What Are Landing Pages? Data-Backed Tips & Examples

Have you ever clicked on an advertisement from Google or social media and landed on a page that felt like it was speaking directly to you?

Chances are, the page you saw was a landing page.

Landing pages are standalone web pages that have a single focus: to convert traffic. They often concentrate on single offers like a webinar or product, and the message is directly related to that offer alone. 

They may not be as popular as regular signup forms or popups, yet they have some of the highest conversion rates – ranging around 2-7% and often going into double digits! That’s because landing pages keep your audience focused since they often have fewer links to click, less information to digest, and a single call-to-action for visitors to engage with.

All this means that landing pages can be a game-changer for your marketing goals. They can turn traffic into leads faster than many (if not most) marketing tools in your toolkit. 

So in this piece, we’re going to cover:

• What are landing pages?
• Is a homepage the same as a landing page?
• Why do you need landing pages?
• Types of landing pages and examples
• Landing page best practices
• Common landing page questions

Let’s dive in.

What are landing pages?

A landing page is a standalone web page you create to drive conversions from a specific marketing or advertising campaign.

In other words, a landing page is where your audience “lands” after clicking on an ad or marketing campaign (the clue is in the name, after all.) 

Usually, there are five core elements that every high-converting landing page must have:

• A unique selling proposition (USP)
• A hero image or video
• The benefits of your offering
• Some form of social proof
• A single conversion goal (or call to action)

Because of this, landing pages are often short on information and big on the sell. 

For example, if a visitor clicks on a free webinar you’re offering, the landing page may offer a bit of background on your webinar, a bullet-point list of what they’ll gain from it (your selling points), along with a call-to-action (your single ask on the page.)

Like this landing page we created using the GetResponse Landing Page Creator:

What do you notice?

• Persuasive headlines: They make it clear what the webinar is about (Sales Funnel 101: How to Increase Traffic, Conversions, and Sales) and how long it’ll take you to learn the essentials (Optimize your sales funnel in under an hour)
  
• Visible and clear call-to-action button: No need to guess what your next action should be – register now.

• Selling points: This is the list of key takeaways on the left side of the landing page (under the speaker’s photo). It helps visitors understand what they’ll get by attending the webinar.

• Page layout: The landing page is broken up so that you immediately notice the webinar’s topic and recognize the tutor (Ian Cleary). Once you’re hooked, you can either register for the event or continue scrolling to see if it’s the right fit for you. As you’re scrolling down and getting even more interested in the offer you’re presented with the lead capture form, where all you have to do is provide your details.

You’ll also notice that, unlike a regular homepage, the landing page is missing navigational bars and only has a few links at the top. This is to keep the visitor focused on signing up for the webinar and not getting distracted with anything else that’s normally on a webpage. 

And having this single focus is what makes landing pages one of the best tools for marketers looking to boost their conversion rates. 

Now that you know what landing pages are, let’s look at how they compare to your website homepage.

Is a homepage the same as a landing page?

In short — no. 

A homepage and a landing page are – in most cases – designed for different things. 

Most homepages give your visitors lots of options for moving around your website, like navigational bars, links, blogs, and even a contact center. It’s up to the visitor to decide what journey they want to take — not you.

Landing pages are different.

They have a singular goal: to convince a visitor to convert. And that’s why they only focus on a single product, webinar, or offer at a time. You’ll know you’re on a landing page (as opposed to a homepage) if you only see: 

• One main call to action
• Minimal to zero distractions, like links or pop-up offers, on the page
• Copywriting/offers that match the link you clicked to get there

Like this landing page from Monday.com:

Here’s what we notice: 

• Clear information about whom the platform’s for
• Benefit-oriented subheading stating their promise
• Call to action button right in the above the fold section
• A concise breakdown of features and benefits
• Persuasive messaging
• Social proof from 100,000 businesses using the tool
• Trust signal from known brands using the tool

This “homepage vs. landing page” division is simple, but only in theory.

