Leadpages Review 2023: How This Landing Page Builder Stacks Up

You want to drive more leads and sales to your business. But let‘s be honest – creating optimized landing pages and websites is easier said than done.

That‘s why smart marketers turn to drag-and-drop landing page builders like Leadpages to remove the technical headaches.

But does Leadpages actually live up to its promises? Can it really help you boost conversions without needing to know code or hire a pro web designer?

In this hands-on Leadpages review, I’ll dig into all aspects of this popular landing page builder so you can decide if it‘s the right choice for your business and goals.

Let‘s dive in!

What Exactly is Leadpages? A Quick Overview

First things first – what even is Leadpages and what does it do?

In short, Leadpages is a cloud-based SaaS platform that provides a drag-and-drop editor to create:

  • High-converting landing pages – Optin forms, sales pages, webinar registration pages, and more.
  • Lead generation tools – Popups, alert bars, sticky optin forms to capture more leads.
  • Websites – Conversion-focused sites for your business using the same drag-and-drop builder.

The key advantage of Leadpages is that you don‘t need any web design or technical skills. With an intuitive click-and-drag interface, anyone can craft professional websites and landing pages.

Leadpages takes care of hosting your pages and provides tons of templates, images, and integrations out of the box.

So if you want to shortcut the complex process of building online assets, Leadpages aims to be your new best friend!

But rather than just take their word for it, let‘s take a tour of Leadpages‘ core features…

Inside Leadpages: What the Interface And Features Look Like

I‘ll kick things off by showing you what it actually looks like inside Leadpages and how the page builder works.

After signing up for a free Leadpages trial, you‘ll arrive on their main dashboard:

Leadpages Dashboard

This dashboard provides access to all Leadpages features and your account settings:

  • Pages – Manage landing pages and websites you create. Includes handy page performance graphs.
  • Traffic – See visits over time across all your pages and assets.
  • Forms – Create optin forms, surveys, and other lead capture tools.
  • Alert Bars – Notification-style bars to promote offers.
  • Integrations – Connect email, payment providers, webinar software, and more.
  • Account – Billing details, custom domains, team member management.

From this central dashboard you can jump into the page builder straight away by clicking Pages > Create A Page.

You‘ll be greeted with a template picker:

Leadpages template picker

Leadpages offers over 275+ pre-made templates spanning:

  • Landing pages
  • Webinar pages
  • Coming soon pages
  • 404 error pages
  • And more

The templates handle all the design work and can be modified with just a few clicks. No more starting from a blank page or fiddling with code!

Let‘s build an example landing page from one of their optin form templates:

Building a landing page in Leadpages

As you can see, Leadpages uses an intuitive "drag and drop" style visual editor. Designing pages works much like arranging blocks – you simply click, drag, resize, and rearrange elements on the page canvas.

Some key features:

  • 150+ blocks – Buttons, icons, text, images, countdowns – tons of elements to add.
  • Responsive editing – Mobile and desktop previews side-by-side.
  • Design settings – Fonts, colors, backgrounds – customize at will.
  • Dynamic text – Insert merge tags for personalized messaging.
  • 100+ Integrations – Connect email, payments, analytics and more.
  • Tracking – Facebook pixel, Google Analytics, heatmaps built-in.

In just a few minutes you can take a template from start to published without touching code. And your pages are hosted securely by Leadpages, so no web hosting hassles either.

Let‘s explore some of the most business-critical Leadpages features next…

Optimizing Calls-to-Action With Leadpages

Calls-to-action (CTAs) – those clickable buttons urging visitors take action – are crucial conversion drivers on landing pages.

That‘s why getting your CTAs right is so vital.

The good news? Leadpages makes it simple.

For example, let‘s add a stylish CTA to our landing page:

Leadpages CTA button settings

The CTA block provides tons of one-click design options:

  • Button style – shadows, borders, hover effects
  • Colors – set button + text independently
  • Size – width, height, padding, fonts
  • Action – links, Leadbox popups, downloads

And you can create different CTAs tailored to mobile vs desktop viewers for better conversions across devices.

Furthermore, CTAs seamlessly connect to other Leadpages features…

Two-Step Opt-Ins And Leadboxes

For instance, you may have heard that two-step opt-in forms can double conversion rates.

Visitors provide minimal info upfront (often just their email), then they‘re shown a popup form to complete the signup process.

This technique increases conversions by reducing initial friction.

With Leadpages, implementing it takes just minutes thanks to Leadboxes:

Connect CTA to Leadbox popup

Leadboxes are customizable popups and embedded forms you can insert anywhere.

So within the CTA settings, you simply toggle "Click triggers popup" and select the Leadbox it should open.

Now your visitors click the CTA and are guided through a slick two-step flow – easy!

You can make Leadboxes pop up on:

  • CTA clicks
  • Page scroll %
  • Time spent on page
  • And more

They‘re an extremely versatile popup builder packed right inside Leadpages.

Next let‘s explore how forms and payments work…

Flexible Forms And Payment Integrations

Another reason visitors come to your landing pages is to submit information – whether to signup for a free guide, register for a webinar, or purchase your products.

