# New 99designs logo vs original logo: -10% trial conversion

- Outcome: Lost
- Page type: Site-wide (SaaS)
- Elements: Design
- Date shared: 2010-08
- Test run by: [Patrick McKenzie](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/patrick-mckenzie/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/08/04/does-your-product-logo-actually-matter/
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/patio11-bcc-logo-99designs/

Replacing the original Bingo Card Creator logo with an off-the-shelf logo from 99designs dropped sitewide conversion to free trial from 11.05% to 9.92%, about 10% worse. Patrick McKenzie ran this sitewide test and published it on the Kalzumeus blog in 2010. About 8,500 people saw each logo over two weeks, and the original won at 99% confidence.

## Result

**-10% trial conversion**

- Conversion to free trial was 11.05% with the original logo and 9.92% with the new one, about 10% lower in relative terms.
- Significant at 99% confidence, with about 8,500 people per version and bots filtered out.
- The test measured trial sign-ups, not purchases, so the effect on revenue is not known.

## Control

The original, custom-made Bingo Card Creator logo in the site header.

## Variant

A new logo bought from the 99designs store, shown sitewide. Each visitor was randomly assigned one logo and kept seeing it on later visits.

## Why it likely lost (our reading)

- The original logo was less generic, which may have made the product look more distinct.
- A logo is one of the first things visitors see, so it can shape trust in the whole site.
- The new logo may have fit the product's audience or look less well than the one made for it.

## Caveats

The conversion rate is sitewide and includes a lot of search traffic that could use free content without signing up. The test measured trials, not purchases, and the data is from 2010.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we replace our logo with a new design, then trial sign-ups will change because the logo shapes first impressions of the product.
- Primary metric: Free trial sign-up rate, sitewide
- Guardrail: Paid conversion from trial
- Guardrail: Bounce rate on landing pages
- Guardrail: Returning visitor behavior
- Who should test it: Small, transaction-focused SaaS products where brand confusion during a short test is a small risk. Larger brands with strong recognition may decide the risk of showing two logos outweighs what they would learn.

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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-logo-99designs/).
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.