When browsing the web, you’ll often notice that some brands try to merge these two concepts and design their homepages for maximum simplicity and conversions.

Take the Monday.com example again. If you go to their homepage directly (instead of clicking an ad), you’ll see the following page. Is it all that different from their landing page? Not really.

Here are a few ways their homepage’s different from the landing page:

• Navigational menu at the top
• Slightly different heading and content
• Less prominent CTA
• Testimonial from one of their users
• Larger footer section

As you can see, the theory is often different from reality. But it’s not so much about getting the definition right but about building your pages in a way that’ll help you maximize conversions. And speaking of conversions, let’s now look at why you’ll you need landing pages.

Free Guide

Want to learn how to drive traffic to your landing page and promote it effectively? In this guide, we’ll share 9 effective ways you can do it – even if you’re not an expert.

Download guide

Why do you need landing pages?

Landing pages are essential for a bunch of different reasons — from boosting your conversions to giving you a better insight into your target audience. Let’s explore these a little bit.

1. They’re the best tool for converting visitors

As we said earlier, landing pages are the best converter out of every tool in a marketer’s toolkit, averaging between 2-7% across all industries.

There’s a reason they’re so good at converting: they offer a visitor a reward they can access immediately, whether it be an ebook, a product discount, or a webinar invite. That sense of reward pushes visitors to hand over their details so they can gain access to the reward instantly.

It’s a win-win scenario because it allows you to capitalize on your traffic coming from paid advertisements or social media. If you are driving traffic to a targeted source (like an ebook offer) instead of just sending them to your homepage, it’s more likely that your visitors will convert because there’s something in it for them. 

When you do this, it also brings another benefit — deeper insights into your target audience.

2. Landing pages uncover crucial data about your visitors

See, you might think you know who your target audience is, but without cold, hard data — you’re really just playing a guessing game. 

That’s where landing pages come into play. They can track the people who convert on them and give you valuable insights into what platform or advertising campaign led them there, what content they like best, and if they continue down your marketing funnel after they convert.

Armed with this information, your marketing team can then tweak any future campaigns to make sure they’re spending advertising dollars on the right channels and offering the content your target audience actually wants to see.

3. They help you run your marketing campaigns faster

Getting a new page live would normally take you weeks if not months.

Not only would you need to make sure your page fits the overall site architecture, but also you’d need to get a lot of people involved – likely a designer, web developer, a search engine optimization (SEO) specialist, and someone that knows about web analytics.

With landing pages you can be more agile. You can come up with new ideas and test them much faster.

If you’re using a landing page builder that comes with ready-made landing page templates, you can get your page live in less than hour as:

1. You don’t need a designer or a web developer because you can adjust the page’s content using a drag-and-drop editor.
2. You also don’t need an SEO specialist as you’re most likely going to use the page for converting paid traffic only – and you won’t be affecting your website’s existing architecture.
3. And you don’t need a web analytics expert as the landing page’s already got the Facebook pixel installed and you can just paste your Google Analytics ID to have it fully integrated with GA.

And you can trust me when I say that creating landing pages this way is liberating. In the GetResponse Marketing Department, we launch about 3 to 5 landing pages each month using the very same landing page builder.

Real-life landing page success stories

Landing pages can be a game-changer for businesses, and nobody knows this better than TruckersReport.

The site, a network of professional truck drivers that gets over 5 million page views a month, helps drivers find better-paying jobs. 

The problem? Getting the drivers on the site to fill out the application form so the site could screen them. 

The original landing page converted just over 12% of visitors, but the company wanted to increase its overall conversion rate. 

So, the weakest elements of the landing page (no clear benefit, stock photo, too many form fields, boring headline) were replaced by asking: 

• Why were the truck drivers on the site to begin with? Why were they looking for a new one?
• What is most important to a truck driver when applying for a job?
• What were the main motivators, hesitations, and questions when truck drivers are thinking of taking on a new offer?

