# Lead form rebuilt with a conversion heuristic: +19% after 4 losses

- Outcome: Won
- Page type: Lead form (Lead-gen)
- Elements: Form layout, Value proposition
- Date shared: 2014
- Test run by: [VacationRoost](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/vacationroost/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://marketingexperiments.com/a-b-testing/search-engine-marketing-optimization-how-simultaneous-testing-increased-ppc-clickthrough-427-for-an-ecommerce-company-video
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/vacationroost-lead-form-conversion-sequence/

Rebuilding a lead generation form page around the MECLABS Conversion Sequence heuristic lifted conversion by 19%, after four earlier tests failed. VacationRoost, a vacation rental wholesaler, ran the tests and Director of Marketing Ryan Hutchings presented them at the 2014 Web Optimization Summit; it was published by MarketingExperiments. Many elements changed at once, so the lift belongs to the full redesign.

## Result

**+19% after 4 losses**

- Form conversion: +19% for the fifth treatment.
- Earlier attempts: a shorter form and a borrowed layout both failed to lift, showing that common best practices did not work here.
- Sample size, duration and confidence level were not shared.

## Control

VacationRoost's existing lead generation form. Four earlier challengers, including a shortened form and a layout copied from a webinar example, failed to beat it.

## Variant

A fifth version that rebuilt the form page by applying every element of the MECLABS Conversion Sequence heuristic, changing many elements together.

## Why it likely won (our reading)

- Working from a full framework, not a single tip, likely fixed several problems with the form at once.
- A shorter form alone may not help if visitors are not yet convinced the inquiry is worth making.
- A layout that worked for another company was built for a different audience and offer.

## Caveats

Bundled test: many elements changed together, so no single change gets the credit. The figures were reported by the company at a conference, with no sample size or confidence shared.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we redesign our lead form page around a clear framework (motivation, value, incentive, friction, anxiety), then form completions will rise because we address all the reasons people hold back, not just form length.
- Primary metric: Lead form completion rate
- Guardrail: Lead quality (qualified or booked rate)
- Guardrail: Cost per lead
- Guardrail: Page bounce rate
- Who should test it: Lead-gen businesses whose key form has resisted simple fixes. A multi-change test suits lower-traffic sites that can't wait for single-factor results, but you won't learn which change mattered.

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Credit: VacationRoost ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/vacationroost-lead-form-conversion-sequence/).
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.