# Purple box around the homepage Donate link: +190% clickthrough

- Outcome: Won
- Page type: Homepage (Lead-gen)
- Elements: Cta design, Visual emphasis
- Date shared: 2015-09
- Test run by: [NextAfter](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/nextafter/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://marketingexperiments.com/a-b-testing/nonprofit-testing-how-one-small-change-led-to-190-increase-in-clickthrough
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/dts-homepage-donate-button-emphasis/

Calling 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.

## Result

**+190% clickthrough**

- 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.

## 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)

- 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.

## How to run this test

- 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
- Guardrail: Donation or form conversion rate on the next page
- Guardrail: 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.

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Credit: NextAfter ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/dts-homepage-donate-button-emphasis/).
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.