Urgency message only above the order button: 32% worse
Test run byConversion FanaticsCRO agency
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsPutting a message that the $99 intro price wouldn't last right above the order button hurt results: the page with no message converted 32% better.
Conversion Fanatics ran this test for a seller of a customizable shipped product.
The order button only appeared after shoppers finished customizing, so the message showed up late.
- Negative result: the control converted 32% better than this variation.
- In the same test, showing the message above and below the form instead lifted conversions by 41%.
- No conversion rates, sample size or significance were shared.
The change
Urgency message only above the order button, after customization
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
The page showed the $99 introductory price with no urgency message.
Variant
An urgency message about the intro price sat only right above the order button. That button appeared once shoppers had finished the customization dropdowns.
Why it likely lost
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- The message only appeared at the last step, after shoppers had invested effort. A late warning can feel like pressure.
- Shoppers had no chance to factor the deadline in from the start.
- Text right by the button may have added doubt at the moment of decision.
Caveats: No sample size, duration or significance level was shared, so treat the size of the drop with care. The data is from 2015.
Who ran it
Conversion Fanatics ran this test for a seller of a customizable shipped product with a $99 intro price and published the results (Conversion Fanatics blog case study). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on Conversion Fanatics →
How to run this test on your store
- Hypothesis
- If we show an urgency message right above the order button, then more visitors will order because the deadline is in view at the moment of decision.
- Primary metric
- Conversion rate
- Guardrails
- Order button click rate
- Form completion rate
- Refund rate
- Who should test it
- Sellers with a real deadline who want to find the best spot for it. This result suggests testing placement early in the page first, and being careful with messages that appear only at the last step.
Questions
Can urgency messages hurt conversions?
Yes. In this test, a message placed only above the order button made the page convert 32% worse than having no message.
Why would the same message win in one spot and lose in another?
Here, the winning placement was visible on page load, while the losing one appeared only after customizing.
When shoppers see a message can change how they read it.
Should I put urgency text next to the buy button?
Test it rather than assume. This case suggests showing it early on the page may work better.
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