What is a landing page, and how do you test one?
What a landing page is for, what goes on one, how to build it in HubSpot, and the traffic maths that decides whether an A/B test can tell you anything.
A landing page is a single web page built for one action, usually filling in a form, that people reach from an ad or an email. It has one offer and no main menu. In HubSpot you build it in the page editor, tie it to a campaign, and test versions of it on Content Hub Professional or Enterprise.
This guide covers what a landing page is and how it differs from your homepage, what goes on one, how to build it in HubSpot, and how to A/B test it without fooling yourself. The traffic section is the one most teams skip, and it decides whether a test can tell you anything at all.
What is a landing page?
A landing page is where a campaign sends people. Someone clicks an ad for a free rental appraisal, a webinar or a pricing guide, and the page they arrive on talks about that one thing and asks for one thing back: their details, a booking or a download.
The way we set them up in client workshops is the same every time. The page has no navigation menu, so there is nowhere to wander off to. It has a single goal, a form submission or a CTA click. After the form, a thank-you page or a redirect sends the person back to the main site. And every active campaign gets at least one landing page of its own, connected to the matching HubSpot campaign, so you can see which campaign produced which contacts.
The shape we build for campaign landing pages in HubSpot. The workflow steps vary by business. The page itself does not.
How is a landing page different from a homepage or a website page?
All three are web pages, and HubSpot builds all three in the same editor. They do different jobs, and mixing the jobs up is the most common reason a landing page underperforms.
| Landing page | Homepage | Website page | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Its job | Get one action from one audience | Help any visitor find where to go | Explain one service, product or topic |
| Navigation | None, or a logo only | Full menu | Full menu |
| Where visitors come from | A campaign you are paying for or sending | Brand searches, direct visits, everything | Search, links from other pages |
| How you judge it | Form submissions per visit, then deals | Where people click next | Search traffic and enquiries over time |
| How many you need | At least one per active campaign | One | One per thing you sell or explain |
| In HubSpot | Content, then Landing Pages | Content, then Website Pages | Content, then Website Pages |
Sending paid traffic to the homepage is the usual mistake. The visitor clicked on a specific offer, arrives on a page about everything, and has to find the offer again. Many do not bother. If your site is not on HubSpot, you can still run campaign landing pages in HubSpot on a HubSpot domain and keep the main site where it is. Our guide to what to weigh up before moving a website to HubSpot Content Hub covers the bigger decision.
Why do landing pages matter for lead generation?
Because they make a campaign measurable. One page per offer means every form submission on it belongs to that offer, so you can compare what each campaign costs per lead without guessing.
Two of our published case studies show the pattern. For MINI Australia we ran paid media and remarketing and built a HubSpot landing page for each offer, and MINI got five times the leads it had been getting, inside three months. For two BMW dealerships, paid media and HubSpot landing pages took leads to ten times their previous monthly level within two months. In both, the ads brought the right people and the landing pages turned them into enquiries the sales team could call.
How do you build a landing page in HubSpot?
Landing pages are available on every HubSpot plan. Content Hub Starter caps you at 30 landing pages, and HubSpot's free tools publish to a HubSpot-branded domain. A/B and adaptive testing need Content Hub Professional or Enterprise.
- Create the campaign first. In HubSpot, set up the campaign the page belongs to, so the page, its form, the emails and the ads all report together. How to prove your HubSpot campaigns work covers campaign goals.
- Start from a template with no main menu. Go to Content, then Landing Pages, and create the page from a template whose header carries the logo only.
- Write the page around the ad. The headline should repeat the promise the person clicked on, in close to the same words.
- Add one HubSpot form. A native HubSpot form, so each submission creates or updates a contact. Ask only for what sales needs for the first call.
- Set what happens after the form. A thank-you message or page that says what happens next and links back to the site, and a workflow that sends the confirmation and assigns the lead.
