Product links on marketplace app pages: +124.13% product page traffic
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsAdding links to related Micro Focus product pages on its marketplace app detail pages lifted traffic sent to those product pages by 124.13%.
Micro Focus ran this split URL test on its marketplace sub-domain, and it was published as a VWO case study.
- Traffic from the marketplace to product pages: +124.13% for the variant.
- Run as a split URL test with all traffic included and a 50/50 split.
- This measures clicks through to product pages, not sign-ups or revenue.
The change
Variant adds links from each app page to the related product pages.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
App detail pages on the marketplace sub-domain had no links to the related Micro Focus product pages.
Variant
The same app detail pages, with links added to the matching Micro Focus product pages, which are the company's revenue pages.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- Before the test there was no path from an app page to the product it relates to, so almost any link adds traffic.
- Visitors looking at an app are often already interested in the product behind it.
- A large lift on a click metric is easier to reach than on a sales metric because the starting point is low.
Caveats: The metric is traffic to product pages, not sign-ups or revenue. Ran for 15 days, with no sample size or confidence level 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 link app or integration pages to the related product pages, then more visitors will reach our revenue pages because they get a clear next step.
- Primary metric
- Click-through from app detail pages to product pages
- Guardrails
- Trial or demo requests from product pages
- Engagement with the app itself (installs or downloads)
- Bounce rate on product pages
- Who should test it
- Software companies with a marketplace, integrations directory or docs site that is cut off from the main product pages. Expect a smaller effect if those pages already link to the products.
Questions
Do internal links from marketplace pages help sales?
In this test they more than doubled traffic to product pages.
The case study did not report whether that led to more sign-ups or revenue.
What is a split URL test?
It sends visitors to two separate page versions at different URLs and compares them.
Micro Focus split traffic 50/50 between the two versions.