Louder 'Buy all scenes!' offer with red button: -10% conversion
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsMaking the purchase screen louder, with yellow offer text, a repeated 'Save 58%' and a red box around the buy button, cut conversion by 10%.
OnSwitch ran this A/B test, and it was published as a MarketingSherpa case study.
More visual emphasis did not mean more buyers here.
- Conversion: -10% for the louder variant versus the plain control. This is a loss, so the original design was the better choice.
- Sample size, test length and confidence level were not shared, so treat the size of the drop with some caution.
The change
The variant adds yellow text, a repeated discount and a red-boxed button.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
The purchase screen showed the 'Buy all scenes!' offer in white text with an understated buy button.
Variant
The offer text turned yellow, 'Save 58%' appeared more than once, and the buy button was boxed in red.
Why it likely lost
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- Bright yellow and red can read as pushy or cheap, which may lower trust at the moment someone is about to pay.
- Repeating 'Save 58%' may have added noise rather than clarity, making the screen harder to scan.
- When everything is emphasized, the eye has no clear path to the one action that matters.
Caveats: The source page is no longer online, so this is based on our researchers' notes. Sample size, duration and statistical confidence were not shared.
Who ran it
OnSwitch ran this test and published the results (MarketingSherpa case study). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on OnSwitch →
How to run this test on your site
- Hypothesis
- If we make the purchase offer and buy button more visually prominent, then more users will buy, because the offer and the action will be harder to miss.
- Primary metric
- Purchase conversion rate on the buy screen
- Guardrails
- Average order value
- Refund or chargeback rate
- Clicks on the buy button versus completed purchases
- Who should test it
- SaaS and app teams whose buy screen is genuinely hard to read or where the button blends into the page. If your offer is already clear, louder colors may hurt, as they did here.
Questions
Does a red buy button increase conversions?
Not reliably. In this test a red-boxed button plus brighter text lowered conversion by 10%.
Button color matters less than contrast, clarity and trust.
Should I repeat the discount on a purchase page?
Stating a saving once and clearly is usually enough.
Repeating it can make a page feel cluttered or salesy, so test it before rolling it out.