# Progress bar on a credit card application: +12.8% submissions

- Outcome: Won
- Page type: Lead form (Lead-gen)
- Elements: Progress bar, Form design
- Test run by: [Tinkoff Bank](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/tinkoff-bank/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://wingify.com/success-stories/tinkoff-bank/
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/tinkoff-application-progress-bar/

Adding 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.

## Result

**+12.8% submissions**

- 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.

## 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)

- 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.

## How to run this test

- 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
- Guardrail: Application quality or approval rate
- Guardrail: Step-one start rate
- Guardrail: 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.

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Credit: Tinkoff Bank ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/tinkoff-application-progress-bar/).
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.