Progress bar on a credit card application: +12.8% submissions
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsAdding a progress bar above a four-step credit card application lifted completed submissions by 12.8% for the best design, and 6.9% for the other.
Tinkoff Bank's in-house analytics team ran the test, published as a VWO case study.
Both bars showed the current step and a likelihood of approval that rose as applicants filled in the form.
- Green filling bar: +12.8% completed application submissions.
- Yellow bar with progress line: +6.9% completed application submissions.
- Both variants were reported with a 100% chance to beat the control.
- The test covered more than 190,000 visitors over 39 days.
The change
The variant adds a progress bar with approval odds above the form.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
The four-step credit card application form had no progress indicator. Applicants could not see how far along they were.
Variant
Two designs were tested above the form. One was a yellow banner with a thin progress line; the other was a green bar that filled up as the applicant moved through the steps. Both showed the current step and the chance of approval.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- Showing the current step tells applicants how much effort is left, which can ease anxiety about a long form.
- The approval-odds figure rewards each completed field, so stopping halfway feels like losing progress.
- The green design made progress the bar itself, which may be easier to read at a glance than a separate line.
Caveats: Figures are reported by the vendor and the test date is not shared. The 'chance to beat' figure is a Bayesian-style tool metric, not a classic p-value.
Who ran it
Tinkoff Bank 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 Tinkoff Bank →
How to run this test on your site
- Hypothesis
- If we add a progress bar showing the current step and how close applicants are to finishing, then more of them will complete the form because they can see the remaining effort and feel invested in finishing.
- Primary metric
- Completed application submissions
- Guardrails
- Application quality or approval rate
- Step-one start rate
- Time to complete the form
- Who should test it
- Lenders, insurers and any lead-gen business with a multi-step application. It is unlikely to matter on short one-step forms, and an approval-odds meter only fits where approval is actually uncertain.
Questions
Do progress bars improve form completion?
They often help on multi-step forms where people worry about length.
In this test the best progress bar lifted completed applications by 12.8%.
Does the design of the progress bar matter?
It did here. A green bar that filled up beat a yellow banner with a thin line, 12.8% versus 6.9%.
Should a progress bar show approval odds?
Tinkoff's bars did, which adds a reward for each step.
Only show odds if they reflect something real, or trust can suffer.