Light a Fire Under Their Pants
Simply put, countdown timers add a heightened sense of urgency to any landing page.
They're clear visual cues to your prospects that your offer isn't going to be around forever. They're also more specific than simply saying your offer will only be available for a limited time.
When prospective customers and leads are met with a timer ticking away on the page, they're more likely to act right away in lieu of mulling over a decision. Psychologically, a timer incites FOMO (fear of missing out) on a great deal.
According to Roger Dooley, author of Friction and Brainfluence, it's not uncommon for countdown timers to increase sales by 10%, 30%, or even 300%. Which means countdown timers are just the right impulsive nudge people need to convert more on your landing pages.
How to Place a Countdown Timer on Your Landing Page with Leadpages
You can slip a countdown timer wherever you need to in your landing pages or pop-up boxes that you place on your website.
When inside the Leadpages drag-and-drop builder, simply click on the Countdown widget, drag it where you want a timer on your page, and drop it into place.
Remember to place your timer in a prominent space on your page. Hiding it below all of your copy or competing elements defeats the purpose of adding an element conveying urgency.
Pro tip: You can decrease the size of your timer by putting it inside a column, or adding space widgets to either side of the timer and adjusting the width of your timer.
Setting Your Timer
There are several ways to configure your snazzy new timer so that it's always displaying the right countdown event.
If your landing page is counting down to a specific time, like a scheduled online class or product launch of some sort, you can easily select “Standard” time and choose the date and time your offer ends on the calendar. Your counter will continue ticking down until that date and time are met, then will display zeroes.
You can also choose a “Daily” timer, which will renew itself daily. If you want to offer a discounted price until noon every day, have your countdown timer refresh to 12 hours each morning.
The “Evergreen” option lets you choose the number of days, hours, minutes, and seconds that will display on the page every time a new user shows up regardless of when they land on your page.
These latter two options are best combined with ongoing advertising campaigns where each visitor receives the opportunity to take action before time runs out.
How Much Time is too Much Time?
Increase the impact your countdown timer has on your landing page's conversion rate by keeping the deadline tight. The longer someone has to put off making a decision, the less likely they are to take action now.
When using a standard timer with a specific date, keep the time within 7 days. Anything further out than that has no sense of urgency. For example, if you are selling tickets to a live event that doesn't happen for 3 months, don't set your timer for the date of the event. Instead, set a timer for a week from now to get a great deal on the tickets by registering this early. Then, adjust the timer (and perhaps the components of the deal) each week until the event happens.
For an evergreen timer, anything more than 48 hours will have little impact on your visitor's buying decision. For a lead magnet, where the only cost is a person's email address, an evergreen timer can be set for five or ten minutes to boost conversion rates. For a sales page, a few hours and up to two days is best. As a general rule of thumb, the higher the cost of a product or service, the more time you may want to give your prospects to make their decision.
When Your Timer Runs Out
When your timer runs out, you can choose to leave the timer at 0:0:0:0, redirect visitors to a different URL or landing page, or even change what information is on the page by showing and hiding different sections.
If you send people to another page, be sure to include "Offer Ended" language so that people understand they did indeed miss out. This may cause a tinge of frustration (and pleas for exceptions to your support team), but it also tells your visitors that you say what you mean. The next time you have a deal, they'll be more likely to jump on it.
The “Show/Hide” feature is ideal when you have information, images, bonus offers, or other content that isn’t relevant once your countdown expires. Instead of having to create a second landing page for when your timer expires, simply show or hide specific content.
Second Chance Offers
Another successful countdown timer strategy for increasing conversions is chaining multiple (but decreasingly awesome) special offers together. They may have missed out the first time, but they may not pass up on a second chance.
For example, for a regular priced item at $97, early birds who arrive on your page may see a price of $47. Once the first timer expires, a second opportunity to purchase for $77 may be presented, before the regular price of $97 is shown. They may not get as good of a deal as the first group, but they're still more likely to say yes when they save 20% than if the price was back to normal.
Providing a second chance offer is easy to achieve in Leadpages. Simply duplicate the relevant sections of your landing page, and set each timer's Show/Hide settings to reveal the appropriate section when each hits 0.
Match Your Countdown Timer to Your Brand
The variety of styles, fonts, and colors available for your countdown timer makes it possible to format each element to align with your brand.
To adjust the font of the Days/Hours/Minutes/Seconds displayed under your timer, change the font settings for the timer in the Styles menu for your page.
Test for Higher Conversions
If you aren't sure if adding a countdown timer to your landing pages or pop-up boxes is right for you, run a few A/B tests. Leave everything the same on versions A and B with the exception of a countdown timer added to the test page. Test out not only whether your page has a timer, but which type of timer (standard, evergreen, daily) and the amount of time until the deadline has the best impact on your conversion rates.
I bet you'll be surprised with the outcome – and you'll start adding countdown timers to more of your pages for higher conversions.
Now It's Your Turn
Want to see what countdown timers could do for your conversion rates? Start a free 14-day trial below and build a countdown-clad landing page today. The clock is ticking!
