A while back, I gave you my honest review of the Thrive Architect plugin for WordPress. Well, I’ve got another exciting review for you, this time it’s the awesome add-on plugin for the Thrive Architect called Thrive Optimize.

When it comes to designing and deploying conversion-ready landing pages, Thrive Architect has to be one of the best tools for the job.

It’s super easy to use, it has a great UI, and you don’t need any prior coding knowledge or experience to use this plugin.

Well, if you’ve never used Thrive Architect before, there’s now an even better reason to start.

What is this Thrive Architect that I talk of?

Thrive Architect is an all-singing, all-dancing, point-click, drag-and-drop page building plugin for WordPress if you don’t already know.

With Thrive Architect, you can create any type of landing page for your website, from a custom home page to sales pages, lead generation pages, online course content pages, membership pages, and more.

However, despite being such an amazing and powerful marketing tool for WordPress, Thrive Architect somewhat felt incomplete. Something was missing. And to be honest, I didn’t really know this feature was missing at the time, until recently!

Welcome to the Thrive Optimize Add-on plugin

Thrive Optimize is an add-on plugin or extension that works with Thrive Architect.

It is a fully-fledged A/B split-testing tool for landing pages designed and deployed using the Thrive Architect plugin.

While being simple enough, Thrive Optimize, combined with the Architect plugin, makes for a compelling conversion design and optimization tool indeed.

A possible game-changer for online businesses using WordPress?

Well, yes and no. I’ll explain in more detail.

Don’t get me wrong, doing A/B split testing for your landing pages right inside your WordPress dashboard? That’s just crazy, but it’s now possible.

That said, it’s dependent on Thrive Architect, and that could be a bit of a downfall.

Putting the plugin to work!

Over the last few years, I’ve been putting the Thrive Optimize plugin to work in my business. I’ve even used it to test my Video Course Email Sign-up conversion rate.

Here are the results I got.

4% drop in conversions…

With Thrive Optimize, I was able to design a new variation landing page based on the original.

I then changed some design elements to the variation page, such as the background color, headline title description, CTA button color, and action words; I also added some bullet points.

I then tested this variation page against the original lead generation page.

I wanted to check if the new design would convert better than the original, and 5 weeks later? What I actually found was completely the opposite.

The rate of conversion was better with my original page design.

So, while I was all excited about redesigning my email landing page and deploying it immediately for my visitors to see, by testing it against my original page, I could see that using the new design was actually going to lower my conversions.

Who knew? I mean, I loved my new design, but the results of my little test say I shouldn’t love the new design.

In this case, I simply stuck with my original landing page design.

Admittedly though, the variation landing page had 20% fewer visits because I adjusted the percentage of traffic to each landing page towards the end of the test. Another cool feature. But, this could have also affected the conversion rate slightly.

Of course, I will create a new variation lead generation landing page design and test it against the original again until I find a design that converts better.

What is the point of all this?

It’s pretty obvious, the point is to test, test, test. And before now, testing landing page conversions were either impossible or not cost-effective enough for online businesses.

And that’s the other beauty of this plugin; you can create unlimited tests.

But the most amazing thing is, I’m doing all of this on the back-end of my WordPress website. There’s no bouncing from one tab to the next using external software such as Crazy Egg or Hot Jar. Asides from letting the test run and waiting for the results, it’s simple and quick to set up.

Saving, time, money, and getting back my sanity

So you might be thinking –

– “Well, Fabrizio, why don’t you just use something like Crazy Egg or HotJar to do A/B split testing for your landing pages?”.

I could quite easily do that, and I love those tools too.

However, using a third-party website or service is not always free. Besides, the initial setup and going from one site to the next configuring everything can feel like an overwhelming nightmare.

With Thrive Optimize, there’s no need for me to install any additional tracking scripts to my website or landing pages.

So, for me, using Thrive Architect with Thrive Optimize makes perfect sense.

Everything happens in one domain – my website, and I can quickly make simple changes and let the test run its course.

