ClickFunnels Vs Instapage

Ninety-six percent of first-time visitors to your website aren’t going to make a purchase. However, that doesn’t mean you should give up on them.

By creating a marketing funnel, you can capture leads and slowly convert them into sales. It takes time and patience, but a well-crafted funnel can greatly increase your sales and ROI.

Image : Sleeknote

Why Build A Funnel?

Understanding the Rule of Seven can help you appreciate the importance of online marketing funnels.

The Rule of Seven states that prospective customers need to be exposed to your product seven times, on average, before they take action. Most people won’t purchase a product the first time they see it online; in fact, most won’t pay much attention to it at all.

Funnels allow you to:

Show visitors targeted landing pages
Send emails and other follow-ups to people who visited your landing page
Maximize your revenue by up-selling and down-selling to paying customers
And much more

In this article, we will compare two popular services: ClickFunnels and Instapage. Both platforms allow you to build landing pages and funnels.

Overview

ClickFunnels was created by Russel Brunson and Todd Dickerson in 2014 in response to the lack of options that were then available. Its main focus is helping marketers create funnels.

It is popular among all marketers, but especially with those selling digital products.

As opposed to ClickFunnels, which focuses more on the funnels, Instapage focuses more on building landing pages. However, it can be used for collecting leads as well.

The Builder

This section will focus on the landing page builders of both platforms and their features.

ClickFunnels

There are several kinds of landing pages that you can set up with ClickFunnels, each designed for a specific purpose, which we will explore later.

Regardless of which kind you use, you can easily customize the look of your landing page.

Default sections such as the logo, header, and sales video can easily be replaced with your own content. The Etison editor also allows for advanced customization.

For example, you can adjust the colors of your page, its sections, the size of each section, and the padding surrounding it. You can also use CSS code to make advanced edits.

Instapage

Instapage has over 200 landing page templates to choose from, which are designed for a wide range of purposes. Each one of them is fully customizable.

There are over 5,000 fonts and 33 million images available to work with.

Instapage’s InstaBlocks feature makes it easy to work with multiple landing pages at once, whether they are all your own or you are managing them for clients. You can save and create customized landing page elements so that you can use them for future pages.

Global Blocks is a feature that allows you to create changes to your Instablocks across all of your landing pages at once.

All of Instapage’s templates are mobile-responsive. However, with the Mobile Blocks feature, you can add page sections that only appear on desktop devices for an even better mobile experience.

You can group elements together and save them so that they appear together on your other landing pages. You can resize elements as well.

Parallax scrolling and keyboard edit shortcuts are two other great features.

You can add widgets to your pages for increased functionality or edit the code to make advanced changes.

Landing Page Types

In this section, we’ll explore which purposes each platform can be used for.

ClickFunnels

One type of ClickFunnels landing page is the lead generation page. You can choose a simple splash page where users can sign up via email or Facebook messenger, or you can set up an application landing page that has more fields to fill out (such as their phone number, physical address, etc).

ClickFunnels can also be used to sell products.

One way to do this is to create a tripwire funnel. This has two pages: A lower-priced product and a higher-priced product.

The lower-priced product’s purpose might be to recoup your advertising costs; you might even lose money on it. However, the main goal here is the upsell.

Another popular option would be to create a text sales page or a video sales page. Upsells can be added to this funnel as well.

Finally, you can create a launch page. This is where you get users to sign up for updates when your new product will be launched. It helps generate excitement and boosts your initial sales revenue.

A third option is to create a webinar signup page. There are two options here.

One is to get users to subscribe to an actual live webinar that you will be hosting on a third-party platform, such as GoToWebinar.

Another is to have an automated webinar run on ClickFunnels itself. This is actually a webinar video replay and only appears to be live.

You can add as many pages as you want to your ClickFunnels funnels. This is where ClickFunnels comes out on top of Instapage.

You can add upsell pages, one- or two-step order forms, membership areas, and affiliate centers.

Instapage

Following are the different kinds of landing page templates available on Instapage:

Lead Generation: Splash pages and application forms
Two-Step: Display a CTA button before taking users to your signup page
Click-Through: Similar to Two-Step
Thank-You: Thank-you pages to be displayed after users sign up
Webinar: Get visitors to sign up to a live webinar
Ebook: Give away a free ebook to new subscribers
Event: Promote a physical or virtual event
App: Promote your mobile app

Instapage forms are customizable as well. You can choose how many fields you want, add drop-down lists, and add radio buttons.

