Chat Landing Pages vs. Traditional Landing Pages
6 min read

Chat Landing Pages vs. Traditional Landing Pages

Your ad's post-click experience is crucial if you actually want people to convert. Should you use a traditional landing page or a chat landing page?
Chat Landing Pages vs. Traditional Landing Pages

You created the perfect Facebook ad. Your creative assets are on point, your copy is compelling, your targeting precise. But what about the post-click experience?

This next step is absolutely crucial if you actually want people to convert and earn revenue for your business. Should you use a landing page? Or could a conversation in chat improve your results?

Table of Contents

What are landing pages?
Why do you use them?
Why would you change to chat?
Can chat replace traditional landing pages?
Why would chat be better?
Who else is doing this?
Why Messenger landing pages?

What are landing pages?

You probably use traditional landing pages, already, so let’s quickly break down what they are, and why they’re important.

A landing page is a standalone webpage created specifically for a marketing or advertising campaign. It’s where a visitor 'lands' after they click on a link in an email or ad.

This means the page is tailored to that specific entry point. It’s designed for a single focus or goal. For instance, to get people to take action, like filling out a form, signing up for a free trial, or clicking a CTA (call to action) button.

Tradition-landing-page-vs-chat-landing-pages-example-crazyegg
An example of a traditional landing page

Why do you use them?

Landing pages are more efficient at converting people than a regular website like your homepage. They are designed to guide prospects down the page and get them to do something, i.e. to get prospects to convert.

The rate at which visitors successfully perform this action is called the conversion rate.

If your ad promotes a specific product or feature, your landing page should clearly reflect this. Usually, your homepage showcases your entire business and is not as focused as a landing page.

Why would you change to chat?

A large part of conversion rate optimization (CRO) is A/B testing minor adjustments to your landing page.

Change your CTA copy/color. Resize it. Use one image instead of the other. If this leads to a higher conversion rate, implement the change.

The thing is:

Average landing page conversion rates are around 2-3%. Increased efficiency is usually measured in the decimals. Sweating the small stuff, basically.

In recent years, marketers have discovered that conversational experiences in chat are way more effective at converting than traditional landing pages. To be precise, they have proven to convert 3-4x better.

You probably already use conversational marketing or at least regularly have conversations with your customers. Actually, here’s a quote for you:

A lot of those conversations will be in chat. At least, they should be. Studies show that 85% of consumers prefer to interact with businesses through chat.

P.s. If you sell on Shopify, try POP's All-in-One Chat Marketing integration for your store to boost sales with abandoned cart messages and much more.

Can chat replace traditional landing pages?

Short answer: yes.

This is already happening. In fact, there are several major companies that built their entire business models on this idea – more on that below.

Sure, traditional landing pages are tried, tested and suit their purpose well. There’s no need to get rid of them. But times are changing and people, especially generations Y and Z, want to be able to chat with businesses, too.

Add a chat version of your landing pages to your marketing stack if you don’t want to get left behind. It’s always a good idea to hedge your bets. You’ll notice conversion rates will be significantly higher.

This doesn't only apply to landing pages you use for your ads. Conversations that you start elsewhere - social media news feeds, Instagram stories, or website widgets - convert better too.

Traditional-landing-page-vs-Messenger-conversion-rates
Conversion rates in chat vs. traditional landing pages

Why would chat be better?

Increased engagement First of all, a conversation is, by definition, engaging. You chat with people. A static landing page, by comparison, means you are talking at people. People feel more comfortable having a chat with your business. When engaged in a conversation, they are less likely to bounce.

Better leads In chat, you guide your audience through a conversation, collect data and qualify them. This will help you personalize future messages. A conversation can take many turns, where a website form only offers one-sided information.

Interactive experiences A conversation is the perfect opportunity to bring your brand to life. This is where your brand voice truly gets to shine. Not to mention that a chat with your business means people get to actively experience your landing page. Instead of passively looking at it.

Higher conversions The average website conversion rate is 2,35% whereas chat converts 3-4x better than this. Some examples:

Higher completion rates People tend to complete questionnaires and forms more in chat. For example, an insurance company recently found that 12% more people completed the quote questionnaire on Messenger compared to their website’s quote tool, reducing cost per leads by 23%.

Trust building Conversations provide a personal touch to people’s experience with your brand. This is necessary to increase brand trust. There’s an exceptional focus on brand trust amongst the younger generation of consumers. Providing information in chat is optional, and skippable, where filling out a form is mandatory.

Increase sales A survey by Facebook says that customers are 50% more likely to buy from a brand after chatting with them, let it be with a customer support representative or an automated conversation. Chat allows merchants to interact with customers directly, and assist their purchasing experiences.

Who else is doing this?

First of all, according to Oracle, 80% of brands will be using chatbots for customer interaction by 2020.

Recently, we’ve seen major successful companies like Drift, Typeform and Intercom replace landing pages with conversational alternatives. These companies are all tech giants to be reckoned with. They know what they're doing.

Drift went as far as removing all forms from their website and replacing these with conversational experiences.

And even Instapage, the dominant player in the landing page building industry, confesses that adding live chat to a landing page:

Adds a connection, personalization, and convenience to help convert prospects more quickly

All of these experts acknowledge chat as a catalyst for the conversion process. The difference is their solutions mostly feature on websites.

So how can you leverage the power of chat on social media platforms?

After all, most of your social media marketing and advertising takes place on Facebook and Instagram. Start conversations on these platforms, either directly from a Facebook post or an Instagram swipe-up, or by choosing Messenger as your ad destination.

Combine your existing ad practices with the power of conversations in chat to convert better. Get the most out of the digital dollar you're already spending.

Why Messenger landing pages?

Messenger is one of the most downloaded apps, globally: everyone uses it. There’s no need to start from scratch and design your own chat UI - Messenger has a massive team working on this around the clock.

The Messenger app is also completely responsive. Whether people open it on a mobile device or on desktop, the user experience will be seamless and engaging.

Crazy-Egg-Landing-page-in-chat-example
The Crazy Egg landing page, in Messenger instead!

The conversational data you collect in a Messenger conversation is exceptionally valuable for another reason:

Facebook’s ad platform is one of the most powerful and efficient in the world. You can easily use your Messenger audience as a target audience for your next ad campaign.

Better yet, you can create a Lookalike audience based on this audience, expand your reach, create a larger Messenger audience, and do it all over again in your next campaign. This is what we call the chat marketing loop. Each conversation you start helps your business grow. Each successive campaign you run will build on the success of the last.

Chat-marketing-loop-visualized
The chat marketing loop visualized

If you’re already running ads on Facebook and Instagram, and these drive traffic to a traditional landing page, why not try a Click-to-Messenger ad that leads to a landing page in chat?

Ready to get started? Here are some best practices for setting up a high converting landing page in Messenger.


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