Landing pages are the backbone of any successful digital marketing campaign. They allow you to direct targeted traffic to pages that are optimized to convert visitors into leads and customers. But creating professional-grade landing pages that actually convert isn‘t easy.
Enter Instapage. Instapage is a powerful landing page builder that promises to make it quick and simple to build, publish, and optimize high-converting landing pages, no coding or design skills required. I‘ve been using Instapage to build landing pages for my own marketing campaigns for the past few months. So does it live up to the hype?
In this in-depth Instapage review for 2024, I‘ll take you on a complete tour of this popular landing page platform. I‘ll cover the latest features, show you exactly how it works, and help you decide if it‘s the right tool for your business. Let‘s dive in!
What is Instapage?
Instapage is an end-to-end landing page platform that allows you to:
- Build professional landing pages using an intuitive drag-and-drop builder
- Publish your pages to your own domain with a couple clicks
- Run A/B tests and track conversions to optimize for the highest results
- Collaborate with team members on design reviews and edits
- Integrate with 40+ popular marketing tools and 3,000+ apps via Zapier
The core of Instapage is its drag-and-drop landing page builder. It‘s designed to allow anyone to quickly build pixel-perfect pages, even with no coding or design experience. You‘re not limited by templates or a grid system either. You get full creative freedom to place elements anywhere on the page.
In addition to the page builder, Instapage includes a robust set of tools to help you create high-converting landing pages, like built-in analytics, heatmaps, A/B testing, and dynamic text replacement for personalization. More on those later.
Since its launch in 2012, Instapage has grown to become one of the most popular landing page builders. It‘s used by over 15,000 companies including Verizon, Soundcloud, and Hubspot. Let‘s take a closer look at how it works.
Hands-on with Instapage in 2024
I recently took Instapage for a spin to get a feel for the current landing page building experience. I have to say – I continue to be impressed with this tool. While other landing page builders feel clunky or limiting, Instapage makes it easy to build exactly the page I envision.
Here‘s a quick overview of how it works:
When you log into Instapage, you‘re greeted with a dashboard showing an overview of your pages and traffic:
Creating a new page is as simple as choosing one of the 200+ templates or starting with a blank canvas. There are some great new templates that have been added since my last Instapage review, for everything from ebook downloads to webinar registration:
Once you select a template, you‘re taken into the Instapage builder. This is where the real magic happens. If you‘ve ever used a WordPress page builder like Elementor or Thrive Architect, the interface will feel pretty familiar. But I have to say, the Instapage builder is the most impressive I‘ve used.
Rather than being limited to dragging elements into a predefined grid, you have complete freedom to place any element anywhere on the page, no questions asked. Just drag, drop, and customize to your heart‘s content. It almost feels more like working in Photoshop than a webpage builder. This flexibility is great for conversion-optimized pages where each element placement matters.
Instapage provides a solid selection of elements to build your page, including headlines, paragraphs, images, videos, buttons, forms, and more. In addition to the basics, you get access to some more advanced elements like:
- Countdown timers
- Pricing boxes
- Google Maps embeds
- Calendars
- Custom HTML/CSS
While the number of built-in elements isn‘t as extensive as some other builders, you can create almost any type of landing page by mixing and matching the elements, or by adding your own code snippets.
One of my favorite features of Instapage is Instablocks. These are reusable page sections that save you from redoing the same work over and over. For example, you can save a header section with your logo and menu, then instantly add it to new pages. Instapage has some great ready-made Instablocks for things like testimonials, footers, and CTAs that can be added with one click:
Overall, I found the landing page building experience with Instapage to be smooth, intuitive, and highly flexible. You can whip up great looking pages remarkably fast!
Instapage integrations and features
Of course, building the landing page is only half the battle. To drive results, you also need to be able to test and optimize your pages, integrate with your marketing stack, view analytics, and collaborate with your team.
This is another area where Instapage really shines. In addition to a powerful landing page builder, the platform includes a suite of tools to help you create the most effective marketing campaigns possible:
40+ direct integrations
Instapage integrates with over 40 popular tools right out of the box, including all the major email marketing platforms, CRMs, social networks, and webinar tools. Some highlights include:
- Mailchimp
- AWeber
- HubSpot
- Salesforce
- Marketo
- Constant Contact
- GoToWebinar
- Zapier (for connecting to 3000+ apps)
Connecting Instapage with your other tools is quick and easy. For most integrations, you just need to copy over an API key. This allows you to do things like instantly add leads from your landing page to your CRM or email list.
Built-in A/B testing
Instapage allows you to create A/B test variants of your landing pages right from the builder. Just click the "Create New A/B Test" button and you can easily make changes to your page elements to test against the original.
