduce costs by increasing the length of the commitment. .
Post-Conversion Stage (Below the Funnel): Use and adoption are the focus at this stage of the funnel. Look for opportunities to nurture customer relationships, provide excellent customer support, and encourage repeat purchases or ongoing engagement. Your CRO should have usage metrics at the ready to evaluate usage and adoption rates. Done right, optimization at this stage boosts loyalty and advocacy.
Advocacy and Loyalty Stage (Below the Funnel): Loyal customers who love your brand will often become advocates, referring others and doing word-of-mouth marketing.
Elevate Your CRO Game: Next Steps for Your SaaS Company
Even small improvements in your conversion rates can impact revenue and growth.
At Conversion Sciences, we’re not a standard CRO agency. We use the scientific method to identify and fix the issues causing SaaS revenue leak. Contact us today to talk with our experienced full-service team of Conversion Scientists today.
SaaS Website Best Practices for Conversion Optimization
Conversion OptimizationSteve Krug’s book Don’t Make Me Think captures a core tenet of conversion optimization: People have a limited reserve of energy when researching a solution to their problem. Don’t make them think too hard about how your website or product will solve that problem. If it isn’t intuitive, if it doesn’t provide an obvious and engaging user experience, they will leave.
But giving your users a clear journey is harder than you might think. So in this article, we’ve compiled our top SaaS website best practices, including actionable strategies for improving conversion rates.
The Importance of CRO for SaaS Websites
Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is especially important for SaaS websites. Revenue growth depends on your ability to convert visitors to trials, trials to paying customers, and customers into long-term, loyal users.
To help, SaaS optimization generally focuses on four key components:
The landing page will make or break your SaaS conversion rates. The landing page can serve traffic from outside the website, or satisfy on-site offers, such as the ubiquitous “Learn more”. Every one of these pages should be enticing the prospect to go to the next step.
Optimizers treat almost every webpage as a landing page, giving the visitor what they are looking for and asking them to take the next step.
For more on building effective landing pages, see 17 Lead Generation Landing Page Examples.
Web Design Elements to Consider for Optimal SaaS Website Performance
CRO for SaaS websites is largely about improving the user experience. For example, these elements can make or break your SaaS conversion rates:
To optimize your SaaS website for conversions, a memorable user experience is created at every touchpoint, but especially on these web pages:
When a user clicks on one of these pages, they should see the information they expect. A product page should tell them all about the product, answering their questions about what it does and how. A pricing page should show visitors their buying options and what they get with each package. Sitewide, visitors should be able to find the information they’re looking for in just a few clicks.
The challenge is creating that experience. It’s impossible to know in advance what will work — and your own preferences don’t matter. To design a website that attracts and converts your best customers, you need to test everything.
In short, you need to leverage CRO best practices to continually refine and improve your website.
Proven CRO Strategies and Tips for SaaS Website Success
CRO tactics include a wide range of disciplines: testing, usability improvements, marketing, design best practices, and more. Here are nine strategies proven to improve SaaS website conversion rates.
CRO Strategy #1: A/B Testing
A/B testing, also called split testing, gives us a highly reliable way to test an idea, or hypothesis. It’s based on the scientific method and attempts to disprove a hypothesis about how a page could be changed to improve a specific conversion rate. If the hypothesis cannot be disproved, it is assumed to be true.
A/B testing starts with a hypothesis. For example, if we believe our customer logos are too far down a page, our test hypothesis would be:
If we move the portion of the landing page containing customer logos to below the hero area, we expect more visitors to complete the form as measured by conversion rate.
An experiment is then designed to test the hypothesis. In the case of our hypothesis, a variation of the page is designed. Traffic is sent equally to the original and the variation.
Then we see which generated the most conversions. If there is a statistical improvement in the performance of variation, it becomes the new page — and new control to be beat.
Optimizers take great care to ensure statistical relevance is achieved with each A/B test. The variation with the statistically higher conversion rate becomes the new page to be optimized.
A/B testing delivers incremental gains in SaaS conversions month over month. Use it to put upward pressure on your sales funnel conversion rates and improve lead generation campaigns.
To see how optimizers do it, see our A/B testing guide and A/B testing tools overview.
CRO Strategy #2: Messaging
If your messaging doesn’t address the user’s problem or desire, or if it’s confusing on any level, there is very little we can do to improve your conversion rates.
Compelling messaging establishes your value proposition in your visitors’ minds. A study by Nielsen Norman Group found that a page with a clear value proposition can hold people’s attention longer — as much as one or two minutes longer — but you must communicate your value proposition within 10 seconds.
Optimizers will focus on the opening statements. This should express who you are and what you do as quickly as possible. It answers two questions:
CityCliq improved their positioning and increased the clickthrough rate of their home page 90%. Their original positioning statement didn’t communicate what they do: “Businesses grow faster online.” The new positioning statement was a direct statement about what the user gets from their product: “Create a webpage for your business.” This change improved clickthrough in two weeks.
To be effective, your messaging must meet the user’s expectations. Optimizers try to give visitors the right information on the right page (e.g., pricing information on the pricing page). The goal is to answer their questions completely, anticipating their questions.
Here are a few ways to improve the messaging on your SaaS website:
CRO Strategy #3: Personalization
Personalization is an effective way to improve engagement — and this often means more conversions. According to McKinsey2, 71% of consumers expect you to deliver personalized interaction, and 76% get frustrated if you don’t.
McKinsey found that consumers expect personalization from the brands they choose.
To create loyalty and improve conversions, optimizers look for ways to personalize people’s experience. Here are some tactics for doing that:
Personalize emails:
Personalize landing pages:
Personalize search and retargeting:
A/B tests offer excellent data for personalization. For example, we have created A/B tests that looked inconclusive initially. When we looked at the impact of the test on mobile visitors, we often find that visitors on an Android device preferred the variation while those coming on an iPhone preferred the control.
This becomes an opportunity to personalize based on device. The Android users will see the variation and the iPhone visitors will see the control. Personalization tools allow this kind of personalization.
Other segments to analyze for personalization opportunities:
The advantage of using A/B testing to drive your personalization is that you have the data that tells you what the different visitors want and an easy way to target them when they are on your website.
CRO Strategy #4: Retargeting Campaigns
When people engage with your website but don’t convert, you can continue to engage with them off-site through retargeting ads.
Retargeting delivers targeted ads to users across the web, in apps, and on social media, reminding them of your offer and encouraging them to engage with it further. It can be an effective way to get people to return to an abandoned shopping cart, revisit a product page, or review related content.
Keep in mind, flow is important. You’ll need to tailor a message that matches their previous interaction, so you can create a personalized experience that resonates and reinforces the value of your product.
Here are some tools to set up effective retargeting campaigns:
NOTE: Retargeting places a cookie on the visitor’s browser to identify them when on other websites. This tells the retargeting company to show them your retargeting ad. The use of these “third-party” cookies is being curtailed due to privacy concerns by the major browser manufacturers. Alternatives tracking technologies will need to be put in place.
CRO Strategy #5: UX and UI Optimization
UX (user experience) optimization focuses on creating a seamless and meaningful experience for visitors.
UI (user interface) optimization improves the appearance and usability of the website, page, or app.
Both rely on intuitive design, which aims to build trust by ensuring a page/site feels intuitive and performs as expected. It looks for anything that creates friction and adjusts as needed to create a smooth experience.
A good example is 37signals. They saw a 102.5% boost in Highrise signups after adding a picture of a customer to the page.
To optimize UX and UI, you need to understand how visitors interact with the page or site. For example, are they getting stuck? Can they navigate the page/site easily? Do they stay on the page long enough to read your messaging? (Most users leave a page in 45-50 seconds3.)
For UX and UI optimization, optimizers use tools like these:
CRO Strategy #6: Friction Points
If a good UX improves trust, friction destroys it. Anything that frustrates, confuses, or slows a visitor can create friction. A visitor comes to you with a reservoir of mental energy. Each mistake or moment of confusion drains that reservoir, increasing the “cognitive load.” For example:
To improve conversion rates, optimizers remove friction. They seek a page that is well-designed, with clear messaging and CTAs, and good flow. Make it easy to find buttons and fill out forms.
CRO Strategy #7: Page Load Speed
One of the biggest frustrations for visitors is a slow website. When they click, a slow response slows their momentum and decreases their perceived credibility of your business. This is especially true on mobile devices.
Compare these statistics to the average website load time in 20237: 2.5 seconds on a desktop and 8.6 seconds on a mobile device. To remove this friction point, you need to beat the average, reducing your load speed time as much as possible.
Here are a few ways to do that.
We find the reports generated by the free tools at webpagetest.org to be fantastic at diagnosing the causes of slow-loading pages.
CRO Strategy #8: Gathering and Acting on Feedback
However much you may try to improve your user experience, friction points may still exist. The best way to find them is to get real user feedback.
Given the chance, they’ll let you know that your signup forms need fixing or your site navigation is confusing. They can also review your changes and give you direct feedback.
For example, the Dropbox Community gives users a place to get quick answers to their questions, but it also helps the Product team know where and how they can improve. When they changed their estimated time to sync feature with a progress bar, users complained. This feedback told Dropbox that time was a “critical unit of measurement” and that features should help users manage their time.
The Dropbox team now uses the community to prioritize the issues they tackle. You can do the same, using customer feedback to find friction points, provide a better user experience, and improve messaging.
Here are some tactics for gathering user insights:
Thank-you page surveys and exit-triggered surveys are among the most effective.
CRO Strategy #9: Security and Trust-Building
Through user feedback, you can identify page elements or experiences that harm trust. But you can also add trust elements to your pages to build trust and improve conversions.
For example, many SaaS companies display awards to quickly communicate their value:
SaaS awards can quickly communicate value
Low-touch SaaS products that have a checkout page on your website can use ecommerce trust badges. Ecommerce company UnderstandQuran added two trust badges to their sign-up page — a money-back guarantee badge and an Apple app store badge — they saw a 32.57% increase in sales over an 11 day period.
Trust badges increased sales 32.57%.
