Pre-landing page

Dmitry Makarov
Jul 14, 2024
7 min

In affiliate marketing there’s a funnel practice by which instead of getting to the landing page with the offer straight away, users first get shown an initial step — a pre-landing page. It’s an element of a marketing funnel that aims to increase user engagement and strengthen the chances for conversion.

A pre-landing page in the affiliate marketing serves as a warm-up stage at which a product or service get explained more in-depth to the potential customer and builds trustworthiness. A pre-lander usually is paired with a landing page, to which users get redirected after it’s confirmed that they are ready for the offer.

In this glossary term we will overview the definition of a pre-landing page, its structure, purpose, examples and tips to create an effective pre-lander in affiliate marketing.

What is a pre-landing page in affiliate marketing?

A pre-landing page (also known as pre-lander or prelander) term by definition is a web page that precedes a landing page with the main offer. Pre-lander serves to increase interest in the offer by showing it to audiences from different sides and interaction stages. After all the actions on a prelander were performed, users get redirected to the landing page at which they are more likely to complete the targeted action.

Usually a pre-landing page consists of photo/video/audio materials, clear call-to-actions and interactive elements. Each helps users to get the idea of the upcoming offer, explore it, and get through the content on the page step-by-step.

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Structure of a pre-landing page in affiliate marketing: elements meaning

In affiliate marketing the pre-landing pages usually portray a certain structure, by which the desired engagement and further conversion rates are more likely to be achieved.

A pre-lander in affiliate marketing usually consists of:

Headlines.
They are meant to catch the eye of the user straight away and establish first engagement contact with the audience.
Catchy visuals.
These might be photo or video materials that are relevant to the offer nature and reveal to the targeted audience the point of the product.
Interactive elements.
Quizzes, surveys, mini-games, interactive video materials that are both entertaining and engaging while revealing the product’s features or advantages.
Clear description.
The main points of the product that highlight its advantages, purpose and benefits to the user while lacking insufficient details.
Call-to-action (CTA).
The transition point to the landing page with the main offer that a user would click as soon as they got familiar with the content. The call to action here might also be in an exploring manner such as ‘Learn more’ or ‘Discover’.
Proof or evidence.
These might be presented as other users’ reviews or ratings that demonstrate the product is what it says it is so it gains trust in the eyes of the audience.

Purpose of a pre-landing page in affiliate marketing

Since a pre-landing page is the first thing users get to know about the offer, it’s value is very high for the performance of the overall campaign. From qualified lead filtering to trust building and seamless transition to the main offer, a pre-lander serves many purposes to the benefit of a promotion.

The purposes of a pre-landing page for advertising:

Engaging the audience and warm-uping the interest.
A pre-lander might serve as a teaser of a product, a clear and structured description of how it’d benefit the user. For that can be utilised headlines, visual elements, creative interactive elements.
Traffic segmentation.
Pre-landing pages help filter the unqualified traffic from the ads. The page interaction goes that way so that only the interested audience gets to the main offer.
Representing the product from different sides.
Prelanders might approach the audiences from different sides showing the product from several perspectives. It captivates the users’ attention by methods that are not going to be used on the landing page.
Avoiding advertising content restrictions.
Some ad networks might apply restrictions on advertising content for promoting offers from such verticals as Nutra or Dating. Straightforward showing sensitive content as such might not be approved by moderation. Pre-landing pages provide a way to approach users in a lightened manner while advertising products from these categories.
Approaches testing and optimization.
Pre-landers are also used to test approaches and advertising methods to determine which bring the better results. Using pre-landing pages to analyse the audience helps getting a better idea of what works best on users, hence to increase conversion rate.

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Examples of pre-landing pages in affiliate marketing

There are several most popular approaches used for pre-landing pages in affiliate marketing, utilised depending on a product or targeted action. We will overview the most common pre-landing pages on examples: survey, interactive mini-game and storytelling.

