How to Get the Most Value Out of Your 14-Day Trial

Instapage offers a 14-day trial because we understand incorporating new software into your business isn’t easy. Not only does it have to fit your strategy and budget, but the needs of your team as well.

That’s why Instapage offers a 14-day trial. We can tell you about industry-leading tools and solutions, announce features the marketing industry has never seen, and even share relevant statistics to prove success:

But at the end of the day, you and your team need to test the platform yourself.

How to maximize your Instapage 14-day trial

To know if Instapage is right for your business, you have to test its capabilities to their fullest in just 14 days. Before you begin your trial, get an idea of what you should do from days 1 to 14 to get the most from your two weeks:

Integrate with the rest of your tech stack during the 14-day trial

A key to personalization at scale is an integrated technology stack. While Instapage is capable of handling everything you need for advertising personalization, you undoubtedly have other tools aiding in marketing personalization: email, CRM, social media management, etc.

For true 1:1 personalization to succeed, these tools need to be connected. For example, post-click landing page software needs to be able to pass lead information through to a CRM, then that CRM needs to pass data along to an email marketing technology, and it all needs to feed into an analytics platform.

That’s why Instapage allows you to connect 60+ popular marketing software you already use, like Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Facebook Ads, Marketo, and more. Before you think about publishing a page, or even inviting team members to use the software, you should make sure all your tools are connected and ready to process data from Instapage:

(The integrations above is not the complete list. Please visit the Integrations page to see the complete list.)

Organize your work with workspaces

When you’re creating pages for multiple clients or campaigns, it’s easy to lose track of designs if you’re not organized. Getting organized with workspaces should be your top priority. Otherwise, you risk building out designs faster than you can handle.

In the left column of the Instapage dashboard, click the Team Members menu item and then the blue “ADD TEAM MEMBER” button. Enter their email and select the permissions they should receive (viewer, editor, manager):

Each workspace has separate pages, analytics, integrations, domains, and team members — making it easy to compartmentalize your work. You’ll be able to create up to five in the trial. This is the same number you’ll be able to create on the Instapage Business plan. If you need more, you can upgrade to the enterprise plan.

Invite your team members during the 14-day trial

Post-click landing page creation is better together. To take advantage of the tools available to teams, you’ll need to add team members to join your account.

Do that by navigating to the particular workspace you want to add a team member to, then clicking the gear button in the upper-right corner and selecting “Add new.”

From there, manage permissions to easily control the actions your team member should and should not be able to perform.

This way, you keep all your teams organized, and provide each member with the tools they need to succeed, while at the same time holding them accountable. Speaking of accountability…

Familiarize yourself with the audit log during the 14-day trial

Even the most organized marketing teams make mistakes: designs will get published that shouldn’t be, for example, and other pages will be deleted before their time.

But, what makes organized teams different from the others is their ability to learn from those mistakes, decreasing the likelihood happen again. With the Instapage audit log, you’ll have this ability.

Automatically, the audit log tracks your team’s behavior as it relates to your pages. When they publish a design, delete a page, or integrate it with other software, it will show up in the audit log. That way, when you encounter a problem with your post-click landing page, you can quickly and easily track down when and why it happened:

Access the audit log by clicking the settings menu in the bottom-left corner in the Instapage dashboard, then selecting “Audit Log” from the menu:

Align the goal of your campaign with available templates

Before you start creating your page, it’s important to know that every post-click landing page performs a different function. Squeeze pages are post-click landing pages ideal for capturing visitor information at the top of your funnel, while click-through post-click landing pages are best for warming up your prospects at the bottom of it.

The page you use will depend on the goal of your campaign. Match yours with the page types available in the Instapage platform:

Lead generation post-click landing pages

They feature a form, used to collect and qualify leads with different fields. These are the most versatile type of post-click landing page, effective throughout the entire funnel. Choose this type if you’re trying to learn more about your prospect to determine whether they’re a good fit for your product or service.

Click-through post-click landing pages

Form-less pages persuade visitors to convert without scaring them away at the sight of a lead capture form. These can be used throughout the funnel, but they’re most valuable at the bottom for getting prospects to click through to a long form or a credit card field on the following page.

“Thank you” post-click landing pages

Show gratitude to a newly converted lead with a sincere “thanks,” and to direct that lead to the next stage in the marketing funnel. They’re best used throughout the funnel as a follow-up page after each conversion.

Webinar post-click landing pages

Are used by marketers to compel visitors to attend a webinar, a form of content that research shows are one of the most engaging. They can be used effectively at all stages of the marketing funnel.

Ebook post-click landing pages

Offer an ebook — a versatile resource used by leading marketers at the top and middle of the funnel to earn prospect information in exchange for a download.

Event post-click landing pages

Offer visitors entry to a company event. Because events can interest visitors at all stages of the marketing funnel, these post-click landing pages can be used effectively during the “awareness,” “evaluation,” “decision” stages and beyond.

