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Is Using Leadpage or something Simlar a bad idea? (7)

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I have subscription to lead pages from before joining STM, I have 2 free months. I am wondering if its a bad idea to use Lead pages or simlar software to build landing pages. It seems just more convenient for me to use, building landers using code seems a bit hard and time intensive. Is it worth the effort to develop them yourself by hand? Or maybe there is better easy drag and drop software out there? Or a way of using leadpage to increase time? (which I think this is the argument against it). Also is anyone having success with leadpages? Is it possible to have success with it? Is it a good starting point? Or any efforts with leadpages is useless? Let me know guys. I am starting out in AM right now, so a bit confused.

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Leadpages is just a tool. It'll help speed up your workflow and allow you to publish landing pages faster, but you're also trading off the control of customizing your page. So, as with anything there are pros and cons.

Coding your own pages may seem daunting at first, but if you learn how to do that, then it makes it easier to outsource that later.

If you have the extra cash, just buy a subscription and try it and see how you like it.

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The other thing to bear in mind is that if you're using Leadpages, you're stuck with their hosting.

In AM, loading speed is everything, and most landing page builders produce pages which load slooooowly. That can cost you a lot of money, and it's an invisible cost: you'll just see less success with your campaigns.

I'd strongly recommend hosting your landers yourself, and preferably building them yourself too. You can use tools like Adobe Muse and Visual Studio Code to speed up the process and (in the case of Muse) build landers in a more graphically-accessible way. However, learning HTML's a very good idea, and it's not too hard to do.

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Thanks Caurmen, so basicly the only problem is the load time of these landing pages (because they are not self hosted). Maybe there is a way to host the lead page. Is it worth it to even have the software create the page and export HTML? Or is using adobe muse going to be way better in creating beautiful landing pages etc? And will the load time be so significantly different that it will really impact sales?

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Yes, absolutely it will be. CPA, because it's interruption marketing, is hugely sensitive to how fast your pages load (usually - there are some exceptions depending on what you're running and what country you're in.) If you're doing pops, that's particularly load time sensitive.

The issue isn't just the hosting: it's also how the page is created. Two identical-to-view pages can load very differently depending on how well they're coded. Generally, site-builders like LeadPages, Wix, etc don't produce particularly well-optimised pages.

LeadPages does offer a full HTML export option (beware - don't use their basic "host the page on your server" option, as that's slow as hell - you need to use their "advanced export"). It's only available on their more expensive plans, at $48 pm and up, which is a lot of cash for a web page designer - that's 1/4 of an Adplexity subscription, which will serve you a lot better as you learn AM.

However, all of this really disguises the biggest issue, which is flexibility. If you're using LeadPages, you're locked into the designs they let you make.

Say you're spying and you notice a new lander style that's being used everywhere. If you're familiar with HTML, you can whip up a version of that and test it immediately. If you can only use LeadPages, you have to hope they have a template or the functionality to create a template like that. If they don't... email them and hope they add one some day! Meanwhile your competition is cleaning up with their new lander style.

Entering a new vertical? Better hope LeadPages has good templates for that vertical.

Etc.

I'm a very big fan indeed of taking intelligent shortcuts in AM, but avoiding HTML is not one of the shortcuts I'd recommend.

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Thanks Caurmen for the Great answer, it was very helpful, is it alright if I use adobe muse or other software to create nice landing pages at the beginning (I haven't run one campaign yet) while at the same time I learn how to use HTML to create good landing pages? And are the resources in STM good enough to learn how to create good landing page or should I take a course somewhere, udemy, watch youtube videos or anything for that matter. Thanks let me know.

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Yep, that will work fine.

STM has some great guides specific to landing pages, but we usually recommend you take a general HTML course too.

Codeacademy's courses are great, and what I usually recommend: https://www.codecademy.com/learn/learn-html-css

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