Simpler homepage banner with a clear CTA: +433% clickthrough
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsA cleaner Humana homepage banner, with less copy, one clear message and a prominent call to action, got 433% more clickthrough than the busy original.
Mike Loveridge, head of digital test and learn at Humana, ran the test, and it was published by MarketingExperiments.
- Banner clickthrough: up 433% versus the original.
- The metric is clicks on the banner, not insurance enrolments, so the effect on leads further down the funnel is unknown.
- Sample size, test length and significance were not shared.
The change
Busy, copy-heavy banner replaced by one message and a prominent button
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
A homepage banner packed with copy, with no single clear message and a weak call to action.
Variant
A focused banner with less copy, more white space, one concise message and a prominent call to action.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- Visitors glance at banners like billboards. One message read in a second beats a paragraph.
- A clear call to action tells people exactly what to do next.
- Moving the details to the next page lets the banner do one job: earn the click.
Caveats: Copy, layout and call to action all changed at once, so the lift can't be pinned to one element. The test measured clickthrough only and dates from 2016.
Who ran it
Humana ran this test for a health insurance provider and published the results (MarketingExperiments). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on Humana →
How to run this test on your site
- Hypothesis
- If we cut our homepage banner down to one message and one clear call to action, then more visitors will click through because they can understand the offer at a glance.
- Primary metric
- Banner clickthrough rate
- Guardrails
- Lead form submissions or quote starts from banner traffic
- Bounce rate on the destination page
- Who should test it
- Lead generation and insurance or finance sites whose homepage banners carry lots of copy. If your banner is already short with a clear button, expect smaller gains.
Questions
How much copy should a homepage banner have?
Only enough to state one message and what to do next.
Save the details for the page the banner links to.
Does more banner clickthrough mean more leads?
Not always. Track leads or quote starts from banner traffic too, because more clicks from less interested visitors can dilute results.