Here are some trust signals that improve SaaS conversion rates:
Elevate Your CRO Game: Next Steps for Your SaaS Company
There’s no better way to ensure SaaS growth than with CRO for SaaS. Through conversion rate optimization, you can make incremental improvements in your conversion rate at every stage of the customer journey, helping you get and keep your valuable customers.
Need help? At Conversion Sciences, we’re not a standard CRO agency. We use the scientific method to identify and fix the issues causing SaaS revenue leak. Contact us today to talk with our experienced full-service team of Conversion Scientists today.
Citations
17 Lead Generation Landing Page Examples
Landing Page OptimizationIf you’re looking for lead generation landing page examples to help you craft the perfect landing page, beware.
Many of the landing pages you see online are not actually working. In fact, many of them turn more people away than not.
Lead generation landing pages and squeeze pages can attract and convert a high percentage of new leads for your business, keeping your pipeline full. But there’s a science to landing page lead generation — and that’s what we cover in this guide.
Keep reading to learn how and why lead generation pages are different, what makes a successful lead gen landing page, and 17 landing page examples (that are working and not working) — with expert tips on how to improve them.
Landing Pages vs. Web Pages: What’s the Difference?
The public-facing pages on your website are largely informational. They’re designed to keep people on the site as long as possible, and they do that with smart internal links and valuable content that answers questions and educates visitors.
Web pages are great for attracting traffic and positioning your products or services. They aren’t that effective at converting visitors. For that you need lead generating landing pages.
Landing pages have only two jobs.
Landing pages work because they don’t encourage browsing or exploring. They’re designed to promote one specific offer and drive visitors to complete one designated course of action.
One of the most common uses for landing pages is to generate leads.
For additional landing page inspiration, read our twenty landing page best practices.
We’ve also compiled some powerful ways to improve lead generation, and if you are looking for more help, we offer lead generation services.
What Is a Lead Generation Landing Page?
A lead generation landing page is a landing page that focuses on capturing visitor data by offering something of value in exchange for their information. It’s one piece in a conversion funnel, and it’s designed to attract qualified leads for further marketing and sales.
A good lead gen landing page appeals exclusively to your ideal prospects. Typically, it offers content that helps them solve a problem or gives them advanced information they want. But it could also offer a free trial, an app, a demo, or a short consultation.
Lead generation landing pages that convert are very simple. They’re typically short, with a few key elements:
Why Do You Need a Lead Gen Landing Page?
To understand why you need lead gen landing pages, let’s take a quick look at how they work.
The best way to leverage lead gen landing pages is to design campaigns around specific offers. (More about that in a moment.)
Once you have an offer your ideal prospects can’t resist, you’ll build a landing page for it. This page will be designed specifically for your target audience and offer. It will leverage the words they use to talk about their issues. It will address their concerns. And it will offer a specific solution that they already want.
This landing page will probably never appear in your site navigation. Instead, it will live in the background of your website. When you want to turn on your lead gen campaign, you’ll start sending traffic to it through ads, blog posts, social media posts, and emails.
With this approach, each marketing campaign exists in its own silo. You can test and optimize every element until the page is working perfectly.
The result?
Your website should generate traffic and educate visitors, but your web pages shouldn’t be overly salesy. Lead generation landing pages, on the other hand, can be as salesy as they need to be. They bridge the gap between traffic generation and lead conversion, delivering the highest qualified leads from start to finish.
What Makes a Successful Lead Generation Landing Page?
This is the million dollar question every marketer wants answered. Like every profitable online experience, it starts with an irresistible offer.
Your offer must be both relevant and qualifying.
It needs to attract the highest possible number of qualified prospects, and it needs to offer information they’re already looking for. This isn’t the time to create interest. You need to tap into an existing desire.
The easiest way to do that is to:
There’s more to a lead generation landing page than a compelling offer. Here are a few landing page optimization themes that we touch on again and again — not only in this guide but also and with our clients.
An effective landing page is also intuitive. Your visitors shouldn’t have to think for even a millisecond. They should be able to understand and respond whether they’re reading or skimming the page.
The page should load in less than 2 seconds. The faster the better. Any longer, and your prospect will move on.
The page should be mobile friendly. More than half of your visitors will likely visit the page on a mobile device. Make sure it’s readable and easy to operate from any device. (Use a platform like BrowserStack that makes it easy to view your lead gen landing page on multiple devices.)
Your page should follow the rule of one. It should have one clear goal and one clear CTA. That’s it. Because visitors with too many options usually choose no option.
Finally, A/B split test your page to continually improve its performance over time.
How to Evaluate Lead Generation Landing Page Examples
In a minute, we’ll look at 17 of the best landing page examples we could find. But before we do, let’s look at how you need to evaluate them.
When evaluating a landing page, ask yourself if it’s executing its two jobs effectively.
Next, look at the page’s trust and value signals. To do that, answer these two questions:
Finally, evaluate the elements of the page:
One more helpful tip: When evaluating someone else’s landing page, use a browser plugin like Wapalyzer, Ghostery, or Builtwith to see if the page has an A/B testing tool installed. If it does, you might give more weight to it, as they could be testing their designs.
Ready for some landing page ideas to start generating leads?
17 Lead Generation Landing Page Examples
The best landing page examples show you what’s working today. But as I mentioned above, many of the landing pages online today haven’t been optimized for conversions, which means they aren’t actually working as well as they could.
To help you know the difference, we’ve scoured the web for good and bad examples of lead gen landing pages. And for every example, we tell you what they’re doing right and what they need to improve.
We don’t know the conversion rates of most of these pages. However, you can use these landing page examples and our tips as a guide when designing your own effective pages.
Example 1: Don’t “charge” too much for your offer
A lead generation landing page offers something for free — but visitors must still pay. Rather than paying with money, they pay with their information.
As with any pricing strategy, you need to offer enough value to justify your “price.” That means keeping your forms as short as possible.
Take this landing page by Applause.
Do you need nine fields on your landing page?
This offer is clear: to get access to a targeted white paper.
The summary gives three compelling reasons to take action.
The form lies at the top of the page, and will peak above the fold on most monitors.
Credibility is provided through customer logos, and social proof is presented through social media testimonials.
What could we improve?
The form asks for a lot of information. Is this reasonable for a white paper? Maybe not.
The form is laid out in 3 rows of 3 columns. This can make the form seem larger and more time-consuming.
The typical direction visitors would go to fill out this form would be to start in the first column from top and go down to the bottom. But the first field says “First Name” with the “Last Name” field jumping over into the next column
This layout makes the form feel difficult. And difficulty creates friction, which lowers conversions.
Example 2: Make your offer clear and direct
Messaging on your landing page needs to be clear and concise. But it shouldn’t be too concise. You need to include enough information to communicate persuasively.
Take this example from Uber:
Uber’s promise is clear and specific.
The promise is clear: at least $2,160. Note: this specific number is more persuasive than something like “$2000+”.
The CTA is clear: Sign up now.
But without more information, the page is more about a dollar figure than becoming an Uber driver.
Uber can assume that everyone knows who they are and, therefore, details aren’t necessary. But your brand likely doesn’t enjoy this level of recognition..
At a minimum, it needs a unique value proposition in both words and images. It could also use some trust and credibility signals, such as numbers of drivers, testimonials, or real earnings.
A visitor landing here has to work hard to understand that they’re signing up as an Uber driver.
Keep your message as clear and direct as possible. Make sure you provide details about the offer and the benefits of taking action. And don’t rely on fine print to explain the offer — that’s a sure way to erode trust.
Example 3: Be careful with conceptual landing pages
Landing pages need to be clear and direct. If you try to be too clever or conceptual, you can confuse (and lose) prospects. A conceptual page is one that sacrifices clarity to be cute or clever. This forces visitors to connect the dots between the message and the offer rather than having it clearly spelled out for them.
Much like this page.
Clarity beats cleverness every time.
Here, Planhat’s headline is direct: Choose Planhat, not GainSight. They throw in a cute image to try to communicate their point. But there’s no value statement that tells a visitor why they should choose one over the other.
Their CTA, “Book a demo to find out why,” leverages curiosity. But you must look below the form to see the benefits and trust signals that might drive conversions.
This page has several good conversion elements:
But without a clear, strong headline, it falls short. A high-converting landing page has a clear, direct headline that tells visitors what they’ll get when they engage with the page. The hero image works with that copy to fully communicate value.
Don’t try to be overly cute or clever. Clarity wins every day.
Example 4: Establish a visual hierarchy
Your landing page needs a good hierarchy of information, so it’s easy to understand for skimmers and readers. This landing page by LinkedIn is a good example.
Do you immediately know what action you should take?
A visual hierarchy is designed to help the visitor see what is most important. The job of the visual hierarchy is to help them choose an action. Contrast and white space are two ways designers establish a visual hierarchy.
In this page, there are two calls to action in the hero area, both dark blue on a blue background. This doesn’t help the visitor discern one from the other visually. And if the visitor doesn’t know the difference between “Core” and “Advanced” they will not click. This page needs to present the difference to the visitor.
Designers love to be consistent with colors, but this works against the visual hierarchy. All buttons are within the color of the page’s palette. They are on an equal level with other dark blue elements.
It is the video that is at the top of the visual hierarchy. It “pops,” elevating it. If this is the most important action the visitor can take, then this is helping them choose.
The landing page has three distinct sections, each with its own purpose: to communicate value, make a promise, and highlight the key benefits.
At the top of the page (above the fold) is the value proposition: “From sales prospecting to closing deals, do it all with Sales Navigator.” Details are available in the one-minute video. And you can take action right away by clicking the appropriate button.
The second section contains a clear promise, proof elements, and the mechanism for delivering that promise.
Notice the call to action, “Start your free trial,” in both columns of this section. That makes it easy for people to take action as soon as they’re ready.
The final section is similar to the P.S. of a sales letter. It summarizes the page by listing the three biggest benefits of Sales Navigator for B2B salespeople. Each is illustrated with a colorful icon so people who process information visually or are just scanning the page will quickly understand the value of Sales Navigator — and hopefully scroll back up to read the copy more closely.
