How Many Fields Should I Have in My Landing Page Form?

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How many fields should I have in my landing page form?

The landing page form may not seem like a particularly crucial element. It’s not flashy, doesn’t grab the eye or communicate the value of conversion. It just sits there on the side, waiting for people to, begrudgingly, submit their information.

But it’s getting a bad rap. Your landing page’s form is actually the most important part of the page. Hands down.

The rest of the page convinces a visitor that engagement is worth doing, but they haven’t actually done anything until they fill out the form. The form is the shoelaces on a shoe. Not the most visually appealing part, sure, but without them you’re just wrapping a bit of leather around your foot.

For the complete answer to “How many fields should I have in my landing page form?” check out our article Optimizing your Landing Page Form Fields for Conversion.

This article will break down the two most essential parts of landing page form optimization:

  • Hierarchy of Incentives (Ask vs Offer Ratio)
  • Conversion vs Segmentation Ratio

Hierarchy of Incentives


Lead information is a valuable thing. For your visitors, it’s their personal information – name, email address, phone number etc. For you, it’s the means to a sale. Without it segmentation is difficult, email marketing is impossible, and nurturing is a no-go.

As such, it’s essential that you balance your landing page’s “ask” with its offer, and there is a direct correlation between what your offer is worth, and whether or not someone will convert on your page.

Let me break it down right quick into a simple hierarchy so you can see how this might work:

1. Registration for a conference or event:

Conferences and events are hugely valuable – thus the price tag (or even application to attend). An average influencer or well-known speaker allows you to ask for everything from your leads, including (but not limited to) several thousand dollars – let alone their email address…

2. “One-on-One” or “Free Demo:”

Your leads recognize that a one-on-one conversation will be far more valuable to them if the person they’re speaking to knows a bit about them. As a result, don’t be afraid to ask for business type, business size, budget and more.

3. Industry reports:

Industry reports are, by definition, original content. This is information your leads can’t have seen before, and can’t get from any other source. As a result, feel free to ask for location, phone number or size of company.

4. Ebooks, whitepapers, webinars and podcasts:

The difference between ebooks and other types of content is the assumption your prospective leads are making. Sure, they trust you as a thought-leader or an expert, but they don’t know your ebook is worth a dime until they open it. As a result, don’t push your luck and ask much more than email address and name.

Note: If you have an influencer involved in the co-production of an ebook, webinar or podcast, feel free to put it up above industry report in the hierarchy of lead generation.


Conversion vs Segmentation Ratio


In the same way that what you offer needs to be worth what you ask for, what you request needs to be optimized for both conversions and usefulness.

Let me explain that a bit…

Your sales associates (or perhaps you) will be better able to convert leads if you know something about them – their budget, their goals, the size of their business or what that business is. This stuff is important.

But asking prospective leads for their life stories and every detail of their business will result in a very disappointing conversion rate. Your ebook is not worth telling you my mother’s maiden name.

So there’s a balance: determine the information you actually need, and then don’t ask for more. Recognize that every extra piece of information you ask for will be dropping your conversion rates.

Then again, sometimes including more entry form fields (while decreasing the chance of your landing page traffic converting) will actually result in more sales down the line.

This is called the “conversion vs segmentation ratio”, and it’s something you need to consider and test.

For instance, I’ve added a few fields to one of Wishpond’s landing page templates below. Do you think people would be happy to provide their phone number in exchange for this ebook? Or would the drop in conversions be worth it because a sales associate is more likely to close those who do provide a number?

Click here to head back to the Landing Page FAQ. →

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