It’s that time of the year again - where Unbounce unleashes their Conversion Benchmark Report into the wild and watches as marketers laugh and cry (often at the same time) about their campaign performance.

This incredibly detailed read covers landing page conversion data for 16 industries. This stuff is pretty hard to come by. 

Unlike emails, a lot of speculation goes on around the metrics of success for landing pages. We all see landing page teardowns and “best landing page” blogs, but never get complete clarity over the nuances between industries, and which elements we should be looking at to get the best possible results for our niche.

Thanks to AI, Unbounce has made the landing page landscape that little bit more informed for everyone. We can get a clearer picture of what a good conversion rate looks like, and what works (and sucks) in terms of the copy and design aspects across varying sectors.

Unbounce’s datasets cover:

• 186 million visits
• 19 million conversions
• 34 thousand landing pages. 

Which is rather a lot. 

If you’re short on time, I’ve done the hard work and summarized the main points of the report that are relevant to the SaaS industry in this blog. The full report is a fascinating read, so when you have a chunk of time to spare, it’s well worth the time to sit down and work through this informational superbeast.

Here’s a handy graph of page conversion rates by industry. These look at both median and average rates so the data isn’t so skewed by the overachievers.

Not too bad there, SaaS. Not too bad.

Top takeaways for SaaS landing pages in 2020

SaaS pages by nature include a lot of tech speak, and a lot of jargon. This can make your landing pages read like a boring trip to Boring Mountain in the boring-mobile. 

The result? People click to your landing page and bounce straight the heck off again. But there’s an easy fix. It lies in simplifying your copy and using the voice of your customers to inform the messaging on the page.

Your landing pages should excite readers with warm, lively copy that has a friendly, human tone. It should reflect and strengthen your brand experience and generally be a pleasure to read. Even if a visitor doesn’t convert on that page, creating a memorable experience for them is a win in itself. It can also improve brand awareness and recall for your product.

Keeping your SaaS pages short and sweet, with an easy reading grade, is the key to those coveted high conversions.

Here’s an example of how you can transform that dry landing page headline:

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Choose your landing page wording carefully

Sentiment analysis showed that words associated with “anticipation” on SaaS pages help boost conversions. Build a bit more excitement about your software into your pages and watch those metrics climb.

Hype up your value proposition and tell engaging stories. Use testimonials showing how your product can solve problems and create the desired results you’re promising on the page.

Effective words to use include:

• Improve
• Responsive
• Momentum
• Seek
• Highest
• Thriving
• Expect

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Top takeaways for SaaS landing pages

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• SaaS landing pages are the most difficult to read out of all industries (let’s fix that, shall we?)
• The median conversion rate is 2.9%
• Best performing SaaS pages converted at 24.2% (smoking hot!)
• SaaS landing pages convert 10% lower than the overall industry median (not so hot...)
• Shorter pages convert better
• B2B software pages perform best around 400 words
• Click-through pages convert better than those with forms
• Emotional language isn’t as important on SaaS pages as for other industries
• Conversion rates go up as pages get easier to read

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What marketers wish their pages converted at...versus reality

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Over 15% of marketers dream of having their landing pages convert at more than 26%. But the reality is that the conversion average sits woefully lower - at 9.7%.

Thankfully, around a quarter of marketers have realistic expectations on this one. A copywriter’s job is tricky enough without being expected to perform biblical miracles with landing page copy.

Having said that, the goal with copywriting is to always, always strive to push the boundaries of psychology, UX, and “best practice” to go where no landing page conversion rate has gone before. 

Challenges are what fuel our creativity as writers, keep us awake at night, and inspire us to think exactly like a customer to get those coveted conversion rates for our clients.