That‘s where Leadpages forms come in…

The forms builder allows unlimited custom fields and conditional logic for smart flows:

Leadpages form builder

Any information collected can be directly sent to your email address or connected service.

And you can deliver assets straight to leads‘ inboxes upon form submission. This lets you create:

  • Lead magnets – Send free guides, swipe files etc as instant downloads
  • Order confirmations – Email receipts to customers after purchases

Speaking of ecommerce, Leadpages integrates directly with payment processors like Stripe.

So within the form editor, you can easily accept credit cards for:

  • Digital products – online courses, memberships, software
  • Physical product checkout pages
  • Event tickets and registration fees

Overall the forms and payments features enable you to generate leads and revenue from Leadpages landing pages.

Now let‘s examine how Leadpages helps you optimize those assets further…

Split Testing And Built-In Analytics

To maximize landing page performance, savvy marketers use A/B testing.

Also called split testing, this involves running multiple variants of a page to see which one converts best.

For example, you could test:

  • Long vs short page copy
  • Different headlines
  • Variations in images
  • Layout changes
  • Offers

Leadpages has full split testing baked right in:

Leadpages A/B testing

With just a few clicks you can:

  • Set up an A/B test between the original page and a modified version
  • Drive automated traffic splits – 50/50, 80/20 etc
  • Let Leadpages run the test over days or weeks
  • Automatically declare a winner

This takes the guesswork and manual analysis out of optimization.

Furthermore, Leadpages provides handy analytics on all your landing pages and website pages:

Leadpages analytics

The above shows visits, conversions, changes over time, and more. So you can easily monitor asset effectiveness and catch any dips early.

You can also integrate deeper analytics platforms like Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel for expanded reporting.

Now that we‘ve covered a wide range of functionality, let‘s recap the pros and cons of this tool…

Leadpages Pros and Cons Compared To Alternatives

Leadpages isn‘t the only game in town when it comes to landing page builders. Top alternatives like Instapage, Unbounce, and ClickFunnels compete closely.

So how does Leadpages compare and what are the key upsides and downsides potential users should consider?

Pros

  • Beginner friendly “drag and drop” editor
  • 275+ conversion-optimized templates
  • Easy to create two-step optins via Leadboxes
  • Form builder with payments, asset delivery
  • A/B testing baked right in
  • Tons of email, analytics, and software integrations
  • Lead magnet capabilities – deliver files from forms
  • NEW responsive website builder included

Cons

  • Steep learning curve for some advanced features
  • Must pay monthly for access – no one-time purchase option
  • Can‘t expand beyond preset templates as extensively as pure code solutions
  • Complex pages may require developer assistance

The main tradeoff is Leadpages delivers an easy-to-use system, but flexibility is curbed compared to developing custom code.

For many small businesses, the ease and speed of drag-and-drop solutions make total sense over complex developer builds.

But for larger brands desiring meticulous customization throughout, going the pure coding route may be better suited long-term.

So weigh your specific needs.

That said, Leadpages remains an incredibly versatile landing page builder used successfully across many industries and niches.

Now, let‘s explore Leadpages pricing…

Leadpages Pricing And Plans Explained

Many software tools claim to be all-in-one solutions. But the reality is core features end up trapped behind steep monthly subscriptions or expensive “Pro” plans.

Thankfully Leadpages keeps thing simple with just three straightforward pricing tiers:

  • Standard – $37/month
  • Pro – $79/month
  • Advanced – Custom quote

Standard already includes the full landing page builder, unlimited traffic, A/B testing tools, lead delivery, and more.

So you unlock tremendous stand-alone value without add-ons.

Pro then expands limits for conversions/traffic and adds ecommerce checkout pages.

Finally Advanced caters to ultra high-volume enterprises that need dedicated support, management etc.

For most small-to-medium businesses, Leadpages Standard or Pro make the most sense.

And every paid plan is backed by a 30-day money back guarantee. So you can take Leadpages for a risk-free spin before fully committing.

Let‘s wrap up with my final verdict…

Should You Use Leadpages? My Final Recommendation

So, should Leadpages earn a spot in your landing page and lead gen technology stack?

If ease of use is critically important – absolutely.

The flexibility to build conversion-focused landing pages, popups, forms, and full websites without any coding skills or expertise is extremely rare.

So Leadpages remains a go-to platform for bootstrapped entrepreneurs, marketing teams, agencies serving small business clients, and more.

It just works – as long as you operate within the frameworks and capabilities Leadpages offers out-of-the-box.

So I suggest signing up for their free trial. Test Leadpages thoroughly across an array client projects or business needs.

If it solves core challenges around landing page creation and conversions – stick with it!

Just keep the limitations around advanced customization in mind as your business scales over the long-haul. And complement Leadpages with page-level code tweaks, custom CSS, or developer resources if needed.

But for most use cases, this platform should tick all the boxes.

Over to you – do you think Leadpages is a helpful solution for your business or clients? I‘d love to hear your questions and feedback in the comments!