Koozai > Blog > 10 Great Conversion Rate Optimisation Case Studies

10 Great Conversion Rate Optimisation Case Studies

| 6 minutes to read

Website TestingIn my opinion Conversion Rate Optimisation still doesn’t get the attention it deserves so in this post I’m going to share some amazing CRO case studies to inspire and prove that testing works.

In June, Laura posted a great list of ways to understand user behaviour on your website. Best of all if you can interpret user behaviour on your site then you have the ability to improve conversions and usability. We’ve also posted some tips in the past on what you can be testing on your site.

All of this means CRO has never been easier. As more agencies and businesses release data about tests they’ve performed, the more we can feel inspired to improve our sites and make a better web for internet users.

37signals increased product signups by over 100% using radical a/b testing

Source

I love this case study because 37signals tested radically different page designs, not just going with iterative changes. After seeing some good improvements making their Home page longer and more informative they decided to try something completely different. The original page was a nicely illustrated page full of information, photos, testimonials and widgets. The other featured a large photo with less information but a couple of screenshots.

If you refresh the page in question, you can see they are still split testing the photos.

37signals highrise test

You can also read a much older post when they started to split test headlines long before looking at total redesigns.

SEOmoz (now Moz) achieved $1 million/year revenue with new landing page

Source

Note: This case study is a bit out of date now as SEOmoz has completely re branded to Moz and changed all their media, however the results are still very useful.

The process of reaching $1 million in revenue took different steps. The first step was to design and test a completely new landing page to tell more of a story. On this page a new style of headline was implemented, a video was added and a clear product level table was included.

seomoz landing page

Finally an irresistible special offer for the first month of the service was also given to users, however customer retention and lifetime value remained the priority.

Sunshine.co.uk’s revenue increased by £14 million a year following website improvements

Source

Sunshine.co.uk is a popular holiday site in the UK that Conversion Rate Experts analysed and tested to help increase revenue by a massive £14million.

Firstly they created an enticing email to gather previous customer insight via survey software.  Along with collecting customer opinions about their website experience, private user testing services were implemented to gather more data and make improvements to the website before changes were put live. Once the site was live, continuous split testing refined the conversion rates further.

More data from the survey helped Conversion Rate Experts choose which key points to prominently show on the Home page. These points cleared up most visitors’ questions when they arrived at the site.

sunshine.co.uk selling points

Another important change was clarifying what customers got for the price as many were put off by the low prices thinking they didn’t include everything.

These improvements delivered a massive $14 million increase in turnover.

The Sims 3 game registration increased by 128% with new offer page

Source

Widerfunnel helped EA achieve 128% more Sims 3 game registrations by performing a/b tests on a selection of game page variations. Different messaging and offers were tested against each other to find the most compelling option.

sims 3 ab testing

Simply a/b testing different offers worked well for this brand and shows that the offer is very important to users.

BaseKit redesign increased conversions by 25%

Source

No pricing, offers or content were changed, simply the visual aspect of BaseKit’s pricing page was tested to help increase conversions by 25%. The new design was “Bolder, brighter, had clearer pricing, a nicer design, a testimonial and more obvious currency selection.”

basekit redesign test

Website design is so subjective and many people settle for a design that the business likes, however this case study shows that tweaking a design for users can help significantly with conversions.

Here is another great case study for redesigning a landing page and improving conversions based on more attractive layout.

New, longer Home page resulted in 30% more sign ups for Crazy Egg

Source

Further optimisation resulted in a total of 363% more sign ups. The Longer Home page was part of a large CRO project by Conversion Rate Experts. The page was 20 times longer than the original Home page. It shows that their visitors were keen to learn more about the product and have their questions answered before signing up.

The use of video, special offers and an optimised checkout helped increase signups further.

crazy egg longer home page test

Some believe that a shorter page would prevent user drop off and encourage sign ups. However for certain products it’s important to explain the product in detail and offer answers to questions and assurances to help conversions.

