# Offer page redesign plus path changes: +125% free trials

- Outcome: Won
- Page type: Free trial (SaaS)
- Elements: Layout, Images, Eye path
- Date shared: 2008-05
- Test run by: [MarketingExperiments](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/marketingexperiments/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://marketingexperiments.com/a-b-testing/simple-tests-significant-gains
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/britannica-offer-page-radical-redesign/

A radical redesign of Encyclopaedia Britannica Online's subscription offer page, along with other changes to the subscription path, brought 125% more free trials per unique visitor. MarketingExperiments (MECLABS) ran the program and published it on MarketingExperiments. These are combined gains from several bundled changes, not the result of one isolated test.

## Result

**+125% free trials**

- Free trials per unique visitor: +125%.
- Paid subscriptions per unique visitor: +65%.
- Total revenue: +53%.
- All three are cumulative figures for the redesign plus other path changes, so the redesign's own share is unknown.

## Control

The original offer page looked polished, but its layout led the eye in a confusing way. Images distracted from the offer, and the offer's bullet points got lost in the right column.

## Variant

A rebuilt offer page with a clearer eye path and the offer presented up front. It went live alongside other changes to the subscription path.

## Why it likely won (our reading)

- A page can look good and still hide its offer. Putting the offer where the eye goes first makes it easier to act on.
- Removing distracting images leaves more attention for the reasons to subscribe.
- The other path changes likely added to these gains, so they should not be read as the redesign alone.

## Caveats

Bundled: the gains are cumulative from the redesign plus other subscription path changes, not one isolated test. The work dates from 2008, and sample size and duration were not shared.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we rebuild the offer page so the offer and its key points sit on the main eye path, then more visitors will start a trial because they understand the offer faster.
- Primary metric: Free trial starts per unique visitor
- Guardrail: Paid subscriptions per visitor
- Guardrail: Revenue per visitor
- Guardrail: Bounce rate on the offer page
- Who should test it: Subscription and SaaS businesses whose offer page has stalled after small A/B tests. A redesign is a big bet, so it suits sites with enough traffic to test it as a whole page.

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Credit: MarketingExperiments ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/britannica-offer-page-radical-redesign/).
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.