# Two-column landing page redesign lost to the placeholder by 85.51%

- Outcome: Lost
- Page type: Landing page (Lead-gen)
- Elements: Layout, Form fields, Copy
- Date shared: 2009-03
- Test run by: [XBanker](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/xbanker/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://marketingexperiments.com/value-proposition/wild-card-winner
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/me-xbanker-two-column-landing-page/

XBanker's quickly built placeholder landing page converted 85.51% better (relative) than a two-column redesign with refined copy and a shorter quote form. The test was submitted by Ryan Hutchings and published as a MarketingExperiments web clinic review. The redesign bundled several changes, so the loss can't be pinned on any one of them.

## Result

**Control beat treatment by 85.51% relative**

- Quote request conversion: the control beat the redesign by 85.51% relative. Raw conversion rates and lead counts were not shared.
- A second, more colorful two-column treatment also lost to the control, by 51.52%.
- Clinic attendees predicted the redesign would win, so expert opinion was wrong here.
- Verdict: a loss for a bundled redesign. We can't credit or blame any single element.

## Control

A fast mock-up landing page for PPC traffic with a direct eye path, few links or side options, and a quote request form whose button echoed the headline.

## Variant

A two-column redesign with the quote form in the right column, a refined value proposition, more supporting copy, a shorter form and new button copy.

## Why it likely lost (our reading)

- The plain page put the form right in the reading path, so there was little between the visitor and the action.
- The source suggests the redesigns did not follow how prospects think through the offer as closely as the original did.
- Splitting attention across two columns and more copy may have slowed down visitors who arrived from an ad ready to request a quote.

## Caveats

Several changes shipped together, so the result reflects the whole redesign. Sample size, duration and confidence were not shared, and the data is from 2009.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we keep our PPC landing page single-column with the quote form directly in the reading path, then more visitors will request a quote because there is less to process before acting.
- Primary metric: Quote request conversion rate
- Guardrail: Lead quality (qualified or funded rate)
- Guardrail: Cost per lead
- Who should test it: Lead-gen businesses such as lenders or insurers sending paid traffic to a quote form. Complex or high-trust offers may need more copy, so test rather than copy this layout.

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Credit: XBanker ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/me-xbanker-two-column-landing-page/).
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.