App post-click landing pages

Are used to convince visitors to download an application. They’re most effective at the middle and bottom of the funnel.

Not sure what your goal is, or where your visitors are in the marketing funnel? Learn more about the buyer’s journey here and what your prospects expect at each stage.

Start designing from scratch or pick a template during the 14-day trial

Once you’re ready to begin creating pages, you have a few options: start from a blank canvas, select a template, or create your own template. If you elect to start with a template, you have the option of many responsive templates proven to convert:

Next, give your page a descriptive name that will help you differentiate it from your others. Then, start building by clicking: “Create New Page”

Once you’re in the builder, it won’t take long to design your first page. To edit any element on the template, simply click it to reveal a list of options available for editing. To add any new element, select it from the left menu, then drag to position it:

Whatever happens on the front end of the page will be reflected on the back-end, so you never have to worry about digging through endless lines of code. If you do want to navigate to the back-end to make more detailed edits to your design, you can do that too.

Streamline your landing page production with Instablocks

Even with the help of templates, building a post-click landing page for each of your audiences can be an enormous waste of time: picking a template, inserting generic blocks of content into the page, editing those pieces of content, positioning, etc.

That’s why Instapage offers Instablocks™. With this unique feature, you can create content quickly. Here’s how it works:

After you’re done creating a piece of content for your page (and optimizing the mobile version), like a header or testimonials section for example, simply save it in “My Blocks” to use later. From there, you can import it to a new design anytime. This way, when you’re creating page designs with similar content — pages to A/B test, for example — you won’t need to create them all from the same base template again. You can duplicate pages, delete elements, insert Instablocks, rearrange, etc. Essentially, Instablocks makes any edited element into an element you can drag to a new page or variation.

Access the Instablocks manager by editing your page design, clicking insert block, and you will see a window that looks like this:

The left column contains the folders you set up to categorize each page block. Use the device toggle to see how the page will look on both desktop and mobile:

Note: Once you’ve scaled your pages with Instablocks, you can update them all simultaneously with one click using Global Blocks. Request an enterprise demo today to see Global Blocks in action.

Design with precision

Today, landing page builders are becoming more common. And many of them are intuitive, but that intuitiveness comes at the price of design precision. These builders often lack advanced tools for designers, forcing them to settle for lackluster design, or dive into the back-end to the page to make the most of their edits (which defeats the purpose of using a builder altogether).

The Instapage builder makes no such compromise.

Instapage design tools

• Edge Measurement and Axis Lock: This feature is for those who won’t settle for anything less than a pixel-perfect design. With Edge Measurement, you can find out the exact coordinates of your post-click landing page elements. And with Axis Lock, you can lock those elements along the horizontal or vertical axis to easily keep them in-line when it’s too tough to do manually:

• Adobe Typekit and Google Fonts: Brand consistency is a major driver of buying decisions. Ensure your page stays on-brand, right down to the serif, with countless available typefaces from Google Fonts and Adobe Typekit.
• Keyboard shortcuts: Scaling post-click landing page creation can get tedious, which is why we’ve created keyboard shortcuts that streamline repetitive tasks. Now you can add, delete, group, and layer objects with just a few keystrokes. Here’s a look at just a few of the 30 actions we’ve created shortcuts for:

• A robust CSS editor: Experienced designers will be happy to know that every post-click landing page can be fine-tuned manually. There’s no level of customization you can’t reach between our builder and robust CSS editor module.

One-to-one personalization requires an emphasis on scalability, but without sacrificing the customization that makes pages hyper-relevant to visitors. You’ll find this balance only in design tools from Instapage.

Once you and your team have put the finishing touches on your design, it’s time to create another one to test against.

Set up an experiment

Experiments and A/B testing involves testing your original page against a variation to see which performs better. It’s one of the most effective ways to improve post-click landing page conversion rate. That said, a lot of people get it wrong.

They experiment and test the control headline vs. the variation headline, or they test one featured image vs. another. A/B testing is the most proven method for finding the global maximum — aka a higher-performing, drastically different version of your original page.

To begin an experiment, click “Experiments” in the left menu of your Instapage dashboard, name it, and state your hypothesis. Then, create a different version of your page that tests an alternative way of getting your message across:

Once you create the test, it will appear in your list, similar to this:

For example, if your original page features video, you might try communicating your message with long-form text. If your original features long-form text, maybe try communicating it with shorter copy and some images. Remember, the best tests start with your own data. Consult yours to determine the kind of design that might resonate with your audience:

Get set up with AdMap™

For both your customers, and your Quality Score, each ad and post-click landing page should be closely matched. But when you’re running many campaigns and tests, and making adjustments to your ads all the time, it’s very difficult to ensure post-click landing pages match their ads.

What is AdMap™?

