We primarily use Instapage for custom landing pages, and boy, do we love it! There’s nothing like finishing up a new “landy” and getting ready to launch a new Google Ads campaign for it. But before all that hard work and creativity is set to go live, and marketing dollars are spent sending traffic to it, it’s important to take care of a few housekeeping steps.
Here’s a checklist of steps to take before our new custom landing pages are ready for “prime time.”
#1 Finish Optimizing from Mobile Devices
We usually wait until the main full-size desktop version is finalized before stepping over to complete the mobile version. Instapage makes it easy by simply clicking the “generate mobile” button. And it does a pretty good job of giving you a rough draft of the mobile version too.
However, make sure to go in and manually adjust the images and test, since it still requires a personal touch to make it look complete. Tested on Android and iPhone devices and even tablets. so you know it’s good-to-go.
#2 Add Notification Emails for When a New Lead Comes in
Nothing’s worse than a fresh new custom landing page combined with a fresh new ad campaign, only to find you’re getting leads that you know nothing about. This is a hard lesson, but if you make this mistake once you won’t do it again (just ask us!) Go in and add as many emails as you want so you get those sweet, sweet leads the moment they come in.
#3 Add Google Tag Manager Integration
We mustn’t forget conversion tracking setup! Make sure to go to Integrations in Instapage and set up your Google Tag Manager integration and confirm it’s set up properly. This is a crucial step in making sure your conversion tracking will flow properly. This leads me to #4!
#4 Add Conversion Tracking Code to HTML/CSS Section
Now that you have your Google Tag Manager integration complete, you’ll next want to make sure the conversion tracking code is added to the HTML/CSS section under Settings. We use WhatConverts to successfully track leads. In order to set this up, we copy and paste the shortcode found in the admin panel of What Converts and add it to this field.
Now you’re finally set up for conversion tracking!
#5 Check Your Confirmation Page
Making sure you don’t forget about the confirmation page that appears after a lead form is filled out is important. Be sure to test on a computer and mobile device. If there are any links or redirects, test those too. You may want to add a re-direct that sends your new lead to a page on your site. This is the opportunity to add that.
#6 Test, Test, and Test Again!
Thoroughly test your entire Instapage landing page. Test all your links, test the lead forms, and make sure conversion tracking works, including phone call tracking. Make sure it’s optimized for mobile and do one more read-through to make sure there are no spelling errors or other mistakes.
#7 Make Sure Chat Is Installed (Optional)
For some of our landing pages—not all—we like add a chat feature, like Olark. This is another opportunity to generate leads from visitors. It can be easily added using the Google Tag Manager integration that you set up on #3. Again, this one is optional, but if you do install it, make sure to test this one too.
Hopefully, this checklist will be a good reminder to complete the final steps before you launch, click the publish button, and start sending ad traffic to it.
Don’t miss a beat with these final steps. Just wait for the leads to roll in.