Trial CTA moved above the fold, nav button cut: +12.37% completions
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsMoving the 'Start Free Trial!' button above the fold and removing a 'Contact Us' button lifted the trial form completion rate by 12.37% on desktop.
Micro Focus ran this A/B test, and it was published as a VWO case study.
Two changes shipped together, so the lift can't be credited to either one alone.
- Form completion rate: +12.37% for the variant over the control.
- Desktop traffic only, with all visitors in the test and a 50/50 split.
- The variant won and was rolled out on the site.
The change
Variant drops Contact Us and lifts the trial button into the form, above the fold.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
After an earlier test made the form longer, the 'Start Free Trial!' button sat below the fold. A 'Contact Us' button sat in the top right of the page.
Variant
The 'Contact Us' button was removed. The trial button was moved into the form block and extra spacing was cut, so the button showed above the fold.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- Visitors could see the submit button without scrolling, so the end of the form felt closer.
- Removing 'Contact Us' took away an exit from a high-value page.
- Tighter spacing made the form look shorter and quicker to finish.
Caveats: Two changes were bundled (moved CTA and removed nav button), so the effect of each is unknown. Desktop only, ran for 15 days, and no sample size or confidence level was shared.
Who ran it
Micro Focus ran this test 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 Micro Focus →
How to run this test on your site
- Hypothesis
- If we put the trial button above the fold and remove competing links from the trial page, then more visitors will complete the form because the next step is visible and there are fewer ways out.
- Primary metric
- Trial form completion rate
- Guardrails
- Sales enquiries or contact requests from other channels
- Trial-to-paid conversion
- Mobile completion rate if the change is rolled out beyond desktop
- Who should test it
- SaaS companies whose trial or demo form pushes the button below the fold, or whose trial page carries extra header links. Be careful if many of your best leads come through the contact route you would be removing.
Questions
Does putting the CTA above the fold always help?
No. It helps most when visitors are ready to act and the button was hidden.
Here it was combined with removing a distracting link, so the two effects can't be separated.
Should I remove 'Contact Us' from my trial page?
It can cut distractions, but check where your sales-ready leads come from first.
Watch contact requests from other channels after the change.
Why test on desktop only?
Above-the-fold layouts differ a lot between screen sizes.
Micro Focus limited this test to desktop, so the mobile effect is unknown.
MarketingExperiments