Thrive Ovation Review (2023) PROS & CONS – Best WordPress Testimonial Plugin?

Thrive Ovation WordPress testimonial plugin claims to offer everything that you will need to create, collect, and manage testimonials on your WordPress website. In this Thrive Ovation review, I will show and test what it offers.

If you have been in business long enough, you know how essential word of mouth can be. Customers have more trust in personal reviews than your sales copy.

If they feel your service works for others, they will be more inclined to use it themselves, which illustrates why having testimonial plugin to showcase user reviews is essential.

Snippets from satisfied customers best describe benefits of your service. This gives visitors a better idea of what they get when they buy from you or use your services. Furthermore, it gives them a better understanding of what they can receive from you.

The testimonials build customer trust in you and show the type of people who buy your goods or services. It gives a real face to your marketing material.

If you have online store and sell products or services, it’s essential that you use testimonials. They increase your selling power and help you to get leads.

There are plenty of plugins available, but choosing the best WordPress testimonial plugin for your business is not an easy task. The problem doesn’t come from finding the plugin. It comes from finding the right plugin.

 

Best WordPress Testimonial Plugin – Thrive Ovation Review

While they shop online, people often ask themselves questions like: Does this product work? Is it worth my money? Is this a scam? How will this product help me?

When you include testimonials that give the answers to these and other questions, you have a higher chance of converting skeptical visitors into buying clients.

The goal of Thrive Ovation is to make creating testimonials as easy as possible, and the developer emphasizes it automates most of the process.

This testimonial plugin for WordPress collects reviews from your site and transfers them to a digital rolodex. You then choose if you want them to appear on the website or not.

 

 

Thrive Ovation aims to bring your reviews together in one central collection, since you may have them spread out in different email inboxes and folders on the site.

The centralization of testimonials makes finding them easier, which saves time searching through everything. It allows you to go right to the testimonials you need.

With Thrive Ovation all in one testimonial management plugin, you can:

• Capture testimonials – Discover an easy way to ask people to leave a testimonial.
• Manage testimonials – Don’t have to manually upload every single testimonial you collect thanks to Thrive Ovation’s automated management system.
• Display testimonials –  Show what people have to say about your brand, team, products, and services.

 

What Are Thrive Ovation Key Features?

Here are some of the main features Ovation plugin offers:

Feature #1 – Automated Testimonial Gathering

Collecting useful testimonials can be time-consuming when you do it manually. It usually requires you to email a customer and ask them to put a nice word about your product.

Even when you get unsolicited reviews, you still have to copy and format them to use on the site. Thrive Ovation makes copying and formatting easier with several methods.

You can alter the templates to suit your needs as well as add more boxes or specific questions for visitors to answer and change the form size.

 

 

It operates in a similar way to the contact form. It sends you the testimonial automatically, and you can approve or disapprove it. If you have a Thrive Leads license, you can also integrate this form into the opt-in forms you create using Leads (check Thrive Leads review).

Typically, you’ll use Thrive Leads to capture details from email subscribers for use in newsletters. After you install Thrive Ovation, Thrive Leads can be used to create forms to collect testimonials. You can delete the opt-in portion of the form and turn the focus on client feedback.

 

Feature #2 – Leveraging WordPress Comments

Your WordPress blog includes several pages, which clients use to post comments. Often, your customers will use the comments section to talk about your service.

With Ovation installed, the process of approving comments remains the same. The difference is you get a tab from the drop-down menu that says “Save As Testimonial.”

Once you click it, you are directed toward a form that reveals details about the customer, and you can edit it as you see fit and place the comment on your site as a testimonial. You can turn a comment into a useful testimonial and place anywhere on the site.

 

Feature #3 – Turning Social Testimonials Into Website Testimonials

A marketing strategy cannot exist without social media. Customers are more inclined to leave a message on social media than on a website because of the convenience.

Thrive Ovation testimonial plugin in WordPress understands this, so it includes a feature to help you convert social media comments to testimonials on your website. The only disadvantage is that the process can be harder than other ways of collecting testimonials.

 

 

You need to download specific apps for each social media platform that Ovation supports, and which you intend to use. These include Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

However, you will find useful videos to help you install this feature. Then, all you have to do is copy and paste the comment URL into the pop-up box.

 

Feature #4 – Testimonial Management

With Thrive Ovation, you get an abundance of helpful features to manage testimonials. Perhaps the essential feature is an option to contact the customer to get approval to use their testimonial.

This is very useful when you’re leveraging WordPress comments and social media posts. Since the original commenter didn’t intend them as testimonials, you might need permission.

Thrive Ovation allows you to set up an email that you can send the customer to request permission.

 

 

You can choose from a wide range of templates to display each testimonial. When combined with Thrive Architect plugin, placing these testimonials is as simple as dragging them onto the desired area of a page.

