When it comes to creating landing pages that effectively generate leads and increase sales, you may have stumbled upon Instapage as a potential solution.
Instapage offers a variety of professionally-designed modern landing page templates and a powerful page builder tool, which sounds promising.
But the real question is whether it lives up to its hype and can actually help you create conversion-focused landing pages with ease.
Moreover, with relatively high pricing, you may be wondering whether it’s worth the investment.
In this comprehensive review of Instapage, we aim to provide you with answers to these questions. We’ll delve into the platform’s main features, explore its user interface, and evaluate its overall effectiveness as a landing page builder.
By the end of this review, you’ll have a clearer understanding of whether Instapage is the right landing page builder for your specific needs.
So without further ado, let’s dive in.
Instapage Overview
Instapage is a cloud-based platform that provides all the necessary tools to create and publish landing pages. It doesn’t matter if you already have a website or an online presence – with Instapage, you can easily create conversion-focused landing pages that can help you generate more leads, sell more products, or encourage other actions from your visitors.
Even if you don’t have any coding or design experience, Instapage’s features make the process of creating effective landing pages a breeze. With tools such as heatmap, analytics, and split-testing, you can use visitor data to optimize your landing page designs and make them more effective.
Here’s a brief overview of why you might consider choosing Instapage as your landing page builder:
- Customizable templates: Instapage offers more than 80 high-quality templates that you can easily customize to fit your needs, so you never have to start from scratch or search for inspiration for your next landing page.
- Intuitive landing page editor: Whether you want to start with a blank canvas or edit one of the many templates, Instapage’s drag-and-drop page builder interface is both powerful and user-friendly.
- Effective form builder: To ensure you capture the right type of leads with your landing pages, Instapage makes it easy to create detailed custom forms for collecting user information.
- Useful selection of widgets: Along with forms, you can easily add other elements to your landing pages, such as videos, images, and buttons.
- Tracking and reporting: Thanks to built-in analytics, heatmap, and A/B testing tools, you can quickly identify what’s working and what’s not and optimize your landing pages for better results.
- Integration options: Instapage can connect to various services, such as email marketing platforms, WordPress, and more, through Zapier.
- Hosted system: Instead of using a WordPress landing page plugin, everything is hosted independently by Instapage. You can use your account to create landing pages for multiple projects and websites. However, you can quickly publish landing pages on your WordPress website with Instapage.
- 14-day free trial: If Instapage sounds like the right tool for you, there’s a free 14-day trial available.
We’ll cover the pricing details of Instapage later in this review, but for now, let’s take a closer look at what this landing page builder can do and whether it’s easy to use.
Instapage Features
After reading the previous overview, you might be interested in using Instapage as your landing page builder. However, it’s important to assess whether Instapage’s features are as effective as they sound. In this section, we’ll dive into the key features of Instapage and see how well they work.
INSTAPAGE TEMPLATES
Instapage claims to offer over 200 templates, but upon browsing the library, we found that there are only about 80 templates.
Some of these templates are not full landing page options, such as the thank you page templates. However, the templates available are designed to a high standard and cover a range of goals.
Thanks to the filters, you can quickly find the type of template you need when starting a new landing page.
Drag and Drop Editor
The editor of Instapage gives you the freedom to produce a custom landing page, whether you start with a blank canvas or a template.
The Instapage page builder lets you position your elements anywhere on the page, without constraints or a grid layout. Helpful markers and grids are displayed as you move items around the page, making it easier to align your page elements.
The page builder also displays the distance between items on the page, allowing you to position page elements with precision.
The drag-and-drop interface snaps items to the underlying grid layout, providing guidance when arranging page elements.
Customization Options
You can easily customize the elements that make up your pages through the Instapage page builder interface.
You can make a range of changes beyond what’s available on the floating toolbar by accessing the properties of the item in the side panel.
You can also add custom CSS and JavaScript to further control the appearance and functionality of your landing pages.
Instablocks
Instapage’s Instablocks feature allows you to build a library of reusable assets, or blocks, that you can insert into any of your landing pages.
