I, too, am new at this, so this is a case of the blind leading the blind. That said, I’ve been able to get my homepage looking something like the sample page — though, to me, the process seems counterintuitive.
Under Appearance > Customize > Static Front Page, I chose the “A static page,” option because that’s what I want for the home page. Then a “Front page” dropdown menu appeared, but the home page wasn’t listed as an option. I’d only created one other page (About), and that’s all that was displayed on the drop down menu. And NOTHING I tried to do on the home page was visible — slider, CTAs, etc.
Finally, for lack of a better idea, I chose the “Front page displays > Your latest posts” option. I have no idea why, but then the home page suddenly began looking the way I wanted it to — slider and CTAs miraculously appeared. I believe my mistake was in thinking “Front Page” and “Home Page” are the same thing. I guess they’re not. As I said, seems counterintuitive to me, but it’s working. Maybe it will work for you. Good luck.
