A report from Unbounce shows that unoptimized mobile landing pages are costly, finding 83% of visits come from mobile devices, yet desktop pages convert 8% better.
Based on over 57 million conversions and 41,000 pages, the study highlights the need for the industry to adapt as mobile traffic increases but underperforms.
Highlights From The Report
Mobile Optimization: The Overlooked Priority
Unbounce’s Conversion Benchmark Report has a clear message:
“If you’re still building your landing pages for desktop first, with the mobile version being just a quick box to check before publishing, chances are you’re missing out big time.”
While mobile accounted for the vast majority of landing page visits, desktop pages outperformed by a notable margin.
The report asserts:
“An 8% gap in conversion rates is significant, but it gets even worse when you look at the number of conversions lost. If all industries optimized their pages, we might have reported over 1.3 million more conversions.”
Industry-Wide Benchmarks
Unbounce’s research indicates that the median conversion rate across all industries is 6.6 percent, with specific verticals varying from 3.8 percent to 12.3 percent.
Marketers can use this benchmark as a reference point, the report notes:
“Higher than the median? Your page is converting better than most. Lower than the median? Your page is converting worse than most.”
It warns that benchmarks only measure how often conversions happen, not their value or quality. This is especially important for campaigns aimed at high-value leads or sales, where just the raw conversion rate might not provide the full picture.
Simple Copy Converts
The research highlights that simpler language on landing pages tends to perform better.
Pages written at a 5th to 7th grade level see an 11 percent conversion rate, which is 56 percent higher than pages at an 8th to 9th grade level, and more than twice as effective as professional-level writing.
Unbounce warns:
“There’s a high likelihood that your conversion rate will drop as you add more difficult words to the page.”
Complex words with three or more syllables have a negative impact, showing a 24.3 percent decrease in connection with conversion rates.
As Unbounce puts it:
“Simple copy converts.”
Email & Paid Social Lead
Analyzing conversion performance across paid and organic channels, the report reveals that email is the top performer with an average conversion rate of 19.3 percent.
Paid social platforms such as Instagram (17.9 percent) and Facebook (13 percent) also perform well, surpassing paid search channels like Google Ads.
Why This Matters
As digital marketing evolves to prioritize mobile users and attention spans become shorter, maintaining fresh and optimized landing pages is key to ensuring your campaigns succeed.
These findings align with industry trends toward minimal UX, more A/B testing, and re-evaluating marketing channels.
Looking Ahead
Unbounce’s study serves as a reminder to examine landing pages more closely, particularly on mobile devices, and benchmark results against industry standards.
The full report provides practical advice, including optimizing for various devices, simplifying landing page messaging, and implementing A/B testing. Acting on these insights could help recover lost conversions.
Featured Image: Roman Samborskyi/Shutterstock