You have the choice of building testimonials statically or dynamically. With the static option, you continue to add the testimonials manually.

In dynamic mode, the Ovation plugin automatically adds the testimonial once you approve it. All of this combined makes it easy to manage and display your testimonials.

 

Feature #5 – The Tagging Functionality

You get the option to add tags with every testimonial, which helps add testimonials dynamically. For instance, say you have three testimonials on your site. With Thrive Ovation, you can tag them, for example, product 1, product 2, and product 3.

With these tags in place, testimonials relating to each product get automatically added to the relevant page. You just need to use the tag to specify where you want the testimonial placed.

 

How To Use Thrive Ovation Testimonial Plugin?

Thrive Ovation has many helpful features that are simple enough for novices. Activating and using the Thrive Ovation testimonials plugin is straightforward.

Start adding your testimonials to your Ovation dashboard. This is the central hub for everything. You can edit and manage entries later and display them using various beautiful templates.

 

Gathering Testimonials

Collecting testimonials manually is the most straightforward option in Thrive Ovation testimonials. To start gathering testimonials, visit the dashboard, then click the Add New, which opens “Create New Testimonial.”

 

 

Here you can enter all the details related to your client or customer, including name, email, website, occupation, photograph, tags, title, and main content of testimonial. Once you’re finished, click Add Testimonial. It will now be visible in your dashboard.

 

Turning Comments Into Testimonials

One way to add unique content to your website is by converting top comments into testimonials. You can convert the comments in one click with Thrive Ovation. Go to the comment section on your site.

You will see a blue plus sign to the right of the comment. Hover over it to see “Create Testimonial From Comment.”

 

 

After you do this, you get transferred to the Edit screen, which allows you to edit the content manually. Click “Add Testimonial,” and you will see it on the dashboard. This is a great way to gather key comments from your audience with minimal effort required.

 

Social Testimonials

Collecting testimonials from popular social media pages is another mean of capturing testimonials. Go to the Thrive Ovation dashboard, click “Capture Testimonials,” click “Import from Social Media.”

 

 

From there you will be prompted to Set Up Integrations. Click the button, and a new window will open.

 

 

Choose “Add New Connection,” such as Twitter from the drop-down options. If you, for example, choose Twitter, you need Twitter API.

 

 

Watch the video for an explanation of how Twitter API works if you aren’t familiar with it.

 

 

After this step, return to “Import from Social Media” page. Enter the URL of the Tweet you want to use as a testimonial.

 

 

Ovation pulls all the relevant data you will need from Twitter, and you can edit all before saving. Once saved, it will display in your dashboard.

 

Automatic Testimonial Collection

The last way to capture testimonials is through the use of a form displayed on your website. This is a static form that can be published using:

• Shortcodes
• Thrive Architect
• Thrive Leads

For simplicity, I will use the shortcodes option as an example. Click on Capture Testimonials at the top of Thrive Ovation dashboard, and then choose “Capture using WordPress Shortcodes.”

 

 

Then click “New Capture Shortcode,” and input a name. You can then choose a template for your capture form.

 

 

A new window will open showing you what your form will look like. From here, you can edit the form, change colors, and even select a different template. When finished with editing, click save and your form will be ready to display on your site wherever you use the shortcode.

 

Testimonial Management

A primary feature of Thrive Ovation is that you can manage the testimonials in one location.

 

Dashboard Overview

At first glance, the Thrive Ovation dashboard is appealing and straightforward. You won’t be aware of how well-organized it is until you spend time using it. When you view the top, you will see drop-down options for displaying and collecting testimonials.

 

 

Below this, you have look at the status of your testimonials which are color-coded.

This includes:

• Ready for Display – Will be displayed on using selected display methods
• Rejected – You or the testimonial author has rejected it for approval
• Awaiting approval – Waiting for testimonial author to approve
• Untagged – The testimonial has no tags
• Awaiting review – Waiting for the testimonial to be reviewed
• No Picture – Testimonials with no image attached

These features make prioritizing tasks simpler, which is useful if you have a high number of testimonials. Under this section, you can then edit the testimonials separately.

 

Adding Tags

Adding tags is a particularly useful way to organize your testimonial content. Tags can help you sort and filter the content by purpose.

For example, testimonials that talk about the price of your goods or services can be tagged with Cost or Price to make finding what the customer wants to know easier.

 

 

Click the “Add Tag” feature to tag testimonials or use the testimonial editor.

 

Email Approval

Some website owners don’t seek consent to publish testimonials. Asking permission is more essential than ever to protect you legally.

The approval function on Thrive Ovation makes asking permission very easy. To use this option, select “Settings,” then “Configure Email.”

 

 

This will open the customer approval template where you can write the content of your email. Save it after you are satisfied with the content of the email.

 

 

 

The next step is the configuration of the landing page, which gives customers the option to approve or deny permission. Click Configure Landing Page.