A shorter page can also help increase conversions for other brands where the longer page was restricting conversions (Source).

Adding eCommerce product filters improved revenue by 76.1% for buyakilt.com

Source

By adding more options to narrow down product searches, BuyaKilt.com grew their revenue significantly. Product filters are now very common on eCommerce systems and users expect to see them.

buyakilt product filter

It’s not always the case that having lots of product filters is going to help your ecommerce performance. In another test, UKToolCentre.co.uk found that removing the option to filter products down and freeing up valuable above the fold space helped increase visitor engagement by 27% (Source).

Moving the CTA below the fold increased conversions by 304%

Source

ContentVerve found moving the call to action form under the content helped increase signups by a massive 304% for one of their clients. Organising the call to action into the natural flow on the landing page made sense to most of its visitors.

cta below the fold test

There are cases for having call to actions above the fold but in complex or valuable products, having it succeed the product or service information can work much better.

Image Slider beats Video to increase signups by 30% for Device Magic

Source

Video is a great way of engaging users and conveying information but sometimes simple imagery works better. Five sliding images described the Device Magic service and increased sign ups.

video vs still image test

Find the best format to present to your visitors by testing, not assuming either video, imagery or text will work best.

Changing button colour resulted in 21% more clicks for Performable

Source

Here’s a simple case of making a call to action stand out more or invoke a different response by just changing the colour. It’s true that colour can have an impact on the emotions of users, however it can sometimes simply just make things stand out better.

performable button test

Conversion Rate Optimisation needn’t be complex, a single change can make a large difference.

Adding a product demonstration on the landing page for Performable also increased conversions significantly as reported in this separate case study.

Further Inspiration

If you’ve not had enough motivation to get optimising then keep up to date with the latest Conversion Rate test results on a site called ABTests.com. If you think you understand CRO more, practice your ability to spot the better converting page at WhichTestWon.com.

Image Credit
Test tubes closeup on blue background. Drops from test stick from BigStockPhoto

Responses

  1. […] is to be as concise and cutting as possible. Crazy Egg did the opposite a few years ago, according to this Koozai piece. Increasing the length of a landing page x20 resulted in 363% more signups, highlighting their […]

  2. Michael Reed avatar

    Just wondering how Koozai have faired having implemented some of this insight?

    1. Mike Essex avatar

      Hi Michael, thanks for your comment. Although I can’t comment on the specific numbers, recent tests we have run for Koozai.com that have generated positive results include:

      – Reorganising our service page structure to make them easier to find.

      – Adding a contact form directly to service pages.

      – Adding an email collection to the end of Koozai TV videos.

      – Adding whitepapers to end the blog posts to encourage signup.

      Without CRO we never would have discovered just how effective these changes could be, so we certainly practice it lots here too.

  3. Spook SEO avatar
    Spook SEO

    Amazing post Dean! Thanks for sharing the case studies. Marketers need to understand that internet marketing has evolved yet again. Everyone was into traffic before but right now, trending shows that CRO is where everyone is headed at.

    1. Dean Marsden avatar

      Thanks Spook SEO. I agree, its not about the traffic now as its not as straightforward as it used to be to drive traffic. What you do with your existing traffic is often a better investment in time and money.

  4. Matthew avatar

    Thanks Dean! Great post! Great to see such huge improvements across well known brands.

    Unfortunately I wasn’t able to see larger versions of the Moz and Crazy Egg screenshots – I just get redirected back to this page? :(

    1. Dean Marsden avatar

      Thanks Matthew. Yes it’s interesting to see how varied tests made improvements.

      Unfortunately I wasn’t able to supply large versions of the thumbnails as these aren’t publicly available by Conversion Rate Experts but you can view annotated screenshots by signing up for their newsletter: https://www.conversion-rate-experts.com/learning-zone/.

      You can view a live version of the long Crazyegg page on their Home page: https://www.crazyegg.com/

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