Conversion Optimization for B2B SaaS Companies: Get actionable insights from these winning and losing A/B tests

SUMMARY:

“The goal of a test is not to get a lift, but to get a learning,” our CEO Flint McGlaughlin teaches.

To spur your own testing ideas, today we bring you an example of a lift and a learning. Read on to see examples from workforce management and MarTech.

by Daniel Burstein, Senior Director, Content & Marketing, MarketingSherpa and MECLABS Institute

Action Box: Start driving conversions now with expert AI strategies

Want to learn how AI and messaging can drive conversions? Join us TODAY (March 18 at 2 pm EDT) for MEC050: Let AI Agents Market For You to collaborate with Flint McGlaughlin (from MeclabsAI, MarketingSherpa’s parent company).

Quick Case Study #1: How workforce management software company boosted conversions 59% with a redesigned landing page

Hubstaff is a time tracking and workforce management tool for remote, hybrid and in-office teams.

BEFORE: Original landing page

Late last year the team ran a test on one of their key product pages for paid campaigns. The objective was to drive more site visitors to sign up for a trial of the product.

Creative Sample #1: Control product landing page

AFTER: Redesigned hero with engaging animation, cleaner layout, and integrated email capture

The team wanted to capture visitors' attention by using animation and a cleaner, lighter design. They redesigned the hero of the page to feature a design with a white background, a small yet eye-catching animation in the headline, and more succinct content.

Here are the specific changes they made in the treatment:

Light background to help accentuate and add contrast to the CTA button of ‘Create account’
Embedded the email capture widget in the hero based on discovery from a previous test
Testimonial and customer logos were placed directly underneath the CTA to help build trust and add credibility
Showcased the product with imagery that put more emphasis on what the users would get access to after creating an account

Creative Sample #2: Treatment/variant product landing page

RESULTS: 59% conversion lift

The treatment produced a 10.95% conversion rate versus a 6.89% conversion rate for the control – a 59% overall lift – at a 98% level of confidence.

“I suspected we would see an increase in the conversion rate, but I was pleasantly surprised at how strong the lift was,” Alex Schutte, senior vice president of marketing, Hubstaff.

The team has since rolled out the winning design to other pages on its site. They saw in heatmaps that users are trying to interact with the screenshots, so they next plan to test having those animate and/or have a demo video popup in a modal when visitors click.

QUICK CASE STUDY #2: How 16.86% conversion decrease helped B2B Saas company discover what value appealed to its customers

Heyflow is a B2B Saas MarTech tool. “Our marketing team A/B tests our website and landing pages constantly,” said Cory Schmidt, head of marketing, Heyflow.

BEFORE: ‘All-in-one’ element of value proposition

The original homepage focused on the completeness of the platform with the headline ‘All-in-One Lead Generation Platform.’

Creative Sample #3: Control homepage

AFTER: ‘Mobile’ element of value proposition

As part of a positioning project, the team wanted to find out whether mobile friendliness was a more appealing element of value to focus on. So they created a treatment with the headline ‘The Only Solution You Need for Converting Mobile Traffic.’ They ran a test with a 50/50 traffic split.

Creative Sample #4: Treatment/variant homepage

RESULTS: 16.86% decrease

While the control got an 8.9% conversion rate on signup clicks, the treatment only received a 7.4% conversion rate – a 16.86% decrease.

Since the mobile-centric positioning underperformed, the team stuck with the original positioning on its homepage.

Next up, the team is going to consider testing other headlines. They also realize that since the treatment headline was longer than the control headline (three lines versus two), that might have affected the results, and are considering a similar test where the headlines are of equal length to remove that variable.

This article was distributed through the free MarketingSherpa email newsletter.

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