# Dedicated one-button AdWords landing page: trial rate ~22% to ~28%

- Outcome: Won
- Page type: Landing page (SaaS)
- Elements: Redesign, Cta design
- Date shared: 2009-08
- Test run by: [Patrick McKenzie](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/patrick-mckenzie/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://www.kalzumeus.com/2009/08/09/update-landing-page-redesign-successful/
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/patio11-bcc-adwords-landing-page-redesign/

Sending AdWords clicks to a dedicated landing page built around one main sign-up button lifted conversion to free trial from about 21-22% to about 28%. Patrick McKenzie made this change for the new web version of Bingo Card Creator and reported it on the Kalzumeus (patio11) blog. It was a before/after comparison against past averages, not a split test.

## Result

**trial rate ~22% to ~28%**

- Conversion to trial: about 21-22% to about 28% over the last 1,000 visitors.
- The main button got over 180 clicks and the text link above it about 40 more, from those 1,000 visitors.
- The author worked out that the same ad spend now gave about a third more trials, cutting acquisition cost by about 25%.

## Control

AdWords clicks landed on general site pages. These usually turned about 18-22% of paid clicks into trials.

## Variant

A page made only for ad traffic, focused on one large sign-up button, with a matching sign-up-free text link just above it.

## Why it likely won (our reading)

- One clear goal on the page leaves visitors with fewer choices and less to figure out.
- A page built for ad visitors can match what they searched for instead of serving every kind of visitor.
- A big, obvious button plus a matching text link catches both people who scan and people who read.

## Caveats

Before/after, not a split test, compared with the author's historical average, over about 1,000 visitors in 2009. The web version of the product had just launched, which may also have affected conversion.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we send paid traffic to a dedicated page with one main sign-up button, then more visitors will start a trial because the page has a single clear next step.
- Primary metric: Paid-traffic conversion to trial
- Guardrail: Trial-to-paid rate
- Guardrail: Cost per acquisition
- Guardrail: Bounce rate
- Who should test it: SaaS and lead-gen businesses that send paid search traffic to the home page or general pages. It matters less if you already have focused, campaign-specific landing pages.

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Credit: Patrick McKenzie ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/patio11-bcc-adwords-landing-page-redesign/).
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.