Unbounce Review 2023

Unbounce – Is it the best sales funnel page builder? Let’s find out…

Unbounce and similar landing page builder programs promise to improve your bounce rate exponentially.

However, as seasoned internet marketers ourselves, we know that since every product and or service is different, there isn’t a one size fits all approach to lowering the bounce rate.

Sure, there are a couple of best practices, but beyond that its an individual’s experience with their niche of choice that goes towards reducing a website’s bounce rate.

We will examine this in a bit more detail in the complete Unbounce review below.

Seeing as how Unbounce promises to improve the elusive extremely low bounce rate, everyone seems to be chasing (including ourselves), We decide to try Unbounce out.

So, in the interest of the community and people who may have read other Unbounce reviews which were vague, we signed up for a trial to take it for a spin…

Unbounce bills itself as the best landing page builder designed specifically for small businesses

Unbounce has a series of advanced marketing tools designed specifically for agencies, SaaS, and e-commerce companies.

I’ve been using Landing Page builders for years now. In that time, I have tried pretty much all the sales page builders on the market and I can say that Unbounce is one of the best.

As mentioned above, bounce rates matter but not across your website but instead on the primary landing pages.

So, regardless of how much traffic your ‘About Us’ may be getting, if your landing pages aren’t converting, then your business isn’t making money. So, the goal is to create landing pages that convert.

It is unfortunate because many marketing teams have no idea how to create a landing page to maximize conversions. Most just slap together generic templates and hope that it works for them.

Unbounce is a product that takes the guesswork and “hope” out of the equation. It promises to turn mere mortals into landing page building ninjas with Unbounce dynamic text and a myriad of other tools.

Unbounce is a product that’s marketed as being an all-in-one platform that enables businesses to create highly professional and marketable landing pages which are touted to convert.

Plus, they are easy to implement across a multitude of platforms like WordPress. All pages can be created without the need to hire a developer.

Using Unbounce landing pages, anyone can drag and drop elements like pictures, videos, snippets, and text to customize their pages. Support elements like popups and sticky bars can also be dragged and dropped with various customization options for tweaking how they look and work.

We will go into how Unbounce landing pages work and if it is worth the otherwise hefty investment associated with it in a little later in this Unbounce Review.

One of the things that are immediately apparent once you get past the busy interface is the fact that Unbounce is easy to use.

If you have some experience using something similar (drag and drop page builder) like Elementor, Thrive, Architect, etc., using Unbounce is a breeze. If not it will take you a couple of hours getting used to how everything fits together.

To start building your own landing pages, you’ll need to follow the steps below assuming you already have signed up for the trial or paid for it:

• Choose the best Unbounce landing pages templates that best reflect what you are selling
• Once the template loads, you can start editing just about every element on the page
• Customize the template to what you think works best by adding unique elements
• Save the landing page
• Publish the page

Now that you are up to speed on how the software works, this will make it easier for you to comprehend the features that the service offers.

The interesting thing about Unbounce’s features is that it isn’t loaded with a tone of which most people may never use.

So, it packs just enough features to make it useful and a few more to keep power users and the odd geek interested in taking things up a notch interesting. 

Also, features are dependent on the plan you choose. The higher-tier plans offer more features, but you need to weigh in on if they will be useful to you before shelling out the money for them, and that’s where this Unbounce review should be helpful.

During the course of this Unbounce Review, one of the things that interested us the most was the A/B testing feature.

Since A/B testing is the bread and butter of anybody who wants to finetune their landing pages for maximum success, if the feature could reduce much of the stress related to running the tests, it is a win for us.

Unbounce allows you to save two versions of a landing page. You can have one with a large ‘Call to Action Button’ and one with a small ‘Call to Action Button.’ Unbounce will then serve them both individually, allowing you to see which version is getting the most clicks.

Apart from changing the CTA, you can also change the colors, fonts, graphics, etc.

Now, this is another feature that will interest many internet marketers because it allows them to personalize their marketing message. We tested a similar feature when reviewing Convertri, and with Unbounce, the implementation isn’t very different.

Dynamic Text Replacement or DTR as we like calling it, allows you to insert the exact same search terms that prospective visitors will use prior to landing on your page.

Here is an example of how the Dynamic Text Replacement feature will work. You’ve created a landing page to sell women’s leather handbags. You are advertising all the latest handbags and have a corresponding Google Ad too.

You obviously know that there are many different keywords associated with the main term, i.e. leather handbags. Some may use the term ‘women’s’ leather bags’ or ‘handbags’ made from authentic leather’ etc.

You will use the dynamic text replacement feature so that the visitor sees that term in the headline terms. So, if a user arrived on your page using the term ‘women’s’ leather bags,’ they will see this term on your page’s headline and other areas of the text instead of the original term ‘leather handbags.’