And, as I hinted, I do use CrazyEgg from time to time because I love that tool too.

OK, so here is a quick list of the benefits of using Thrive Optimize with Thrive Architect for your landing page conversion design and marketing.

What are the features of Thrive Optimize?

• No need to install scripts on your website. (Save time and resources for your site)
• No need to go through multiple steps just to kick start your first A/B split test using third-party platforms. (Save time)
• Zero integrations to boggle your mind and website with.
• It is cost-effective, especially when you compare the price of Thrive Suite membership with the monthly subscription of something like CrazyEgg or HotJar.

OK, so now let’s look at what you actually get in terms of features.

And please remember, this plugin will not work without Thrive Architect. You must have the TA plugin on your site for Optimize to work.

• Create multiple and unlimited variations of your landing pages
• Add notes to your variations for future reference
• Get detailed reports on your variation page performance, conversion rate, etc
• Ability to control how much traffic to allow for each variation of your landing page during testing
• Create tests to measure page visits, subscription rate, revenue conversions
• Automatic winner feature, meaning you can set this thing to work on autopilot

How do you use Thrive Optimize?

So, how do you use Thrive Optimize exactly?

In the short video below, I show you how I used Thrive Optimize to set up conversion rate A/B split testing for my lead generation page I talked about earlier.

The video is a few years old now, but the process hasn’t changed much.

Is this plugin right for you?

That really depends on several things. Firstly, ask yourself –

• Are you currently using Thrive Architect? If you are, then it makes sense to make use of this plugin.
• Are you happy with your current conversions, or do you want to be able to test your pages to see how much better you can improve them?
• If you are doing testing and using third-party A/B tools, are you happy with those services.
• Do you want to save time and money?

I’m very well aware that this plugin isn’t for everyone. And one of the reasons is that Thrive Optimize is not a stand-alone plugin. It works only as an add-on to Thrive Architect.

But in the long run, the positives outweigh any negatives here. And there aren’t many negatives I can pick about Thrive Optimize.

You get access to groundbreaking tools that could help your business grow quickly. The best thing is, you can do this yourself without having to hire a web designer or digital marketer.

Likes and dislikes

Of course, with all the tools I use in my business that I review here on Magnet4Blogging, there are things that I’m going to like and dislike. So, let’s take a look.

Likes –

• Easy to install and activate
• Unlimited testing
• No need to add scripts to your website or pages
• Huge time saver, everything takes place in your WP dashboard
• Works with Thrive Architect, the powerful drag-and-drop landing page builder plugin
• Create your first A/B split test within just a few minutes
• Useful conversion reporting tools
• A great support team behind the product

Dislikes –

• Not a stand-alone plugin, you must have Thrive Architect plugin installed for it to work
• Cannot purchase this plugin on its own any more. To access it, you need to be a Thrive Suite member.
• It will not work if your WordPress blog or site is hosted on WordPress.com Only works with self-hosted WP sites.
• Reporting dashboard, although easy-to use but looks a little dated now
• Can slow down your website if you’re hosting on cheap, low performance hosting

How much does Thrive Optimize cost?

To access Thrive Optimize or any of the Thrive products, you’ll need to sign up as a Thrive Suite member. See the prices below.

Conclusion

So, there you have it. I have tried to be as honest as I can with this Thrive Optimize review. And, if you’ve been following my blog for some time, then you’ll know that I never review or recommend a tool or service that I’ve not used in my business.

I’ve been a Thrive Themes member since 2014, and I’ve used all the tools the company has to offer, at some point, in each of my businesses.

I’m confident that by seeing how I’m using these tools, you can hopefully visualize yourself using them, too, to help you reach your blogging and online business goals.

If you’re already using this plugin, I’d love to hear your feedback on how it’s working out for you. Leave your comment below as always. If the comments are closed, share this post along with your comments on social media.

Affiliate Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links/buttons to Thrive products I use in my business and recommend to you. This means if you click on an affiliate link and make a purchase of a product or service mentioned, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your continued support.