Hero lead form swapped for booking buttons: +24.49% booking value
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsReplacing the homepage hero lead form with two booking buttons raised booking value per visitor by 24.49% and added 58 bookings.
Haller Enterprises, a Pennsylvania HVAC, plumbing and electrical company, ran this 50/50 A/B test over 97 days, and it was published as a VWO case study.
Form leads from the hero fell sharply, because visitors moved to the booking page and the phone line instead.
- Booking value per visitor: +24.49%, the metric the team used to judge the test.
- Bookings: 58 more than the control over the test.
- Schedule-service clicks: +58.43%, and the new 24/7 call button got 206 clicks.
- Hero form leads: down 72% (53 to 11). This is a real drop, but those visitors largely moved to booking and calling rather than leaving.
- Early read was negative: at two weeks the variant trailed on completed bookings (5.1% vs 7.2%) before reversing.
The change
The hero lead form is replaced by book and call buttons with three reassurance points.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
The homepage hero held a lead form. Visitors had to give first name, last name, email, phone and ZIP code, and pick a service, before doing anything else.
Variant
The form was removed. The hero showed a main 'Schedule Service in Minutes' button, a second 'Call Now - 24/7' button, and three short reassurance points: same-day service, easy booking and local coverage.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- For urgent home repairs, people want to book or call now. A six-question form in the hero slows that down.
- Two clear actions (book online or call) match the two ways people prefer to get help in a hurry.
- The reassurance points answered the main worries, speed and coverage, without asking for anything.
- Removing the form moved intent to channels that turn into jobs more directly than a lead that still needs a callback.
Caveats: Leads shifted from the hero form to the booking page and phone, so the test has to be judged on combined value, not form fills. The variant was losing at two weeks, so a short test would have reached the wrong answer.
Who ran it
Haller Enterprises ran this test for HVAC, plumbing and electrical services provider in Pennsylvania and published the results (VWO case study). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on Haller Enterprises →
How to run this test on your site
- Hypothesis
- If we replace the homepage lead form with direct 'book now' and 'call now' buttons, then booking value per visitor will rise because urgent visitors can act without filling in fields first.
- Primary metric
- Booking value per visitor (online bookings plus calls)
- Guardrails
- Total leads across form, booking page and phone
- Call volume and answer rate
- Booking completion rate
- Who should test it
- Local service businesses with urgent, high-intent visitors and a working online booking or phone line. It fits less well where a sales team needs qualified form leads before quoting, or where calls can't be answered quickly.
Questions
Should a service business put a lead form on its homepage?
Not always. In this test, removing the hero form cut form leads but raised bookings and booking value, because visitors went straight to booking or calling.
Why did form submissions drop while the test still won?
Visitors switched channels. Fewer people filled in the form, but more booked online or called, which is what the business actually earns from.
How long should a homepage test like this run?
Long enough to reach a reliable result. Here the variant was behind at two weeks and only pulled ahead over the full 97 days.