AdMap™ is the industry’s first solution for PPC advertisers who understand the importance of message match. With this groundbreaking tool, Google advertisers can dispose of disorganized spreadsheets for matching each ad and post-click page. AdMap automatically matches each ad and landing page experience, enabling advertisers to please their customers with effective personalization, and algorithms with signals that indicate useful design:

What you can do with AdMap™

• Import your full account structure from the advertising platform to generate your Postclick Score and evaluate your advertising funnel for ad-to-page relevance:

• Visualize a list of your campaigns, ad groups, and ads in Instapage to determine where you need personalized pages
• Effortlessly create new pages within the AdMap flow, and connect each ad to a matching post-click landing page using an intuitive point-and-click interface
• Quickly edit and update connected post-click page experiences to match your ad iterations
• Automatically two-way sync ad mapping updates between the advertising network and Instapage
• Serve the correct personalized experience in real-time to the right audience for each ad

As the only solution that offers a tool like AdMap, Instapage puts you in the position to worry less about tedious tracking (and the mistakes it can produce) and more about tactics that move the needle.

(Bonus tip: Make AdMap more powerful by using the feature alongside Instapage Personalization. By upgrading to the Instapage Enterprise plan, you get access to Personalization where you can attach personalized experiences to individual ads thereby achieving 1:1 ad-to-page relevancy.)

Review and publish your pages

Does your page look stunning across all screens? While it’ll be automatically optimized for mobile. We recommend giving it a second glance with the “Preview” button in the upper-right corner of the builder or publish it to the demo server to test it yourself.

If your design looks the way it should, click “Publish,” for options to publish via a custom domain, WordPress, Drupal, or the Instapage demo server:

Set up branded email notifications

For teams and agencies, securing more budget comes down to proving your worth. Prove yours by sending managers and clients automated email notifications of every conversion you generate.

Add your logo, create a custom subject line, adjust the “From” field, and even modify the HTML code to make sure every notification represents your brand accurately. Learn more about setting up branded email notifications here:

Set your campaigns live and collect data

Once your post-click landing pages and their corresponding campaigns are live, it’s important to give them time to collect data. Keep in mind, each trial is limited to 2,500 unique visitors, which isn’t enough to confidently base any business decisions on. But proving ROI should not be the goal of your trial.

Instead, you should use these visitors to test the features of the software. Are the integrations working effectively? Do you understand what you see in the Instapage analytics dashboard? Are prospects getting their branded email notifications?

The point of the trial is to evaluate the software and its many features. Proving ROI should be left for the full enterprise version where you get access to additional products like:

• Personalization
• AMP post-click landing pages
• Global Blocks

Review your analytics dashboard

All great campaigns come from data — and the industry’s most advanced analytics dashboard can give you plenty of that. View conversion rates and visitors by channel or date, and compare page variations to see which converted better at the end of your trial:

Remember: it’s important not to conclude your experiment until you’ve generated enough visitors to reach at least 95% statistical significance (here’s a calculator to help). But you’ll have plenty of time to evaluate the A/B testing tool and Instapage analytics.

(Note: Once you upgrade to Enterprise, you get access to Google and Facebook advertising attribution, which includes additional metrics average cost per visitor and average cost per lead.)

Review your heatmaps

What’s great about heatmaps is they’re almost like qualitative data. You can learn how people are using your pages with relatively small sample size. They also provide value for guiding your A/B tests so you are creating educated hypotheses on real visitor interactions.

With this built-in feature from Instapage, you’ll be able to click the “heatmap mode” toggle in the menu bar to see where people clicked, hovered, and scrolled on your post-click landing page throughout the 14-day trial:

Heat maps are a particularly helpful way to visualize data that can aid in conversion rate optimization. Use them to find:

• Elements that are getting clicked like buttons but aren’t actually clickable.
• Where people stop scrolling on your long-form post-click landing page.
• Distracting elements that might be stealing attention from your call-to-action.

Despite their usefulness, it’s important to remember heat maps aren’t data — they simply display data in a visually digestible way. To figure out the “why” behind what visitors are clicking or how far they’re scrolling, you’ll need to do hypothesis testing. Learn everything you need to know about using heatmaps on your post-click landing page here.

Consult your team

Before you make any decision regarding our platform, it’s important to reach back out to your team and get their input.

• What did they like?
• What didn’t they?
• How fast are they creating pages now compared to before Instapage?

Gathering feedback from your staff isn’t just our recommendation — it’s proven to be an important factor in technology adoption among teams. According to research, forcing a change in the workplace can result in higher instances of quitting, hostility towards managers, and increased employee apathy. So it’s important to make sure that everyone who’ll be using the software gets a say in the decision.

Make the most of your Instapage 14-day trial

All the professional-grade tools, add-ons, and features don’t have to cause information overload. Now, you know what you’re getting yourself into, and armed with this roadmap; you’ll get the most from your 14-day trial.

Begin your 14-day trial here, then join brands like Verizon, eBay, Verifone, and HelloFresh by becoming an Instapage Enterprise customer.