 

 

You will see two options for each response. If the content is approved, you can send customers to existing content or a custom URL. This can also be applied if a testimonial is rejected.

 

Displaying Testimonials

Thrive Ovation WordPress testimonial plugin provides professional templates to make the testimonials stand out above the rest of your site. There are two ways of displaying content with Thrive Ovation.

 

1. Displaying static content

Click “Display Testimonials” and then choose either Thrive Architect or WordPress Shortcodes. I have chosen WordPress shortcodes for this example.

 

Click “New display shortcode” and enter a name. Next, choose from one of over 70 templates and save your chosen template.

 

 

Choose the way you want the content to display on the site. Select the testimonials you want to be displayed on the site and press Continue.

 

 

You can then change the order of how they will appear on the page or randomize them. After clicking Continue, you can either save the group or finish without saving.

Afterward, you get redirected to a page where you can fine-tune the settings, colors, and what fields you prefer to include. When you are satisfied with it, save the changes. The shortcode you created can be inserted anywhere on your site.

 

2. Displaying dynamic content

Dynamic content is another method of showcasing your testimonials on the page. Dynamic content makes use of tags to add testimonials with similar tags automatically.

Using this technique saves you from having to edit pages continually. To enable dynamic content, go to the Display using WordPress Shortcodes, and choose the one you want to edit.

Choose tags on a display setting. You will be directed to the next screen to choose the desired tags and enter testimonials you want to include.

Now when you view the page with your shortcode, you will only see testimonials with those tags.

 

Thrive Ovation Pricing Plans

Thrive Ovation comes as part of Thrive Suite membership which includes all Thrive plugins and themes. If you opt for the Thrive Suite membership, you’ll pay $19 per month (billed annually).

In that case, you will get Thrive Ovation and also access to every single Thrive product:

• Thrive Themes gives you ten professionally-designed, conversion-focused WordPress themes to choose from.
• Thrive Quiz Builder allows you to create quizzes with branching logic to increase engagement and segment your growing email list based on the results. Check Thrive Quiz Builder review for more information.
• Thrive Leads drag and drop builder allows you to create any type of lead generation form imaginable. If you want to see how Thrive Leads compares with other lead generation plugins, then be sure to check Thrive Leads vs OptinMonster, Thrive Leads vs Convert Pro, and Thrive Leads vs Sumo.
• Clever Widgets displays relevant content based on various targeting rules, categories, and more in your widget areas. For more information check Thrive Clever Widgets review.
• Thrive Ultimatum improves your conversions by using timer campaigns, and is perfect for scarcity marketing. For more information see Thrive Ultimatum review.
• Thrive Architect is drag and drop visual editor that lets you create content, forms, and pages and optimize them across resolutions and devices. I have also compared Thrive Theme Builder vs Thrive Architect so you can see what are the differences beween those two.
• Thrive Landing Pages allows you to build and implement powerful landing pages on your site with any of the hundreds of templates available.
• Thrive Headline Optimizer lets you optimize automatic engagement winner, set-and-forget A/B testing for all headlines.
• Thrive Apprentice makes it possible to create pro-looking courses straight from your WordPress dashboard.
• Thrive Comments brings the addictive triggers of social media and a conversion focus to your WordPress comments, through several innovative features like upvoting and downvoting, gamified comment incentives, and an impressive number of after-comment-actions.

Thrive Suite comes with option to install the tools on up to 25 websites. If you need more, then you will need to buy Agency plan.

 

Thrive Ovation PROS & CONS

Here are some advantages and disadvantages to Thrive Ovation:

ADVANTAGES

• Easy to use and heavily automated
• Fully customizable templates
• Affordable pricing
• Advanced tagging system
• Ability to add additional questions to capture form
• Central management system for testimonials all in one place
• Multiple ways to gather testimonials
• Effortlessly edit and organize testimonials
• Easily display testimonials anywhere on your website
• Social media integration with many popular platforms
• Mobile friendly design
• 70+ professionally designed testimonial templates

DISADVANTAGES

• Must purchase Thrive Themes Membership or Thrive Architect to tap into some of the best features
• No testimonial widget. Users will need to display shortcodes in a text/HTML widget to display testimonials in a sidebar

 

Thrive Ovation Review Summary

Social proof is essential with any business online, and testimonials are among the best ways to get that proof. Adding testimonial plugin builds your reputation, establishes credibility, and helps prove you are an expert to customers.

But let’s face it. Testimonials can be a pain to capture, manage, and display on your website if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Thrive Ovation ranks high among the top complete testimonial plugins on the market. You can capture testimonials from many sources, and Thrive Ovation automates the process.

Your testimonials will be displayed the way you prefer using an assortment of templates with customizable options. You will be able to pull testimonials and leverage them on your site from Twitter, Facebook, and other platforms.