6 Landing Page A/B Test Examples to Improve Your Conversion Rate

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A/B testing is a common practice in online marketing, especially for those attempting to optimize a landing page for conversions. Where many marketers seem to get stuck is determining what to test on a landing page and why it should be tested.

In this article we share 6 landing page tests you can implement to improve the performance of your landing pages. First I’ll get into what A/B testing is exactly and what elements on the landing page you should try testing. I’ll include examples to explain how and why each element is tested. I’ll make sure to provide real-world case studies to show the results. By the end you should understand what to A/B test on your landing page and how to do it for yourself.

Table of contents


What is A/B testing?


For those of you just dipping your toes into the ocean of A/B Testing, let me give you a quick breakdown of how it works:

Also known as split testing, A/B Testing is a strategy in marketing in which two versions, A and B (the control and the treatment) are tested against each other. The goal is to identify changes that increase the chance of what you want to occur, to occur.

There are many online A/B testing tools (including Wishpond) which allow you to send half your page’s traffic to the original (A) version, and half to your new, treatment (B) version. The test is run until one variation is clearly more successful (with a 95% confidence level).

Original Landing Page Example


For the purpose of this article I’m going to be testing the example landing page below. Because I won’t actually be driving traffic to this page, or any of the tested versions, all statistics I’ll be quoting will be from reputable case studies. I’ll add up the possible increase in conversions in my conclusion (you can play along at home if you like, as well!).

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Not the most exciting thing I’ve ever seen in my life, I’ll admit. But then again, I’ve seen worse. It has all of the primary lead-generation variables: USP, subtitle, image and a CTA. Let’s say it’s converting at a rate of 5% (the low end of average).

Landing Page A/B Test #1: Unique Selling Proposition (USP)


The landing page’s current headline (“making business personal”), is not really a USP so much as a slogan. The difficulty with this is that many brands consider their slogan to be a part of their business identity – especially if they have been running for many years. Sidelining can be emotionally very difficult.

Get over it. This is business. For example, let’s take McDonald’s, whose slogan “I’m lovin’ it” is perhaps the most well-known in the world. Their landing page’s current headline? “The menu you love, plus so much more”. This is a USP. It’s a unique sale’s point built on offering what people already know and like, with the addition of new and exciting options.

Our Variation:

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Anytime your business becomes more impressive than another, use the power of a comparison value proposition to encourage conversion.

Landing Page A/B Test #2: Imagery


The existing image, of a professional-looking group, is too stock to be believable (it also has Vince Vaughan, in it, but that’s beside the fact).

My recommendation would be one of two things:

  • A non-stock image of your company’s employees
  • A video introduction of your platform or brand (short, no more than 3 minutes)

Our Variation:

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Your landing page’s image is one of the most influential, but frustrating, variables we can test.

Once you’ve got a great format and text, rotate a few images or videos through your testing cycle to find which gets the most response. They’re one of the easiest things to test, but one of the more difficult to anticipate.

For more information on A/B Testing your image, check out the Wishpond resource “50 A/B Split Test Conversion Case Studies” for some ideas.

Landing Page A/B Test #3: the Call to Action


I’ve written before that your landing page is a dance with the visitor and your CTA is leading. I love this metaphor. If your CTA is too aggressive or demanding it’ll step on your page visitor’s toes and they’ll find a new partner.

Remember to keep your CTA’s appealing, rather than demanding. Use ‘you’ or ‘my’, ‘free’ and ‘get’. Tell people what they stand to gain, not what to do.

Here are 5 appealing CTA formulas:

  1. Start your/my free [trial period]
  2. Get your/my free [focus of landing page]
  3. Increase your/my [beneficial result of your service/tool] today!
  4. Learn more today
  5. Try [service/tool] for free

Our Variation:

I hear different results from using ‘your’ vs ‘my’ in your CTAs. Some businesses have found that changing ‘Start your free trial’ to ‘Start my free trial’ increases their landing page CTR, some find the opposite.

Honestly I can’t imagine that that particular test would skyrocket or plummet your conversion rate optimization strategy all that much, but even so, I’m not going to tell you which one will work for your business. You’ll have to test it yourself!