- Track the source. Put UTM parameters on every ad and email link, and capture them on the form. How to stop HubSpot guessing where your leads came from walks through it.
If the page is linked from a website that is not on HubSpot, the HubSpot tracking code has to be on that site too, or the visit history stops at the edge of your own domain. This short video from our HubSpot How To series shows how to connect HubSpot CTAs, forms and landing pages to an existing website.
What should be on a landing page?
Less than most first drafts carry. Each item below earns its place by helping the visitor say yes to the one offer.
- A headline that matches the ad. If the ad said "free rental appraisal", the page says it too, at the top.
- The offer in one or two sentences. What they get, how soon, and what it costs them, which is usually their details and a few minutes.
- Proof next to the form. A client logo row, a short review or a number from a case study. Proof at the bottom of a long page is proof few people read.
- One form with as few fields as sales can live with. Every extra field is a reason to leave. HubSpot's progressive fields can ask for more on a return visit.
- One button, worded as the outcome. "Book my appraisal" tells people what happens. "Submit" does not. Our call to action examples cover the wording in more depth.
- Nothing that leads away. No main menu, no blog links, no footer full of pages. A logo, the privacy policy and the offer.
If a pop-up form is part of the plan, read pop-up forms that convert without annoying anyone first, including the Australian consent rules most advice leaves out.
What is A/B testing a landing page?
An A/B test shows two versions of the same page to different visitors at the same time, then compares which version gets more of them to act. Running both at once matters, because a change measured in a different month is measuring the month as much as the page.
In HubSpot, both versions share one live URL. Half of your visitors see each version, a visitor sees the same version for the rest of their session, and once you have enough results you choose a winner, which becomes the only live version. HubSpot's own advice is to test one variable at a time, and we say the same to every client: change two things at once and you cannot tell which one made the difference. The steps are in HubSpot's guide to running an A/B test on a page.
Should you run an A/B test or an adaptive test in HubSpot?
HubSpot offers two kinds of page test on the same subscriptions. For most Australian B2B pages the plain A/B test is the right one, for the traffic reasons in the next section.
| A/B test | Adaptive test | |
|---|---|---|
| Versions | Two | Up to five |
| How traffic is split | Evenly between the two | Shifts towards the version performing best, automatically |
| Needs a form on the page | No | Yes, every version must include a form |
| Who decides the winner | You choose it from the test results | HubSpot shows the best performer more often as it runs |
| HubSpot subscription | Content Hub Professional or Enterprise | Content Hub Professional or Enterprise |
| Suits | Most pages, one clear question at a time | High-traffic pages, where five versions can each get enough visitors |
Both need Marketing Access with edit and publish permission on the HubSpot user running the test. HubSpot's adaptive test guide has the setup.
How much traffic do you need to A/B test a landing page?
More than most Australian B2B pages get in a month, if the change you are testing is small. That is the part of A/B testing that gets left out, and it is why so many tests end with two versions that look different and a result that means nothing.
The table shows roughly how many visitors a two-version test needs before a difference can be trusted, for a page converting 2% or 5% of visitors today. A small improvement takes tens of thousands of visitors to confirm. A large one takes a few thousand.
| Page converts today | Change you want to detect | Visitors needed, both versions together | Months at 1,000 visitors a month |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2% | 2% to 2.4% (a fifth better) | about 42,200 | about 42 |
| 2% | 2% to 3% (half again) | about 7,600 | about 8 |
| 2% | 2% to 4% (double) | about 2,300 | about 2.3 |
| 5% | 5% to 6% (a fifth better) | about 16,300 | about 16 |
| 5% | 5% to 7.5% (half again) | about 2,900 | about 2.9 |
| 5% | 5% to 10% (double) | about 860 | under 1 |
How these numbers were worked out: the standard sample size formula for comparing two conversion rates, at 95% confidence (two-sided) and 80% power, with traffic split evenly. The 2% and 5% starting rates and the 1,000 visitors a month are example inputs, not benchmarks. Put your own page's numbers in and the shape stays the same.
