Trusted by nearly one million businesses worldwide, Shopify is an ecommerce industry giant.
Go ahead, type the phrase “online store” in Google search and see what comes up. We'll save you the time and show you a screenshot of the results instead:
Let’s try the phrase “ecommerce website:”
Why include the Google screenshots? Seeing as how successfully visible they are — Shopify knows how to do marketing, especially when we talk about post-click landing pages.
There’s a thing or two you can learn by seeing how Shopify uses post-click landing pages for different campaigns, and today we’ll discuss those things.
We’ll do an overview how Shopify uses different post-click landing pages and promotes them to various audience segments for their campaigns. We’ll discuss why the post-click landing pages are successful and where there’s still room for improvement.
Shopify’s multiple post-click landing page approach
The first thing that Shopify has working for itself is the fact that they design multiple post-click landing pages for their various campaigns. This allows them to have a laser focus on their audience and generate conversions for their individual pages.
At Instapage, we believe that every promotion deserves its own page and Shopify is definitely on the right track here.
Shopify uses post-click landing pages to:
- Get visitors to sign up for the product
- Get visitors to sign up for the 14-day free trial
- Encourage attendees to register for special events
- Promote individual applications, like Shopkey and WhatShare
They promote their post-click landing pages on:
- Google Ads
- Their company blog
Let’s see how successful these post-click landing pages are by individually analyzing every page on the following two categories:
Message match
Message matching is the concept of aligning your ad headline to your post-click landing page headline. You can achieve good message matching when the ad and the post-click landing page have a clear relationship to each other.
Page elements
All post-click landing page elements will be critiqued on how they complete the conversion goal. For example, we’ll see if the headline is clear, the copy is descriptive, and the form is arranged properly (among other things).
1. Shopify’s sign-up post-click landing page
For starters, we clicked on this Facebook ad:
And were directed to this post-click landing page:
Let’s see how the page fares on the two categories mentioned before.
Message Match
The ad headline, “Sell Products on Facebook,” is not consistent with the post-click landing page headline because there is no mention of Facebook. All it says is, “The online store for someday millionaires.” As far as the headline goes, this is a poor message match.
However, the post-click landing page does depict a Facebook page when viewed on desktop and mobile. So, the visitor is somewhat reassured that they have come to the right place to start selling products on Facebook.
Page Elements
Let's analyze the page elements individually now to see what's working, and what could be improved.
Headline
The word “millionaires” in the headline provides inspiration to visitors who land on the page. After all, who doesn’t want to be a millionaire by opening an online store? Using Shopify helps turn this dream into reality.
Images
The images showcase how a Facebook online store looks on different devices, so it helps the visitor visualize their store by converting on the short form. The image of the customer support staff at the end of the post-click landing page is great for personalization and also humanizes the brand:
Lead Capture Form
The form is simple and easy to complete — only three fields and your store is created.
Call-to-Action button
The CTA button is designed in a contrasting color — Shopify’s brand color to be exact. The button copy is personalized, using “your” on the button encourages more visitors to convert than if the copy was more general, like “Get Started.”
Copy
The post-click landing page copy not only lists Shopify features in a readable manner, but it also tells visitors to know why selling on Facebook is the right idea:
Social Proof
There are two instances of social proof showcased on the page, which greatly help conversions.
First, the phrase “Shopify powers 243,000 businesses.” Right below this is another impressive statistic, “We’ve helped our customers sell over 14 billion dollars worth of products.” Both phrases reassure the visitor that Shopify is an expert online shopping cart provider, and they have helped thousands of business owners already.
Customer Testimonials
Shopify’s testimonials let visitors know that others have used their product before and found it to be successful. Taking this one step further, Daymond John’s testimonial can have a significant impact on audiences:
Endorsement Badges
Endorsement badges from high-profile brands such as The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and The New York Times help sell Shopify to any potential new customer.
Elements to improve
- There could be more message match between the ad and post-click landing page headline.
- The massive footer at the bottom of the page offers many exit points.
2. Shopify’s free trial post-click landing page
In addition to its sign-up page, Shopify has a post-click landing page with multiple variations that promote their 14-day free trial. The pages have different headlines depending on the search query typed into Google. However, the rest of the page elements mostly remain the same, which tells us that they are testing the headline.
Let’s look at the three different Google Ads page variations we came across during our research.
Keyword phrase “ecommerce tools”
Search for “ecommerce tools” and Shopify’s ad is at the top of the list:
This is the post-click landing page you come to:
Message Match
The ad and post-click landing page headline are message matched perfectly. Not only that, the ad copy reiterates what the ad copy states, “plans starting at $9/month.”
Page elements
Time to analyze the individual page elements.
Headline and subheadline
The headline and subheadline are very clear, “Create your ecommerce store with Shopify, which is trusted by over 243, 000 businesses worldwide.”
