Purple box around the homepage Donate link: +190% clickthrough
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsCalling out the Donate section of Dallas Theological Seminary's homepage with a purple box lifted clickthrough to the donation page by 190%, a statistically significant result.
NextAfter ran the test for the seminary, and MarketingExperiments published it.
The change was small enough that many viewers struggled to spot it.
- Clickthrough to the donation page rose 190%, a statistically significant result.
- Average gift also rose 860%, but NextAfter said this could not be statistically validated and a few very large gifts may have skewed it. Treat it as unproven.
- The test supported NextAfter's idea that a hard-to-find Donate link was keeping less motivated visitors from reaching the donation page.
The change
The Donate section got a purple box so it stood out.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
The seminary's homepage with its standard Donate link, which blended in with the rest of the page.
Variant
The same homepage with the Donate section set inside a purple box so it stood out.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- A clearly marked Donate section is easier to find, so visitors who were only thinking about giving now saw the path.
- Before, mostly highly motivated people found their way to the donation page; the emphasis opened it to a wider group.
- Color contrast is a cheap way to make one action stand out on a busy homepage.
Caveats: Sample size and duration were not shared. The 860% average gift increase was not statistically validated and may reflect outliers.
Who ran it
NextAfter ran this test and published the results (MarketingExperiments). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on NextAfter →
How to run this test on your site
- Hypothesis
- If we give our main conversion link a contrasting colored box on the homepage, then more visitors will click through because they can find the next step without searching.
- Primary metric
- Clickthrough to the donation or sign-up page
- Guardrails
- Donation or form conversion rate on the next page
- Average gift or lead value
- Who should test it
- Nonprofits and lead-gen sites where the main action is a small link in a busy header or homepage. If your main call to action is already a bold button, expect a much smaller lift.
Questions
Does making the Donate button stand out increase donations?
It increased clicks to the donation page by 190% in this test.
Track completed gifts as well, because more clicks do not always mean more money.
What color should a donate button be?
The specific color matters less than contrast with the rest of the page.
Here a purple box made the Donate section easy to spot.