The way this works is, you would have to highlight what text needs to be made dynamic. Then type in the dynamic text, in the case of our example, it will be ‘women’s leather handbags.’ You then choose a relevant text style, and that’s it.

Our power tip here for anyone who uses this feature is don’t dramatically change the text. Keep everything the same except for perhaps change the key phrase.

Even though we are not fans of using popups, there is something to be said about using them effectively. We are sure that many digital marketers use popups to a fair degree of success, which is why Unbounce offers the ability to create popups in mere seconds.

Here too, you can create your popup starting with a template that best matches your vision and goal for how it should look and perform. You can then update the template using all the standard bells & whistles at your disposal, which are similar to when building a landing page.

Once completed you publish the page and the popup will work exactly as intended. During our Unbounce review, we didn’t run into any bugs when testing the feature.

Since we’ve used other popup creation platforms like OptinMonster, it’s safe to say that Unbounce’s implementation of it does not offer nearly as many options in the way of types and templates.

But that shouldn’t be an issue for most people, especially since the Dynamic Text Replacement feature offers a lot more value and usefulness for the majority of people. DTR enables you to adapt the content of the popups to users that arrive on your website from clicking on Google Ads.

You can also choose exactly when the popup actually pops up! It can be when a visitor arrives, after a specified time, when the visitor scrolls down, upon exit, or when they click.

It is also possible to specify how many times the popup reappears, and we’re going to go out on a limb and assume it isn’t going to be beyond the default first time!

To us, this Unbounce review would be incomplete without the mention of the Sticky Bars feature.

In our opinion, this is going to be one of the most frequently used features by most if not by everyone because they offer an excellent way of grabbing a visitor’s attention without being in their face.

The sticky bar for those who don’t know is a header section of the page, which you can choose to make sticky, that way they always stay on top of the page, even if the person is scrolling to the bottom.

By sticking to the top of the page, they become hard to miss. We were able to create a sticky bar with just two clicks and customize it with a couple of more clicks. 

Not to mention that if we wanted, it was possible to choose from a myriad of Unbounce landing page templates and customize one of those too.

The one thing worth noting here is that you can choose to schedule when the sticky bar becomes sticky similar to when you schedule popups.

We have seen this type of functionality by other page builders like Thrive Architect and Elementor, but it is certainly a welcome extra that we’d urge users to experiment with since its there.

As of late, this has become a big deal, especially for businesses based in the EU with clients and buyers within Europe as well as internationally.

GDPR compliance without getting into too much detail requires that businesses comply with certain rules when it comes to data transfer both within the EU as well as outside of it.

Bluntly put complying with it is a hassle for most businesses but Unbounce takes most if not all of that out of the equation.

The entire platform is GDPR compliant, so business owners don’t have to take any additional steps on their part.

Generally, businesses that aren’t GDPR compliant could get into trouble sooner or later. So, it is a nice feature to have, even though Unbounce does not make a big deal about it.

By default, all landing pages produced are responsive, which means that they automatically scale to all screen sizes and look great across them all of them.

In the digital marketing world, that’s incredibly valuable. So, regardless of if your landing page is being viewed on a large monitor or a tiny 6-inch screen, the design will appear intact.

AMP has recently been introduced as a feature that promises to speed up page loading times by as much as 85%. Accelerated Mobile Pages allow your landing pages to become lightning-fast; in other words, shorter loading times and a better experience for mobile visitors.

During our testing, we found that AMP does, in fact, speed up loading times across mobile devices.

However, there is a bit of a niggle as some images are compressed to the extent that they can end up looking bad on some high-resolution mobile devices.

So, to work around that issue, we had to tweak the mobile version of the page and force it to load the high-resolution version. The good thing is that you can make the mobile version of the page look and feel totally different from its desktop counterpart.

Image heavy pages will not see much of a difference with AMP, especially if the quality of those images matters. Admittedly it is an issue that may not affect every business, especially since icons and 2D graphics scale perfectly.

As of writing this review, Unbounce has slightly over 125 landing page templates, which it terms “high-converting.” It isn’t the most we have seen from a landing page builder but should suffice.

Now whether they are high converting is hard for us to prove either way for this Unbounce review, but we’ll say this: there is a template for just about every type of business under the sun.

However, no one template can be used for any business out of the box. All of them will have to be tweaked. So, you shouldn’t expect to just pick up a template, paste your content onto it and start seeing conversions go through the roof.

Speaking of templates, subscribers also get access to professionally designed Themeforest templates via the tool. The 240+ templates are fully customizable but not free! We’d only recommend you go this route if you’re not able to find a free landing page template that loosely fits your business.