Using the answers to these questions, a new landing page was designed with the target audience in mind — truck drivers who are looking for better-paying jobs. 

Not only is the new landing page mobile responsive and explains the benefit clearly, but it also utilizes the Gutenberg diagram, where audiences read a page from left-to-right, top-to-bottom like so:

Once a visitor’s eyes hit the landing page’s benefit (“Get a truck driving job with better pay”), they automatically gravitate to the call-to-action: signing up to the site. 

The landing page overhaul worked. Depending on what variation of the new landing page TruckersReport used, conversions increased by nearly 45%.

The good news is landing pages can be used for all types of industries and products or services.

Take Alex Terrier as an example. This jazz musician and a music teacher reported a 19% email signup rate when promoting his online course using GetResponse.

Here’s the landing page he used:

Not that complicated right?

There are a few reasons why it’s so effective:

• Alex knows his audience very well and was able to highlight their common ‘pains’ at the very top of the page
• The offer’s very promising and requires little effort to get access to it
• There’s a video that gives you the sense of quality you’ll get if you sign up for the free workshop
• There’s a personal message from Alex that further explains what you’re about to receive and whom the offer’s for

In other words, the value proposition of his offer outweighs the potential friction that might be caused by the signup form. The persuasive copy on the other hand, ensures that people that end up converting have the right motivation and are likely to become a high-quality lead.

If you’d like to read other success stories like these visit our marketing case studies page.

Landing page types and examples

Landing pages come in all shapes and forms.

You can see this clearly in our article featuring some of the best landing page examples we’ve seen around the web.

Although they vary so much, marketers have tried to categorize them either by focusing on the page’s goal or the type of offer that’s featured in them.

Here’s a list of the most common landing page types & names you may hear:

• Squeeze pages and opt-in pages
• Lead capture pages
• Splash pages
• Sales pages
• About us pages
• Services pages
• Thank you pages
• 404 landing pages
• Coming soon pages
• Paid advertising landing page
• Video landing pages
• Click-through landing pages
• Viral sharing landing pages

Let’s take a deeper look at five of the more popular ones.

1. Squeeze or opt-in landing pages

An opt-in page or a squeeze page is specifically used to convert landing page visitors into subscribers.

You won’t use this page to sell your products or services. Instead, its goal is to add these subscribers into your marketing funnel, where you can nurture them with email and marketing campaigns into the future. 

Here’s an example of what we mean: 

This landing page sticks to the basics: 

• A striking heading & ebook cover to let the visitor know they’re in the right place
• A call-to-action with a simple ask: “Send me my free guide”
• A quick list that summarizes what the guide is about

After your visitors opt-in using a landing page like this, you’ll have a wealth of data you can use to send them unique, personalized email campaigns and hopefully — turn them into paying customers.

As your offer a.k.a. lead magnet could be anything that’s valuable to your audience, you could further divide your squeeze pages into such categories as ebook landing pages or webinar landing pages.

2. Sales pages

Sales pages can encompass a whole range of offers, from annual holidays (like Thanksgiving) to product launches or discounts. 

The most important part of any sales landing page is that the offer is front and center. Like any landing page, the offer must match the advertisement that led the visitor there in the first place. 

So, if your advertising campaign is offering customers 15% off all your company’s white papers and guidebooks, make sure it’s the first thing they see when they get to your landing page.

In your sales offer, you can also add a sense of urgency by highlighting that the offer’s available “this week only” and placing a countdown timer that’ll count toward the offer’s expiration date.

Here’s an example of a long-form sales page:

3. Paid advertising landing pages

Landing pages are an ideal way to carry a message from a paid advertisement because they keep a visitor’s interest and boost conversions with convincing copy and a call-to-action. 

With the help of a template (or some serious coding skills), you can create a landing page template to follow through with the message on your paid ads to help visitors convert. For example, a paid ad advertising a new app could lead those interested to a landing page that looks like this:

Not only does the page highlight the app’s features, but it also has an explainer video and pricing options. 

