So you’ve checked out your competitor’s email newsletters, website, and ads–that’s enough, right?
However, you’ve missed a crucial piece of their funnel: landing pages. '
Landing pages are simple, dedicated, campaign-specific, clutter-free pages purpose-built for a single purpose: lead generation.
Landing pages don’t come with the bells and whistles that websites normally come with. Typically, you won’t see a navigation menu at the top.
You also won’t see a footer with links. Neither will you see any links out to social media pages, and other extra links that can distract a visitor from doing the only thing the landing page is built for.
Further, landing pages are message-matching and campaign-specific. If your ad says “Get 20% off This Christmas”, the landing page continues the story on the page. It might have videos, images, headings, copy, sub-headings, and text, all of which are used to nudge the visitor to take “action”.
Landing pages tell you a lot about your competitors and how they think. They’re often the last page a potential customer lands on before they become a lead or buyer.
After you’ve piqued their curiosity with ads, they should be primed and ready to take action and the landing page is where it all happens.
Does that mean you need to copy your competitor’s landing pages?
Not exactly.
There are benefits to checking out or spying on their landing pages that don’t involve plagiarizing their content.
We’ll go through these benefits and how you can monitor your competitor’s landing pages in just 5 steps.
What Are Landing Pages and Why Should You Create Them?
Landing pages, often called squeeze pages, are dedicated and simple pages used for marketing campaigns.
Built for lead generation, landing pages are where visitors arrive at or land after clicking on a link within a blog post, through an update on one of the many social media platforms, or through an advertisement.
Unlike regular websites, landing pages have a singular focus: a single call-to-action (such as to download an eBook or schedule an appointment, or to buy).
Types of Landing Pages
There are various types of landing pages that you could build and use (depending on the type and objective of each campaign you run). The most popular types of landing pages are:
- Lead generation landing pages
- Webinar landing pages
- eCommerce landing pages
- eBook (or whitepaper or lead magnet) landing pages
- Sales landing pages
- Waitlist/Coming Soon landing pages, and
- Thank you pages (often used as the “next step” once users complete an action on the main landing page)
Conversion Rates: Websites vs. Landing Pages
Across industries, regular websites universally convert at a mere 2 to 3 percent on an average globally, according to Ruler Analytics, depending on several factors such as the specific industry, niche, vertical, quality of campaigns, ads, and several other variables that’ll decide conversion rates.
Landing pages convert at higher rates. According to Unbounce's Conversion Benchmark Report which analyzed more than 44,000 landing pages and tracked 33 million conversions, the median conversion rate is at 4.3 percent across all industries.
Why you should monitor your competitors’ landing pages
Monitoring your competitors’ landing pages is a smart way to learn how to stand out and capture your target audience’s attention. Knowing the enemy is crucial if you want to boost your campaigns.
From their landing pages and the associated ads, you’ll learn how your competitors position their offers to potential customers, where they get their traffic, and how to target similar audiences.
The landing page is a key part of your competitor’s funnel and deserves your attention.
How to Monitor Your Competitor’s Landing Page
You don’t have to be in the dark anymore. Take the guesswork out of analyzing your competitor’s funnel through Panoramata. Here’s how to use Panoramata to monitor your competitor’s landing pages.
Landing pages tell you a lot about your competitors and how they think. They’re often the last page a potential customer lands on before they become a lead or buyer.
1. Look up your competitor on Panoramata
Visit Panoramata and create an account. From your dashboard, navigate to Brands Search on the leftmost panel. Type in your competitor’s name or a keyword related to your industry and hit enter.
2. Go to your competitor’s brand page
Choose a brand from the search results. You’ll be directed to their brand page.
On the brand page, click on the tab labeled Landings.
3. Explore the landings tab on their brand page
Next, you can explore their landing pages. Click on a landing page to see a detailed view. You can choose from a desktop or mobile view for each page.
4. View the landing page and the changes made to it
On the landing page selected, you will see a screenshot of the entire landing page the way a visitor would.
Drag the slider to see the changes made to the page. You can select the start and end dates for the before-and-after comparisons.
This feature is handy because it allows you to be the first to know when your competitor makes changes to their landing page.
You can also click on the landing page link provided to see the live landing page itself.
5. See the associated ads that lead to the landing page
That’s not all because you can also monitor the associated ads for that landing page and the number of ads published for each page.
Scroll to the end of the landing page screenshot to view this data.
You can even know when your competitor has been running that landing page.
In a nutshell, you’ll have a comprehensive view of your competitor’s marketing funnel and what they’re doing to it in real time.
Other things you can do with landing pages on Panoramata:
- Download a copy of the landing page and its associated ads
- Add the page and ads to a list on your Panoramata account
- Refine your search through a brand’s landing pages and ads by inputting keywords
Key elements to include in a landing page
Creating landing pages that convert is part science and part art. Regardless, there are a few non-negotiable inclusions for a landing page that almost every marketer and/or business (applicable across business verticals will agree):
Message Match
Your ad is promoting a webinar with two hosts. The landing page this ad leads visitors to should continue the story (also called as message-matching landing pages). No disconnects allowed between the ad and the landing page itself.
The landing page for the webinar will include a call-to-action about the webinar itself (What does it promise? How does it benefit the visitor? What problem does it solve?), information about the hosts, social proof (pulled in from previous webinars, if any), and other information to help convince visitors to sign up.
If you promote a Black Friday offer with an ad on Google, the landing page continues the story (complete with the Black Friday offer made again as the main call-to-action).
Further, the Black Friday landing page will also have additional elements, cards, visuals, copy, and relevant sections on the landing page to nudge visitors to take action on the landing page.
Single Call-to-Action
You can’t have links or buttons to this and that on a landing page. Focus is critical for a landing page to perform well.
Decide on a single action your visitors must take on the page, and make that your main CTA (Call-to-action). Repeat the call-to-action on your page if you have to, but it’s still one single offer.
Clutter-Free, Simple Experience
Landing pages can have a video that visitors can watch. But there should not be any other links leading elsewhere on the page. So, don’t include a menu, social media buttons, and links to other pages on your main website.
Social Proof
Social proof is powerful, when used the right way. If you have it, flaunt it.
Showcase your social proof on landing pages (can be reused when relevant on many landing pages) such as association with other organizations, partners you have relationships with, previous customers, logos of your clients, testimonials from customers (video or text or both), and social media updates (social media love) that came in without you asking for it.
Panoramata: Monitoring your competitor's landing pages just got easier
That ends this simple how-to guide for monitoring your competitors and their landing pages. If you are doing competitive analysis and want to find out what kind of landing pages your competitors are using, how they are designed, and more, consider signing up for Panoramata.
Get live updates on landing pages, email campaigns, ads, websites, and SEO profiles of any of your competitors (or explore other industries and sectors, if you wish). You can also create lists, curate swipe files for best landing pages, and give a robust foundation for your own landing pages and other campaigns.
On Panoramata, you can analyze any brand’s marketing funnel and have a detailed overview of your competitor’s strategy in just one platform. It’s that easy.
Frequently Asked Questions
How to spy on a competitor's website?
To spy on a competitor's website, use tools like Panoramata or Ahrefs to analyze their traffic sources, top-performing pages, and SEO strategies.
Additionally, explore their site manually to understand their layout, content, and user experience, and subscribe to their email lists to monitor their marketing campaigns.
How to see a competitor's landing page?
To see competitors' landing pages, use tools like Panoramata to identify the technologies they use and get insights into their page and associated ads.