The only thing missing is one final CTA button below these benefits, so visitors don’t have to scroll back up to take action.
Example 5: Remove extraneous information
When building a landing page, we recommend starting with a clean page, not your corporate template or, in this case, the blog template.
The corporate pages and blog pages introduce content that doesn’t fit the two jobs of a high-converting landing page. Page templates usually come with navigation that invites qualified prospects to delay their action.
What not to do:
Your landing page shouldn’t look like a blog post.
The sidebar is inviting the visitor to leave the page before they’ve even seen that they can take action. A good landing page holds on to the visitor until they’ve made their decision.
Replacing this competing content with the submission form, which is way at the bottom, would make it clear that they can take action.
The top of the page should have the value proposition and promise, so visitors immediately understand the offer.
Instead, visitors have to scroll down nearly half of the page before they see the offer and form.
Don’t make visitors scroll to find your form.
Start fresh with a minimal template for your landing pages. Examine existing landing pages for any information that doesn’t make the visitor feel comfortable and confident taking action.
Example 6: Don’t assume we know what you do.
Fovitech offers affordable photo and video studio lighting solutions.
Unfortunately, they were leading visitors straight to this page from a pay-per-click ad.
Visitors should know right away what you’re offering.
It’s hard to know where we’ve just landed because all they talk about is getting the best price. Guaranteed. But they’ve failed to tell us what it is they are actually offering.
Most people won’t care about price until they first know whether or not you have something they’re even interested in.
Example 7: Sell the offer, not just the product.
You’ve probably noticed a recurring theme in our review of these landing page optimization examples: Your landing page needs to be all about your prospect and their fears, hopes, and desires.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of promoting your brand or the product. But lead generation is about getting people into your conversion funnel. Not selling. Not yet. You want them to subscribe or download your offer. So your sole focus is to sell the offer.
Let’s look at an example:
Are you selling your offer or your product?
Wiser lets you capture in-store and online data, making it easy to turn insights into actionable data. Their Live Price Check app is a smart lead gen offer since it is closely related to their products.
This landing page makes a compelling offer: check product prices 75% faster.
However, they talk only about the product, and not the offer, which is a free trial.
This section focuses primarily on the product.
Visitors are likely asking themselves: Will I be able to actually do price analysis during my trial? Will I get immediate access or do I have to talk to someone? Will I need training to use the software?
This is a common mistake. Landing pages that offer reports fail to sell the report. Is it long or a quick read? Is it written by a third party? Does it have lots of graphs and images?
This page has some strong elements. Above the headline, it gives social proof: trusted by 500+ retailers and brands.
And the above-the-fold copy promises a compelling outcome while explaining what the app does: Jump ahead of the competition with Live Price Checker’s FREE actionable pricing insights.
This page is well structured and easy to scan. It tells you how the app works and the benefits you’ll gain from using it. And they make it easy to gain access — you only have to enter your email address to get free access.
It repeats the offer at the bottom of the page, as all landing pages should. However, here we learn that the offer is actually a “conversation.” I suspect that this turns many potential prospects away.
If your call to action doesn’t match your initial offer, you’ll lose trust.
Example 8: Don’t offer too many choices.
It’s tempting, once you get people on your landing page, to show them all their options and let them choose the offer they like best.
But more options are not better, according to a 2000 study by psychologists Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper. When presented with too many options, we actually find it harder to make a choice. To make matters worse, when we finally make a decision, we’re less satisfied with whatever choice we make.
This is called choice overload, and it’s the reason every landing page should have just one message, one offer, and one call to action.
Take this landing page as an example.
Choice overload can lead to no action at all.
This page has multiple offers:
There’s so much going on, it’s hard to know where to start. You can hear the voices in the visitor’s head: “If I book a call does that mean I miss out on 50% off?”
Despite the clear messaging on this page, a first-time visitor will struggle to understand what action they should take. The messaging pulls them in different directions, creating a sense of overwhelm.
A good solution is to create unique landing pages for each call to action and each customer segment. That way, you can focus the message and give visitors one action to perform.
Example 9: Choose images that support the value proposition.
Take a look at this section of the Gusto landing page. Which of these images is “real” and which are stock photos?
Real photos of real people build trust.
It’s obvious to almost every human, even before you notice that two of the images are captioned.
Too often landing pages are designed with placeholders for images, and someone goes to a stock photo site to get happy people that look like the target customer.
Give your images the “Caption Test.” If you can’t write a caption that matches the intent of the image, it’s not a good image. For example, the intent of the second image is “Pay contractors in more than 120 countries.” The image caption is “Woman on a laptop in no place identifiable.” It’s the wrong image. The image should give some visual clue that this person is in another country.
It is much more effective to take the extra step and show real clients and real employees. Adding the caption assures the reader that they are seeing real people, and that gives the page credibility.
Example 10: Make your content readable.
If you want people to enter your conversion funnel, your landing page needs to be easy to read and easy to understand. To achieve this, you need to merge good design with good copywriting.
Take this landing page example from Samcart:
You can improve readability with good design and good copywriting.
This page is easy to read both visually and textually. White space and a strategic layout work together to guide visitors’ eyes as they scroll down the page.
At the top of the page, the value proposition and offer are clear, though much of the message is conveyed through the hero image. If you fill out the form, you’ll get an ebook, The Profit Playbook, with 53 strategies that can double your profits.
Black text on a white background is easy to read and small pops of color draw the visitor’s eye. Lots of white space keeps page elements from competing with one another. As you can see on this landing page, less really is more.
Readability is key to high conversion rates. Make sure your visitors can see and understand your offer. Keep the messaging and layout as simple as possible.
Example 11: Don’t assume your clients understand your jargon
Speaking of clarity, jargon may show off your industry knowledge, but for newcomers, technical terms can be confusing.
Take this landing page, for example:
Jargon may look impressive, but it can be confusing.
This offer is confusing on multiple levels, but the jargon only makes it worse. Some people may know what MFA and SSO mean, many don’t — even qualified prospects who are early in their research.
LastPass does explain these terms in the copy — which helps — but having jargon in the headline makes it harder to convey value.
And even after explaining the terms, the value statement is confusing: “Are MFA and SSO enough to cover all your organization’s identities?” Only people with deep industry experience will understand what that means. Most other people will likely consider exiting the page without filling out the form. After all, if they can’t understand the landing page copy, they probably won’t understand the ebook.
Example 12: Don’t let your hero image compete with the message.
Clarity is king on landing pages. We’ve already talked about the importance of readability. This landing page example shows why that’s so important.
Here, the hero image not only draws attention away from the value statement, it makes it difficult to read.
Make sure your words are easy to see and understand.
This landing page has a good value proposition, but the feature image is so busy, it doesn’t allow you to focus on the message. Not only that, there isn’t enough contrast between the white text and the wheat-colored background. As a result, the top-of-page copy is virtually unreadable.
To add insult to injury, the image doesn’t really advance the value proposition. As we said above, it’s best to use images of your product, your clients, or your employees. As it is, the black call to action button, which should be high in the visual hierarchy, blends into the black color in the image.
A few more layout changes should also be tested. For instance, the form should be moved up, next to the promise: Get All Relevant Data in One Place. Currently, it’s at the bottom of the page.
This form would perform better if it were higher on the page.
Above it are images that appear to be proof points, but they need context to communicate more clearly.
Images usually need context to communicate more clearly.
These images could be used to highlight the product’s benefits by reducing their size and adding a blurb of copy beside each.
This layout change also gives you a visual hierarchy, with the value proposition and promise at the top of the page and benefits/outcomes below that. It only needs a strong summary statement and call to action at the bottom of the page.
Example 13: Establish value with the headline and subheading.
Everything on the page should support the promise.
Ceros puts their value statement front and center with the headline: “Interactive content marketing — no code required.”
The top-of-page then adds context and makes the promise. It answers the question, who is Ceros (an AI-powered content creation ecosystem). It explains in one sentence the types of content you can create (reports, ebooks, etc.). And then it shares the promise: faster and increased content output.
Everything on the page supports this promise. The subheads, for instance:
And the call to action: Create the content your audience deserves.
It also offers good social proof: 850+ of the world’s leading brands use Ceros, with a few highly recognizable logos.
Example 14: Present one clear message that drives one response.
Inconsistent messaging can hurt your conversion rates.
The core elements are here, but the message is disjunct, making this offer less compelling than it should be.
The headline is the title of the ebook, but that’s not clear. There are several ways to fix this, all of which should be on your landing page checklist. There is no picture of the ebook or its cover. This would have made clear what was being offered. The form has no call to action at the top, such as “Get your free Ebook.” The button could say “Download Your Ebook.”
In the body, the opening line says that now is the time to embrace AI. This still fails to establish the value of the offer and, worse, it insinuates that the visitor doesn’t already know that. This introduces a bit of mixed messaging, which continues throughout this landing page.
The next paragraph tries to make the connection between AI and higher deal velocity and higher conversion rates. But because it doesn’t state this explicitly, the visitor has to connect the dots.
Paragraph 3 finally has the promise: learn how AI helps you create and close more deals. This would have more impact if the copy had made the connection between AI and better sales performance.
And finally, the call to action is, “Don’t get left behind.” Again, this creates mixed messaging. This statement assumes the visitor is resistant to AI, which contradicts the headline’s assumptions.
Listing the authors is a great way to build the credibility of the ebook. None of this messaging aligns.
Example 15: Provide a navigation menu specific to the offer.
Founded in 1932, SNHU has transformed from an accounting and secretarial science school to a university offering more than 200 programs in business, education, social sciences and liberal arts.
With over 3,000 students on campus and more than 170,000 online, SNHU claims to be one of the fastest growing universities in the entire nation.
Let’s take a look at how their lead gen page is attempting to make it grow even faster.
Any navigation should be specific to the page.
The form fields speak directly to the visitor’s needs which makes it feel very personalized and helps to qualify.
It’s also supported by strong benefits.
The page removes the main menu found on the Home page below and replaces it with a menu that is very specific to the landing page.
Example 16: Make your offer match the ad, email, social post, or link.
