Top navigation with mega-menus: +49% NPS supporters
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsAvid moved its site navigation from a left sidebar that only opened on hover to a top bar with mega-menus, and the share of NPS supporters rose 49%.
Avid ran this change itself, and it was published as a VWO case study.
This was a before-and-after comparison of survey answers, not a split test, and it did not measure sales or sign-ups.
- NPS supporters: +49%. An on-site survey asking about ease of navigation found far more people rating it well after the change.
- Respondents also mentioned a better overall experience, according to the case study.
- No conversion, sign-up or revenue figure was shared for this change, so the business impact is unknown.
The change
The hover-only left sidebar becomes a visible top bar with mega-menus.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
Navigation sat on the left side of the site and only expanded when a visitor hovered over it. Avid's search logs showed most visitors gave up on it and used the search bar instead.
Variant
Navigation moved to a bar across the top of the page, with mega-menus that showed more clickable categories.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- A menu hidden until hover is easy to miss. A visible top bar tells visitors where to start.
- Mega-menus show more categories at once, so visitors with many products to choose from can find the right one faster.
- Avid built the new categories from search logs and survey feedback, so the menu matched what people were already looking for.
Caveats: Not a split test: Avid ran the same NPS survey for two weeks before the redesign and again about a week after, so other changes over that period could affect the answers. The metric is survey sentiment, not conversion.
Who ran it
Avid 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 Avid →
How to run this test on your site
- Hypothesis
- If we replace a hover-only side menu with a visible top navigation and mega-menus built from search data, then more visitors will find the product they want because the main categories are visible without hunting.
- Primary metric
- Clicks from navigation to product or pricing pages, followed by trial starts or purchases
- Guardrails
- Site search usage
- Bounce rate on landing pages
- Conversion rate on mobile, where mega-menus behave differently
- Who should test it
- Software and hardware companies with a wide product range and many categories. It matters less for a single-product SaaS with only a few pages, where a short top menu already does the job.
Questions
Is a top navigation bar better than a side menu?
For most marketing sites, a visible top bar is easier to find than a side menu that only opens on hover.
Avid saw survey satisfaction with navigation rise after switching, but it did not share conversion data.
Can I measure a navigation change with an NPS survey?
A survey tells you whether people find the site easier to use, which is useful.
Pair it with a split test on clicks and conversions, because sentiment and sales do not always move together.
How do I decide what goes in a mega-menu?
Start with your site search logs and analytics.
The terms people search for most are the categories they could not find in the menu.