About one-third (35.6%) of marketers believe that the average conversion rate for a typical landing page lead generation campaign is between 10-20%. However, a new survey of more than 160 marketing contacts from SmartBrief shows there is often a dichotomy between what marketers think will bring the best conversion rates and what actually does move the needle.
Here are 4 takeaways from the survey:
1. Marketers Don’t Use Their Strongest Formats
In some cases, what marketers use for their lead generation the most differs from what they feel has the strongest conversion rates. An example of this is with their use of video. The results of this SmartBrief survey indicate that more than one-quarter (27.6%) of respondents named video as the content type that generated the strongest conversion rate. However, more respondents used white papers (20.3%) the most than singled out video (16.6%) as their top landing page content type.
Video has been hailed as effective for conversions: half of the video marketers surveyed by Demand Metric said that video converts better than other forms of content, with landing pages being one of channels where a majority of these marketers use video.
2. Landing Pages Are Not Tested Frequently
The SmartBrief survey respondents report that they are not A/B testing their landing pages very often. Three in 5 say that they only test their landing pages sometimes (39.3%) or seldom (20.3%), while about 1 in 6 (16%) say they never A/B test.
By contrast, only about one-quarter of respondents say they A/B test their landing pages often (19.0%) or always (5.5%).
Earlier this year, an Unbounce survey revealed that one-third (33%) of marketers pin-pointed A/B testing and page optimization as their top priority for campaign performance this year. While these survey results were not specifically for landing pages, they do illustrate that marketers understand the importance that testing has on overall web page performance.
3. When They Do Test, Design Is the Main Focus
While A/B testing of landing pages on a regular basis isn’t the norm for the marketers surveyed, they are more apt to test certain landing page elements. Design and layout is the element most frequently tested by respondents (34.6% share) followed by copy (23.5%) and form fields (18.4%).
For the most part, the elements marketers are testing the most align with the elements they feel will have the greatest impact on conversion rates. One-third (33.7%) of respondents cited design/layout as the element that they believe impacts conversion rates the most. Another one-fifth (20.3%) felt that the copy had the greatest impact.
The difference in what has an impact and what is tested comes with offers. While 19% of respondents felt that offers had the greatest impact in conversion, only 7.4% report that they test them most frequently. The opposite is true for form fields, which is one of the top three elements marketers are testing frequently – but which only 8% share feel has the greatest impact on conversion rates.
4. Most Target 4 Or Fewer Form Fields
Respondents aren’t necessarily wrong about the lack of impact form fields have on conversion rates. Back in 2015, a study found that conversion rates varied more depending on the type of form that visitors were asked to fill. Lead generation forms (with an average 11 fields) had a conversion rate of 17% while contact forms (with an average of 4 fields) had a conversion rate of 1%.
A more recent report suggests that to encourage more engagement with content, marketers offer easier access including few form fields. The SmartBrief research also suggests using fewer fields (5 or fewer) on landing pages and fortunately, respondents seem to have gotten the message, with the majority of respondents either having 1-2 (35.6%) or 3-4 (35%) form fields.
You can read more about the survey here.
About the Data: SmartBrief collected 163 survey responses from various marketing contacts, including 100 brand marketers and more than 30 from advertising agencies. Nearly 80% of those who responded were manager level or above.