Any disconnect between the messaging, layout, or call to action within a marketing funnel can create distrust. That’s why continuity is so important. As users click from the email or ad to the landing page and beyond, each page must look like it flows from the previous page.
This example from Salesforce starts with an email.
The email
The email is short and sweet:
When the user clicks, they’re taken to this landing page.
The landing page
Here, there’s good continuity from the email, but it could still be improved.
For example, the value headline on the landing page doesn’t match the email. In fact, wealth management wasn’t even mentioned in the email. That could create some confusion.
The subhead and body copy get back on track. They reproduce, almost word for word, the email copy, creating some continuity in the messaging.
Visually, the graphics are similar, with the photo and illustration combo. But the primary color in the email is blue. Here, it’s purple.
Details like these can interrupt the continuity and degrade trust.
Example 17: Use a quiz instead of a form.
Rhino Fleet Tracking offers GPS tracking systems that enable businesses to monitor trucks, vans, trailers and improve the communication between drivers, managers and staff to maintain a high level of security.
Instead of using a “pancake form” where form fields are stacked like pancakes on a plate, Conversion Sciences created a more interactive quiz style form. Before it asks for personal information, it asks qualifying questions to bring visitors into the form.
The quiz starts by asking a question directly related to the visitor’s problem.
By asking for details about visitor’s situation, the quiz demonstrates that the company is not just trying to get their contact information to send to the sales team. The copy “We can help” is a nice confidence booster.
By successfully answering these questions, the visitor gains momentum for the rest of the steps. The visitor is ready to provide some personal information.
Only now will the quiz ask for contact information and opt-in permissions.
It is tempting to ask for an email address up front in case the visitor abandons the form. We have found that saving this for last is more effective. However, it might be smart to ask for the email before requesting the remaining contact information, which is found in the final step here.
The original landing page had a regular “pancake” form, as shown below.
We ran an A/B test of this form against a version of the quiz-style form.
We believe the reason completion rates are higher for this kind of form, even though it has more steps and asks for more information, is due to two things:
Time to Optimize: Your CRO Journey Begins Now
As you can see from these examples, landing pages are not your average web page. Landing page designs and copy are focused on two jobs: keeping the promise and asking the target audience to make a choice. .
The best landing pages not only convert more prospects, they can lower ad spend and yield a higher ROI while opening the gates to fill your pipeline with quality leads.
But as you’ve seen, there’s a science to creating a lead generation landing page that converts. You need to understand your target audience, their pains and hopes, and the type of offers they’ll respond to.If you’d like to remove more of the mystery and apply our proven formulas to your lead gen landing pages, let us know. Conversion Sciences is a conversion rate optimization agency that specializes in conversion rate optimization services.
Four Ways of Predicting the Future of Your Website
Conversion Marketing StrategyHow predictable are people when they are on the Web? As it turns out, they are not very predictable at all. For any site, the audience is very different, even among sites in the same business.
Whenever we try to predict how people will behave, we are trying to predict the future. This is how we forecast outcomes and the potential revenue behind an idea or campaign. As a result, it’s vital to understand how this is done.
Here are four ways we tend to do this on the Web. (Note: not all of them are recommended!)
1. “What worked for others will work for us in the future.”
Predicting the future based on what your competitors is doing is like painting a room to match your neighbor’s furniture. Your site is different. Your audience is different.
And what others are doing may not be working for them. They may be just copying someone else.
There was a time when everyone used rotating images on their homepages. In our tests, we found that rotating header images rarely beat static images.
We see that all the time. A tactics that works for one website becomes a trend. Everyone follows without testing its effectiveness for their audience and their website.
2. “What I like is what everyone will like.”
Most of our sites suffer from what we call “selling to ourselves.” The major problem with this approach is that everyone on your team is a different self. The designer designs for herself, the writer writes for himself, and the marketing exec approves what they themselves approve of. The site will speak with many different voices, both visually and textually.
This approach only predicts the future for visitors who are like the members of this team, who have the skillsets that the members of this team take for granted.
3. “What we have today will continue to work for us.”
While things can change, this is one of the more reliable ways to predict the future. We say that, based on past experience and data, we can predict what will happen tomorrow.
This method predicts the status quo, but does not properly incorporate sales growth into the future vision.
4. “We must experiment to see what will work in the future.”
When we treat every idea as a hypothesis, we are able to ask much more specific questions about the future. Experimentation allows us to see the future in high definition.
When we say, for example, “Our competitors are using video, therefore we should use video,” we are stating a hypothesis.
When we test this hypothesis, we are finding out if our statement predicts the future. Then we can say, “Our test shows that video led more visitors to buy, so we can assume in the future that video will generate more sales.”
Likewise, saying, “I don’t like watching videos when I shop online, so visitors will not like video on our site,” can also be stated as a hypothesis, though the opposite of the one we stated above.
If we had already tested video, we would be able to predict if visitors like video or not based on the sales generated. We don’t need to guess because we have gained the ability to predict the future.
A Unified Fortune Telling Technology
Only the fourth option relies on the scientific process. With this approach, every idea becomes a hypothesis to be tested, and it becomes possible to tell the future with more accuracy.
We always test from where we are today, adding our hypothesis to the mix and testing it against the page as it is.
It makes sense to consider what others are doing and our personal taste when coming up with ideas. It is when we put those ideas in the context of the existing site and test them that we gain a future-seeing goggles.
Full funnel conversion optimization – or the Conversion Sciences Profit Funnel™ – provides the analysis and insights to help you prepare for the future and positively impact your business bottom line.
12 Design Best Practices for Landing Page Form Optimization
Lead GenerationGetting form optimization from your landing page templates goes beyond knowing the key components of a landing page form. It’s about creating a user journey that guides visitors toward an informed choice.
Let’s unravel the blueprint for landing page form optimization best practices that are not only user-friendly but are conversion-optimized powerhouses.
1. Keep it Simple
Everyone starts a form with a certain amount of cognitive energy. The more motivated they are to complete a form the bigger the bank of energy they have. However, if you deplete their cognitive energy before they complete the form they abandon.
When optimizing forms, make everything clear and easy for people to fill out. When forms are simple, users can quickly give the information needed without any stress. Here’s how to simplify web form optimization:
Make sure the form loads fast to keep people’s attention. Give easy-to-understand help messages if someone makes a mistake. Make it responsive on mobile phones, tablets and computers.
Is this asking too much information to simply register for a webinar?
2. Write Clear Field Labels for Optimizing Forms
Clear field labels are the road signs in the journey of filling out a form. They tell users where to go, ensuring they don’t take a wrong turn and abandon the process out of frustration. Follow these guidelines to craft a clear landing page template when optimizing forms:
It’s almost always unwise to place form labels below the fields.
3. Include a Visible, Contrasting Form CTA Button
Forms act as highly visible “conversion beacons” on landing pages, making it clear to the visitor that they are being asked to do something. However, a visible, contrasting call to action (CTA) button will reinforce the desired action.
A form CTA should grab the users’ attention, nudging them naturally and assertively toward making that click. It’s more than a button. It steers users in the right direction. The button should contain contrasting colors that draw the eyes and break visual monotony, creating a focal point that’s almost magnetic.
The button size should be substantial enough to be noticed but not so large that it overwhelms other content. Position it strategically, ideally in a central and prominent spot, where users’ eyes naturally drift. Pair it with compelling text that drives action — steer clear of generic phrases like “click here.”
The design of this form downplays the call to action.
4. Provide Visual Cues and Instructions
Visual cues and instructions help users move through a form intuitively, without feeling lost. When optimizing forms, consider these tips and strategies for implementing visual cues:
5. Use Smart Placeholder Text
When making a landing page with form layouts, it’s a good idea to use placeholder text. The placeholder text is the faint text you see in the boxes where the user will type information. It helps people know what they should put in each box.
Placeholder text shouldn’t replace the primary field labels that tell people what each box is for; it’s just there to give extra help.
Keep the placeholder text short and simple. Use everyday words that everyone can understand so people aren’t wondering what they should do. The text color should be lighter than the color people see when they start typing so they can see the difference between their words and your hints.
Test your form to make sure the placeholder text works well, and the layout looks good on different devices such as phones, tablets and computers. That way, visitors will have an easier time using your form, no matter what they use to view it.
6. Implement Progressive Profiling
Progressive profiling is a technique used in digital marketing to gradually collect information about a lead over time rather than asking for all the details at once. Progressive profiling reduces form length, eases the user’s experience and enriches the data profile of the user as they continue to engage with your site or offerings.
The perks? Users are more likely to complete shorter forms with a simpler layout. As they see value and build trust with your brand over time, they’ll be more inclined to share additional information, enabling you to fine-tune your marketing efforts.
Follow this step-by-step guide to implement progressive profiling for form optimization:
7. Aim for Mobile-Friendly Landing Page Form Optimization
In 2023, 59% of website traffic came from mobile phones, and that percentage is trending upward. Making your landing page mobile responsive ensures a positive user experience that’ll likely result in more completed forms.
To make a mobile-friendly landing page form, start with an uncluttered layout that’s easy to navigate on smaller screens. Make the text readable with buttons large enough to tap effortlessly. A good user experience occurs when the visitor doesn’t have to struggle to read tiny text or tap small buttons.
One of the best ways to improve the mobile form experience is to deliver the proper keyboard for each form field. Both iPhone and Android have special keyboards for:
Test the landing page template on different mobile phones and browsers to make sure it works flawlessly. Pay attention to load times. If the page or the form loads slowly, you’ll lose potential customers. Ensure that everything looks right and works correctly. Usability sets the stage for a seamless interaction with your potential customers.
8. Include Trust and Privacy Indicators
Building trust with users is a pivotal step. Certificates, privacy policies, and trust badges reassure users that their information is secure and will be handled properly. Here is how to effectively include trust and privacy indicators that give you credibility.
Displaying these elements prominently (but not intrusively) can strike the right balance between providing assurance and maintaining a clean design. Encouraging trust facilitates a smoother path to conversion.
9. Minimize Distractions
Creating a space free of clutter allows users to concentrate solely on the form and steer clear of any hindrances that might disrupt the flow. It retains the user’s attention and subtly nudges them to fill out the form, thereby improving conversion rates.