Plus, it sticks to some of the main landing page rules we’ve talked about already:

• A single call-to-action ask
• A clear, concise, persuasive headline
• Minimal text with maximum information

4. Thank you pages

A thank you page is a page that website visitors are sent to directly after they’ve completed a goal on your website.

Whether you’re capturing leads or selling tickets for your next event – you’ll want to create an effective thank you page.

Through this page you’ll want to 1) reassure the user that everything worked well, and 2) guide them to the next action you want them to take.

Here’s an example of a thank you page we’ve used for one of our recent webinars.

Even though it’s very simple, we’ve managed to:

• Confirm that the user has successfully subscribed to our webinar
• Inform them that they’ll receive a confirmation email shortly
• Guided them to either log in or create a free trial with GetResponse

Best of all? This thank you page had an impressive 5% free trial conversion rate & lead even more of our existing users to the new tool we were promoting.

5. Coming soon pages

Teasing a product launch or feature release is an exciting time for any business, and the right landing page can help get your message out there.

Landing pages can persuade visitors to keep an eye on an upcoming product launch or feature release by offering early sign-up deals or discounts. Take this landing page example, which offers visitors a chance to try out a product before it’s released:

Using a tool like GetResponse, you can even create your own landing pages to suit any upcoming product launch or event you want to create some excitement around. No need to know how to code or worry about setting up a separate domain if you haven’t purchased one yet – everything’s done for you.

Now that we know what landing pages types there are and what they look like, let’s explore how you can design an effective landing page.

Below, are eight landing page best practices you’ll want to keep in mind. You can read more on those in this article, by Peep Laja, on the ideal landing page structure.

8 landing page best practices

1. Start with a benefit-oriented headline

The headline is the most important part. If the visitors came by clicking on an ad, it must correspond to the ad text that triggered the page. If your banner or PPC ad said „Breakthrough meditation system“, then this phrase should also be included in the headline of your landing page.

2. Keep your copy relevant and short

Make it clear, relevant, concise. Don’t put too much text on the page, as the visitor has to be able to read it quickly. Use bullet points to drive the main points home. Make sure the language in the ad is also present in the copy of the landing page (otherwise visitors will doubt whether they’re in the right place.)

To learn more about how you can make your copy more persuasive, read our guide to landing page copywriting.

3. Keep users focused with one main call to action

There should be only ONE possible action for the visitor to take – be it providing an email address and signing up for something, buying a product or service, or something else. Don’t offer options or the conversions will suffer.

It’s also worth noting that your CTA button placement is important. To learn more about this, check our article where we’re exploring landing page CTA button placement and the use of heatmaps.

4. Skip the distracting navigational links

Remove all extra clutter – links, menus, buttons – that have nothing to do with the particular ad or campaign. The point is that the visitor cannot ignore your message by navigating away and therefore focuses on only that page. This improves user experiences and lower confusion, both of which will help you drive more conversions.

5. Make sure your subscription form is prominent

The one action you want the visitor to take has to be big and obvious. Put a large sign-up form on the landing page, and make it stand out. If possible, place it in the above-the-fold section or right underneath it so that people can’t miss it. If the landing page is long enough for scrolling, duplicate the form or button at the very bottom of the page.

6. Maintain your brand

Don’t make your landing page look different from your overall website and brand. Keep the same colors, fonts – the overall look and feel of your main site. This helps to enforce brand awareness, especially if you’re going to continue the communication via other channels, like retargeting ads or lead nurturing emails.

7. Keep your form short

Unless you need to know everything about your website visitors, it’s best to stick to the essentials and keep your signup form short.

Adding an extra field to your form will increase the so-called friction and decrease your conversion rates – and the drop is quite significant.