You can also create two-step pop-up forms that are triggered when users click on a CTA.

Follow-up Campaigns

This section will explain how to create automated follow-up campaigns with each platform.

ClickFunnels

Find the Automation tab on any page of the funnel to set up your automated email series.

You can send out automated emails to visitors of any page, such as the opt-in page or the order page. You can set a time delay for when your first email will be sent out.

Your name can be customized and your email address can be configured with your SMTP details.

There are different email templates you can choose from. Each one is customizable; you can change images, create buttons, change colors, and more.

With ClickFunnels’ Actionetics, you can create an entire follow-up series. Actionetics has advanced segmentation capabilities.

For example, you can set up different emails to be sent to different segments of your email list based on things such as their demographics, where they signed up, what they purchased, how long ago they made a purchase, and other actions they took inside your funnel.

You can create Smart Lists to create targeted list segments based on combinations of data points.

You aren’t limited to emails. You can use your ClickFunnels data to send follow-up messages to your subscribers via SMS, Facebook Messenger notifications, desktop notifications, or even retargeted ads on Facebook or Google.

You can also send out instant broadcasts that are not part of a follow-up series. You can also send out multidimensional broadcasts, where emails, desktop notifications, and Facebook updates are sent out at the same time.

Instapage

Instapage integrates with third-party platforms to allow you to automatically route leads to email service providers and other marketing automation services. You can also make digital assets available to subscribers immediately after they sign up.

Integrations

This section will focus on third-party services that each platform integrates with.

ClickFunnels

ClickFunnels is designed to be an all-in-one funnel builder. However, ClickFunnels does work with some third-party services as well.

Following is a list of some of the third-party integrations available with ClickFunnels:

Twilio SMS
Youzign
Pushcrew notifications
Salesforce
WarriorPlus
Stripe
Paypal
Kajabi
WordPress
Shopify
Sky Broadcast
Facebook
Shipstation
Zapier
ZenDirect

Instapage

Instapage offers a lot more integrations than ClickFunnels.

To start, you can use your Instapage landing pages on your own website, whether you use WordPress, Drupal, or a custom site. You can also use Google reCaptcha forms on your pages.

Following are the categories for which Instapage offers integrations:

Advertising: Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Taboola, AdRoll, and more
Analytics: Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, KISSmetrics, Heap, and more
Call Tracking: CallRail, DialogTech, TrackDrive, and more
CRM: SalesForce, Zoho, ActiveCampaign, InfusionSoft, and more
Ecommerce: Shopify, Kenshoo, Stripe, Paypal, and Venmo
Email Marketing: Mailchimp, Aweber, Constant Contact, ConvertKit, GetResponse, MadMimi, and more
Pop-Ups: OptinMonster, OptiMonk, Sumo, Hello Bar, and more
Live Chat: Intercom, LiveChat, Zendesk, and more
Marketing Automation: Hubspot, Marketo, Autopilot, and more
Other: Zapier, Webhooks, Trustpilot, and more

Testing and Analytics

This section will delve into the reporting capabilities of each platform, as well as its testing features.

ClickFunnels

ClickFunnels’ A/B split-testing feature allows you to compare different versions of your landing page. You can split-test headlines, images, videos, CTA buttons, and more.

You will get visual charts tracking your performance. You can see data such as subscriber rates, earnings per click, and the results of your split-tests.

You will also get analytics on your email broadcasts and follow-up campaigns.

Instapage

Instapage also offers advanced split-testing capabilities. You can test out different headlines, copy, layouts, element designs, and more.

There are also heat maps which show you exactly where users are scrolling to and what they are clicking on.

Instapage integrates with Google Adwords and Google Analytics to give you cost-per-visitor metrics straight from your dashboard. There is also a pixel you can use to track your retargeting campaigns.

Unique Features

This section will go over features that are unique to either one of the platforms.

ClickFunnels

1. Membership Site

ClickFunnels allows you to create member-only pages as part of your funnel. Membership sites are great for generating recurring income.

2. Backpack – Affiliate Programs

ClickFunnels recently introduced Backpack, which makes it easy for anyone to set up an affiliate program.

