Are You Neglecting Your Thank You Page? (Plus Examples)

Let’s take a moment to think about all the sad and neglected thank you pages on websites around the world. A vital part of your online marketing strategy, they are often forgotten about, unpopulated or worse, never created at all.

A thank you page might seem like an afterthought but they are an essential part of your online strategy. Not only do they help you measure conversions and sales but they also give you the chance to continue the conversation with your potential customers.

What is a thank you page?

Whenever someone takes an action on your website, send them to a thank you page. Use them to thank people who subscribe to your email list, make an enquiry or buy from you. Each action should have its own thank you page so you can measure results.

Here’s an example from Hear Me Out CC:

thank you page from hear me out which iincludes a Gif of someone signing 'thank you' — Thank you page from Hear Me Out CC

But it’s not all about saying thank you…

Thank you pages help you measure success

Your thank you page is a destination for conversions. People will only land on it once they have completed a transaction or filled in a form.

Google Analytics and the Facebook Pixel can help you measure what is driving conversions and how to optimise them.

Optimising your thank you page with Google Analytics goals

Your thank you page marks success, a conversion of some sort has happened. By setting up a goal in Google Analytics you are telling it to note that success and to show you more information about it.

Here’s a quick tutorial on how to set up goals in Google Analytics.

Once your goal is in place, you’ll be able to see which sort of traffic is delivering conversions and which posts and pages on your website are converting best.

You’ll find the pages that convert under the ‘Behaviour/Site Content/Landing Pages’ report as pictured below.

select behaviour, site content, landing pages in Google Analytics — Select behaviour, site content, landing pages in Google Analytics

As you can see traffic is coming straight to the lead magnet landing page and converting, and my second largest converting page is my home page.

To see where your conversions came from go to the ‘Acquisition/All Traffic/Channels’ report.

The acquisition, all channels, traffic report shows where conversions came from

It looks like Social is winning on conversions and conversion rate for me.

Optimisign your thank you page with the Facebook Pixel

When you activate the Facebook conversions pixel on your thank you page, it will measure conversions too. This will help you optimise any Facebook or Instagram ads that you run.

Even if you aren’t planning on running ads now, the pixel will collect data straight away and store it for 6 months.

When you have a conversion event on your website, you can run ‘conversions’ objectives ads. These are designed to get more conversions from your ad spend.

The coolest feature is that you’ll be able to run ads to people who have converted and create an ad audience of people similar to them (a lookalike audience).

More about lookalike audiences here.

It used to be painful to set up Facebook conversion events on your website but they’ve simplified the process. There’s no longer any code required.

To add a conversion event:

Click the hamburger menu at the top left of your Facebook ads manager.

Click ‘All Tools’ and select ‘Event manager’ from the ‘Measure & Report’ menu.

Select 'Events Manager' from the hamburger menu — Select ‘Events Manager’ from the hamburger menu

From Events Manager click on your pixel

At the top of the screen click ‘Set Up’ and select ‘Set Up New Events’ from the drop-down menu.

Choose ‘Use Facebook’s Event Setup Tool’ from the window that opens

To show Facebook where you want to create the event, enter the link to your thank you page into the box and click ‘Open Website’.

Open your website from the Event Manager window

When the website opens an ‘Event Setup Tool’ will open alongside it. From here click ‘Track a URL’

Select 'Track URL' to add a conversion event to your thank you page — Select ‘Track URL’ to add a conversion event to your thank you page

You get to choose what sort of conversion event you are tracking. I’m tracking people who download my strategy guide so I’ve chosen the ‘Lead’ conversion.

Select the type of conversion you want to record from your thank you page

Click ‘Confirm’. You’ll get a success message and your event is added to the Event Setup Tool window.

Click ‘Finish’ to complete the setup.

Now you are set up to measure your campaign with a thank you page. But there’s one more question you need to ask.

Is your thank you page a missed opportunity?

So many thank you pages that I see just say ‘thank you’. They are measuring success but getting nothing else from these pages. What a missed opportunity.

A blank thank you page sends your customer away from your site, maybe even to a competitors site. What if you could engage those people beyond the thank you?

What if you could keep them on site longer and keep building trust?

Here are some things you can add to your page to keep people with you longer.

1. What’s next

Now that they’ve subscribed or purchased what’s next?

So many businesses communicate badly that if you do it well, your audience will welcome it.

Use your thank you page to talk your visitor through what happens next. Are they going to get an email with their download? Are you going to let them know that their order has been shipped?

It’s reassuring as a consumer to get this information and that reassurance builds trust.

Jammy Digital's thank you page oozes personality and tells the visitor exactly what to expect next. — Jammy Digital’s thank you page oozes personality and tells the visitor exactly what to expect next. (image credit Jammy Digital)

A blank thank you page sends your customer away from your site, maybe even to a competitors site. What if you could engage those people beyond the thank you?Click To Tweet

2. Further reading

Your visitor has made a commitment to you. Even if it’s just their email address, they have sent a signal that they are interested in what you do.

Use your thank you page to showcase content that will help them decide to buy from you. This could be articles and blog posts that answer common customer questions, case studies or testimonials.

If they stay on site and read more they are getting closer to becoming a customer.

thank you page from mykidstime including a call to action to join mailing list and a suggested article to read — MyKidsTime suggest further reading on their competition thank you page (image credit MyKidsTime)

3. Call to action

Think of one thing you’d like your visitors to do when they visit your thank you page. One thing that will get them more involved in what you do.

You could:

Invite them to join your online community or Facebook group.
Suggest they subscribe to your newsletter for more helpful information.
If they are a strong lead offer a free 10-minute call.

Ashlyn Writes asks for you to get in touch as part of her thank you page (image credit)

4. Give them a discount

Your visitor has jumped into your sales process by either downloading a guide, subscribing to your newsletter or by filling in an enquiry form. If they haven’t bought yet a discount code could be enough to help them make that decision.

By offering a discount on their first purchase you won’t drive them away from your site but will send them back to their shopping carts to spend.

Thank you pages are such a smart way to measure success and nurture sales it saddens me that so many are left neglected.

If you have a great thank you page or if I have inspired you to create one after reading this post I’d love to see a screen capture of it.