Survey Report: Landing Page Habits of Marketers - SmartBrief

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Survey Report: Landing Page Habits of Marketers

In January, SmartBrief surveyed its marketing and advertising audiences to learn more about marketers’ habits and attitudes towards digital lead generation and, specifically, landing pages.

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Marketing

Survey Report: Landing Page Habits of Marketers

In January, SmartBrief surveyed its marketing and advertising audiences to learn more about marketers’ habits and attitudes towards digital lead generation and, specifically, landing pages. Our goal was to better understand what marketers think affects landing page results, compared with what gets implemented in reality.

In all, we 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.

Read on for a full report of our findings and to view the survey data. 

Note: Hover over the graphs with your mouse for additional detail!

 

The Landing Page

Conversion Rates

While there are many variables that influence performance, we wanted to know what marketers’ expected from the “typical” digital lead generation campaign. According to our survey, more than 30% expect an average conversion rate (leads/page views or ad clicks) of 10% or less and more than half expect an average conversion rate of 20% or less (Figure 1.1). We were surprised to find that a handful of respondents expected a conversion rate of 50% or higher!

 

Figure 1.1: Expected Conversion Rates

 

 

A/B Testing

While landing pages can be pivotal to the success of a lead generation campaign, most marketers, according to our survey, do not frequently test their landing pages. Only 24.5% said they test their landing pages “Always” or “Often” and 16% said they “Never” test their landing pages (Figure 1.2).

 

Figure 1.2: A/B Testing Habits

 

Form Fields

As a best practice, SmartBrief recommends using five or fewer form fields on a landing page. Based on our survey, most marketers agree. About 70% of respondents report including four or fewer form fields and 93% report including six or fewer form fields (Figure 1.3).

For a more in-depth look at form fields and performance, check out our blog post from last year, How to Create a Landing Page That Converts.

 

Figure 1.3: Form Field Usage

 

 

Expectations vs. Reality

Offer/Promotion Types

When it comes to content, marketers use a wide range of asset types to generate leads. Among the most often selected were white papers, videos and infographics (Figure 2.1). These results align nicely with SmartBrief’s content recommendations. Within the SmartBrief network, we recommend promoting tangible, informational content, such as white papers, e-books and infographics.

Interestingly, the offer/promotion marketers typically promoted and the one they felt would produce the best results were different. When asked which offer/promotion marketers thought generated the strongest conversion rate, 28% (the largest group) responded that they thought promoting a video would produce the best results (Figure 2.2).

 

Figure 2.1: Offers/Promotions Used
 

 

Figure 2.2: Offers/Promotions Perceived to Produce the Best Results

 

 

Landing Page Elements

Unlike content, perceptions and practice line up pretty closely for landing page elements. More than half of all marketers reported testing the design/layout or copy most frequently (Figure 2.3). Similarly, they felt that the design/layout or copy would have the greatest impact on conversion rates (Figure 2.4).

 

Figure 2.3: Elements Tested

 

Figure 2.4: Elements Perceived to Produce the Best Results

 

Interested in working with SmartBrief on your lead generation efforts? Download our landing page product overview to learn more about our lead generation campaign solutions.

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Alex Pavelich is an analyst on SmartBrief’s product marketing team, and a former account manager on our advertising operations team. In her current role, she tracks performance trends for all content and advertising products.