10. Consider Error Handling and Validation
User-friendly error handling and validation are keystones in landing page form optimization. They ensure users can easily correct mistakes. They also foster a smoother, frustration-free experience, which, in turn, amplifies conversion rates.
Here are the best techniques for handling errors and validation:
On mobile, beware of validation error messages that appear off-screen. It is recommended that error messages appear on or near the field that needs attention. Avoid posting error messages at the top of the form or the top of the page, as these may be off-screen for a mobile user.
11. Perform AB Testing and Form Optimization
A/B testing is a must-have in the digital landscape. It allows you to make informed decisions based on data and performance metrics. A/B testing and optimization includes refining and optimizing to ensure your landing page form is performing at optimum levels, which bolsters conversion rates. Here’s a step-by-step guide that helps you do it correctly:
Post A/B testing, continuous optimization comes into play. It’s about nurturing perpetual improvement, where insights gleaned from one test feed into the hypotheses for future tests.
12. Use Analytics and Tracking
Use analytics and tracking tools to understand user behavior and the overall performance of your form. These tools track a variety of metrics that give you the actionable insights you need to continually refine and optimize your form.
Metrics to keep an eye on include:
By looking at user behavior and form performance, you begin developing optimization strategies that can improve your form completion rates. You will craft a form that’s user-friendly and finely tuned to facilitate higher conversions. It’s about blending science with strategy to foster a landing page form that’s primed for success.
Better Form Optimization Leads to More Conversions
Effective form design is crucial for form optimization, enhancing user experience and increasing conversion rates. You can significantly improve conversion rates by adhering to best practices such as simplicity, clear CTAs, and intuitive layouts. Regular testing and refinement based on user feedback are essential for maintaining optimal form effectiveness.
Want more conversions? Conversion Science gives you the tools to create better leads that get more conversions. Contact us today to get started.
Designing Landing Page Forms That Convert
Lead GenerationIn digital marketing, landing page forms are essential for transforming casual browsers into engaged customers. Forms serve as a first handshake, introducing individuals to your brand while gathering vital information to personalize their experience.
When crafting these forms, the golden rule is efficiency. A well-structured form respects the user’s time and demonstrates a focused approach, asking for only what’s necessary to kick-start a relationship for you and a potential customer.
Below, we share valuable tips for landing page best practices and how to design and optimize your forms to convert more leads into loyal customers.
Contents
What Is a Conversion?
To put it simply:
A conversion occurs when someone visits your landing page and takes a desired action that aligns with your goal.
Some examples of landing page conversions include:
We divide conversions into two main types:
In either case, the goal of your landing form is to capture essential information from visitors, helping to transform them from casual browsers into qualified leads.
Why Use Landing Page Forms?
Forms are the backbone of any successful landing page strategy. They’re like friendly greeters at a store’s entrance, helping to introduce potential customers to what the business offers while gathering helpful information along the way. A successfully executed form also allows you to connect with, learn about, and encourage your visitors to act.
Connect With Your People
These forms are all about making connections. By encouraging visitors to share some information about themselves, you build relationships with people who are genuinely interested in your offering. We call it capturing leads.
Learn About Your People
Forms are a goldmine for gathering customer data. They help you gain insights to refine your approach and offer products, deals, or information more aligned with what your audience wants. It’s a smart way to keep people engaged and coming back for more.
Encourage Your People to Commit
Let’s not forget about sales! A well-designed form can smoothly guide a visitor from browsing your site to purchasing. It’s like having a helpful shop assistant who knows exactly when to step in and offer just the right suggestion to help a customer make their choice.
In this article, we focus on landing page form optimization, but as mentioned above, your form is part of a larger landing page strategy. Don’t forget to optimize your landing page for conversion as well. These landing page templates will help.
Key Components of a High-Converting Form
If you want your landing page forms to convert, have your endgame in mind. This ensures that every element of your form is strategically aligned to encourage users to complete the desired action.
Each field in the form reassures and motivates the user, helping them gain momentum and ultimately leading to a conversion. They provide a great user experience but also reduce submissions from unqualified prospects. The following elements help you achieve these goals.
Compelling Headline
A great headline is a firm handshake with the visitor; it grabs their attention and holds on tight. It should resonate with the potential customers and hint at the value they will receive.
Here are some pro techniques for writing winning headlines:
Keep it tight. The best headlines are no more than six to ten words. This makes it easier to read at a glance, and more importantly, to fit more easily on mobile devises.
Make it active: A good headline feels energetic. The best way to inject energy is to write the headline with an active verb, ideally in the present tense.
Omit the unnecessary: Strike articles (words like a, an, and the) whenever possible. And instead of conjunctions (think and or but), use commas.
Be specific: Vague is boring. Use specific numbers and details to capture attention.
Need some inspiration for your next compelling headline? Think of action phrases like:
These headlines are enticing, offering a promise of value and evoking a sense of exclusivity and advancement.
Clear Benefit Statement
A benefit statement goes hand in hand with the headline, offering a concise yet comprehensive overview of what users stand to gain if they take action. It could be phrased like any of these:
Crafting a potent benefit statement involves pinpoint precision and a firm focus on value. When drafting your statements, remember these three quick tips:
Highlight the benefits vividly, spotlighting the value of completing the form.
Clear and Concise Instructions
One of the biggest mistakes you can make when designing a landing page form is to assume users understand what they need to do next. It’s important to clearly communicate the purpose of registration forms, how to fill them out, and what happens after they do.
Your goal is to design a smooth user experience. Imagine that you’re having a direct conversation with your potential customers. Guide them in a friendly yet assured manner.
Make field labels clear and concise. This reduces guesswork and increases the likelihood that users will accurately complete every field. It can help to use some basic copywriting techniques:
It may be necessary to write simple instruction, complete with checkboxes, bullet points, or numbers to guide the user through their next steps.
However you approach it, make sure you use a simple, less-is-more layout to reduce confusion. Good form design includes easy-to-read field labels, a clean layout, and responsive feedback that acknowledges correct user input. It also adopts a layout that looks good on phones and tablets since 45% of form data is submitted on mobile devices.
Proper Use of Form Fields
Form design studies have found that unnecessary form fields create friction and reduce conversion rates. The statistics are sobering:
To avoid form abandonment, it’s important to reduce complication. Think “less is more.”
Your form layout should include only as many fields as you need.
Are you offering a report or whitepaper? Users know you only need their email address to send them the information they’re requesting. They may be willing to share their name and phone number, but it’s unlikely they’ll answer a dozen fields asking for details about their job or their business.
Are they filling out a demo-request form? Users understand that you need more information to put together a demo. You can ask about their job role and business but you should avoid asking penetrating questions that can be asked face-to-face.
A smart strategy in form design is to leverage “stop fields,” fields that ask too much of your visitors when compared to the perceived value of the offer.
These fields tend to cause form abandonment — but keep in mind, there is bad form abandonment and good form abandonment.
Bad form abandonment occurs when a qualified prospect was unwilling to complete the form. Good form abandonment occurs when you discourage unqualified prospects from completing the form. And that’s where stop fields come into play. Used strategically, they can reduce conversion while increasing the quality of your leads.
Stop fields may include:
Dropdowns or checkboxes that do not include the “right” answer for a visitor will cause abandonment.
Form optimization is key. When designing your form, for every field in your form, ask two questions:
Determining what information to ask for involves a careful consideration of your goals. Are you aiming to nurture leads, sign users up for a newsletter, or perhaps register them for a webinar? The nature of your offering should dictate the kind of information you require.
Remember to keep your field labels as simple as possible, so they don’t reduce trust or increase abandonment rates.
Progress Indicators for Multi-Step Forms
Progress indicators offer a roadmap on longer or multi-step forms, letting users know where they are in the process and how much further they have to go. They enhance the user experience by providing a sense of accomplishment with each completed step and encouraging users to proceed to the next step.
Here are some guidelines for effectively using progress indicators in quiz-style or multi-step landing page forms:
Also, use colors strategically, such as using a distinct color to denote completed steps and create a visual differentiation. Consider providing incentives for completing different stages, encouraging users to reach the end of the process.
Thank You Page or Confirmation Message
A well-crafted thank you page or confirmation message is a golden opportunity to further engage with users and create a lasting impression. It provides a satisfying closure to the form submission process, reassuring users that their effort was successful while enhancing their overall experience.
The thank you page also creates an “Endowment Effect.” This is the afterglow that kicks in once someone has decided to take action on your landing page. It “endows” your business with a heightened trust. This is an ideal time to ask users to do something more.
An effective thank you page or confirmation message can include a variety of elements, such as:
Here are some examples of effective thank you pages or confirmation messages:
Content Download Thank You Page:
Webinar Registration Thank You Page:
Strong Call to Action (CTA)
A strong and clear call to action (CTA) isn’t just a button or a small part of your landing page forms. It’s essentially the crescendo of your user’s journey on your page. It’s the final nudge that encourages the user to take the desired action, steering them from being a visitor to a potential lead or customer.
A well-crafted CTA can significantly boost conversions and play a pivotal role in a successful landing page. Here are a handful of examples of successful CTAs:
Notice how these CTAs use enthusiastic and encouraging language, coupled with a value proposition, to make the action more enticing.
Use these simple techniques for crafting persuasive CTAs:
Better Forms Lead to More Conversions
We’ve dissected the pivotal role forms play in digital marketing, emphasizing the elements that can boost conversion rates. From understanding the essence of conversions to identifying ways to improve form design and so much more, we gave you the inside scoop on creating compelling landing page forms that take potential customers across the finish line.
Want more customers? Conversion Science gives you the tools you need to create better leads that get more conversions. Contact us today to get started.
CRO Training: How to Teach Yourself
Conversion OptimizationThere’s no greater skill than self-reliance. Generating data to support your designs, ideas, and strategies gives you a freedom not available to marketers 10 years ago.