This feature is useful if you’re creating multiple landing pages for yourself or your clients. You can save custom testimonials, page headers, footers, calls-to-action, and anything else you create with Instapage as Instablocks.
Instapage also comes with a varied selection of Instablock templates for you to use as starting points. The Global Blocks functionality, which allows you to update an Instablock in the library and see those changes automatically applied to every instance of that block in your published pages, is available only in the more expensive Enterprise license of Instapage.
Landing Page Widgets
Instapage widgets allow you to quickly insert a range of elements into your landing page designs. You can add:
- Headlines
- Forms
- Images
- Buttons
- Paragraphs
- Circles
- Videos
- Boxes
- Vertical and Horizontal lines
- HTML Widgets
- Timers
While there are some useful options, the widget selection is not as extensive as other page builders such as Divi Builder and Elementor.
There are pre-built pricing tables and other elements in the page templates, but adding them to your pages is not as straightforward as having access to ready-made widgets that you can drag and drop onto your pages.
However, the Instablock feature gives you a way to create an element, such as a pricing table or call-to-action, and save it for reuse on any page when needed.
Mobile-Friendly Page Designs
Instapage ensures that all landing pages created on their platform are mobile-friendly by default. However, users can switch to the mobile view of the page they are working on in the editor and make modifications that only mobile users will see.
Instapage does include the functionality to display slightly different versions of landing pages, depending on whether visitors are using a smartphone or desktop device.
However, users can only hide elements they do not want to show to mobile users, rather than creating two completely different versions of the page.
The Instapage page builder has an impressive interface that is easy to use and provides a lot of freedom in positioning items.
The platform also offers helpful assistance if users want to precisely align their page elements. Although there is a lack of pre-built elements or widgets, users can create most items themselves and then save them for reuse.
Landing Page Publishing Options:
Once a user has created a landing page on Instapage, they have several publishing options:
They can publish it on their own domain, a WordPress website via a free plugin, or a Drupal website.
Instapage also provides a demo domain for users to test their landing pages. However, it is not recommended to run campaigns on any landing pages published in this way.
Instead, users should use a domain they have registered elsewhere.
Publishing an Instapage Landing Page on a WordPress Website:
Publishing an Instapage landing page on a WordPress website is straightforward. Users need to activate the free plugin on their site and connect their WordPress website to their Instapage account by entering a few easily available details.
Once the two accounts are connected, users can simply choose which landing page they want to publish on their site from the available options.
Any landing page created and published in Instapage should be available from the dropdown menu in the WordPress dashboard.
Users can choose whether the page is displayed as a landing page, a 404 error page, or the homepage of their website.
Once the user has chosen a page, entered a URL for it, and hit the Publish button, they should be able to view that landing page on their WordPress website.
The process for publishing landing pages on a Drupal website is similar.
Publishing a Landing Page on Your Own Domain
In addition to publishing landing pages on a WordPress or Drupal website, users can also use a domain name they have registered to make their pages available online.
Instapage displays instructions for many of the most popular registrars to help users quickly connect their domain to their Instapage account. There is also a lot of documentation on the website that explains the process in more depth.
Users can connect an unlimited number of domains and subdomains to their Instapage account, allowing them to publish up to 30 landing page experiences on the Business plan (more on the Enterprise plan) at any one time, across multiple domains or WordPress and Drupal websites.
Users can also download landing pages and share them with other Instapage users who can upload them into their account for editing and publishing.
Instapage Integration Options
Instapage landing pages can integrate with a wide range of third-party solutions, including analytics tools, email marketing services, and webinar providers.
If users want to promote products with Instapage, they can connect their landing pages to a Shopify ecommerce store or PayPal to collect payments online.
Users can also integrate Instapage with Zapier to connect their landing pages with even more apps and services.
It is worth checking the integration documentation to see if it is possible to connect landing pages to a particular service.
Tracking, Testing, and Reporting:
Once users publish a landing page, they can start monitoring its performance. One option is to use the built-in heatmap tool to see what visitors have been doing while viewing the pages, such as where they have been clicking or how far they have been scrolling.