Lead capture form
Shopify is only requesting an email address from visitors.
CTA button
The button is designed in Shopify’s branding colors and is contrasting to the page. However, the button copy is generic. “Get started” doesn’t count as personalized button copy.
Copy
This is a short form post-click landing page, so the copy consists of 5 bullet points that summarize what Shopify offers its customers.
Image
The image helps humanize the page, a smiling face looking at visitors has tested to be a good thing for increased conversions.
Company Endorsements
Endorsements from companies such as “The Wall Street Journal” and “Fast Company” establish credibility for the service.
Keyword phrase “how to sell online”
These are the ads generated for the keyword phrase:
This is the post-click landing page connected with the ad:
Message Match
The ad and post-click landing page headline are in perfect harmony with each other because the search phrase “sell online” is repeated in both the ad as well as the post-click landing page.
Page elements
Time to analyze the individual page elements.
Headline
The headline is clear and includes social proof which is great because visitors know from the start that Shopify is a brand they can trust to help them sell products online.
The rest of the post-click landing page is identical to the post-click landing page above. They use other headline variations for different keyword phrases as well. Here’s another page promoting their free trial:
3. Event post-click landing page: Build a Business VI
When we arrived at Shopify’s Twitter feed, we came across this “Build a Business VI” event post-click landing page (below) through this pinned tweet:
Once we clicked, this is the post-click landing page:
Message match
The tweet and post-click landing page both mention an “entrepreneurial experience of a lifetime,” which establishes good message match.
Page Elements
Time to analyze the individual page elements.
Headline
The headline is straightforward, if you click the CTA button in the bottom right corner, you’re going to have “The Entrepreneurial Experience of a Lifetime” with the business boot camp.
Video
The background contextual video adds a nice touch to the post-click landing page. You also have the option of clicking the “watch the video” CTA and watch the likes of Seth Godin, Tim Ferris, and Daymond John talking about entrepreneurship and standing out:
CTA button
There are two CTA buttons above the page fold. The yellow one in the top right corner telling visitors to “Get Started”, But it fails to tell the visitor to get started with what? The event?
The button takes you to the two-step opt-in form for the 14-day Shopify free trial:
The second button is gray — not very contrasting — that states “Join the group.” Although this button copy is clearer, it’s still not very personalized to the visitor.
Copy
As you scroll down the page, the text explains what the entrepreneurship boot camp week will entail and where it’s going to take place. It also introduces the coaches and lets visitors know how they can enter their company in this hands-on coaching experience:
Lead capture form
The lead capture form is short and easy to fill out. They only request the most important information that is needed to create a new store.
Partner badges
Partner badges from MailChimp and PayPal establish more credibility for the event.
Elements to improve
- Both CTAs need work, with copy and design.
- Same as the other post-click landing pages before, the footer should be removed.
4. App post-click landing pages
Shopify’s apps like Shopkey and WhatShare are promoted in some of their blog posts, with these CTAs:
Here’s the "post-click landing page" you’re taken to when you click the Shopkey CTA:
This is not a post-click landing page. Instead, it’s a product page (within iTunes) that visitors arrive at once they show interest in Shopify’s applications.
When you click the WhatShare call-to-action, something similar happens:
The video on the page makes it better than Shopkey’s page because visitors are able to get the description of the app faster. However, this is still a product page and not a dedicated post-click landing page.
Elements to improve
If Shopify wants to generate more conversions, we recommend their CTA buttons take visitors to dedicated post-click landing pages instead of a product page. A post-click landing page would have fewer distractions and be focused on one conversion goal: the app download.
Signup form on blog articles
Another strategy that Shopify implements on its blog is to encourage readers to sign up for their 14-day free trial via a lead capture form directly from the blog:
Elements to improve
Instead of directly using a form to get visitors to signup for the free trial, it may be better to offer readers some downloadable content first, and then nurture them down the funnel. This is recommended because blog readers may just be seeking educational content and not be ready to signup for a trial. If they were to offer additional content, and then nurture them with 14-day trial messaging later, that approach may generate even more signups than this short form on blog articles.
You may notice on our blog articles, we offer a piece of related content to our readers, such as this Uber article below:
When you click the green banner, you are directed to this page. This piece of content is valuable to marketers because it describes 10 types of post-click landing page designs that have proven to convert — while providing us with a lead in the process.
What have we learned from Shopify?
Using multiple post-click landing pages for different audiences bodes well for your conversion rates because with more than one post-click landing page you’re able to target your audience better. All ads and CTAs should take visitors to dedicated post-click landing pages and not cluttered homepages or product pages.
Do you see the value in creating optimized post-click landing pages for audiences and want to achieve similar success as Shopify? Start creating customized post-click landing pages for your marketing campaigns and watch your conversion rates soar.
Start creating your dedicated post-click pages by signing up for an Instapage Enterprise demo today.