A/B Testing Idea #1: Place irresistible and clear CTA buttons

A/B Testing Idea #1: Place irresistible and clear CTA buttons

Are you wasting much of your time and effort A/B testing every single idea that pops into your head, yet you're not generating sufficient traffic to your website? Don't worry—we've got you.
 
We'd like to introduce you to the A/B Testing Ideas learning series, a collection of easy-to-use design tips to A/B test your website pages. This series will include techniques to effectively optimize various elements on your website and boost conversion rates in a short time. These ideas can also give you a strong framework to start your conversion rate optimization and discover what design changes work best for your website. Do Follow the page and post your comments about the content shared in the comment box below.

So, here is our first post in the series: Place irresistible and clear CTA buttons



As we know, the basic intention of any website is to make somebody do something—for example, getting visitors to fill in a form, download a PDF, or purchase an item. And, of course, the best way to make visitors perform these actions is through the simple CTA (call-to-action) buttons placed on your web page, such as "Buy now", "Learn more", or "Sign up" links.

However, at times you might notice that your website is getting a good traffic but the conversions obtained on your CTA are poor. This is exactly when you need to A/B test your CTA buttons. In today’s post, we'll learn a few simple, yet powerful, CTA testing ideas to maximize conversions and recover those lost leads on your site.

So how do you create and test a persuasive CTA?

There are three parts to look at: the text, the position, and the graphical presentation of the CTA on your web page.
 
Testing the CTA words
Good CTA copy is more than just text. In general, CTA copy that speaks directly to your visitor outperforms generalized CTA copy. Here are a few points to consider while crafting your CTA copy:
  • Decide what action you want your audience to take and describe what will happen next—for example, use text like “Subscribe to our blog " or "Request a product demo" and not "Subscribe" or "Register here." This will tell visitors what to expect by clicking on the CTA.

  • Start with action-oriented words in your CTA like "read," "download," "call," and more. This can make your button stand out from the rest of the page content and convince visitors to click it instantly.

  • Create a sense of urgency with words like “today,” “now,” or “in the next 24 hours” in your CTAs to garner those extra clicks with less effort.
Focusing on the above tips can help you kindle your audience’s emotion towards your products/services, build a sense of trust in your business, and eventually achieve your website goal.

A few examples of good CTA copy you can test out include:
  • Using a "Grab my ebook" CTA on the web page  instead of a CTA that just instructs visitors to “Download.” This will create a more personal touch and draw interest towards the button.



  • Using a "Access courses for free" CTA instead of an overused "Sign up" button to build connections and boost sign ups on your newly developed elearning website.

Extra tip: Your CTA buttons should always have a healthy chunk of white space surrounding them. White space helps instantly grab your visitors' attention and adds focus to your button.

Testing the CTA position
Strive to achieve CTA placement that is noticeable but not disruptive to your audience. If you place your CTA button in a spot where your users don’t naturally look, you’re going to lose conversions. There are generally two points to look at while testing CTA position:
  • Identify and utilize smart button placement based on your visitors' natural reading flow (top to bottom and left to right or right to left) and behavior on your website. This includes the path users follow on your website to complete a process, the design elements they click on, and the barriers that prevent them from achieving their goal.

    Tip: You can use Session Recordings in PageSense to see how and why users are interacting with your CTAs the way they are.

  • Place the CTA button above or below the average fold of your page depending on the length and complexity of the content. This could also be determined by how far down the page your visitors scroll on an average. However, adding your CTA above the fold is the most common placement choice used on homepage/landing page designs.

    Tip: You can set up heatmaps, scroll maps, and attention maps in PageSense to determine whether people are responding to—or even seeing—your CTAs.
A few examples of good CTA placement you can test out include:
  • Showing a glimpse of soon-to-be-released products with feature highlights, and then at the end placing "Pre-order for free" CTA on your digital store. This uses the below-the-fold area of your web page to catch the attention of the visitors first, even before redirecting visitors to the preferred page(s).



  • Adding a “Buy Now” or "Add to Cart" button at the top-right section of the product page where a user would immediately click to buy after viewing your product offers page on the ecommerce site. This type of CTA placement adds visitors to your sales pipeline quickly by canceling extra steps like add to cart and check out.

Testing the CTA appearance
The color and appearance of your CTA button are the most important aspects while testing and optimizing your website. As humans, we always have a greater tendency to stick to information that looks bigger and brighter. Below are some practical tips on designing and testing an appealing CTA button:
  • Add a bold, bright, and contrasting background color to CTAs. Give more important CTA buttons a brighter color and the less important functions a lighter color or simple text links.

  • Have your CTA appear more clickable. This could be done by adding some visual effects such as a slight gradient or a small shadow to create that real push-button effect. However, if you think none of the effects will suit the chosen style of your website, add emphasis by applying rounded edges to the button.

  • Size of the button is another crucial factor in designing an effective CTA button. Larger CTAs have a higher chance of being noticed and clicked by readers. It’s also common to arrange UI components according to their importance. 
A few examples of good CTA appearance you can test out include:
  • Adding an attractive 3D or shadow effect to the "last minute deal" CTA button on your ecommerce site. This effect can spotlight the CTA, making it bright and prominent in comparison to other features like wish lists, view cart, or check out buttons.



