Two-column radical offer page redesign: -53.28% new sales
Test run byMarketingExperimentsResearch publisher
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsA radical two-column redesign meant to put more of the offer and order process above the fold cut new sales from 244 to 114, a 53.28% drop.
MarketingExperiments (MECLABS) ran this A/B/C test on one of its own test sites.
A lighter version, with slightly shorter copy and a jump link, won by 15.57%.
- New sales: 244 (control) vs 114 (two-column), a 53.28% drop. A large loss.
- Traffic was split about evenly: 34%, 33% and 33% across the three pages.
- The third page, with slightly shorter copy and a 'click here' jump link, got 282 sales, up 15.57% on the original.
- 58.52% of a live web clinic audience predicted the two-column page would win.
The change
The variant split the page into two columns to pull the offer and order form above the fold.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
The original offer page, where many visitors on smaller screens had to scroll to reach the main sales copy.
Variant
A radical two-column redesign that showed part of the order process above the fold and packed more information into the first screen.
Why it likely lost
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- The team was right that key sales copy should appear earlier. The lighter page proved that and won.
- The two-column layout seems to have made the page harder to read, which cancelled the benefit of moving content up.
- Squeezing the order process into the first screen may have asked for the sale before visitors understood the offer.
Caveats: This is a 2006 test on a MarketingExperiments test site, and the product type was not stated. No confidence level was shared, though the gap in sales is large.
Who ran it
MarketingExperiments ran this test for a MarketingExperiments test site selling a primary product online and published the results (MarketingExperiments). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on MarketingExperiments →
How to run this test on your store
- Hypothesis
- If we move key sales copy higher on the page, then sales will rise because more visitors see it, provided we do it without making the layout harder to read.
- Primary metric
- Sales per visitor
- Guardrails
- Scroll depth
- Add-to-cart or order start rate
- Bounce rate
- Who should test it
- Stores and offer pages where analytics show many visitors never scroll to the main pitch. Try a light fix like a jump link or shorter copy first; a radical redesign is a bigger risk.
Questions
Is putting everything above the fold a good idea?
Not if it makes the page cramped. Here a two-column page that crammed more into the first screen lost over half its sales.
What worked better than a full redesign?
A lighter page with slightly shorter copy and a jump link to the order section. It raised sales by 15.57%.
Can experienced marketers predict test winners?
Often not. Most of a live audience picked the losing page in this test.
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