If you are selling an ebook, video course, membership site, physical product, or anything else, you can generate additional sales by tapping into the free traffic brought to you by affiliates.

You decide your commission structure (what percentage of each sale you want to give to affiliates). You can create multiple commission plans.

For example, you can create a percentage-based commission structure and another fixed-price commission structure to use as a limited-time promotion.

You can create different plans for different products or special promotional plans. You can also create different commission structures for different groups of affiliates.

You can also group your affiliates into the following categories:

Regular affiliates
High-volume affiliates
Affiliates promoting your product launch
Friends and family
JV affiliates (affiliates you partner with to promote each other’s launches)

With Backpack, you can even create a two-tier affiliate commission structure. This means that you can reward affiliates for sales that their referrals (or downline) bring in.

You can easily add an affiliate program to any product that you are selling as part of your funnel. You only have to add two pages to create an affiliate program.

Your affiliate center page is where you can provide your affiliates with tools that they can use to promote your products.

For example, you can provide them with banner ads to display on their websites or pre-written emails that they can send to their lists or use in their solo ad campaigns.

You can also run affiliate contests, where the top affiliates are displayed on a leaderboard and/or given bonuses.

Checking your affiliate stats and paying your affiliates is easy with Backpack. Tracking and reporting will be done for you automatically. With a few clicks, you can send out payments to all your affiliates.

Instapage

1. Personalization

Instapage’s dynamic replacement features allow you to target visitors with specific landing pages, images, text, and more based on what they typed into Google and which PPC ad they clicked on.

You can also create page groups for different PPC campaigns, products, demographics, and more.

2. Teams and Agencies

Instapage is optimized for teams of any size, including agencies. If you manage multiple client accounts, you can switch between accounts without having to log out and log in again.

You can also create sub-accounts for different teams within a marketing department. You can give each sub-account specific permissions, such as publishing pages, managing custom integrations, etc.

You can work together with your copywriters, designers, and freelancers. You can add notes, send pages for review, send messages, and do more in real time.

You can also provide certain users with read-only access.

3. AMP Landing Pages

With Instapage, you can build Google AMP-powered landing pages. Not only that, but you can conduct split-tests even on your AMP pages.

4. Partner Programs

If you meet the requirements, you can be accepted to work with Instapage as a partner. There are four kinds of Instapage partner programs:

Sales Partner: Get commissions for referring clients to Instapage
Fulfillment Partner: Be listed in the Instapage Agency Directory; Instapage will refer clients who want optimized landing pages to you
Co-Marketing Partner: Collaborate with Instapage on marketing campaigns
Technology Partner: Team up with Instapage if you have a software that can help them improve

Customer Support & Resources

This section will focus on the resources available to new users of each platform and the availability of customer support.

ClickFunnels

ClickFunnels has a large Documentation section with help articles about ClickFunnels, Actionetics, BackPack, getting started, using custom domains, accepting payments, and integrating with third-party email services.

There is also a community forum and a ClickFunnels Facebook group where you can get support from the community.

To get in touch with ClickFunnels’ support team, you can submit a ticket.

Instapage

Instapage has a large Resource Library. This includes webinar replays, videos, marketing guides, a marketing dictionary, ebooks, podcasts, and a blog.

You can also watch live webinars on topics related to landing pages.

The Instapage Help Center features articles about:

Getting started
Building your page
Publishing
Testing and data analysis
Integrations
Team and users
Account management

You can ask for help from the community on the site forum. To get professional help, you can submit a ticket or use the live chat.

Pricing

This section will discuss the price of each platform. Both ClickFunnels and Instapage offer a 14-day free trial.

ClickFunnels

ClickFunnels has two plan options.

The first plan, ClickFunnels, is $97/month. It includes a basic ClickFunnels membership and the ability to create marketing funnels.

You can create up to 20 funnels, create 100 pages, set up three custom domains, and get 20,000 visitors per month.

The second plan, Etison Suite, is $297/month. This gives you access to unlimited funnels, pages, visitors, as well as Actionetics and Backpack.

Instapage

Instapage has two plans.

The Core plan costs $129 a month ($99/month if billed annually). This plan includes most features.

The Enterprise plan is designed for large agencies and will have a custom price.

Features that are only included on the Enterprise plan include landing page personalization, Global Blocks, AMP pages, team collaboration, and a dedicated Customer Success Manager.