This is particularly useful if the landing page is not generating as many leads as expected. The heatmap can help reveal potential issues, such as buttons that visitors do not recognize as buttons or forms that are too far down the page, beyond where most of the audience is scrolling to.
In addition to heatmaps, users can also see the conversion rates of their pages and other analytics data to help monitor their effectiveness. Integrating with Google Analytics provides even more insight into how pages are performing.
To help get even more conversions out of visitors, Instapage lets users run A/B tests on their landing pages. Through the controls, users can create a copy of a landing page and then make changes to the new version, such as changing the call to action.
Instapage will then show the different versions of the page to visitors to see which one performs the best.
Other Features of Instapage:
In addition to the templates, mobile-friendly page designs, and publishing options discussed earlier, Instapage has many more features that have made it one of the most powerful and popular landing page creation and lead generation services available today.
Some examples of these features include the ability for multiple users to collaborate on a project and work together on the same landing pages with a record of communication and changes that have been made.
Instapage also offers the option of integrating with Google AdWords to see advertising data inside the Instapage dashboard.
There is also a large library of online documentation to help users get the most out of Instapage, as well as support for creating Google AMP landing pages.
To see the full list of Instapage features, visit the plans page on their website.
Instapage Pricing
When it comes to pricing, potential users can take advantage of Instapage’s 14-day free trial offer. However, users will need to provide payment information to access the trial and will be automatically billed once the trial is over.
Canceling the service is easy if users are not satisfied with Instapage.
If users are satisfied with the trial, there are two subscription options available for Instapage. The first option is the Instapage Business plan, which costs $199 per month.
However, users can save 25% by choosing to pay annually, which requires an upfront payment of $1,788, making the monthly cost equivalent to $149.
Custom Enterprise Plan
Instapage offers a custom Enterprise plan for businesses that have specific requirements. The plan comes with custom pricing that reflects your configuration.
After having a call with the sales team, a personalized Enterprise plan will be set up according to your needs.
You can check out what’s included in the Business plan and the extras available to Enterprise customers on the Instapage pricing page.
Pros and Cons of Instapage
Before making a decision, it’s essential to weigh the pros and cons of Instapage. Here are some of the best things about Instapage, as well as some of its drawbacks:
Pros:
- A good range of professional-looking landing page templates.
- The ability to deliver files and sell items via your landing pages.
- An advanced landing page builder that’s easy to use.
- Enough landing page publishing options.
- Lots of reporting data and tools to help you optimize your pages.
- Features that make Instapage good for collaborating with team members and clients.
- Good mobile support to help you design mobile-friendly landing pages.
- Lots of helpful online documentation and a responsive live chat support channel.
Cons:
- Not as many landing page templates as some other tools, including Leadpages.
- Fewer page widgets compared to premium WordPress page builders, such as Divi.
- The Business plan is limited to 30,000 unique visitors per month, 30 published landing page experiences, five workspaces, and five team members. Allowances on the Enterprise plan can be customized.
- Slightly limited e-commerce options compared to other tools, such as Leadpages.
- High pricing makes it unsuitable for casual website owners.
Final Thoughts
Instapage is a powerful landing page builder and publishing tool that provides many benefits to its users. Its starter templates and advanced page builder allow users to create different types of landing pages easily.
The WordPress integration is well-implemented, making it straightforward to publish landing pages on your WordPress website with Instapage’s free plugin.
Additionally, publishing landing pages on your own domains is equally easy, and Instapage takes care of all of the hosting for you.
Instapage allows you to deliver downloads, collect leads via your landing pages, and integrate your pages with many third-party services, making it suitable for many projects. However, the slightly limited options for selling products directly through your landing pages may put some readers off.
The main sticking point with Instapage is its pricing, which may be a challenge to justify for some users. However, for those who can, Instapage is a great recommendation.
On the other hand, users can start with a WordPress-based configuration using the Divi theme with its impressive page builder tool, a vast and growing library of templates, and split testing features for a fraction of the cost.
If you’re ready for one of the best landing page builders around, Instapage should undoubtedly be on your shortlist.