# Clearer credit card banner: 35% fewer clicks, more applications

- Outcome: Won
- Page type: Ad (Lead-gen)
- Elements: Ad design, Clarity
- Date shared: 2011-09
- Test run by: [MarketingExperiments](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/marketingexperiments/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://marketingexperiments.com/a-b-testing/banner-design-tested
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/credit-card-banner-clarity-applications/

Making a credit card banner clearer about what came after the click cut clicks by 35% but raised applications per day; the post's title reports an 88% increase in conversion. MarketingExperiments (MECLABS) ran the test for a large financial institution's branded credit card. Fewer curiosity clicks from people chasing a $50 gift card meant more of the remaining clicks became applications.

## Result

**35% fewer clicks, more applications**

- Banner clicks: down 35%. This is a drop, but clicks were not the goal.
- Credit card applications per day: higher with the clearer banner, which was the main goal.
- The post's title reports an 88% increase in conversion; the detailed figures were only shown in an image.
- The test was run sequentially, one version after the other, not as a simultaneous split.

## Control

A banner for a branded credit card with a $50 gift card offer, where the 'Free $50 Gift Card' headline dominated and it was unclear the click led to an application.

## Variant

A cleaner, higher-contrast bright yellow design that made it clearer the click led to a credit card application, with the qualifying purchase terms easier to see. The wording stayed mostly the same.

## Why it likely won (our reading)

- The old banner sold the gift card, so many clicks came from people who did not want a credit card.
- Showing the application and the qualifying terms up front filtered out those people before they clicked.
- The visitors who did click knew what to expect, so more of them finished the form.

## Caveats

Run as a sequential test, so timing may have affected the result. Application figures were shown only in an image; the 35% is a drop in clicks, not the primary metric. Data is from 2011.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we make our ad clearly state what happens after the click, then completed applications will rise because fewer people will click out of curiosity.
- Primary metric: Completed applications (or leads) per day or per impression
- Guardrail: Ad click-through rate
- Guardrail: Cost per lead
- Guardrail: Landing page bounce rate
- Who should test it: Lead-gen businesses running ads with an incentive, especially on pay-per-click. It matters less if your ad is already clear about the offer, or if the goal really is traffic.

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Credit: MarketingExperiments ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/credit-card-banner-clarity-applications/).
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.