Looking for ways to boost conversions and sales on your WordPress site? Scarcity and urgency are two of the most powerful psychological triggers in marketing. When people feel an offer is limited or running out, they are much more likely to take action.
That‘s where Thrive Ultimatum comes in. It‘s a WordPress plugin that makes it easy to create scarcity marketing campaigns – things like limited time offers, sales countdowns, recurring promotions, and more.
In this in-depth Thrive Ultimatum review, I‘ll cover everything you need to know, including:
- A detailed look at the features
- How to create your first campaign step-by-step
- Who should use it
- Pricing info
- Pros and cons
- My thoughts on whether it‘s worth the investment in 2024 and beyond
Let‘s get started!
What Is Thrive Ultimatum?
Thrive Ultimatum is a scarcity marketing plugin for WordPress. Its main goal is to help you create a sense of urgency that motivates people to take action on your offers.
With Thrive Ultimatum, you can easily set up:
- Short-term sales and promotions with fixed start/end dates
- Automated recurring campaigns (great for things like monthly specials)
- Ongoing evergreen campaigns personalized to each visitor
It also provides tools to design high-converting campaign creative, track results, and ensure consistency across devices. Plus it integrates with Thrive Leads and other popular email marketing platforms.
The real power of Thrive Ultimatum is that it allows you to leverage scarcity and urgency without complicated tech or constant manual work. Once your campaigns are set up, they essentially run on autopilot.
Thrive Ultimatum Features
Here‘s a more detailed look at what Thrive Ultimatum has to offer:
Flexible Campaign Types
Thrive Ultimatum supports several different types of scarcity campaigns:
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Fixed date campaigns – Run a promotion with a firm start and end date/time, optionally with early bird discounts. Great for seasonal offers, product launches, etc.
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Recurring campaigns – Set campaigns to run on a regular schedule, such as the first week of every month or every Monday at 9am. Ideal for weekly/monthly specials and sales.
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Evergreen campaigns – Create automated campaigns personalized to each visitor based on when they first see the offer. Timers and deadlines are relative to the user. Powerful for automated funnels.
Drag-and-Drop Campaign Builder
Thrive Ultimatum includes an intuitive drag-and-drop builder for designing your campaign creatives. Choose from premade templates or start from scratch.
You can fully customize the look and feel of your campaigns to match your brand. The editor uses the same backend as Thrive Architect, so if you‘re already familiar with that, you‘ll feel right at home.
It‘s easy to add countdown timers, buttons, images, and other conversion elements. You can even create different "states" – designs that change based on the amount of time left (more on this below).
Dynamic Countdown Timers
One of the most effective ways to create urgency is with a ticking clock. Thrive Ultimatum offers flexible countdown timers you can add to your campaigns:
- Fixed timers – Great for one-time promos with a set end date/time
- Recurring timers – Ideal if you run regular sales (e.g. weekly)
- Evergreen timers – Unique to each visitor based on when they first see it
The evergreen timers are especially powerful. Since they are personalized, they maintain the same sense of urgency no matter when someone sees your offer.
You can choose what happens when the timer hits zero – redirect to another page, show a different state, etc.
Multiple Campaign States
Want to change your messaging as the clock winds down? No problem. Thrive Ultimatum allows you to create multiple "states" for each campaign.
For example, you might have one default state, another that appears in the last 24 hours, and a final version for the last 2 hours. Each state can have its own unique copy, images, and calls-to-action to really ramp up the urgency.
Setting this up is straightforward. You just create a new state, design it in the editor, and specify when it should appear on the timeline. Thrive Ultimatum handles the rest.
Detailed Conversion Tracking
To optimize your campaigns, you need to know what‘s working. Thrive Ultimatum provides built-in conversion tracking so you can monitor performance.
You can track visitors, conversions, and conversion rates over time. The reporting interface is clean and easy to understand at a glance.
Setting up conversion tracking is simple too. You can use the default "visits a conversion page" event, or integrate directly with Thrive Leads and other popular tools.
Lockdown Functionality
Want to restrict access to certain offers? With Thrive Ultimatum‘s Lockdown feature, you can ensure only the right people see your promotions.
For example, you might want a sales page to only be available to email subscribers. Or you may want to show different offers to leads vs customers.
Lockdown allows you to specify exactly which pages can be viewed by which segments. You can even automatically generate email links that grant access.
This is a handy feature for membership sites, product launches, and automated funnels. It gives you more control while still leveraging the power of urgency.
How to Create Your First Thrive Ultimatum Campaign
Now that we‘ve covered the key features, let‘s walk through setting up a basic campaign.
When you first activate Thrive Ultimatum, you‘ll see the dashboard. This is command central for managing your scarcity campaigns. Click the "Add New" button to get started.
