One 'Try Demo for Free' button: +47% clicks to pricing
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsReplacing a two-button call to action with a single 'Try Demo for Free' button lifted click-through to the pricing page by 47% and to the demo by 5%.
Artsy Editor, a paid WordPress editor plugin, ran this homepage test, and it was published as a VWO case study.
Sales were not measured, so the win is about clicks, not revenue.
- Click-through to the pricing page: +47% versus the two-button version, even though the variant had no buy button.
- Click-through to the demo: +5%.
- A second variant kept two buttons but put the emphasis on the demo. It lifted demo clicks 7% and pricing clicks 17%, well short of the single button.
- A third variant, 'Try Demo for Free' plus 'Buy Now', showed no real improvement.
- Purchases were not reported, so the effect on revenue is unknown.
The change
Two buttons (demo and buy) replaced by one free demo button
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
The homepage call to action sat between the headline and editor screenshots. It offered two buttons, 'Try Demo' and 'Buy Now for $19.99'.
Variant
The two buttons were replaced with one button reading 'Try Demo for Free'. There was no buy button in this version.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- One clear option removes the choice between trying and buying, so more people take the next step.
- Most visitors were new and wanted to learn about the product first. A price on the homepage button may have felt like a push to commit too early.
- People who try a demo seem to go looking for the price on their own, which would explain the jump in pricing-page visits.
- Adding 'for Free' tells visitors the demo costs nothing, which lowers the risk of clicking.
Caveats: The source lists three button combinations but doesn't say clearly which one was the original, and gives no sample size, duration or confidence level. Only clicks were measured, not sales.
Who ran it
Artsy Editor ran this test and published the results (VWO case study). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on Artsy Editor →
How to run this test on your site
- Hypothesis
- If we replace our 'try' and 'buy' buttons with one free-trial or demo button, then more visitors will move deeper into the site because first-time visitors want to try the product before deciding to pay.
- Primary metric
- Click-through from the homepage to the trial, demo or pricing page
- Guardrails
- Paid conversions or purchases
- Revenue per visitor
- Demo or trial completion rate
- Who should test it
- Software sellers with a free demo or trial and mostly first-time visitors, such as plugin makers and self-serve SaaS. It is less likely to help if most visitors are returning buyers who are ready to pay.
Questions
Should a SaaS homepage have one CTA or two?
In this test one demo button beat two buttons on clicks to both the demo and pricing.
It depends on your visitors, though. If many are ready to buy, a second button may still earn its place, so test it.
Does putting the price on the homepage button help?
Here it didn't. Showing '$19.99' on the buy button was part of the version that lost, so for new visitors the price may be better placed on the pricing page.
Is a lift in clicks the same as a lift in sales?
No. Artsy Editor measured clicks to the demo and pricing pages, not purchases.
Track paid conversions too before you call a winner.