The reason one landing page quote comes to 100,000 yen and another to 500,000 yen is that the scope of work differs. The gap comes from five things: research into the words your readers use and the angle you build on, the copy, the number of design proposals, photography and video, and improvements after launch. Before comparing prices, check the quote to see which of these five are included.
There is no single nationwide going rate for landing page production
The cost of a landing page varies widely depending on what you ask for, so it cannot be summed up in a single figure. Even for pages of the same length, the amount of work can be several times greater depending on how much time goes into research, how many design proposals are produced, and whether improvements continue after launch.
For the cost of a full website, public survey data is available. According to a survey by Web Kanji, when small and medium-sized businesses commission a website, the cost comes to an average of 1,044,000 yen, with a median of 573,000 yen. A landing page is a single page, but because it leads directly to sales, the cost varies greatly with how deeply it is built.
So rather than asking “what is the going rate,” you will make a sounder decision by asking “does this quote include the work my goals actually require.”
Five items that create the gap between a 100,000 yen and a 500,000 yen quote
The price gap comes from the following five items. Use this as a checklist when you place two quotes side by side.
| Item | Example of a lower quote | Example of a higher quote |
|---|---|---|
| Research and angle design | Uses what the client says as is | Collects the words people search for and the questions raised in enquiries, then creates and compares several angles |
| Copywriting | Polishes the text supplied by the client | A writer interviews and writes, and proposes several headline options |
| Design | Produces one proposal, with a few rounds of revisions | Produces several proposals with different layouts to compare and choose from |
| Materials | Uses the client’s photos | Includes photography, diagrams and video production |
| After launch | The job ends at launch | Reviews the numbers and keeps refining headlines and button wording |
Research and angle design
What decides a landing page’s results is the angle: whose problem you are writing for, and what that problem is. Gathering the words used in searches and the questions people actually ask in enquiries, then building and comparing two or three angles, takes time, and that time is reflected in the price. A quote that skips this work is cheaper, but if the angle is off target, sign-ups will not increase no matter how good the design is.
Copywriting
A landing page is a page where the writing has to win the sign-up. There is a clear difference in workload between writing based on an interview and simply polishing text the client has prepared. If you can write it yourself, you can lower the cost, but preparing copy of a kind you have never written before takes far more time than you would expect.
Design
Design costs vary with the number of proposals. Producing a single proposal is one thing; producing several with different layouts and uses of photography lets you compare them, which raises the quality of the choice you make.
Materials
Whether new photos, diagrams or video need to be created also changes the price. If you have no product photos and no usable materials, you need a quote that includes a photo shoot.
Improvements after launch
At the moment it goes live, a landing page is still a hypothesis. Only when you look at what share of the people arriving from your ads go on to sign up, and then adjust the headlines and button wording, does the response begin to grow. A quote that includes post-launch improvement costs more than one that does not.
Six things to check when reading a quote
When comparing two quotes, check these six points before you look at the price.
- Are research and angle design included in the quote?
- Who writes the copy? Is an interview included?
- How many design proposals? How many rounds of revisions?
- Is the creation of photos and diagrams included? Who supplies the materials?
- Are the sign-up form setup and the analytics tracking setup included?
- Are post-launch improvements included? If not, what is the additional cost?
A quote that cannot answer these six points may lead to extra charges later. Get written confirmation of the work included at the quotation stage.
What tends to happen when you choose the cheaper quote
A cheap landing page is not a bad thing in itself. But because less work is included, more falls to you as the client.
- You end up writing the copy yourself, and it takes time to finish
- The angle is off target, and your ad budget simply drains away
- There is no one to make fixes after launch, so a poor response is left as it is
The cost of a landing page should be considered together with ad spend, not just the production fee. If you keep pouring ad spend into a landing page that performs poorly, you can lose far more than the difference in production cost.
What to confirm when you choose the higher quote
Even with a higher quote, check that the content matches your own goals.
- Does it include video or animation you do not need?
- Does the production fee cover materials you could supply yourself?
- Have the frequency of post-launch improvements and the reporting method been agreed?