Based on the latest GetResponse study, you’re likely to see an average conversion rate of 3.07% if you have two fields in your landing page forms and only 1.22% if you have three. That’s a potential 60.3% decrease in the number of signups you generate.

It’s for you to decide whether getting that extra piece of information is worth the decrease in conversions. But keep in mind that there are other ways of getting access to this kind of data, e.g. through progressive profiling or data-enrichment services like Clearbit.

8. A/B test your landing pages

There’s no such thing as the perfect landing page, so don’t get discouraged if you don’t reach double-digit conversions right from the start.

When designing your landing page start with your gut feeling. Then ask yourself questions, like:

• Would it be better if I used this copy instead of the other one?
• Should I move the person to the left or right from the form?
• Should I use static images or GIFs?
• Should I add more social proof or trust symbols next to the form?

As you’ve compiled these questions, begin to run a/b tests. A/B testing your landing pages means that your traffic will be split into two (or more) and each group of visitors will see a different version of your page. With each A/B test you’ll learn more about what works best for your audience and what drives you the most conversions – be it free trials, sales, or demos.

Common landing page questions

1. Should you really use videos on landing pages?

A landing page’s goal is to convert every visitor — and video can help you do that. 

Just take a look at our attention spans. According to Statistic Brain, the average attention span is now down to a ridiculous 8.25 seconds, but studies show that 95% of viewers actually absorb the messages of the videos they watch. So by using videos on your landing pages, you can make that 8 seconds last.

Videos can help conversions, too. TechJury found that using landing page videos can boost conversions by 86%. But this isn’t always true. The latest GetResponse Email Marketing Benchmarks study showed that landing pages that contained videos had 42% lower average conversion rates.

Why such discrepancies? Most likely due to the fact that some marketers share videos that are either too long or that take away the focus from the main offer, i.e. what’s behind the signup form.

Now, there are a couple of different ways you can incorporate video into your landing pages so that they won’t destroy your conversion rates. The most common being testimonial and explainer videos: 

• Testimonials: They allow your happy customers to do the talking for you. It’s a way for you to take the social proof you already use on your website and give it a voice. A testimonial video could be a single customer or multiple customers explaining the product you’re trying to sell or the webinar you’re inviting people to join and persuading others with their first-hand experience. This gives your offer legitimacy because it’s one thing for you to say it’s good, but it’s another for someone else to reinforce it.

• Explainers: They let you do the talking. An explainer video will have you or someone from your company give the visitor a short explanation of your offer, what the benefits are, and how to sign-up. Think of it as an elevator pitch: 60-90 seconds where you present your offer as the best one to solve the visitor’s problem. 

Here’s an example of a simple yet effective landing page using an explainer video:

What do you notice first?

There’s hardly any text on the landing page. Apart from the landing page header, the only way the visitor can learn about the offer is to play the explainer video. It’s here they’ll learn more about how they’ll benefit from the product the company is offering. 

Setting up the video this way not only increases the likelihood that the visitor will watch it but, because of the persuasion used in the video itself, it can also increase conversions on the landing page.

The only downside to video is that it’s more difficult to include in landing pages, as you have to know how to embed the video yourself. 

Thankfully, a tool like GetResponse can help. With GetResponse, you can upload an existing video (or create a completely new recording) and then add it straight to your landing page — no coding skill required!

Once it’s uploaded, GetResponse will automatically resize it and make sure it fits into any template perfectly.

What to consider before adding video to a landing page

Despite all the benefits, you need to consider whether a video will work on the particular landing page you are designing. 

The good news is that video is usually only a poor addition because of bad execution, like incorrectly uploading the video or slow page load times. 

For example, if you fail to condense a video before uploading it onto your landing page, it can slow down your landing page and drive visitors away. The longer your page takes to load, the more chance you have of visitors bouncing. If it takes 2 seconds or less, roughly 7% of visitors will bounce. But if it takes 5 seconds? That number shoots up to 38%. 

The other issue comes from poor placement of a landing page video. 

