# Full site redesign and merger: more trials, but sales roughly halved

- Outcome: Lost
- Page type: Site-wide (SaaS)
- Elements: Redesign, Layout
- Date shared: 2008-03
- Test run by: [Patrick McKenzie](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/patrick-mckenzie/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://www.kalzumeus.com/2008/03/15/results-of-site-redesign/
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/patio11-bcc-site-redesign-2008/

Merging two sites and redesigning the whole thing lifted weekday trial downloads from about 100 to 125-150, but daily sales dropped from about 2 to slightly under 1. Patrick McKenzie made this change for Bingo Card Creator and shared the numbers on the Kalzumeus (patio11) blog. This was a bundled before/after comparison, not a split test, and the numbers came from the first week only.

## Result

**more trials, but sales roughly halved**

- Weekday visitors: about 900 to 1,200 (compared against both old sites combined).
- Pages per visit: 2.5 to 3.5, and time per visit: about 90 to 150 seconds.
- Trial downloads: about 100 to 125-150 a day, and confirmed installs: 20-25 to 30-40. Not yet settled.
- Sales: about 2 a day to slightly under 1. Negative on the main business metric, so we mark it lost.

## Control

The old Bingo Card Creator site, with a sister site, Daily Bingo Cards, running separately.

## Variant

The two sites merged into one, with a full redesign of the combined site. Many changes shipped at once, so no single element can be credited.

## Why it likely lost (our reading)

- Early sales data is noisy, and the author thought normal ups and downs might explain the drop.
- People already in the trial may have been put off by the new look and wondered if they were on the right site.
- More engagement and more trials don't guarantee more sales if the new traffic or design attracts less committed visitors.

## Caveats

Before/after, not a split test, eyeballed from about one week of typical weekday numbers in 2008. Many changes shipped together, and Bingo Card Creator was downloadable desktop software at the time, not SaaS.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we merge our sites and redesign them, then paid conversions will rise because visitors will find the product and trial more easily.
- Primary metric: Paid conversions (sales or new subscriptions)
- Guardrail: Trial sign-ups
- Guardrail: Trial-to-paid rate
- Guardrail: Returning trial users' activity
- Who should test it: SaaS teams planning a redesign who can split traffic between old and new versions. If you can only do a before/after switch, wait several weeks before judging sales and expect noise from existing trial users.

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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-site-redesign-2008/).
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.