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Instapage
Our BloggingTips Breakdown
Cons
- Expensive monthly plans price out small businesses
- Limited data analytics on lower-priced plans
- Prices regularly increase with no new features unveiled
Pros
- Quickly build professional landing pages
- Take advantage of their ad conversions to make more money
- Get a discount when you pay for a year upfront
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Contact us for QuestionsMany businesses spend a lot of time and effort creating a professional-looking landing page.
They either have a designer on staff or hire a freelancer to craft a site that looks great and keeps the audience in place.
But small businesses don’t have the budget for a coder, whether an employee or a freelancer.
Instapage streamlines the process so anyone feels empowered to build a landing page.
The drag-and-drop editor and templates make it simple to create a striking site.
Your audience gets to know your brand while Instapage works behind the scenes to turn their clicks into profit.
Learn about the company’s standout features in this Instapage review.
Overview of Instapage
There are so many website builders that you might not know what Instapage offers.
While you can’t build a complete website with Instapage, it’s a jumping-off point to craft landing pages and generate traffic for your business.
Let’s dive further into our Instapage review.
What Is Instapage?
Instapage is a subscription software that aims to streamline the building process for landing pages and convert clicks to profit.
With standard web pages, the profit per click is incredibly low because the sites aren’t optimized.
Instapage has all the conversion codes ready for businesses to use when they subscribe to the program.
Instapage History
Instapage was an innovative startup in 2012, raising $600,000 in funding.
The company garnered a lot of attention relating to advertising and marketing.
By 2016, entrepreneurs highly rated Instapage for creating professional landing pages with no stress.
In 2017, they introduced HubSpot integration.
In 2021, Postclick acquired Instapage in a major merger.
With Postclick’s previous focus on digital advertising, it’s exciting to think about where Instapage will head in the future.
They already deliver a good payoff on clicks, so it will increase even more with Postclick working behind the scenes.
Pros of Instapage
- Drag-and-drop editor is quick and easy to use
- Pages integrate with ad managers and email programs
- Can collaborate with multiple users on one account
- Pages are responsive on mobile devices
- Customer service is very helpful
Cons of Instapage
- More expensive than alternate products
- Limited features unless you buy a premium plan
- Analytics don’t offer all the data you’d want to see
- Regularly increase the price without offering more features
- Requires more effort to maintain than competitors
How Much Does Instapage Cost?
On Instapage’s plan page, you’ll only see the option for the Building tier.
The plan is $299 a month unless you buy a year in advance and pay $199 a month.
The Building plan aims to give you tools to build landing pages and see conversions.
With this plan, you get unlimited domains and no conversion limits.
You also get access to products like Instablocks, Postclick Score, AdMap, and Conversion Analytics, which you’ll learn about later.
You can contact Instapage to customize a plan if your business needs more advanced features.
In general, it’s called the Converting plan because you’re going to lower cost per conversion (CPC) and increase return on assets (ROAs).
The monthly fee will vary depending on what you add to your package.
However, there’s another plan, but you must hunt for it.
Your business might not need everything offered in the Building tier.
If you can handle more basic offerings, the Start-up plan is an option.
It’s $89 a month, or $59 a month if you subscribe to a year upfront.
Is Instapage Worth the Cost?
If you can make do with the basic features offered in the Start-up plan, Instapage is worth the cost.
The Building tier is too pricey for many smaller businesses that need the landing page help, so it’s not worth the expense.
Why Instapage Isn’t Worth the Cost
Small businesses can’t afford to hand over $199 to $299 a month for landing page software.
It’s too expensive and cuts into their other expenses, virtually eliminating any chance of profits.
Though it might use more time in the long run, a better option might be for one employee to learn how to create a professional landing page on their own.
Having a simple page in place will cost less than an Instapage subscription and could start generating profit.
In the meantime, the business can work on a complete webpage with its other offerings.
I personally tried using Instapage when I had a contract with an agency last year.
The contract required me to do development work, which meant I had to spin up landing pages very quickly under strict timelines.
While the pages looked nice, they lacked the customization that the graphics departments or clients needed.
Because of that, I dumped the platform and used Divi’s page builder instead.
The Problem Instapage Solves
Instapage makes it simple to create a landing page.