If it overwhelms the landing page by leading them away from your call-to-action, so you may need to rethink your strategy. 

The idea of a landing page video is to persuade a visitor to convert, not distract them altogether — so keep that in mind when using them. 

So, videos can be helpful on landing pages if they’re used correctly.

2. What’s the ideal length of a landing page?

The answer is this: it depends on what you are selling or offering. 

If you are offering something like a webinar, this is called a “simple” ask because you’re just asking for their email address (and possibly their name), and they’ll get access to the webinar. Shorter landing pages also work better for risk-free asks, like a free sign-up or trial offer. 

Take this example from 911 Restoration, which deals with emergency disasters. The company gets 90% of their bookings online, so for them to survive, their landing pages need to convert. Their old landing pages were long and gave site visitors a ton of information. Maybe… too much. 

So, they decided to change it up and cut down on the copy, leaving only the essentials that customers needed to deal with an emergency. This is what they came up with:

The results speak for themselves. 

The shorter landing page generated 35 calls from 133 clicks — a 37% increase in conversion rates and a cost per conversion saving of 33%.

Clearly, it’s a big win for the shorter landing page. 

However, if you are selling a $2,000 software product, you are going to need more than a list of bullet-points to convince your visitor to purchase your offer. In fact, visitors even enjoy reading longer-form messages if they’re interested in what you’re saying — and science backs this up. 

A team of scientists studied a group of industrial magazine readers and found that they actually preferred longer copy. The team discovered the readers found the shorter copy less interesting and therefore less inclined to read it. 

“The results suggest that longer ad copy is needed to communicate the type of information sought by industrial prospects, empirically confirming beliefs held by the advertising industry,” the report said. 

So, how long should your landing pages be? 

It ultimately depends on what you are selling. If you are offering a free trial or webinar, you’ll likely do better with a shorter landing page. However, if you are selling a higher-priced item, you’ll need to win your audience over with some convincing copy. 

Now, to the last piece of the landing page puzzle: how much should they cost?

3. How much does it cost to create a landing page?

There’s no calculator you can use to estimate how much a landing page will cost your business. 

That’s because there are so many factors that go into making a landing page successful. A landing page needs to go through optimization, A/B tests, and tweaks to be ready for your target audience. 

Quick look at a service like Upwork and you’ll see that you’ll need to pay anywhere between $10 and $100 per hour for a freelancer to develop a landing page for you. You can also enlist an agency — but expect to pay anything between $500 to $3000 for a landing page. 

Of course, there’s always another option: smart software. 

Using a tool like GetResponse Landing Page Builder, you can create beautiful, responsive landing pages that can increase your conversion numbers for a fraction of the cost of hiring a professional agency. 

Not only does GetResponse have its own landing page creator, but you can also choose from hundreds of professionally designed, mobile-responsive templates to help grow your contact list and sell your products.

Here’s a quick breakdown of what the tool can do for your business:

For a more detailed walkthrough, go check out our post on how to create a landing page for high conversions.

On top of the landing page building capabilities, the GetResponse platform also comes with other useful tools you’ll need to run effective lead generation campaigns.

These include:

• Facebook & Instagram ads
• Google ads
• Email marketing and marketing automation
• Live chat
• Webinars

So as you can see, with just one tool, you’re able to not only generate leads but also nurture them with automated and tailored communication.

Conclusion

Landing pages are a bridge between your advertising campaigns and your conversions. 

They are a vital piece of your marketing toolkit that has a single purpose: to get your visitors to sign-up for what you’re selling. 

And that’s the reason they’re so successful. 

The trick to using landing pages successfully comes down to how well-focused they are, how persuasive your messaging is, and how well they’re executed with design and copy length. 

The good news is that because landing pages are now an essential tool in any marketing campaign, most marketing suites — including GetResponse — offer complete landing page capabilities so you can hit the ground running.

Think you’re ready to create your first landing page? Go ahead and try GetResponse for free.