Ion, by Rock Content vs. Unbounce

I don't give 9 ratings easily. Anyone wanting greater user engagement would benefit from ion interactive. I can slap together a simple interactive tool for a social post easily. I also have a plan selector with complex logic built in that would have cost me $50k to build without ion. Now I'm able to duplicate it and make adjustments to use it for various other applications. We've created a couple dozen fun interactive tools for social posts and now we simply re-purpose them easily to create new ones frequently. I just created a new page for our website that we'll want to be fluid; so the site developers suggested we simply embed an ion tool to give us real-time flexibility. Marketers in other divisions are jealous when they see all the fun stuff we're doing--they're gradually becoming ion converts

Incentivized

As I am using this platform for a long time, I believe I am happy with the services I am getting from this outstanding software. It has made my landing page experience better than ever without any coding knowledge to apply. It has upgraded my business in a positive direction and I believe I am using this software for many years to come.

Incentivized

• I love that ion interactive autosaves. So many of these platforms leave me terrified of disconnection or closing my laptop.
• This WYSIWYG actually works. I've yet to have a translation or code glitch.
• Fast load times are a huge bonus, as well as mobile-optimized display.

Incentivized

• AB testing is simple to set up. Clone a page make your changes and pit one or more against each other. Set the number of views and you're told the winner once the test is done. Simple
• Tracking code is easy to add. Follow the straightforward instructions in the back end
• Easy to add multiple domains to your account. So you can use the landing pages you build on numerous sites if you so desire

Incentivized

• no revert option/revision history if you make a bad mistake
• some simple styles that should be just there for you have to be made through custom CSS
• some of their template options have some pretty bad designs and are not usable beyond a basic functionality level/have to be completely reskinned

Incentivized

• The reporting is very basic - pretty much only A/B test comparisons. If you need more in-depth reporting you will have to use an external system.
• Page performance isn't great. When running our landing pages through Google's Page Speed analysis tool, they did not perform well compared to landing pages we created outside of Unbounce. This was big for us because, in paid search, Google looks at your landing page quality as a factor that affects what you pay per click.

Incentivized

Because unless I find something better to replace it with, we're probably going to renew our contract. Ideally, Ion interactive can update Liveball so it's easier to use, more functionality that includes forms and javascript options currently not in place

Please see comparison information and other areas of my review. We have no need for Unbounce since all of its features are available in Pardot. We would have happily continued using Unbounce if we had not purchased Marketing Automation Software

Usability is straightforward, with extensive documentation and tutorials provided to ensure landing pages are built to specifications and can be optimized for performance. Built-in platform funnels give insight into customer dropoff, success/failures, and conversions (at a glance). Setting up a landing page can be done quickly and easily, with numerous integrations (CRMs like SalesForce, for instance) supported

Incentivized

unbounce is a really good landing page builder and is fairly easy to use and navigate. It empowers to create and see the performance of landing pages quickly and easily, so it is ideal for marketing agencies running paid media campaigns. The landing page builder, like all of these apps, can be a little slow, but I have not found a landing builder that isnt.

Incentivized

Sometimes the editor can be a little slow.

The ION support team is amazing. There has not been a single issue they they could not solve for me. If there is a feature or request that they do not have, they have even, on occasion, created custom scripts for our team. *Update 6/5/17 - ION has continued to delight on multiple occasions. I appreciate their attention to detail and ability to solve whatever issue I have. After 3+ years of use and support, ION still has my full endorsement.

Incentivized

Unbounce customer support is very strong. We have been able to connect with them via email and telephone mediums. They are very knowledgeable and can effectively help resolve difficult problems that are slowing us down. Overall Unbounce customer support is very professional. Our wait times have always been small or at least reasonable.

Incentivized

They offer a great amount of online training, videos, articles, etc. There is usually an answer available if you run into an issue. I would recommend taking advantage of the online training they offer. I wish I would have done it sooner.

Incentivized

There were a lot of things we learned about the tool once we really got in and got our hands dirty. Being hands-on was essential for our team to be able to utilize ION in the most effective manner.

Incentivized

Choose a subdomain that is appropriate for multiple types of pages. You don't want to have to keep changing it. Think about using Google Tag Manager to manage your Google Analytics code and event tracking. Build one landing page to completion. Then make a copy of it if you need to create variant pages.

Incentivized

I haven't had a lot of experience with templated CMS systems and was not involved in the original selection, though I was part of the renewal discussions. Most of the templates I've used have been html and created in house on an as-needed bases

Incentivized

Despite my review for unbounce being not the greatest review or score in the world, when stacked up against its two biggest competitors, I'd prefer Unbounce over Leadpages and Instapage. Leadpages drag and drop editor, integrations, and overall UI/UX is 10x worse than unbounce and unbounce really leads in the category of nice templates and quickness to a production landing page with much better options and integrations.

Incentivized

Separate client portfolios enable scalability, however, some elements are still grouped for all accounts so it's difficult to scale for an ad agency with multiple clients. Would prefer totally separate sections of the platform for all clients with each element housed separately.

Incentivized

• So far the impact has been positive, but as we are new to the platform that opinion is based on relatively few interactive assets.
• There hasn't been any negative reactions or impact from Ion as of yet, but as I said before it's still early for us in terms of usage (less than a year).
• We do really appreciate the level of complexity and customization available in the platform.

Incentivized

• We use this to address our graphic design needs for simple things such as landing pages, poo-ups, and announcement bars. It let's us work on these things without having to always get our designer or tech team involved.
• With all of the GDPR changes we have really leaned on unbounce to help us create pages to gather list. Using landing pages to have users submit their information is super helpful and it makes it easy to automate the list building process.

Incentivized