Conversion rate optimization is the segment of digital marketing that seeks to maximize the value gained from your website’s visitors. We seek to convert a visitor to a customer, a lead, or an email subscriber. In short, conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the discipline of getting the most value from the visitors to your website. Businesses get value from their visitors when they begin a conversation with them or convert them to customers.
Without a CRO program, you lose qualified visitors, leaving money on the table. This is why these skills are in high demand from businesses in all industries.
Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he can charge up to $29.99 a pound for fresh salmon.
In this article we’ll discuss conversion rate optimization training, how to set learning goals, define essential concepts, funnels, UX, A/B testing, courses, e-books, and communities.
So, grab a pole and a net. We’re going to make sure you’re not left talking about the ones that got away.
What is Conversion Rate Optimization?
CRO increases the percentage of visitors who become buyers with the guidance of analytics to determine what is happening behind the scenes on your pages and then implementing the creativity of winning messages, images, and calls-to-action.
Why is CRO Important?
CRO is one of the most important aspects of digital marketing.
Sitting at status quo could leave you stuck if you don’t implement a CRO program. There’s a direct connection to the amount of time, effort, or money you put into CRO and the resulting ROI benefit.
If your landing experience is converting at less than 2%, it doesn’t really matter how much traffic you throw at it. Your acquisition cost is going to remain high.
Getting Started with Self-Paced CRO Training
The first step to learning any new topic is to understand how you like to learn. Learning in your own way ensures that you absorb the information that you can then use for the lifetime of your business.
There are four common ways people learn*.
Methodicals: You need to become an expert in conversion rate optimization. You will read blogs, watch videos, scour reports, and attend events before you dive in.
Competitives: You need to be able to apply what you are learning to your current problems. You will look for content and training that addresses CRO to reduce acquisition costs, decrease shopping cart abandonment, or other specific issues.
Humanists: You learn with others. You are looking for trusted experts and communities in the CRO space that are providing content and recommending resources for you to explore.
Spontaneous: You need to jump in and start doing things. You learn fastest by trying things and making mistakes.
Being honest with yourself about how you learn allows you to tailor your learning program.
Evaluate Your Current Knowledge
CRO is about applying data to business problems. Why not collect some data on yourself?
We recommend that you look at your Myers Briggs type, Strengths Finder strengths, or the Kolbe A Index to understand how you learn.
Assessing your skills will keep you from investing in resources that you ultimately won’t get value from. Doing so will help you to prioritize your goals.
How much experience do you have with CRO? How in depth are your skills in copywriting, usability, consumer psychology and behind the scenes coding?
Set Learning Goals
To help you prioritize goals, use the SMART method for defining them. SMART helps you to become specific in finding measurable goals that are achievable, relevant and met in a timely manner.
Here’s an example of how you can do this with a CRO goal.
Specific – Create copy for a page that increases conversion rates.
Measurable – How many conversions does a page with the copy contribute to?
Achievable – An increase of 10% to 20% in your conversion rate would be helpful and achievable.
Relevant – More conversions will mean more revenue for the business.
Time-Bound – I can accomplish this within 3 months.
Essential CRO Concepts to Master
The core principles in CRO include:
As you begin to master CRO skills, you will be able to apply and test these concepts in your own marketing.
The Conversion Funnel
Your campaigns are a series of steps. Each step is an opportunity to apply CRO to move a visitor forward in their evaluation of your offering. So, it’s important that you look at the entire journey as a whole and pay attention to how it all works together.
Top of funnel activities are usually focused on awareness.
Your home page is a top of funnel hub that directs visitors to areas of your website that are relevant to them when they visit.
Here are some things to focus on for the home page:
Elements in the middle of the funnel focus on getting visitors to look at specific products and services.
Great content will engage them with your products or services and build trust. Clarity will help define which products or services they should look at.
Bottom of funnel elements strive to close sales.
Use comparison pages, demos, and testimonials to help visitors pull the trigger. Eliminating friction will help move visitors through to the end of the funnel. And adding urgency might make it more likely to happen quicker.
User Experience (UX) and CRO
In digital marketing, much of the customer journey boils down to UX. Is the design of your site helping them understand what is important to focus on??
There are two competing forces at work in UX: familiarity and novelty. We don’t have to work too hard if we are familiar with the UX. Novelty can grab our attention, highlighting what is unique about the business.
We can use the example of shopping in a brick-and-mortar store.
Grocery stores that use the same standard universal aisle layout across stores make it easy for shoppers to find what they’re looking for if they find themselves shopping at the same store in a different city. This approach leverages our familiarity with how grocery stores work.
Novel UX requires us to teach shoppers a new way of doing things. Save it for truly novel situations.
In a grocery store, self-checkout, however, is a novel way to pay. It makes it quick for those who have small orders but requires more work on the part of the customer.
So, make the usability of your online store smooth in this same fashion. Make your navigation seamless, add upsells and make your checkout process simple.
A/B Testing
One of the best ways to know if a change to your website will be preferred by your visitors is with A/B split tests.
A/B split tests can scientifically tell you with statistical accuracy which change will increase your conversion rate.
It works by loading the current existing web page along with a competing test page into split testing software. Half of your visitors will see the original version while half of your traffic will see the test page.
Conversions are then tracked for each page and a winning page is declared. It’s beneficial to get on a split testing program of at least one test per month.
An example of a basic split test would be testingtwo2 different calls-to-action to see which yields the most sales.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
There are many KPIs that will tell you if your CRO work is improving things for the business.
Measurement is critical to CRO work, and website analytics is the source for most of your KPIs. If you are unfamiliar with website analytics, we can recommend MeasurementMarketing to gently get you up the learning curve.
Here are some KPIs to consider in your digital marketing endeavors.
Bounce Rate/Engaged Visitors
Your bounce rate has been defined by the ubiquitous Google Universal Analytics as the percentage of visitors who leave your site after visiting only one page. Less blunt measures of bounce rate use the time a visitor is on the site or to indicate a bounce, or some combination of time and pages visited.
For example, Google Analytics 4 uses such a combination of metrics to determine which visits are from engaged visitors. The inverse of this is equivalent to the bounce rate.
A high bounce rate, or low engagement rate, tells you that you are getting qualified visitors from your search, ads, emails, and other traffic sources. They quickly see that they are in the wrong place.
Click and Scroll Depth Metrics
Platforms such as Hotjar and Microsoft Clarity show you where people are clicking on your pages, where they’re not clicking, and how far down a page they are scrolling.
This gives you on-page information that unearths problems with your UX, messaging, and design.
User Path
Most analytics products will show you how visitors are moving through your website. You will see where visitors are getting stuck or dropping out of the funnel.
Google Analytics shows you how much time, on average, your visitors are spending on your page to evaluate engagement.
It is important to realize that time on page may not correlate with higher conversion rates.
Exits
The exit rate tells you which pages are causing visitors to leave your website. Take a close look at pages with high exit percentages.
Conversion Rate
And finally, don’t forget to measure your actual conversion rate. Measure it using this equation…
(Number of conversions / Number of visitors) * 100 = Conversion rate %.
Best Resources for Self-Learning CRO
There’s a myriad of CRO resources that will help you learn how to increase your conversions rates and practice developing new skills.
It’s important that you follow reputable digital marketing sources. Here are a few resources both free and paid to add to your CRO learning program.
Online Courses and Certifications
A CRO course is one of the most effective ways to get training under your belt. With a regimented course plan and quizzes, it’s a great way to test, develop and practice skills. Some conversion rate optimization training courses offer a CRO certification, which can be a nice addition to your resume.
We can’t recommend a training resource more than CXL Institute.
Our own Brian Massey teaches the introduction to the CRO mini degree, which has the detail that Methodical learners will love.
With 90 digital marketing courses, Competitive learners will be able to find something that focuses on their current problems.
CXL draws from industry experts, so Humanists are likely to find a trusted source to learn from.
Market Motive offers a low-cost but comprehensive conversion rate optimization training course. Market Motive offers hands-on projects for our Spontaneous learners to try out what they learn.
The bite-size lectures found on Udemy will also appeal to our Spontaneous learners.
For our Humanist learners, we recommend live and online workshops, like those offered by SMX, Digital Summit and others. These provide a way for you to interact with the trainer and the class as you explore topics in CRO.
Regardless of your learning style, your ability to create words and images that are relevant and compelling to your visitors is crucial. For this reason, we love Copyhackers online courses for copywriting.
Books and E-books
Many CRO experts have written books that should be in every budding analyst’s library to help them learn more. A comprehensive list wouldn’t be that useful to you.
Instead, we offer one or two resources for each of the learning styles we’ve highlighted in this article.
For our Spontaneous readers, we recommend Your Customer Creation Equation: Unexpected Website Formulas of the Conversion Scientist. Brian Massey walks readers through five website formulas and helps you determine which aligns best with your specific business structure to get amazing results.
For our Humanist readers, we recommend Waiting For Your Cat To Bark? Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing by Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg. This starts with the premise that customers operate more like cats than Pavlovian dogs.
For our Competitive learners, we recommend Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think Revisited. For decades, this book has changed the mindset of readers and experimenters.
For our Methodical learners, we recommend a detailed top-to-bottom overview of CRO.
Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions by Tim Ash, Maura Ginty and Rich Page.
This book focuses on landing page optimization with before and after results.
Forums and Online Communities
Being able to openly ask and answer CRO questions is a valuable place for people to broaden and learn more CRO skills. It’s a place of precision learning. It’s also a really great place to meet other CRO folks.
Check out the Moz CRO forum where you can learn techniques by meeting like-minded people and interact with questions and answers.
Practical Tips for Applying CRO Knowledge
Finally, there will come a time to apply your CRO knowledge in a real-world setting. It’s important that you adjust and refine based on outcomes.
You should have access to a website with at least 100 conversions a month if you want to start exercising your new CRO skills.
Start Small
You don’t have to perform a complete web redesign in order to get results. In fact, it’s not advised because multiple changes can skew results making it difficult to know what changes helped or hurt a page.
It’s advised that you start with small changes so you can gauge exactly which changes increase and which changes decrease conversions.
Even a small change such as changing the copy on a CTA button can yield significant results.