Landing Page A/B Test #4: List of Benefits


The list of benefits is something that may not necessarily increase your page’s conversions, but nor is it likely to hurt them. We include benefit lists to ensure that if a USP headline, subheader, or traffic source (like an ad or social media link) hasn’t already sold your lead, they get that little bit more encouragement they need to convert.

Your list of benefits could be anything your service, product or tool offers beyond the USP. This list gives more information that people may need, like how your service works, or the steps they need to take to get the result you’ve quoted them.

Remember to keep your list of benefits short and sexy. Include a maximum of five, and draw attention to them with icons, small images, or a clear and delineated box.

Our Variation:

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Landing Page A/B Test #5: Trust Symbols & Customer Testimonials


Implementing trust symbols or customer testimonials pretty much improves landing page conversions across-the-board. Blue Fountain Media found adding the VeriSign logo to their page increased conversion by 42% and sign-up-form entries by 81%.

Basically you’re telling your landing page visitor that you’re trustworthy; that you’re not trying to cheat them out of their hard-earned cash; that other people have put their faith in you before and won out.

Unless you have a trust symbol from a seriously influential and recognizable authority, I’d recommend you use customer testimonials over trust symbols. Not only do landing page visitors like to see that you have customers, they also trust them more than they do you. Use direct quotes from the most well-known brands you’ve worked with (as their business profile will increase yours).

Our Variation:

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Landing Page A/B Test #6: Colors


Sometimes it’s the smallest details that have the largest effect on your conversions. It’s changing the color of your CTA button from light green to yellow ( 14.5% conversion increase). Or contrasting the color of two links within a single image (60% increase in conversions).

To get an idea of how color can affect your business persona, elicit an emotion or encourage an action, read Conversion Rate Optimization Chapter 9: Psychology of Color. Or, for the people who ate lunch at their desks today…

Here are the psychological impacts of 6 main colors:

  1. Blue : Blue is, across both genders and all age-groups, most people’s favorite color. It is said to create the sensation of trust and security. Lighter blues are calming while darker blues denote professionalism and sincerity.
  2. Green : Associated with wealth as well as environmental subjects, green is the easiest color for the eye to process. Green signifies positive action (think,’green means go’) and affirmation.
  3. Purple : Associated with calm, femininity, and wealth, purple is the second most popular color among women, at 23%. On the other hand, purple is the favorite color of 0% of the male population.
  4. Red : The color red is associated with passion, excitement and urgency. It’s a dangerous color in marketing, as many people associate red with negativity and mistakes. However, it attracts the eye better than any other color and gives the impression that time is passing faster than it is (as it causes our heart to beat faster) causing us to act when we otherwise wouldn’t.
  5. Orange : Eye-catching, bright and sunny, orange is one of the most popular colors for landing page Calls-to-Action. While a good tone and amount of orange is seen as warm and inviting, too much has been associated with naivete and a lack of professionalism.
  6. White : White is most often associated with innocence, purity and cleanliness, but can also communicate sterility and cold (think hospitals). White often communicates simplicity or a clean, modern quality. Designers seeking a minimalist aesthetic will frequently use a lot of white.

Our Variation/Final Edit:

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What do you think? Does your gut say the landing page we’ve created would convert better than the original?

Oh, and those customer testimonials at the bottom? Check out Landing Page Customer Reviews: The How the What and the Wherefore and Landing Pages: 3 Customer Reviews that Don’t Work to learn more about how effective those can be!

But let’s put those to the side for a second and do some quick arithmetic:

Total possible increase in landing page conversions: 570%

This means, in short, that if our landing page was converting at 5% in Version A, our new landing page could be converting at 28.5%. Now think about this, if your ecommerce site is seeing traffic of 10,000 visitors daily, and each conversion’s average purchase is valued at $35, you would be making $17,500/day with the first landing page, and $99,750/day with the variation.

Conclusion


A/B Testing works. And, unless you’re going to engage with a landing page builder, you need to be doing it yourself. Often.

The A/B Testing process is continuous – not necessarily because there is not landing page optimization, but because your page won’t stay optimized. And honestly, it’s very likely your landing page will never be 100% optimized for conversions anyway. There’s always small steps you can take, tiny variables to change, that will affect the page’s conversion rate.

Further Reading:

Have you had successes (or failures) with A/B testing? Start the conversation below.

By James Scherer@Wishpond

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