Here’s an excerpt from an article about A/B testing on Smashing Magazine reporting some case studies to give you an idea of how people test in the wild.
Writing Decisions: Headline Tests on the Highrise Sign-Up Page
37signals tested the headline on its pricing page. It found that “30-Day Free Trial on All Accounts” generated 30% more sign-ups than the original “Start a Highrise Account.”
“You Should Follow Me on Twitter Here” (Dustin Curtis)
This much-hyped split-test involved testing multiple versions of a call to action for Twitter followers. Dustin found that “You should follow me on Twitter here” worked 173% better than his control text, “I’m on Twitter.”
Human Photos Double Conversion Rates
A surprising conclusion from two separate A/B tests: putting human photos on a website increases conversion rates by as much as double. Scientific research backs this up, saying that we are subconsciously attracted to images with people.
Google Website Optimizer Case Study: Daily Burn, 20%+ Improvement (Tim Ferriss)
A simple variation that gave visitors fewer options too choose from resulted in a 20% increase in conversions. The winning version was also much easier on the eye than the control in its detail and text.
Two Magical Words Increased Conversion Rate by 28%
The words “It’s free” increased the clicks on this sign-up button by 28%, illustrating the importance of testing call-to-action buttons and how minor changes can have surprisingly major results.
Changing the Sign-Up Button from Green to Red
Along with its other A/B tests, CareLogger increased its conversion rate by 34% simply by changing the color of the sign-up button from green to red!
Single page vs. multi-step checkout
If you have an online store, it is quite common to see visitors abandoning the purchase process at the time of checkout. This A/B test found out that a single page checkout process works much better at completing sales than multiple-page checkout process.
“Mad Libs” style form increases conversion 25-40%
Defeating conventional wisdom, in this A/B test it was found out that a paragraph-styled form with inline input fields worked much better than traditional form layout. Though the result was probably specific to their offering as it wasn’t replicated in another, separate A/B test.
Complete redesign of product page increased sales by 20%
A software product company redesigned their product page to give it a modern look and added trust building elements (such as seals, guarentees, etc.). End result: they managed to increase total sales by 20%. This case study demonstrates the effect of design on sales.
Marketing Experiments response capture case study – triple digit increase in conversions
Through a series of A/B tests they optimized the mailing list opt-in rate by 258%. Focus was to remove all distractions and require the visitor to only provide email address. For completing his/her complete profile, the landing page motivated the visitors with an Amazon gift card (which was again split tested).
