'Start Now' CTA, new colors and trust badges: +32% to payment page
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsThree bundled homepage changes lifted visits to the payment page by 32% (21.79% to 28.76%) for White Card Courses, an Australian construction induction training provider.
Conversion UP ran this test for White Card Courses, and it was published as a VWO case study.
The CTA text, the color scheme and the badge placement all changed at once, so the lift can't be credited to any single change.
- Visits to the payment page from the homepage: 21.79% vs 28.76%, a 32% lift at 99.9% confidence.
- Clicks on the payment page CTA: 10.13% vs 12.25%, a 20.9% lift at 99.9% confidence.
- These are funnel steps, not completed purchases. The case study does not report final sales.
The change
New CTA copy and color, with trust badges moved up under the hero
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
The homepage CTA read 'Click to Purchase', and the header, hero and button shared one color theme. The money-back guarantee and same-day certificate badges sat below the fold.
Variant
The CTA read 'Start Now', the CTA and subheading got their own background colors, and trust and guarantee badges moved to just below the hero image.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- The guarantee and fast certificate dispatch were key selling points, but few visitors scrolled far enough to see them.
- With one color theme across the header, hero and button, the CTA did not stand out. Separate colors made the next step easier to spot.
- 'Start Now' describes beginning a course, which may feel lighter than being asked to purchase straight away.
Caveats: Three changes shipped together, so the result reflects the bundle. The test ran for 3 weeks on 6,585 visitors and measured steps toward payment, not completed sales.
Who ran it
Conversion UP 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 Conversion UP →
How to run this test on your site
- Hypothesis
- If we move our guarantee and trust badges near the top of the page and make the CTA stand out, then more visitors will move to payment because our key reasons to buy are seen sooner.
- Primary metric
- Visits to the payment or checkout page
- Guardrails
- Completed purchases
- Refund or chargeback rate
- Bounce rate on the payment page
- Who should test it
- Lead-gen and course sellers whose strongest selling points are buried below the fold. If you want to know which change mattered, test them one at a time instead of as a bundle.
Questions
Where should trust badges go on a homepage?
Close to the main call to action, where visitors decide whether to continue.
In this bundled test, moving them just below the hero was part of a 32% lift.
Is 'Start Now' better than 'Click to Purchase'?
It was part of the winning version here, but it changed along with colors and badges.
Test the button text alone if you want to know its effect.