First, you‘ll choose your campaign type and give it a name. Thrive Ultimatum provides several helpful templates to start from based on popular use cases. For this example, we‘ll choose the "7 Day Offer" evergreen template.
Next, choose where on your site the campaign should appear. You can target specific posts/pages or apply it to your whole site.
Now the fun part – designing your campaign in the editor. The 7 Day evergreen template includes default text and imagery to promote a one week offer. Of course, you‘ll want to customize this to your specific promotion.
The editor works just like Thrive Architect, with drag-and-drop elements and customization options in the left sidebar. You can change colors, fonts, images, and layout to fit your brand.
One of the most important elements is the countdown timer, which is already set up for you. You can edit the text above/below as well as the design of the timer itself.
For evergreen campaigns, you‘ll also want to create a "2nd state" for the final days/hours to increase urgency. Do this by clicking the +State button and designing it like you did the default state.
Finally, you‘ll set your conversion event, which controls what happens when someone claims the offer (visits a certain page, submits a form, etc). Then publish your campaign and you‘re all set!
Your evergreen scarcity offer will now be displayed to new visitors and leads. The countdown will be personalized to them, no matter when they see it. You can monitor results in the reporting dashboard.
That‘s the basic process, but keep in mind there are MANY more options for customizing your campaign. The more time you invest, the more engaging and high-converting you can make them.
Who Is Thrive Ultimatum Best For?
In my opinion, Thrive Ultimatum is a useful tool for anyone who wants to increase conversions on their WordPress site. But it‘s especially powerful for:
- Marketers and entrepreneurs running product launches or promotional campaigns
- Bloggers and affiliate marketers who want to boost sales of their recommended products
- Ecommerce stores looking to drive more purchases with limited time deals
- Membership and course sites that want to encourage more sign-ups
- Anyone with an email list that wants to leverage it for more sales
Even if you‘re a small business owner just looking for a quick sales boost every now and then, Thrive Ultimatum is worth a look. The prebuilt templates make it fast and easy to get a campaign up and running.
Of course, like any tool, you‘ll get the most value if you actually put it to use. Simply installing the plugin won‘t do anything. You need to build your campaigns and drive traffic to them.
But if you follow the documentation and best practices, Thrive Ultimatum can absolutely help you tap into the power of urgency to increase revenue.
Thrive Ultimatum Pros and Cons
So is Thrive Ultimatum right for you? Let‘s recap some of the major pros and cons:
Pros:
- Powerful scarcity features not found in most WordPress plugins
- Intuitive drag-and-drop campaign builder
- Multiple campaign types for different promotions
- Dynamic countdown timers personalized to each visitor
- Ability to create different "states" as time runs out
- Built-in conversion tracking and analytics
- Lockdown feature to restrict access
Cons:
- Requires some time to set up and optimize campaigns
- Design options aren‘t quite as flexible as Thrive Architect
- Works best when you already have an audience to market to
Overall, the pros far outweigh the cons in my book. Yes, there‘s a bit of a learning curve, but that‘s true of any new marketing tool. Once you get the hang of the builder and options, you can create some really engaging campaigns.
Thrive Ultimatum Pricing
As of 2024, Thrive Ultimatum is available two ways:
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As a standalone plugin for $127 for use on a single site
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As part of the Thrive Suite for $299/year (use on up to 5 sites)
If you just want access to Thrive Ultimatum, the standalone option may be best. But if you plan to use any of the other Thrive tools, the Suite is by far the better deal.
The Thrive Suite includes plugins like Thrive Architect, Thrive Leads, Thrive Quiz Builder, Thrive Comments, and more. Bought separately, it would cost over $1000.
Both options come with 1 year of support and updates. You can renew your license to continue receiving updates after that.
While not the cheapest tool out there, Thrive Ultimatum is reasonably priced considering the features and potential ROI. Similar SaaS urgency tools can run $100+ per month.
Thrive Ultimatum Review: The Final Verdict
Hopefully this Thrive Ultimatum review has given you a good idea of what this tool can do. As someone who has used it extensively over the years, I‘m a big fan.
It‘s one of the most cost-effective ways to leverage scarcity marketing on a WordPress site. You get a ton of features for the price, and they‘ve only gotten better over time.
I‘ve seen first-hand how even a basic campaign can boost sales. When you dial it in with precision targeting, good copy, and on-brand designs, the results can be game-changing.
That said, it‘s not a magic bullet. Like any marketing tactic, urgency is most effective when used tastefully, in moderation. If you do nothing but hype false scarcity, you‘ll quickly burn trust with your audience.
But as long as you use it ethically to promote legitimate offers, Thrive Ultimatum can be a powerful addition to your marketing toolkit. It‘s an investment, but one that can pay off big time.
To learn more and see it in action, check out the links in this post. Happy marketing!
