How to Use Your Pre-launch Page

Crowdfunding doesn't start on launch day. The strongest campaigns build an audience well before they go live — testing their messaging, gathering feedback, and turning early interest into backers who are ready to pledge the moment the campaign opens. Your Pre-launch Page is where that happens.

What is the Pre-launch Page?

Your Pre-launch Page is a public landing page where potential backers can follow your project before your campaign launches. It includes:

• A space where you can share details about your upcoming project
• A countdown timer to your launch
• Embedded live streams to interact with fans before and during launch
• Community engagement tools — updates, polls, discussions, achievements
• The ability for followers to create a BackerKit account so they're ready to pledge on day one

Test your messaging

Your Pre-launch Page is a great destination for pre-launch marketing ads, even on a modest budget. There's a strong correlation between capturing interest before you go live and pledges on day one — so use this window to learn which ad assets and messaging convert best, and apply what you learn to your campaign page before launch.

Gather feedback

Share early details with your audience and invite past backers to follow before you launch. Post updates and use polls to test messaging and hear what your audience is most excited about — all of which deepens their commitment ahead of day one.

Drive engagement

Community-building tools help turn early interest into investment in your project's success:

• Trivia Challenges
• Follower-Only Unlocks
• Streams, including a launch-day stream to open your campaign with momentum
• Teams, for friendly competition and community

Set up Community Highlights

Community Highlights let you feature your best pre-launch activity on your page.

• Where: In your crowdfunding dashboard sidebar, go to Engagement → Highlights.
• What you can highlight: Poll Questions, Discussions, and Project Updates.
• Order: Drag to sort how they appear.
• Auto-population: Your most recent update or discussion appears on the right, beneath the header (you'll need at least one pre-launch update or discussion for this to show).

Pre-launch Page hero image dimensions

• Aspect ratio: 3:1 (e.g. 1020 × 340 px)
• File type: PNG or JPG
• Max size: 10MB

Best practices

• Hero image: The large, featured image at the top of the page should immediately grab visitors’ attention. This is how you welcome potential backers to your page and introduce them to your project. Depending on your project, this may be a high-quality photo or an illustration.
• Call out incentives: If you're offering anything in exchange for following, call this out at the top of the pre-launch page body
• Body copy: Describe what your project is/who it's for. Keep the copy polished and succinct. Less is more.
• Effective design: Establishing a strong visual hierarchy on your teaser page will direct visitors where to look and, more crucially, where to click. The goal is to make the course of action clear and obvious to page visitors.

When to publish

We recommend enabling it up to 8 weeks in advance of your estimated launch date, but you should publish whenever you're ready to share your upcoming project — there's no need to wait.

Enable the countdown timer

Your countdown timer turns on automatically once your project is approved and you've set a scheduled launch date and time. (If your project isn't approved yet, reach out to your Success Representative.)

Get listed on the homepage

To appear in the Participate Before Launch section on the BackerKit homepage, your project must be:

1. Approved by the BackerKit team, and
2. Have an active countdown timer.

FAQ

▸ When should I publish my Pre-launch Page? As soon as you're ready to share your upcoming project. Publishing early gives you more time to run pre-launch streams and build momentum — ideally including a launch-day stream.

▸ How do I enable the countdown timer? Once your project is approved and you've set a launch date and time, the timer turns on automatically.

▸ How do I appear in the "Participate Before Launch" section on the homepage? Your project needs to be approved and have an active countdown timer.

▸ What happens when the countdown timer reaches zero? Your campaign goes live, your Pre-launch Page redirects visitors to your campaign page, and backers can pledge immediately. Any live stream continues on the campaign page.