What that means in practice:
- Test big changes. A different offer, a much shorter form or a new headline can move a page enough to measure. A button colour almost never will at B2B traffic levels.
- Let it run in whole weeks. Business traffic on a Monday looks nothing like a Saturday. Stop a test on the first day a version pulls ahead and you will often crown a fluke.
- Pool the traffic. If three campaigns send people to three near-identical pages, one page with one test reaches an answer three times sooner.
- Skip adaptive tests on low traffic. Five versions split the same visitors five ways, so on a smaller page none of them gets enough visitors to tell it apart from the others.
What should you test first on a landing page?
Start with the changes most likely to move the number, because those are the ones your traffic can measure. This is the order we work through.
| Order | What to test | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The offer | A pricing guide against a 15-minute call |
| 2 | Form length | Seven fields against three |
| 3 | The headline | The ad's own wording against a benefit-led line |
| 4 | Where the form sits | Beside the headline against after the proof |
| 5 | The proof | Client logos against one short review |
| 6 | The button wording | "Get the guide" against "Send me the guide" |
Write down before you start what you expect to happen and what result would make you switch. It stops a test being read whichever way suits the person reading it.
How do you know a landing page test worked?
Look past the conversion rate. A version that gets more form submissions from people who never buy is a worse page, so follow each version through to contacts, meetings and deals in HubSpot before you call it.
That depends on the source being recorded on every contact, which is why the UTM step above matters. HubSpot attribution reporting explains what each model credits, and if the traffic is from Google Ads, the HubSpot and Google Ads setup that shows which clicks become deals covers the connection.
Frequently asked questions
What is a landing page? A landing page is a single web page built for one action, such as filling in a form, that people reach from an ad, an email or a link. It carries one offer, has no main menu and is judged on how many visitors take that action.
What is the difference between a landing page and a homepage? A homepage helps any visitor find where to go, so it has a full menu and many links. A landing page serves one audience from one campaign and asks for one thing, so it removes everything else.
Can you A/B test landing pages in HubSpot? Yes, on Content Hub Professional or Enterprise. An A/B test splits visitors evenly between two versions on the same URL, and an adaptive test runs up to five versions and shows the best performer more often. Every adaptive test version needs a form.
How long should a landing page A/B test run? Until both versions have enough visitors for the difference to be trusted, and in whole weeks. At 1,000 visitors a month, confirming that a 2% page has improved by a fifth takes years, while confirming it has doubled takes a couple of months.
Do you need a separate landing page for every campaign? Yes, at least one per active campaign, connected to that HubSpot campaign. It keeps the offer matched to the ad and lets you see what each campaign costs per lead.
Read next
- Call to action examples, and the psychology behind them
- Pop-up forms that convert without annoying anyone
- How to stop HubSpot guessing where your leads came from
- How to prove your HubSpot campaigns work
- The HubSpot and Google Ads setup that shows which clicks become deals
- 9 things to weigh up before you put your website on HubSpot Content Hub
Sources
- Run an A/B test on your page, HubSpot Knowledge Base, for the subscriptions, the shared URL and choosing a winner.
- Create adaptive tests for pages, HubSpot Knowledge Base, for the five-version limit and the form requirement.
- Create and customise pages, HubSpot Knowledge Base, for the Content Hub Starter limit of 30 landing pages.
- HubSpot Content Hub pricing. Prices and limits change, so check on the day you budget.
- MINI Australia and BMW Australia case studies, Neighbourhood, for the lead results.
Neighbourhood builds and tests landing pages in HubSpot for Australian businesses, as part of the websites and campaigns we run on HubSpot CMS.
Want a second opinion on a landing page?
Book 15 minutes and bring the page and the campaign that sends people to it. We will tell you what we would change first, and whether your traffic is enough to test it.