Once published, Instapage will automatically divide traffic between the different variations and track which one converts the best. You can view results right in the builder:
A/B testing is key to dialing in the best-converting version of your landing pages and Instapage makes it a breeze.
Analytics and heatmaps
Instapage has its own built-in analytics that allow you to see visitor counts, conversion rates, and the results of A/B tests in real-time. You can easily connect to Google Analytics and other tools as well.
One of the coolest analytics features is the heatmap tool. This gives you a visual representation of where people are clicking on your landing page. It‘s great for understanding how visitors are interacting with your pages:
With the heatmap data, you can move, add, or eliminate elements on your pages to increase conversions. For example, if you notice no one is clicking the CTA button, you might try making it more prominent.
Collaboration tools
Instapage is built for collaboration between teams and clients. You can easily share a preview link of your landing page designs with stakeholders to get feedback and approval.
Clients can leave comments directly on the page, which makes communication super straightforward:
You can also give clients and team members different levels of access, like read-only, edit, admin, or account-owner permissions.
The enterprise plan even includes an approval workflow, where designs can be shared with stakeholders with the click of a button to streamline sign-off.
AMP landing pages
With the continued rise of mobile web browsing, quick-loading pages are more important than ever. Instapage allows you to easily create AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) versions of your landing pages.
AMP pages are alternate versions of your landing pages that have been stripped down to only the most essential elements, allowing them to load almost instantly on mobile devices. Instapage automatically generates the AMP page based on your original design and allows for further customization:
Having fast mobile pages can significantly improve mobile conversion rates, and I like how Instapage makes it easy to implement this technology.
How much does Instapage cost in 2024?
Now for the big question – how much will all these features set you back? Instapage isn‘t the cheapest option out there, but you do get a lot for your money.
As of 2024, Instapage has 2 pricing plans:
- Building plan – $299/month
- Converting plan – Custom pricing
Both come with the drag-and-drop builder, A/B testing, Instablocks, analytics, and integrations. The Converting plan adds extras like heatmaps, AMP pages, real-time visual collaboration, and the ability to remove the Instapage branding from your pages.
There are a few other differences between the plans:
Building plan:
- Includes up to 30,000 unique visitors per month
- Up to 30 published landing pages
- Email chat support
Converting plan:
- Custom visitor and page limits
- No Instapage branding
- Editable global blocks
- Audit log
- One-on-one customer success manager
- Phone support
It‘s also worth noting that if you want to run A/B tests on the Building plan, you‘ll need to pay an additional $50 per month for the Optimizer add-on.
So is it worth it? Here‘s my take:
If you‘re just starting out and only need one or two landing pages, Instapage is probably overkill. You‘d be better off with a cheaper or even free alternative like Leadpages or Unbounce.
However, if you‘re a marketing team or agency that‘s pumping out lots of landing pages for multiple campaigns or clients, Instapage is absolutely worth the investment. No other tool provides the same level of design flexibility, team collaboration, and built-in optimization features.
If you‘re serious about conversion optimization and maximizing the ROI of your ad spend, Instapage is as good as it gets.
Is Instapage right for you?
Instapage is one of the most powerful landing page builders available today, and it continues to improve and innovate. Just in the past year, they‘ve rolled out several new updates, including:
- Google Ads integration for connecting landing pages with your campaigns
- Advanced page redirects and parameters
- Grouped pages for better organization
- Mobile app for previewing and editing pages on the go
While it may be too much firepower for a small blog or website, Instapage is an outstanding option for mid-size to large marketing teams, agencies, and businesses. If you have the budget and need for high-converting, professional-grade landing pages, Instapage should be at the top of your list.
The main advantages of Instapage are:
- Incredibly flexible and user-friendly drag-and-drop builder
- Over 200 modern, customizable templates
- Robust A/B testing and analytics tools
- Built-in collaboration features for teams
- Extensive library of Instablocks for quickly building pages
- AMP pages for lightning-fast mobile experiences
- Over 40 direct integrations with popular marketing tools
The main drawbacks are the cost, and a few small limitations like the lack of popups and sticky bars that some other landing page builders provide. But overall, the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages in my opinion.
If you‘re interested in taking Instapage for a test drive, you can sign up for a 14-day free trial here. The trial version includes all the features of the Building plan so you can get a full sense of everything Instapage can do before committing.
Have you used Instapage recently? What‘s been your experience? Let me know in the comments!
Note: This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission if you decide to purchase through my links, at no additional cost to you. Please understand that I have experience with all of these companies, and I only recommend products that I personally use and believe will add value to my readers.