Analyze, Iterate, Improve
The beauty of CRO is that at each step you can take what you learn and build and improve upon that improvement.
Don’t be afraid of failed tests. There is opportunity to gain insight from failed tests as well.
Take what you have learned from both your winning and losing tests and then use that information to iterate with a new test.
Stay Updated with CRO Trends
As with any arm of digital marketing such as CRO, it is always evolving. New platforms are always emerging that could change the game enabling you to learn more.
Make sure you’re signed up to newsletters that will help keep you up to date on the latest trends. Follow blogs for new articles that showcase new technologies and trends. And follow influencers on social media.
FAQs
How do I get good at CRO?
Practice really does make perfect. If you follow all these guidelines and maintain a learning program and you will notice that as you go along, things really start to click and make sense in new ways as you continue to learn.
What skills do you need for CRO?
You need analytical skills to sort through data that will help you make informed decisions. And you need creativity skills to write copy and messaging that resonates with your audience.
What is the best degree for a CRO?
A marketing degree with a focus in digital marketing is highly beneficial to a CRO specialist with a concentration in CRO related classes.
What makes a successful CRO?
A successful CRO makes decisions based on data, not assumptions.
Analysis is just one part of the game. You will also want to work on your ability to present your findings in a way that others will understand.
How long does it take to become proficient in CRO?
There is a lot of skill developing when it comes to CRO. It often takes time for things to truly click. It typically takes a couple of years if you stick to your learning program and have opportunities to exercise your skills.
Are there any industry-recognized certifications for CRO?
CXL Institute offers certification that is generally recognized by the industry.
How do I measure the success of my CRO efforts?
Measure your KPIs and make sure that they are moving in a positive direction.
How do I balance user experience with aggressive CRO tactics?
It’s always important to make sure that your user experience is effortless. If aggressive CRO tactics interfere with a user experience, it might be in your best interest to forego those tactics.
What are the most common pitfalls or mistakes when starting with CRO?
Testing everything can be a problem as many tests don’t end up yielding wins. Focusing on the wrong things can also be a waste of time. Spend extra time on choosing which ideas you test, which you just change, and which you ignore. This is part of the process of becoming good at CRO.
How often should I update or revisit my CRO strategies?
Updating your skills should be an ongoing process. New strategies are being tested by other CRO professionals, and many of them share their results. A year away from newsletters and articles on CRO could cause a huge gap that results in a lack of updated information.
Kickstart Your CRO Journey Today!
Now that you’ve been given the tools and map to teach yourself CRO, it’s time to get started.
Assess your current knowledge and set realistic SMART goals to implement a successful learning program.
Master essential CRO concepts such as conveying your unique value proposition, building trust, increasing relevance, providing clarity, amplifying desire, eliminating friction, and adding urgency.
Understand funnels, UX, A/B testing and KPIs. Take courses, read books, and join forums. Start small and iterate on your advancements while always updating your skills.
And if you need a little extra help, Conversion Sciences is here to offer a hand. We’ve been thought leaders in the space since 2007. Through our books, blogs, podcasts, and trainings, we’ve taught thousands of people how to excel in CRO. We can help introduce you to CRO 101, share a few more CRO resources or offer more in-depth CRO training.
Reach out and let us know how we can support our CRO learning journey.
* Modes of Persuasion from Waiting for your Cat to Bark? by Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg.
We A/B Tested a Web Form Against a Quiz. Here is what we learned.
Conversion-Centered DesignSometimes, we collectively overlook some of the most promising ideas to make things better for our visitors.
So many landing page redesigns leave one element largely unchanged:
The stack of fields we call a web form.
The forms may change, but the stack of fields approach seems to be the preferred way to get a visitor’s information.
Over the past few years, we’ve been experimenting with alternatives to what we call Pancake forms, with some incredible results.
We get higher conversion rates, better abandonment data, and more valuable customers.
Traditional Web Forms are rarely questioned.
It’s human nature to keep doing what we and others have done for a long time. This is why the people that Appled called “the crazy ones” seem to find success.
We here at Conversion Sciences are no exception. Here’s a page we completely redesigned. Just about everything on the page changed.
Except one thing.
Almost everything changed, except one element.
The one thing that changed little was the form, certainly one of the most important components of the page.
Limitations of Web Form Optimization
We have the ability to see how our visitors are using our web forms. A variety of tools will tell us what fields in the stack are causing problems.
But what do we do with the information?
We can instrument forms to see which fields cause people to abondon the form. Click to enlarge.
We can remove a problem field. Sometimes this is an option.
We can adjust the field. We often find that changing a dropdown to an open-text field will increase completions.
We can add some information next to the field. This often makes the form more intimidating to the visitor.
A/B Test of a Form vs. Quiz
Here is a pretty typical lead generation form. It’s a stack of fields — a pancake form.
This looks like a simple pancake form. Certainly most visitors are getting through it, right?
How could we change this experience? How can we make it
This is the solution we came up with. It’s a multi-step form, or a quiz.
Multi-step or Quiz-style web forms
This is the solution we came up with. It’s a multi-step form.
This version generated 61% more quote requests when we did an A/B test of the quiz.
This mulit-step version of the form asks more questions, yet has a much higher completion rate than the Pancake form.
Why do quiz-style forms often outperform standard web forms?
While we don’t expect this type of approach to work for all websites, it is curious that it works at all. The common belief among digital marketers has been that, if you require more clicks in a process, you give visitors more opportunities to abandon the site.
Clearly, quiz-style forms multiply the number of clicks required. Yet, despite the increased opportunities to jump out, quiz-style forms can significantly improve completion rates.
Heres what we think is going on.
Things to try with Quiz-style Web Forms
Measure visits to each step of a web form.
Send an event to your analytics package at each step of the process. You’ll be able to create detailed funnel reports that tell you where your visitors are getting into trouble.
We can diagnose which steps cause more visitors to abandon the quiz. Click to enlarge.
This data allows you to A/B test different versions of the quiz to find the most effective.
Redesign steps that have high abandonment.
Once you know where the problem steps are, you should consider adding information.
Three variations of a step that had high abandonment rates. Click to enlarge.
Change the order of a web form’s steps.
We have found that asking for personal information at the end of the process is a good place to start. However, it is sometimes helpful to ask for this up-front.
A/B test the order of the steps on your quiz style form to see what works best.
Remove steps from a web form.
While we have found little correlation between the number of steps and completion rates, some steps will be more relevant to your visitors than others.
A/B test removing steps that provide information only important to you.
Add steps to the web form.
It may seem counterintuitive, but adding steps may actually improve completion rates. This is most often the case if you are adding questions that ask about the visitor’s problem, as opposed to questions that collect data for you.
This single field was replaced by two quiz steps. Click to enlarge.
Add steps after the conversion.
The power of this approach is that you will see the process of collecting information from your visitors as an experience, or a flow. This experience extends beyond the purchase.
The thank you page or receipt page is a great time to ask for more from your visitor. Try adding some of these:
Should you consider quiz-style web forms?
This approach has worked in numerous other A/B tests on a variety of websites.
We think you should add this to your own idea list.
You can also let us A/B test a form on your site.
How to Compare Data When You Move from Google Analytics to GA4
Web AnalyticsOnce you move from Google Analytics to Ga4, you can be assured that your data will not match exactly. In fact it may be off by a percentage.
What is more important is that relative changes from day to day, week to week, and month to month are of the same magnitude in both systems.
Is the GA4 data correlated with the UA data?
For example, if we graphed the Universal Analytics (UA) metric Users against the GA4 metric Active Users, it might look like this:
It is clear that UA consistently reports more Users than GA4 active users on a day-by-day basis.
The blue bars are the users reported by UA and the green bars are the active users reported by GA4 on a daily basis. It’s clear that UA is reporting more users than GA4 is reporting acitve users.
This is to be expected, because active users are calculated differently by GA4 than is users.
What is more important is that they move similarly to each other day after day. In other words, if GA4 is going to report fewer active users, the magnitude of the difference between it and UA should be consistent, day after day.
For most days this appears to be true. But some days, UA reported many more users than GA4 reported active users.
Does this mean that we can’t trust one or the other? There is a way to find out.
Scatter Plots, Not Bar Graphs
The bar graph is a crude tool for comparing two data sets. In fact, any time-series graph is going to disappoint.
What we need is a Scatterplot.
The Scatterplot graph in Google Sheets
A scatterplot ignores the order of the date and instead compares the data on each day. On a day that UA reported 200 users, how many active users did GA4 report? We plot that point.
When we do it for each day in our data set, we might see something like this:
Scatterplot graph of Users from UA vs. Active Users from GA4
What you might notice is that this data lies in a straight line, for the most part. This is a good sign. It means that the GA4 data changes relative to the UA data for each of the days mapped.
This doesn’t mean that it’s accurate, though. Here’s a scatterplot of the same data, but I’ve artificially doubled the daily UA data.
A scatterplot in which the value of one dataset has been doubled. It looks pretty much the same.
This data looks good, but it’s not. How would we know?
Spreadsheets and your high school math teacher give us a simple way to evaluate the data like a boss.
Add a Trendline
First, Google Sheets will calculate a trend line for us. When at science events, we call this a linear regression. This is the straight line that best “fits” the points. If the points look like a line, then the trend line will be a close approximation of the data. In Google Sheets you’ll find this in the Customize tab under Series >.
These features exist in Excel as well.
Check the Trendline box in the Chart Editor of Google Sheets
When we add a trend line to our data, we see this:
The trend line matches the data very closely. But how closely?
That draws a pretty line right along with our data. How closely do the two data sets match? That’s what R2 tells us.
Reading the R2 Value
If you’re curious about how this is calculated, here’s a helpful video.
Google Sheets will calculate R2, but this is not enough. We want the equation of the trend line so that we know how closely related the two data sets are.
In Google Sheets, set the Label field to “Use Equation” and check the box labeled “Show R squared”.
There are some mathy looking bits in our legend now.
The R squared value tells us how closely the data “fits” our trend line and the equation describes the trend line in detail.
The R2 number tells us how well the trend line describes our data. A perfect fit would give us an R2 value of one. The closer to one it is, the more likely our two data sets are describing the same thing.