No professional looking high conversion landing page can be complete without images. Traditionally, we’d have to signup for a service like Unsplash, then find images relevant to our industry, download them and then upload those images to the website. Unbounce does not need you to do all of that.

Unbounce subscribers have access to 850,000 free pro-grade images, and it’s from within the Unbounce landing page builder system.

Being able to search and choose images for your landing page without leaving the Unbounce landing page builder environment is a huge time saver. In our experience, it also makes adding images a lot easier.

During our review, we were able to find the images we needed within seconds, click and import them into our landing page within minutes. So, if you find yourself spending a lot of money on stock imagery, then this feature will certainly save you a bundle of cash.

Unbounce can be integrated with an array of analytics tools, CRMs, etc. Currently, you can use Unbounce with WordPress, Zapier, MailChimp, Marketo, Script Manager, Salesforce, and Hubspot.

Since most people reading this are arguably using WordPress, Unbounce’s plugin for the CMS makes building pages from directly within the system easier.

Unbounce, WordPress is also remarkably fast. Speaking of plugins, we were pleasantly surprised that the company updates their plugin quite frequently which ensures that all glitches and bugs are fixed maybe before you even notice them.

How do you know that those killer landing pages you create are doing any good? That’s a question we had during this review.

Unbounce has various types of reporting and stats features built into it, which are meant for you to track how well the landing page is performing. Each tool during our review performed exceptionally with no hitches.

Users can track their traffic, leads generated, page views, and conversions using the tool. Unfortunately, reports can’t be downloaded which we are hoping will be fixed in a future update.

Agencies that want to provide the tool to their clients can maybe add them as “view only” users so that they can track the stats themselves. However, to us, that does not seem very professional.

Since the company charges agencies, the most money, this one very important aspect of running an agency that should be addressed. If anything, there should be a simple way to white label the reporting data.

When we review a landing page builder like Unbounce, we always consider its security. Unbounce does not list data security or platform security as a feature.

So, until you actually dive a little deeper into the documentation, it’s hard to know what they offer. We are happy that the company appears to be taking security very seriously.

For starters, there are protocols in place which keep your visitor’s data secure. Higher tier Enterprise customers get access to features like SSL Encryption, IP filters, GDPR Compliance, Audit Logs, Automatic Backups, and Factor Authentication.

GDPR Compliance

Unbounce makes sure that all pages you create are GDPR compliant.

SSL Encryption

All pages created in Unbounce will show the lock icon across the URL bar, as well as use HTTPs to ensure data security.

Audit Logs & Auto Backups

As the terms suggest, a log is kept for everything, and all pages are backed up.

2FA

It will require a trusted device in addition to a password.

Smart Traffic

Unbounce boasts of a feature called Smart Traffic, which is currently running in beta. As far as marketing tools go, this one is hard to test.

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to test this feature for our Unbounce review because, for it to be effectively tested, a website needs to receive at least 50 visitors a day.

However, based on what Unbounce support revealed, the system uses AI to match prospects to the best possible landing page which improves conversion rates. The good thing about this is that Unbounce makes it simple to use.

Everyone in the digital marketing community knows that if prospects see a highly relevant page, it improves their chances of converting.

So, instead of sending all your visitors to one standard page, Unbounce offers users the capability to have a landing page for each type of visitor. Then the system’s AI matches each visitor to the most relevant landing page.

Apparently, Smart TrafficTM, will evaluate every visitor’s attributes i.e. location, keyword, etc., and match them to the best page. However, exactly how effective the AI is, isn’t clear at the moment, but to be fair, the feature is still running in Beta.

Our suggestion would be to turn it on and see if it does your marketing campaigns any good. If not, then just turn it off.

Unbounce’s Pricing Plan is broken down into three tiers when you shop with Unbounce. The pricing is billed on an annual basis, but the site breaks it down into a monthly cost.

The Enterprise package is $399 a month and is custom-built for your business. You will be paired with a Dedicated Launch Specialist as well as a Customer Success/

At $79 a month (billed monthly) or $891 a year (billed annually), the Essential plan includes everything that most people would need to start building high conversion landing pages. 

However, the plan is limited to 75 landing pages, which in our opinion, is more than enough and 8 Popups & Sticky Bars. If you outgrow the number of pages, it is time to upgrade to the Premium Plan.

At $179 a month (billed monthly) or $1791 a year (billed annually). The plan doubles the number of landing pages that can be created, i.e. 150 landing pages. It also offers 16 Popups & Sticky Bars. 

It also offers the ability to create sub-accounts for clients, and a couple of additional conversion tools.