1. Survey

This interactive element of such pre-landing pages offers the user to complete a survey or quiz of a couple questions. They might be related to the general theme of the product or aiming to specify preferences of the audiences. The outcome will help to personalise the following content and make the main offer more attractive.

2. Interactive mini-game

This interactive element is often used to promote Gambling and Betting offers like online casino brands and sportsbook platforms. The mini-game is usually a fortune wheel with a couple of free spins, allowing users to win bonuses. After the spins are up, the user gets redirected to the landing page where they can claim won bonuses upon registration.

3. Storytelling

Such pages are used to present the user with a story or narrative which describes the product, builds trust towards it and drives sympathy. For example, it might imitate a personal blog with an article that tells someone’s success story or experience, or even a science magazine with a research report.

More pre-landing page variants in affiliate marketing

Depending on a niche or product, a pre-landing page might contain different functionality allowing the transition to the main offer the nativity. If you want to make a pre-lander more specific while advertising a particular offer, there are more varieties for its content.

Video.
The page might consist of an embed video that describes the product, its features or explains how to start using it. Such video materials are to demonstrate the main points of the product so after the transition to the landing page audience will have a picture of it and intention to register/purchase.
Countdown element.
Usually placed as an addition to signal that the offer is limited by time. It makes an impression that users should make an urgent decision whether they need the product or they will lose the opportunity.
Reviews and ratings page.
You can make a pre-landing consisting mostly of the reviews and ranks from other users. It would help to establish trust towards the product and highlight benefits of the offer.
Lead magnet.
Such pages offer users to download content for free, for example, an e-book or a guide, in exchange for personal contact information. It would help not only to gain a base of contacts but to increase trust in other products offered by the same source.

Pre-landing page examples for leading verticals

How to create an effective pre-landing page: tips by RichAds advertising network

While composing a pre-landing page it’s essential to consider the traffic source. For example, on pop ads the landing page is the only needed creative that usually appears by a random click on a publisher’s site with a JS script, so a pre-lander helps to strengthen the funnel. In case of push ads, users get redirected by clicking an ad, which means they’ve already impressed interest. Use this to evaluate what the page needs to show and what line of approach would suit the audience best.

To get the desired outcome from a pre-landing page for your advertising campaign, there are some universal rules to follow.

Make sure the page is correctly localized.
Since a pre-lander in affiliate marketing is the first thing users know about the offer, it must be seamless in interaction and present no obstacles. The page must be fully translated into the language of the targeted region, including all the details. For example, there must be listed all the popular payment methods in the geo, local names in the reviews, etc.
The page loading speed must be less than 1 second.
No one will wait for the ad to show if they have the opportunity to close it at any time. So in order to catch the user’s eye before they lean to the red cross, the page must load faster than 1 second. For that, the optimal page weight must be less than 200 Kb. You can achieve that by optimizing visuals with such services as TinePNG, Kraken.io or JPEGmini.
You can also increase the speed by putting page loading on the closest server to the user. For free hosting you can use TimeWeb, and for automatic server change connect CDN or VPS, for example, Cloudflare.
Monitor the competitors via affiliate spy tools.
In order to be up-to-date on current trends and methods of advertising, use affiliate spy tools. There will be listed creatives used by other advertisers in their campaigns. For example, you can look up a free spy service SpyPush with a huge base on pre-landers and landing pages that are used for popunder campaigns.

Don’t copy the creatives other marketers use completely, that would only harm the performance of your campaigns. Use spy tools to be aware of what’s working for advertisers right now, it would help to make an effective and original pre-landing page of your own.

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Dmitry Makarov

Bringing the experience of writing sales texts for IT-agency, Dmitry Makarov has also worked as a content manager and SEO specialist in affiliate marketing agencies operating within the iGaming vertical. While composing marketing materials for the past 2 years, Dmitry has provided in-depth expertise within the topics of utilising different ad formats (push and in-page push ads, popunder and native ads), iGaming niche advertising and overviewing industry tendencies. His passion in creating has also been developed towards broadcasting, music and fiction novels.