# Homepage banner personalized by segment: +171% time on site

- Outcome: Won
- Page type: Homepage (SaaS)
- Elements: Personalization, Segmentation
- Test run by: [Abila](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/abila/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://marketingsherpa.com/article/case-study/homepage-segmentation-effort-increases-site-time
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/abila-homepage-banner-segmentation/

Abila, a maker of software for nonprofits, showed different homepage banners to customers, partners and prospects, and time on site rose 171% while pages viewed rose 107%. Abila ran this with the personalization vendor Get Smart Content, and it was published as a MarketingSherpa case study in 2015. It is a before-and-after comparison, not a split test.

## Result

**+171% time on site**

- Pages viewed: +107% for customers after launch, compared with before.
- Time on site: +171% for customers after launch.
- Bounce rate: down 85% for visitors who saw targeted content.
- These are engagement numbers. The source does not report leads, demos or revenue.

## Control

One homepage banner, shown to every visitor whether they were a customer, a partner or a prospect.

## Variant

The banner changed by segment: customers saw support, knowledge base and training content, partners saw the partner marketplace, and prospects saw current campaigns.

## Why it likely won (our reading)

- Existing customers stopped seeing sales messages and got pointed to the support and training they came for.
- Prospects saw the campaign that matched their audience (nonprofits, associations or government) instead of a generic message.
- The banner sits on the busiest page, so a more relevant message there reaches the most people.
- The rise may also reflect new content: the team had to create customer content that did not exist before.

## Caveats

This compares site metrics before and after the launch in February, not a split test, so seasonality and other site changes could explain part of it. The metrics are engagement, not leads, and no sample size was shared.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we show customers, partners and prospects different homepage banners, then each group will engage more because the first message they see matches why they came.
- Primary metric: Pages per session by segment
- Guardrail: Demo or trial requests from prospects
- Guardrail: Bounce rate on the homepage
- Guardrail: Support tickets from customers
- Who should test it: B2B SaaS companies whose homepage serves current customers, partners and buyers at once, and who can identify those groups (for example via a marketing automation cookie). It is less useful if most traffic is anonymous first-time visitors.

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Credit: Abila ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/abila-homepage-banner-segmentation/).
Usage: Free to use, quote and build on, with credit and a link: name the practitioner or organization that ran the test and link to its LiftArchive page. The results belong to the practitioners who ran and shared them; the summaries and commentary are LiftArchive's.