It solves the problem of needing to understand coding or using detailed templates that offer space for the content you don’t need.
You can build a professional landing page in no time flat, which means you can start generating profit when customers click on your site.
Why Would Somebody Want to Use Instapage?
Business owners who want to get their brand out there will want to use Instapage to speed up the process.
They won’t have to outline a full website and start building the entire thing to attract an audience.
A professional landing page shows visitors what the company represents and what it’ll offer.
Who Is Instapage Best For?
Instapage is best for businesses that need landing pages to generate traffic and build their customer base.
Programs like WordPress offer a few landing page templates, but it’s mostly geared toward content, blogs, and portfolios.
When you subscribe to Instapage, you get over 200 templates for landing pages alone.
Businesses will also appreciate the analytics Instapage delivers.
They include:
- A/B testing
- Conversion Analytics
- Google Tag Manager inclusion
- Heatmaps
- Postclick Score
As mentioned earlier, the concept of landing pages is nothing new.
While they are commonly used in marketing and lead generation, to think they aren’t needed in the blogosphere would be a huge mistake.
Landing pages are now being used by some of the most successful bloggers in the world today to increase mailing list signups, set up registration pages for webinars and also offer access to paid courses.
With most bloggers already having a mailing list in place, it’s important to note that Instapage will seamlessly integrated with platforms like MailChimp, Aweber and GetResponse — while also having the ability to connect with other email marketing, CRM, webinar, analytics and other platforms as well.
You can see a full list of integrations here, and how connecting Instapage to such accounts can help further increase ROI and results across the board.
And again, there is no messy code to deal with… you just need to log into your account and connect it with any other applications or services you might already be using.
Creating Your First Instapage Landing Page
The easiest way to accomplish or learn anything, is to simply get started.
Instapage makes this process quite easy, as you can create a free account on their site and start looking through all of the templates and features they have in place.
To get started with your first landing page, you have the option to create one from scratch or choose from over 120 pre-designed landing page templates.
More often then not, it’s usually best to go with one of their pre-designed templates and then customize it to fit your needs.
Not only is this faster, it will also provide you with a base template that has already proven to convert well.
After selecting a pre-designed theme, you will then be sent over to the landing page builder where you can fully customize it to your needs.
WYSIWYG Landing Page Builder
Nothing is easier to use than a WYSIWYG editor, which is what you will have access to from within your Instapage account.
There is never a need to touch a line of code, as you can simply click on different areas of your template design, then customize them in any way you like (color, text, images, location, shapes, sizes).
In short, if you can use a mouse, you can design a landing page.
Working inside the landing page builder is also quite easy and fast to learn.
Once you click on a specific area, it will have a a few lines around it (and corner dots), which allow you to modify it as needed through the edit box (shown above).
In addition to simply editing your landing page, Instapage users will also have access to more than 5,000 fonts (through Google Fonts and Adobe Typekit), and over 33 million royalty-free stock photos from BigStock.
With these two options in place, there is no reason for you to ever run out of landing page split testing material.
While we keep mentioning the benefit of not needing to touch a line of code… what if you needed to?
For advanced users, Instapage has custom code options in place for HTML, CSS, and JavaScript use.
These can come in handle for marketers who want to set up retargeting advertising, pre-populating form fields or adding in addition multi-step form processes.
Who Should NOT Use Instapage?
Casual users don’t need Instapage.
If you’re a photographer, artist, or blogger, you’re better off using WordPress due to the templates geared towards your needs.
You can get limited data from WordPress and pay just a fraction of what you’d pay for Instapage.
Why Casual Users Should Not Use Instapage
Instapage is a pricey investment because it’s geared to pay off for businesses.
People designing websites for a fun hobby don’t need the level of information Instapage delivers.
There’s no need to create only a landing page if you’re a blogger generating content.
Similarly, artists don’t need to track visitors and get paid per click the way businesses do.
It’s not worth the expense.
What to Think About Before Buying Instapage
Instapage is a major expense your business will foot each month.
Think about what your business needs and what it will get out of Instapage before you commit this line item to your budget.
1. Website Needs
The most important factor to consider before buying Instapage is what type of website you need.
As previously mentioned, WordPress offers plenty of templates for artists and content creators.