At $499+ a month (billed monthly) or $399+ a year (billed annually). The Enterprise Plan is for big businesses or a service that has dozens of clients.

However, the pricing isn’t clear, so if you’re a prospective Enterprise user, then call Unbounce customer service. Customer support can also be contacted via live chat, email, and phone support.

Enterprise customers will receive all the features and benefits associated with the Premium and Essential plans, in addition to a Success Manager who will help maximize ROI and a Launch Specialist.

You can also give your live team access to Unbounce. Additionally, Enterprise customers get 375+ landing pages and more than 40 Popups & sticky bars.

The Unbounce 14-day free trial is for anyone who might be on the fence. However, if you don’t cancel the trial before it ends, payment will be automatically charged. So, if you don’t like what you see, make sure to cancel!

Unbounce’s Premium and Enterprise plans offer a few additional features over the base plan. The vast majority of such are overkill for smaller businesses, but they can be worth your consideration as you scale.

Additional published landing pages; up to 375+ for Enterprise users and 150 for Premium users.

• Additional published sticky bars and pop-ups, up to 40+ for Enterprise users and 16 for Premium users.
• Client sub-accounts that allow you to manage multiple clients easily.
• Ability to schedule pop-ups.
• Additional integrations with Salesforce and Marketo.
• AMP landing pages for very fast landing pages using Google’s AMP framework.
• Page redirects
• Advanced targeting for sticky bars and pop-ups.
• Ability to schedule sticky bar launches.

Enterprise customers also enjoy exclusive access to:

• Customer Success Manager
• 2-Factor Authorization
• A Ticket to Unbounce’s Annual Call to Action Conference
• Page Migration Services
• Dedicated launch Specialist

Unbounce will benefit marketers that choose to invest their money and time into the program, but it is designed to help sales and marketing teams along with digital marketing agencies.

Unbounce has been programmed to be beneficial to people that run marketing agencies that require multiple accounts that numerous landing pages.

Unbounce has a 97% user happiness rating, which means that it has figured out how to reach firms and agencies where they are and help them achieve their lead generation goals.

The pricing might be higher than that of its competitors, but Unbounce reviews show that it is definitely worth the money for most users.

There are several pretty good alternatives out there. We highly encourage you to check them out because they have lots of great features, just like Unbounce.

ClickFunnels is often touted as being the best digital marketing tool. It has been around for quite some time and offers just as many useful features as Unbounce.

The page builder is easy to use, and most people should be able to build their sales funnel within a couple of minutes.

Plus, with a vast and growing library of pre-built funnels, you might not even have to build one from scratch, after all. However, at $97 a month, it is a hair more expensive compared to Unbounce.

• The ability to create a myriad of sales funnels from memberships to hangout funnels and webinar funnels.
• Create solid A/B split testing, which helps optimize campaigns. Unlike Unbounce, it stores more than just 30-days’ worth of data.
• Email integration with MailChimp and other popular marketing systems.
• ClickFunnels also helps you create supporting pages for upselling, order pages, and down sale pages.
• Industry leading customer support that’s easy to reach.

InstaPage offers a lot of what Unbounce has to offer but at a significantly higher price point of $199 a month.

The drag and drop builder is slightly easier to use compared to Unbounce, which makes crafting visually appealing pages faster so your site can go live soon. 

Plus, there is less of a learning curve to it. However, the AMP + Thor Render Engine^TM turns out to be significantly more powerful which translates to much faster pages and compressed images that don’t look blurry.

Many digital marketing specialists use InstaPage for its ‘Heatmaps’ feature built into it that allows landing page builders to analyze user behavior on their pages.

The heatmap highlights areas where users seem to be focusing most of their attention to so that the landing page can be further fine-tuned for more effectiveness.

Other features include:

• Salesforce, Marketo, HubSpot, and Zapier Integration.
• Over 200 built-in landing page templates.
• A/B Testing.
• Excellent customer support

During the course of this Unbounce review, the one question that we’ve aimed to answer throughout is if this is a landing page builder worth our money or your money for that matter?

That is a tricky question to answer in a market that’s flooded with some very good landing page and webpage builders. Drag-and-drop builders seem to have improved their game over the past two years, and there seem to be fewer so-called exclusive features.

In our opinion, Unbounce does have its fair share of drawbacks as mentioned above, but the benefits Unbounce offers far outweigh those drawbacks.

While it isn’t the most competitively priced landing page builder, its excellent integration, relatively simple interface and a laundry list of useful features make it worth the price.

However, before you decide to signup and pay the price of admission, it is worth signing up for the 14-day trial.

Sure, the trial has a couple of features disabled but it should give you some sense of what to expect. If you see conversion rates go up, then it is well worth your money.