The equation is the one you learned in high school. It’s just the equation of a line.
The Equation of a Trend Line
This is one of those equations that you swore you would never use in math class. Today, it’s going to give you X-ray vision into your data.
x is the GA4 Active Users
y is the UA Users
The choice of x or y axis is arbitrary for a scatterplot.
m is the “slope” of the line. It’s the “rise over the run”. If we expect our two datasets to be alike, we expect a slope very close to one.
B is the “y intercept”. It is where our line crosse he vertical axis, also called the “y axis” when x is zero.
We’re hoping that our GA4 data is as much like our UA data as possible. If the two were reporting the exact same number each day:
I compared two identical data sets to show this.
Two identical data sets. The R squared value is 1. The slope is 1.
The y-intercept is 0.
So, what if our data isn’t perfect?
If R2 is significantly less than one, the two data sets are not well-correlated to each other. In other words, they are not describing the same thing. If it’s 0.9 or above, we feel pretty good about the comparison. If its below 0.8, we should be worried.
Even if R2 is close to one, the slope (right before “x”) might be significantly less than one. In this case, we would find that that one dataset is adding or subtracting a percentage of the true value. It could be doubling the count of users, or not reporting users on some percentage of the pages of your website.
If the R2 value his close to one and the slope is close to one, we may find the y-intercept to be higher than zero. This means that some consistent value is being added to one or the other dataset. One is counting something that the other is not.
Here are some common scenarios we see in comparing UA and GA4 data, and how the equation would be expected to change.
You’re comparing the wrong data.
Let’s start off by looking at a bad correlation. Here the R2 value and slope are near 0. The y-intercept is very high.
Something is just not right here. Maybe you’re not pulling the data right.
Both the R2 value and slope are near 0. The y-intercept is way above 0. This is data that doesn’t correlate.
Bot traffic is not being filtered in one dataset.
In this example, I’ve artificially added 50 users per day to one of the datasets. This is what it would look like if GA4 was filtering out a consistent traffic source, like bot traffic, but UA was not.
The entire trend line will is lifted by 50 users. Because it’s consistent, the slope and R2 values are not affected. But the y-intercept will rise precariously.
Adding 50 users to one dataset increases the y-intercept, even though the slope and R2 values are near one.
You’re double counting.
It’s remarkably easy to double-count by adding the Google Analytics tag twice. In this case, the slope will be close to 0.5 (or 2.0 if you flip the x and y axis in your scatterplot).
It’s not unusual for us to find a website that is adding pageviews using an on-page tag and a tag manager tag. This will double-count pageviews.
When you double the users reported in one dataset, the slope will approach 0.5 or 2.0.
You are “breaking” sessions.
If you are “breaking sessions” in either dataset, you’ll see inflation of sessions. This will be reflected in the slope. It will be significatnly above or below one.
For example, if you use a utm_ query parameter on a call-to-action button on your site, UA will start a new session, as if the user was just arriving on the site. GA4 doesn’t do this.
If your visitors are going to a third-party site and returning, you can get broken sessions. If you have cross-domain tracking setup in UA but not in GA4, you’ll see something like this for the segement of visitors that visit the other site.
The analytics tag is missing on some pages.
With this example, I’ve added 50% to the dataset on the Y axis. This simulates the scenario in which 33% of the pages on the X-axis dataset don’t have tags.
Note that the R2 value doesn’t change. However, the slope of the line is well below 1. In fact, it’s about 2/3 of a perfect slope.
When adding 50% to one dataset, you find the slope changing even though the R-squared value is the same.
Revenue, Transacations and Segments
This approach can be used to check most of your metrics and segments.
Not only can you evaluate the data you are collecting, you can evaluate your ability to pull data in GA4 that represents the thinking of the UA developers. UA data is pre-processed differently in UA than it is in GA4.
This is a great way to be sure you’re pulling similar data segments.
Compare Google Analytics to your sales data.
If you want to be sure Google Analytics is collecting ecommerce data, you can compare transactions from GA to transactions from your backend, such as Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, etc. This approach is great for that.
This is one of the first things we do with or new Conversion Catalyst clients.
The graphs look the same. Don’t be fooled.
Be careful when you move from Google Analytics to GA4.
In all of these examples, the scatterplots look pretty much the same visually. However, our high school math teacher has equipped us with the equation we need to diagnose our data.
Thanks, high school math teacher!
CRO and SEO Working Together with Jason Fisher
Conversion Marketing StrategyWhen CRO and SEO work together, there is a cycle of increasing advantages, according to technical search engine marketer Jason Fisher. Find out how Jason combines SEO and CRO for a one-two punch that delivers results.
Jason Fisher and Brian Massey
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What if you were Google Search’s therapist? You would be tasked with understanding the mind of Google’s search algorithm, simultaneously seeking to understand the Google mind, and trying to help it make better decisions about the world it manipulates.
This, as it turns out, is the job of the search engine optimizer, or SEO. Maybe we should call them SETs: Search Engine Therapists. For they must not only understand the search algorithm, but they must also be able to help it make better decisions.
And they must do this with the active resistance of Google. Like humans, Google secretly does not want to be helped.
Our intrepid SETs will never have a complete understanding of the Google search mind. So, we are stuck with a simple mantra: “Take the best search traffic we can get and let the website sort it out.”
I’m the guy that focuses on “sorting out” the traffic. Making a website better at finding the buyers in your traffic is called Conversion Optimization, or CRO.
Here lies the delicate balance between making the search mind better at its job (SEO) and making the most of what comes your way (CRO).
Google is a cantankerous patient who makes the therapist pay for the privilege of helping it. We need to use all our weapons to maximize this traffic source.
This is why I invited Jason Fisher onto Intended Consequences. He is a search therapist who gets that the “sorting out” part of the equation is important.
* * *
Jsason Fisher has been doing search marketing for a long time. He cut his teeth on search engine marketing right at the beginning of the century, when search marketing was the like the Wild West. Some years later, he was working for a leading link development company, where he learned the power of back links.
He is filling the technical SEO skills gap, primarily for agencies. And he’s the kind of guy that throws around phrases like “competitor link graphs”.
I was curious how a guy like this sees conversion optimization in relation to his work. Here’s what I learned.
CRO vs. SEO: Advice to new online businesses.
We do a lot of consultations with businesses that aren’t ready for our conversion optimization services. My advice to them is this:
Organic search optimization takes 12-24 months to implement. It takes time to research, to create valuable assets, and to build relevant backlinks. But this cannot be easily taken from the business.
Paid search can begin working immediately, but is subject to the bidding of your competition and the whims of the search engine ad algorithms.
Of course, you don’t have to put conversion optimization on hold during this time, especially if your paid search campaigns aren’t yet profitable.
What are the components of SEO?
For established websites, Jason discusses four main components of an organic search program:
Portion of a hamburger with label “On-page/Off-page Factors”
These on-page and off-page success factors are the things the search engines look at to determine your authority for certain queries.
Host performance is an on-page factor. If you have a good tech stack, you should be good.
Over-indexing and Under-indexing
An often overlooked aspect of your search strategy is that the wrong pages are being indexed.
Over-indexing and under-indexing are important CRO and SEO factors.
Do you have a lot of poor-quality pages indexed on the search engines? This can be a problem.
Do you have quality pages that aren’t indexed? Of course, this should be addressed.
It may seem counter-intuitive that you should remove some content from the search index. Jason says that there is a limited “crawl allotment”. You may be wasting yours on poor-quality pages by marking them as “no index”.
Where does link development fit in today’s digital marketing practice?
Link building starts with creating valuable assets, things that others want to link to. In this sense, Jason sees link development like public relations: you’re trying to get people with authority to link to your work.
It takes a lot of work. Of those solicitation emails that us publishers get daily, only 1% results in a backlink.
Evergreen Content
Content is the meat of the sandwich.
Evergreen content are those assets that can stand the test of time should be a focus of your efforts.
Update them and relaunch. Always be looking for ways to increase the quality. For example, transcribe videos on that page to text.
Content Blueprint
Start with the top keyword opportunities in your space. For those phrases that you don’t have content for, you can retarget existing content to them, or create new content that addresses them.
You are closing the gap on the most important search phrases for your business.
Your goal is to demonstrate to “the machines” that you are the authority in your space. People are going somewhere to get answers to questions relevant to your business. Why not your website?
Some of these topics may seem counter to your intuition. Why put DIY content on your site when you want to do the work for them? Because it tells the machines that you are the authority for those search phrases.
Can we outsource this content?
It depends on how complex your product or solution is. You may need a subject matter expert to truly develop quality content.
Content that gets visitors to stick around.
Content that gets others to link to it.
How can a website convert more visitors to prospects and customers?
Your website needs to
People overthink product and service pages. Jason likes to focus on those things that differentiate your offering.
Yes, testimonials and customer logos can increase your conversion rate. Yet, selling your brand and it’s values make a big difference.
This is harder than adding logos to your page.
It is especially difficult to do your own writing. We are too close to our businesses to present them in a way that the visitors need. Let an external resource start the page and then review it to ensure it reflects your advantages and brand voice.
All of this is the foundation for a great marketing program.
Search optimization provides the information that can be used across your marketing efforts.
You will learn a great deal about your audience and your industry when you look through the eyes of the search landscape.
What do your prospects want? What are your competitors doing? What is missing from your messaging platform?
The content calendar is a marketing roadmap.
Understanding not only what you need to say, but when you need to release messages are key to success in search marketing and marketing in general.
When testing your website, you need to know when to run high-risk tests versus low-risk tests.
For example, during peak holiday traffic, you can learn much from low-risk testing during this high-traffic timeframe.
Write for the machines or write for the visitor?
Jason says that you always write for the visitor. Your selection of topics may be driven by the search engines’ understanding of your industry, but the content is for those entering the search phrases.
Links
Jason Fisher is an organic search marketing veteran with over 15 years of experience. Jason has helped numerous Digital Marketing Agencies all over the country increase their clients organic search channel sales & revenue by building & executing sound SEO Strategies.
Jason Fisher’s Website