# Brand fonts and images on sign-up page: plain control won by 51%

- Outcome: Lost
- Page type: Landing page (Lead-gen)
- Elements: Design, Branding
- Date shared: 2015-06
- Test run by: [MarketingExperiments](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/marketingexperiments/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://marketingexperiments.com/value-proposition/branded-design-tested
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/me-regional-marketing-commission-branded-design/

Adding more brand fonts, images and design detail to a free guide sign-up page lost, with the plain control converting 51% higher. MarketingExperiments (MECLABS) ran this A/B test for a regional marketing commission that wanted to bring more tourists to its city. The team put the loss down to hard-to-read fonts and dark images.

## Result

**plain control won by 51%**

- Guide sign-up conversion: the control converted 51% higher. A clear loss for the branded design.
- Visitor counts, sign-up counts and confidence were not shared.
- A web clinic audience overwhelmingly expected the branded version to win.

## Control

A plain, simple landing page asking visitors to sign up for a free guide to local activities and events.

## Variant

The same sign-up page with more brand fonts, images, colors and design detail.

## Why it likely lost (our reading)

- The brand fonts were hard to read, so visitors had to work harder to understand the offer.
- Dark images reduced contrast around the copy and form.
- More visual detail added friction to a simple task: entering details to get a free guide.

## Caveats

No sample size, duration or confidence level was shared. The variant changed fonts, images and colors together, so the result can't be tied to one of them.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we apply more brand styling to our sign-up page, then sign-ups will rise because the page feels more trustworthy, unless the styling makes the copy and form harder to read.
- Primary metric: Form sign-up conversion rate
- Guardrail: Form start rate
- Guardrail: Time to complete form
- Guardrail: Mobile conversion rate
- Who should test it: Lead-gen teams, tourism boards and agencies whose brand guidelines push decorative fonts or heavy imagery. Check readability first; branding is less risky when it keeps text high-contrast and plain.

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Credit: MarketingExperiments ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/me-regional-marketing-commission-branded-design/).
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.