'Watch The Video' opt-in button: +28% email opt-ins
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsChanging the opt-in button from 'Get Instant Access' to 'Watch The Video' lifted The Social Man's email opt-in rate from 11.9% to 15.3%, a 28% gain.
The Social Man, a dating and social skills coaching business, ran the test on a squeeze page for cold paid traffic.
It was published as a VWO case study.
- Email opt-in rate: 11.9% on control vs 15.3% on the variant.
- That is a 28% relative lift, or 3.4 percentage points.
- Sample size, duration and confidence were not shared.
The change
Only the opt-in button copy changes.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
A squeeze page whose submit button read 'Get Instant Access'.
Variant
The same page with the button reading 'Watch The Video'. Only the button copy changed.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- 'Watch The Video' tells visitors exactly what they get next, while 'instant access' is vague.
- Watching a video feels like a small, low-risk step compared with getting access to something unknown.
- The button echoed the page's promise of a video, so the action matched what people came for.
Caveats: All traffic was cold paid traffic from one dating site, and no sample size was given. The source also names the control button 'Free Instant Access' in one place.
Who ran it
The Social Man 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 The Social Man →
How to run this test on your site
- Hypothesis
- If we change the button to name the specific thing visitors get next, then more of them will opt in because the reward is clear and feels small to claim.
- Primary metric
- Email opt-in rate
- Guardrails
- Video watch rate after opt-in
- Unsubscribe rate in the first week
- Downstream sales per lead
- Who should test it
- Lead-gen businesses using a squeeze page with one clear lead magnet, such as a video or guide. It matters less if your button already names the offer.
Questions
Does button copy affect opt-in rates?
It can. Here, naming the reward ('Watch The Video') beat a generic access message by 28%.
What makes good opt-in button text?
Start with an action verb and name what the visitor gets, such as watch, get or download plus the specific item.