If the work goes beyond what your goals require, you can narrow the scope and adjust the cost.
How to keep costs down without losing results
When cutting costs, separate the work you can cut from the work you cannot.
| Work with little impact if cut | Work that hurts results if cut |
|---|---|
| Elaborate animation | Research into the words readers use, and angle design |
| Video production | Interviews for the copy |
| Expansion into multiple pages | Sign-up form design |
| Elaborate illustration work | Reviewing the numbers after launch and improving |
The foundation of a landing page’s results is the planning of who you speak to and what you say, plus the improvements made after launch. We recommend keeping visual decoration modest and reserving your budget for these two.
Production costs and ad spend go together
A landing page exists to receive people arriving from ads, so you cannot judge the investment by the production cost alone. For example, if you spend on ads every month, every one-point rise in the landing page’s sign-up rate means more sign-ups for the same ad spend. Even if it means adding a little to the production cost, directing budget to angle design and post-launch improvement tends to lower your cost per acquisition. Compare quotes on the total of production cost plus the first three months of ad spend.
What to prepare before ordering a landing page
To keep the quotation process smooth, gathering the following information will make the quote more accurate.
- An overview of your product or service, and its price
- Who you want to buy it (age group, occupation, concerns)
- How it sells today, and the questions customers ask
- Photos and documents you can use
- The channels you plan to advertise on, and your monthly budget
- Your target number of sign-ups (enquiries, purchases)
Landing page production by Merci Ltd.
At Merci Ltd., we build landing pages by collecting the words people who sign up actually use, comparing angles, and producing and comparing designs that differ from one another. After launch, we use a process of reviewing the advertising figures daily and refining headlines and button wording. If you also commission our online advertising management, both the landing page and the ads can be refined while looking at the same numbers.
Landing page pricing varies with the content and volume, so please get in touch first. For a guide to pricing when combined with website production, see our pricing and plans page.
Sample quotes: the difference in work included
Even for the same “one landing page,” listing the work included reveals why the prices differ. The table below takes items commonly listed in quotes and divides them between a lower-priced and a higher-priced quote, marking with a circle those that are included.
| Task | Lower-priced quote | Higher-priced quote |
|---|---|---|
| Meeting and product briefing | Included | Included |
| Research into search terms and questions | Not included | Included |
| Creating and comparing several angle proposals | Not included | Included |
| Interviewing and writing the copy | Polishing the client’s copy | Included |
| Design proposals | One proposal | Several proposals |
| Creating photos and diagrams | Uses the client’s materials | Included |
| Sign-up form and analytics setup | Included | Included |
| Improvements after launch | Not included | Included |
Neither one is the right answer. If you can write the copy, already have the materials to hand, and can review the advertising figures yourself, a lower-priced quote can still meet your goals. Conversely, if there is no one to write and no one to watch the numbers, the work included in the higher-priced quote cannot simply be dropped: someone has to take it on.
Example of how to word your request for a quote
When requesting a quote, don’t just say “I want a landing page”; adding your goals and figures makes the quote more accurate. For example: “I want 20 sign-ups a month for our trial sessions. I can spend up to 100,000 yen a month on ads. We can supply the photos ourselves.” With the conditions visible like this, a production company can distinguish the work that is needed from the work that can be left out.
FAQ
It depends on the content and the volume of the page. We go through research and angle design, the copy, and your review of the design proposals, and then move to launch. We will give you a guide after discussing your project.
Yes. It can be built as a page within your website, or as a standalone page dedicated to advertising.
Yes, we accept landing page work on its own. Even if you run the ads in-house, results improve if you decide in advance who will review the numbers and refine the wording after launch.
At the proposal stage we prepare design options with different layouts. You compare them and settle on one.
Yes. At the quotation stage we set out the work included as a list. Please place it alongside quotes from other companies and compare.
We provide landing page quotes at a consultation
The cost of a landing page varies with your goals, your product and your advertising plans. After hearing about your current concerns and the readers you have in mind, we organise the work required and present a quote.