If you’re making an online portfolio, Instapage isn’t right for you.
However, businesses that need a landing page to hold their place will love the simplicity of Instapage.
It takes no time to create a professional landing page and start making money per click from your audience.
The drag-and-drop editor frees you up to quickly build a quality page and get back to boosting your business from behind the scenes.
2. Design Options
Knowing the design options available helps you know what type of site builder to choose.
WordPress has tons of templates, but they’re spread across many styles.
For example, you might have 100 portfolio templates, 100 blogging templates, and 50 landing page templates.
Instapage offers over 200 templates—and they’re all for landing pages.
Choose the right template and input your business information, and you have a landing page ready to launch.
Or use the drag-and-drop editor to further customize the design without needing to know any code.
Going back to my example, people who are requiring high amounts of customization should also not use Instapage.
There are many cheaper platforms that don’t command such a high fee like Instapage does.
If you need to customize, stay away.
If you don’t need customization though, check it out.
3. Analytical Features
Casual users don’t need all the analytical features that Instapage offers.
You’ll learn about what each one offers in the next section, but for now, you just need to know that you’ll get all sorts of data with your subscription.
You’ll be able to find out where your audience comes from, what link they clicked to find your site, and on which section they spend the most time.
Business owners love this type of data because it helps them become better.
You can customize your offerings based on what you’ve learned about your customers.
If you don’t feel the need to have this data about your visitors, then you don’t need to pay for Instapage.
4. Skill Level
Many people use Instapage because it requires no skills.
You don’t need to know how to code a webpage from scratch.
You don’t even need to know HTML, Java, or CSS to customize a template.
Everything is available in the editor, so you can easily craft a landing page.
Start with a basic template and either input your information or drag and drop new elements into the page.
However, there’s a bit of skill involved with analytics.
You or someone on your team needs to understand how to read the various data.
Getting information from Instapage’s reports will help you focus your business on your existing customers, so translating the analytics is crucial.
5. Integrations
Integrating Instapage with other platforms requires a bit of skill, but the company has made it as easy as possible.
If you use external marketing software like HubSpot, you can easily connect both platforms to get even more data and reach more potential customers.
There are other integrations also, mostly for more established services.
But if you have existing accounts with smaller platforms like MailerLite and Drip, you can use webhooks to integrate them easily.
Features and Benefits of Instapage
Once you’ve decided that Instapage is right for you, you’ll want to know all the features and benefits included.
The software is much more than a landing page builder.
1. AdMap
AdMap is Instapage’s way of giving users the freedom to create ad campaigns and prioritize placement.
You have a visual map of the ads and your page so you can pinpoint exactly where an ad should go to get eyes, leading to clicks and profit.
2. Thor Render Engine
Thor Render Engine is unique to Instapage.
The program changes the HTML structure of each page, ensuring it loads as soon as the user clicks your link.
Loading time can make or break a webpage.
You don’t want to lose a potential customer because they get tired of waiting on your images to load.
Thor Render Engine comes with all Instapage plans for lightning-quick loading.
3. Zapier Integration
Zapier allows you to connect different web apps to your Instapage.
There’s no need to reinvent the wheel if you already have existing accounts and content with other services.
Instead, you can integrate the services with a Zap.
Creating a Zap is as simple as building a landing page with Instapage—it’s basically another version of drag-and-drop software.
You allow the authorization with Zapier so it can pull data from an Instapage form submission and send the information to the linked app.
You don’t have to manually export and import data with this setup.
4. Instablocks
Instablocks simplify landing page creation because you only need to make a block to save and use later.
This feature allows you to customize templates, so you don’t have to look back at landing pages you’ve previously built.
All you need to do is pull out a saved Instablock and know you’ll get the same content from before, whether it’s a header, text, image, or all of the above.
5. Collaborations
The Building plan includes access for three team members, so you can collaborate in the same workspace.
The ability to work together eliminates the need to send emails back and forth about templates or design ideas.
It also cuts down on meetings to go over issues that are better handled within the Instapage dashboard.
Instapage Customer Service
Instapage customer service isn’t the best.
If you’re having trouble with the software or need to cancel your account, you might need to devote a bit of time to getting in touch with the employees.
Users have an especially hard time canceling their accounts.
