IdeasTwenty lead magnets, cheapest first.
Most lead magnet lists are written for B2B and quietly reused for stores. These are for stores, ordered by what each one actually costs you to produce — and four of them are named as duds.
Costs you nothing but margin
Available today. Start here unless you have a reason not to.
- A percentage off the first order
The default for a reason — instantly understood, instantly usable, and it maps straight onto a purchase.
- A fixed amount off
Often outperforms a percentage on lower-priced catalogues, because £10 sounds larger than 15%.
- Free shipping
Frequently cheaper for you than the equivalent discount, and it removes the single most common reason carts are abandoned.
- Free shipping over a threshold
Turns the incentive into an average-order-value lever rather than a straight cost.
- A free sample or add-on with the first order
Costs product rather than margin, and puts something physical in the box that can win a second order.
Costs you access, not money
Nothing to produce. Works best on brands people already want in on.
- Early access to a drop
Strong for anything that sells out. Scarcity is doing the work, so it fails if nothing ever sells out.
- Restock alerts
The highest-intent signup you can collect — they have already chosen the product.
- A waitlist for a launch
Doubles as demand research before you commit stock.
- Members-only pricing
Reframes the list as a club rather than a mailing list.
- First look at a sale
Costs nothing, and gives you a reason to email that is not a discount.
Costs you a few hours, once
Worth it when the purchase needs a decision, not just a nudge.
- A size or fit guide
Reduces returns as well as building the list. One of the few lead magnets with a second payoff.
- A care or maintenance guide
Best for products people are about to spend real money on and want to protect.
- A one-question product finder
Helps people who cannot tell your SKUs apart, which is more of your traffic than you think.
- A comparison of your own products
Uncomfortable to write, unusually effective. Buyers are doing this anyway, badly.
- A recipe, pairing or lookbook
Fits food, drink, beauty and apparel; feels like content rather than advertising.
Costs you real production
Only if the margin per customer justifies it.
- A genuinely useful downloadable tool
A planner, calculator or template people would have looked for anyway.
- A short email course
Works for expertise-led brands. Dies quietly if nobody writes the follow-ups.
- A physical catalogue or sample kit
High cost per lead, high intent, and it needs an address rather than an email.
- A consultation or fitting
Only viable at high order values, and it does not scale.
- A community with something in it
The most demanding option on this list and the only one that keeps working after you stop maintaining it — if it reaches critical mass, which most do not.
Four that look like lead magnets.
Each one builds a list. None of them builds a list of buyers.
A giveaway with a generic prize
An iPhone or a gift card builds a list of people who want an iPhone or a gift card. They will not open your next email, and their inattention drags your engagement rate — and therefore your inbox placement — down for everyone else on the list.
A newsletter, described as a newsletter
“Sign up for our newsletter” asks for an address in exchange for advertising. It converts a fraction of what a named, specific offer does, using the identical traffic and the identical popup.
A whitepaper, in a store
Content lead magnets are a B2B pattern that most ecommerce lead-magnet lists import without noticing. Someone deciding between two candles does not want a PDF.
A discount so large it resets your pricing
A standing 30% welcome offer teaches everyone to never buy at full price, and it will show up in your margin long before it shows up in your list growth.
Lead magnets, answered plainly.
Including how big the welcome discount should be.
Something of value offered in exchange for a contact detail. In ecommerce it is usually a discount, free shipping, or access to something — early drops, restock alerts, member pricing. In B2B it is more often content: a guide, a template, a webinar. The distinction matters because most lead magnet advice online is written for the second case and transplanted badly onto the first.
For most stores, a discount on the first order. It is immediately valuable, needs no production, and converts directly into the behaviour you want. Free shipping is a close second and is often cheaper for you than the equivalent percentage. The interesting alternatives — early access, restock alerts, waitlists — cost you nothing at all and work well for brands where things sell out.
Big enough to be worth an address, small enough not to reset your pricing. The failure mode is a standing offer so large that nobody ever pays full price again, which quietly moves the discount from an acquisition cost to a permanent margin cut. If you cannot afford to give it to every visitor forever, do not put it on a site-wide popup.
Not to begin with. Get one working, then differentiate. The highest-value split for most stores is between a first-time visitor, who wants a reason to try you, and someone with items in the cart, who wants a reason to finish — those two want genuinely different things and the same offer serves one of them badly.
Yes, and this is where double opt-in and discount codes collide. If someone signs up for 10% off the order they are placing right now, a confirmation step sits between them and the checkout. Either deliver the code on screen straight away, or put it in the confirmation email so the extra step becomes the reward rather than an obstacle before it.
One, until it works. Multiple offers running simultaneously split your traffic, make every result slower to read, and usually mean none of them gets tuned properly. Once a single campaign is converting predictably, a second targeted at a different moment is the natural next step.