  • Applying a bright color to the most recommended plan on your pricing page that you think will be a good fit for the majority of visitors. This might help highlight the best features in your product and avoid confusing buyers.

Found this useful? We would love to know what you think about this post. And, do you have any favorite A/B testing tricks or preferred approaches that you experiment on your website CTAs? Let us know in the comments below!

Happy testing. Happy converting!



        • Recent Topics

        • Switching to Cloudflare email routing from Zoho Mail

          Hello, I'm currently working on migrating from Zoho Mail to Cloudflare's email routing solution. This requires changing MX and TXT records for our custom domain - when we do this, will our users still be able to log into their accounts and access an archived
        • Un Subscription Button

          How can i Add the Un Subscription Button in Zoho mail
        • Documents unable view and need to downlad

          I can't view .doc files in Zoho mail unless I download them, but I can view PDF files without downloading.
        • we encountered a problem while sending your email. please try again later.

        • Adding and removing people from groups

          We're having problems adding people to a group. Apparently Zoho has one email address and will not recognize a different email address.
        • MAIL SEARCH IS NOT WORKING

          THIS ISSUE HAS BEEN BUGGING ME SINCE MORNING, PLEASE RESOLVE THIS AT THE EARLIEST
        • URL Parameter on Help Center SIgn in link

          Is it possible to add a url parameter to the sign in link on the Help Center?
        • migrating from HelpScout

          I am attempting to import a conversation file from helpscout into desk and am receiving size errors. What is the current file size restriction. Does anyone have any tips for a successful migration?
        • Layout Rules Don't Apply To Blueprints

          Hi Zoho the conditional layout rules for fields and making fields required don't work well with with Blueprints if those same fields are called DURING a Blueprint. Example. I have field A that is used in layout rule. If value of field A is "1" it is supposed to show and make required field B. If the value to field A is "2" it is supposed to show and make required field C. Now I have a Blueprint that says when last stage moves to "Closed," during the transition, the agent must fill out field A. Now
        • Article Name Sorting in Zoho Desk Knowledge Base (agent / admin side)

          Dear Zoho Desk Support, We are writing to request an enhancement to the Knowledge Base management feature within Zoho Desk. Currently, there is no option to sort articles by their name, which significantly hinders efficient article management, especially
        • How to parse JSON data with SQL in Zoho Analytics?

          Hi all, I have a column with JSON data. I want to show this column in a chart, but it is very messy, and no JSON parsing function is supported on Zoho Analytics. data example: {"id": 5, "status": "false", "date": "15/10/22"} what I want to do in SQL is
        • Ability to turn off "Would you like this amount to be reflected in the Payment field?" message

          Team, Is there any way to turn off the message" Would you like this amount to be reflected in the Payment field?" when I make a payment? This is so annoying. This happens EVERY TIME I put an amount in the Payment Made field.
        • Add an Equation Field (Or update the Formula Field)

          Hi, I would like to be able to have one field as a Text Field with QR Code, and then have multiple Equation/Formula Fields that then take parts of that fields data with LEFT, MID, RIGHT, REGEX, etc. Thanks Dan
        • How to parse column having JSON data using SQL?

          We have a daily sync from a PostgreSQL database that brings data into Zoho Analytics. Some of the columns store raw JSON data. We need to build SQL queries on top to parse data from JSON and store them in discrete columns. There is no option for "Data
        • Enable report button based on the current user role

          Greetings  i have a report that contains action buttons, i want these buttons to appear as enabled only when the current logged in user has a certain role, for example only CEO role users will be able to use this button. but when setting the conditions
        • 500 Internal Error In Mail API

          I'm getting 500 Internal Error when using mail API. I'm getting this error for this one account, it works fine for other Account IDs which I have in my system.
        • Piss poor service in Support in Domains and email

          Srijith Narayanan B contacted me today. Very pleasant fellow. Just didn't want to tell him how bad your support service is. You help the person, but you leave before we can finish the next stage. Which causes a lot of frustration. It's been 8 days now
        • Zoho live chat widget in React Js

          I am trying to test Zoho live chat widget code in react js, below is the sample code void(0)} onClick={()=>window.$zoho.salesiq.floatwindow.visible("show")}>LIVE CHAT window.$zoho = window.$zoho || {};window.$zoho.salesiq = window.$zoho.salesiq
        • Are there any plans to add Triggers for Subform edits?