Does Instapage Offer Customer Service?
Yes, Instapage offers customer service, but they’re difficult to reach.
You can only communicate through the website chat or email, so you’re tethered to your device while you’re troubleshooting the issue.
What Types of Customer Service Does Instapage Offer?
You can contact Instapage through the chatbot on their site.
When you have problems with the software, you can check their help database first.
If you don’t find your answer, you can submit a ticket to have them contact you via email.
Why Should You Trust Us?
We have years of blogging experience under our belts.
We’ve used various products on the market to start blogs, generate content, and monetize sites.
We know what’s worth the price and what’s a rip-off.
With that in mind, we aim to write honest reviews about each tool.
That’s why we’re committed to showing the full picture of Instapage.
Yes, it’s a great tool to help you create landing pages.
But if you check out what customers are saying, you’ll see it’s not worth the money.
Instapage gets you hooked on their website creation software and then inflates the price.
What Instapage Users Are Saying
Instapage Alternatives
After seeing those reviews, you might want to check out some Instapage alternatives.
While these options aren’t necessarily more affordable and won’t offer the exact same features as Instapage, they’re worth looking into.
1. HubSpot Marketing Hub
HubSpot Marketing Hub helps website owners integrate ad campaigns, email marketing, and customer relationship management into one easy-to-use dashboard.
How Does HubSpot Marketing Hub Differ From Instapage?
HubSpot offers a free plan so you can see all it has to offer.
From there, the Starter plan is much more affordable than what Instapage has to offer, at just $45 a month.
The Professional and Enterprise plans are more expensive but also provide more upscale features than Instapage.
Who Is HubSpot Marketing Hub Best For?
HubSpot is best for anyone with a website wanting to increase traffic and income.
Bloggers can get more benefits from using HubSpot than they would with Instapage, considering the monthly cost and features.
2. SeedProd
SeedProd is a site builder that lets you create a placeholder page to let customers know what’s coming soon.
How Does SeedProd Differ From Instapage?
SeedProd is a drag-and-drop editor specifically for WordPress.
While Instapage builds independent landing pages, SeedProd relies on the WordPress framework.
Who Is SeedProd Best For?
If you’re eventually developing a full website, you’ll want to use WordPress as the host.
Adding the SeedProd plugin means you can create a simple landing page without scrolling through hundreds of unrelated WordPress templates.
3. OptinMonster
OptinMonster makes your site more engaging by letting you customize popups to get customer information or showcase information about your business.
How Does OptinMonster Differ From Instapage?
OptinMonster gives you the framework to add popups, welcome screens, and email signup forms to your website.
It’s something you can use in addition to Instapage or any other site builder.
Who Is OptinMonster Best For?
Businesses who want to get newsletter subscribers or offer discount codes to customers will love what OptinMonster has to offer.
Instapage Affiliate Program
Just how the article started with the mention of affiliate marketing, it will end that way as well!
Instapage (like many other great services) has an affiliate program of their own. With so many site owners and bloggers already using the service, it only makes sense to offer them some form of compensation when recommending it to their audience.
You can see highlights and payouts of the program below.
- Earn 50% revenue share on the first month
- Earn a 30% lifetime revenue share
- Weekly automated payments
- Get a referral link
- Personalized marketing material
Frequently Asked Questions
Instapage has a lot to offer.
In case you need more information before buying a subscription, check out the answers to these frequently asked questions.
Can I have a landing page without a website?
Yes, you can have a landing page without a website.
A landing page is a freestanding page.
Many complete websites use landing pages for the framework and then have internal links going to specific pages with more in-depth information.
Can you use a landing page as a website?
Yes, you can use a landing page as a website.
If your business has a lot to offer, you might consider establishing a landing page first.
The page gives customers a place to visit and learn more about what’s to come while you work on the other pages of the site.
But there’s no need to do this—a landing page can function as your entire website.
Wrapping Up
Instapage gives businesses plenty of options to easily craft a professional landing page.
There’s no need to devote months to building an entire website and no need to hire a freelancer to do it for you.
With hundreds of unique landing page templates and an easy-to-use page editor, you can build a web presence for your business in no time.
Take your business into your own hands with all Instapage has to offer.
Click here to check out Instapage.