'Start registration' beat 'Sign up today', which cut clicks ~10%
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsOn its Partner Hub join page, Booking.com tested four registration button labels, and 'Start registration' drove the most clicks while 'Sign up today' cut clicks by about 10%.
The Booking.com Partner Hub team ran the test themselves.
It was published as an AB Tasty / Wingify case study.
- Clicks to start registration: 'Start registration' was the highest of the four labels. The exact lift was not shared.
- 'Sign up today' was the weakest, with about 10% fewer clicks. That is a loss worth noting.
- 'Join now' and 'List your property' fell somewhere in between. Their numbers were not shared.
The change
Same join page; only the registration button label changes
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
The Partner Hub join page, where property owners begin listing on Booking.com, used a registration button. Four labels were compared: 'Join now', 'Start registration', 'List your property' and 'Sign up today'.
Variant
Each version changed only the wording on the button. 'Start registration' came out on top.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- 'Start registration' says exactly what happens next. Partners know they are starting a process, not committing to everything at once.
- 'Sign up today' adds a time push and sounds like a generic consumer sign-up. Business owners listing a property may find that less relevant.
- Partner feedback showed that people wanted to understand the registration process. A label that names the process fits that mindset.
Caveats: The size of the winning label's lift, the sample size and the test duration were not shared. The main metric was clicks to start registration, not completed listings.
Who ran it
Booking.com ran this test and published the results (AB Tasty / Wingify case study). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on Booking.com →
How to run this test on your site
- Hypothesis
- If we label the sign-up button with the literal next step (for example 'Start registration'), then more visitors will click it, because they know what they are starting and it feels like less of a commitment.
- Primary metric
- Clicks on the registration button
- Guardrails
- Completed registrations
- Drop-off on the first registration step
- Clicks by device (mobile vs desktop)
- Who should test it
- Marketplaces and lead-gen sites that ask businesses to sign up through a multi-step process. It matters less if your sign-up is a single short form where the button label is already obvious.
Questions
Does button wording really change sign-up clicks?
It can. In this test, labels that sounded similar produced clear differences, with one label losing about 10% of clicks.
Should a sign-up button say 'Sign up' or describe the next step?
Here, naming the next step ('Start registration') beat the generic 'Sign up today'.
Test both on your own page, because audiences differ.
What should I measure in a button copy test?
Clicks on the button are the quick signal.
Also check completed sign-ups, so a label that wins clicks does not lose finishers.