Student testimonial above brochure form: +50% submissions
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsPlacing a student testimonial directly above a brochure request form increased form submissions by 50%.
The Reference, a digital agency, ran this split URL test for Hotel Institute Montreux, a Swiss hospitality management school, and it was published as a VWO case study.
The higher conversion rate cut the school's AdWords cost per lead by 54%.
- Brochure form submissions: +50%.
- AdWords cost per lead: down 54%, a knock-on effect of more leads from the same paid traffic.
- Sample size, duration and confidence level were not shared.
The change
A student testimonial is added directly above the brochure form.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
The free brochure request page had a form and no testimonials. The school's testimonials sat on a separate page.
Variant
A student testimonial was added right above the brochure form, so prospects saw it at the moment of signing up.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- Choosing a school is a big decision. A real student's words give prospects a reason to trust the program.
- The testimonial sat next to the form, where doubt about giving contact details is highest.
- Good proof already existed but was hidden on another page, so the change just moved it to where it mattered.
Caveats: Sample size, duration and statistical confidence were not shared. The test date is also unknown.
Who ran it
The Reference ran this test for Swiss hospitality management school 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 The Reference →
How to run this test on your site
- Hypothesis
- If we place a customer testimonial directly above our lead form, then more visitors will submit because they get social proof at the moment they decide.
- Primary metric
- Lead form submissions
- Guardrails
- Lead quality (enrolment or sales-qualified rate)
- Cost per lead
- Form start rate
- Who should test it
- Lead-gen businesses with considered purchases, such as schools, courses or professional services, that already have strong testimonials. It may do little where the form is a trivial, low-risk ask or the testimonial is generic.
Questions
Where should testimonials go on a lead generation page?
Close to the form or call to action is a good place to test first.
In this case, putting one testimonial right above the form lifted submissions by 50%.
Does one testimonial make a difference?
It can. This test added a single student testimonial and nothing else, and leads rose by half.
How does a higher conversion rate affect paid ad costs?
With the same ad spend, more leads means a lower cost per lead.
Here cost per lead on AdWords fell 54%.
MarketingExperiments