          By The Grace of G-D.  Hi, How are you? Can you tell me if you have any plans to support subform edit as a workflow trigger? And what about have them trigger an "onChange" client script?
        • Zoho commerce

          i am facing issue with order summary emails.i am getting 1 continuous email for order received yesterday and today.ideally 1 email should be received for a particular date ie for 02/08 i should received 1 email from 12.01am till 11.59pm but it is being
        • Feature Request: Improve Category Page Sorting for "Out of Stock" Products

          Hi there, I'm writing to request a new feature that I believe would significantly improve the user experience in my online store. Currently, on category pages, products are sorted by popularity. However, when a popular product goes "Out of Stock," it
        • POSTMAN - There was an error in evaluating the Pre-request Script:Error: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'json')

          I am beginning the journey to learn how to use the API for Zoho Sign. I am getting the following error when I try to use postman. To walk you through how I am getting this error... I wanted to start with a simple GET and expand my learning from there.
        • How do i integrate shipstation with zoho inventory

          Wanting to set up my own delivery driver in ship station so we can get real time tracking of where the package is but then i want it to automatically update zoho inventory packages/shipments how can i do this
        • Invalid value passed for salesorder_id

          Hi, I am using sales return API, details are given below: API: https://inventory.zoho.com/api/v1/salesreturns?organization_id=700571811 Post Json Data: { "salesreturn_number": "", "date": "2020-11-12", "reason": "Testing from API", "line_items": [ { "item_id":
        • Create Invoice and Invoice Items from Sales Order via API

          Currently, when creating an Invoice associated with a Sales Order via the API, it appears that I must manually include all of the items (line_items) even though they are already part of the Sales Order. My question is this: is it possible to raise an Invoice via the API based on all of the information associated with a Sales Order--such as the  items? In other words, do I always have to manually include the items (line_items) when raising an Invoice via the API when the Invoice is associated with
        • Outlook 2013 Calendar Syncs but "Related To" Field in Zoho is blank

          Outlook 2013 Calendar Syncs but Related To Field in Zoho is blank I expect the "Realted To" field to be populated with the calendar participants
        • Export a Course

          Is it possible to export a course from Zoho Learn to a SCORM file?
        • Add and Remove Agents from Departments and Groups in Zoho One

          Hi Zoho Flow Team, We hope you're doing well. Currently, Zoho Flow provides an action to add an agent to a group in zoho one, but there is no action to remove an agent from a group or a department. Another action that we find missing is the option to
        • Zoho learn Custom portal - networkurl & CustomPortalId

          I want to get my individual account’s networkurl and customportalId to use in this API: https://learn.zoho.com/learn/api/v1/portal/<networkurl>/customportal/<customportalId>/manual How can I retrieve the networkurl and customportalId using the API? I
        • Consumer Financing

          Does Zoho currently have a payment gateway (such as Stripe, Square, etc) which offers financing for customers? So, let's say the estimate we give the customer is greater than what they can afford at the time, but we can sell the service now, letting them
        • Intégration de la gestion des Passkeys dans Zoho Vault

          Zoho Vault est depuis plus d’une décennie une solution fiable pour les entreprises : pour la gestion, le partage et le stockage des mots de passe. En 2018, nous avons fait un pas en avant en proposant la connexion unique (SSO). Nous sommes fiers de franchir
        • Scan & Fill with double quote key/value pairs

          Hi, An old Ticket moved to a Topic/Idea: I love the idea of the new Scan & Fill as it nearly covers my previous request for a QR Scanner to read a multi-part QR Code. My QR Codes are hard-coded as below: {"key1":"value1","key2":"value2","key3":"value3"}
        • Analytics SQL Queries should allow # as comment

          # and // are very common for commenting in SQL. Not sure why analytics only allows /* and */ for commenting. Especially when # grays the line as if it's being commented out. This should be added for sure.
        • SalesIQ Operator Activity Reports in Zoho Analytics

          I'm busy building a dashboard in Zoho Analytics and I want to include SalesIQ stats in the dashboard, but I'm unable to get the statistics mentioned in the attached image. Any idea where I can get the stats for Operator Activity?
        • Default in fields on Form B based on the user selection in Form A

          Hi Everyone, I have added an action button to a form report to bring up a new form based on user selection, see it indicated in red below: Then when the ne form loads, I want to default in some of the fields based on the record the user was selected on.
        • No longer can indent

          Hey there! Is it just me or were we used to be allowed to used tab or indent when writing. It’s not working right now, has this always been the case?
        • Free webinar alert! Seamless Transition with Lossless Migration: Zoho One + Zoho Mail

          Hello Zoho Mail Community! 🚀 Attention IT Admins and Email Administrators! Are you planning to migrate your organization's email to Zoho Mail within the Zoho One ecosystem? 📧 Join our exclusive webinar, Seamless Transition with Lossless Migration: Zoho
        • Add Resource to Export

          The Export Data feature does not include a column for the Resource field. Without this column, Zoho Bookings cannot be used by any business for resource-based services or event types e.g. room bookings, equipment bookings. It seems to be an oversight,
        • Client Script | Update - Client Script Support For Custom Buttons

          Hello everyone! We are excited to announce one of the most requested features - Client Script support for Custom Buttons. This enhancement lets you run custom logic on button actions, giving you greater flexibility and control over your user interactions.
        • Mandatory field via deluge code

          I would like to ask you if it is possible to make a field mandatory via deluge script. For example, if I have a decision box and I click on it then I want a single line field to be mandatory. If uncheck the decision box then to do the single line as optional. I think it is not possible to do that and I have to do it via validation in 'on validate' field. 
        • Next Page