Social Proof Tests on Landing Pages: 3 Results, 20 Ideas

Why social proof matters on landing pages

Landing pages, advertorials and listicles mostly get cold traffic from ads.

Visitors don't know the brand, so proof matters, but they also haven't decided they care about the problem yet.

Where the proof sits is the real question.

Measured results

Plain stars over a platform logo

Dave Diederen tested a Trustpilot logo and rating against plain stars plus "Rated 4.8/5.0 by 50,000+ customers" on a listicle.

The variant won +7.8% conversion rate, +£21,376/month and +374 orders/month.

Dave's reading is that stars are understood instantly, while some visitors don't know or trust the platform logo.

Less proof at the top of an advertorial

Dave hid the social proof slider at the top of an advertorial.

Conversion rate rose +2.29%, revenue per visitor +2.96% and profit per visitor +3.62%, with AOV unchanged.

Dave reports running the same test across several brands with the same result, and calls social proof "a closer, not an opener".

A full long-form page

Kasper Dolk's long-form landing page flow placed a featured review after the header and "why" section, then photo reviews after the offer.

Kasper reported a +259.7% (2.5x) revenue increase with no extra ad spend.

It was a full page build from 2022, so the reviews are one part of a bigger change.

A

→

B

+2.96% revenue per visitor

Hid the social proof slider at the top of an advertorial

Landing pageSocial proof, authority & press@DaveDiederen

A

→

B

+7.8% conversion rate

Replaced Trustpilot logo and rating with plain stars plus "Rated 4.8/5.0 by 50,000+ customers" on a listicle

Landing pageReviews & star ratings@DaveDiederen

A

→

B

+259.7% revenue (2.5x), no extra marketing spend

Long-form LP flow: header, why, featured review, offer, reviews, how, comparison

Landing pageReviews & star ratings@kasper_dolk

Losing or flat tests

None were logged as losses. Dave's slider test is a loss for proof placed first: the page did better without it.

Untested ideas

The ideas don't all agree with Dave's result, which makes them worth testing rather than copying.

• Proof first: Kasper Dolk suggests leading top-of-funnel pages with social proof rather than a product pitch, and putting reviews and media logos above the fold on advertorials. Milos suggests proof above the outcome headline.
• Proof after the hook: Kasper's suggested section order puts the headline first, then social proof, then the problem, benefits and offer.
• Borrowed authority: Kasper suggests leading advertorials with an authority figure, and borrowing authority from Amazon or Prime in listicles.
• Press and trust counts: Kasper suggests a press section with outlet logos and under 3 lines of text, and a trust count above the headline.
• Matching the traffic: Kasper suggests separate pages for cold, warm and hot traffic. Josh Thompson lists a rebuild that matched copy to the top ad with proof above the fold.

Placement and design patterns that won

• Stars plus a plain customer count instead of a review platform logo.
• On cold advertorials, the problem first and proof later.
• Reviews spread through a long page, next to the offer.

Related tests elsewhere on the store

See advertorial and listicle tests, landing page layout tests, homepage social proof and the full social proof collection.