Why is my landing page not converting: the button

Every landing page asks for something. Reading is the smallest ask, then a click, then an account, then a card or a call. A visitor who has never seen the product will accept a small ask and refuse a large one. When the button asks for the largest step, such as a booked call or a company form, most visitors leave with no sign-up to count. The page can look finished and the traffic can be real, while the ask is out of step with how much the stranger knows. The number that shows this is simple: clicks on the main button, set against finished sign-ups.

• Clicks on the main button, set against finished sign-ups for the same days.
• Button wording and the first line of the page it opens: do both promise the same first step?
• The form behind the button: how many fields, and which could wait until after the first use?
• A book-a-call or request-a-demo button on a page for a product the stranger has not tried.
• The confirmation after the form: does it appear every time, and say what happens next?

Put two counts side by side for the same days: clicks on the main button, and completed sign-ups from the page it opens. When clicks are high and sign-ups are low, the visitor wanted the ask and failed later, in the form or the step after it. When clicks are low, the ask itself is the problem, and the visitor did not take the first step at all. Those two cases need different fixes, and sending more ad traffic changes neither of them. A simulated visitor can take each case in turn: start at the button for the first, and at the first screen for the second.

Think of the asks as a ladder. Reading the page is the lowest rung, then a click, then an email address, then an account, then a card or a booked call. A visitor who has never used the product will climb one rung, sometimes two. A button that asks for the top rung, such as Book a call, asks a stranger to commit to a conversation before they know what the product does. The same button on a page that first shows the product, with a short demo, asks for less. If the button says Start free and the next screen asks for a calendar slot, the ask has jumped two rungs.

The page the button opens is often a generic form, a plans page or the homepage, and each one restarts the visitor's decision. Compare the button wording with the first line of the destination, word for word. If the button promises a first step and the destination opens with a company name field, the visitor is no longer where they expected to be. A visitor who clicked a specific offer and lands on a generic page has to search for it again, and many will not. Paste the landing page address and the task into a simulated test to see whether the visitor finds the promised step after the click.

Landing page testing

Every new ad angle, offer or audience arrives with a different amount of trust. A visitor from a cold social post will refuse the step that a warm referral accepts. After each change to the button or the form, rerun a simulated visitor from the new ad line through to the completed sign-up, to see whether the next step is one they will take. Watch clicks and sign-ups together, since a new button can move the ratio.