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

        • Bigin merge field in email template for subject line to match lead name

          Hello We Are using email in to automatically create leads in our pipelines. When we want to reply from conversations, and apply an email template, it’s not matching the original subject line. It should be lead name to match. But it’s not working. Even
        • How to create auto-link between Invoice and Quote in CRM

          It's strange that when you 'convert' a quote into an invoice, it doesn't auto-link the two. How can we develop an auto sync so we don't need to manually link each invoice to their respective quote?
        • Why Are Columns Reset When Deleting Entry

          Hello, this is quite annoying. We use forms as a questionnaire for candidates, we filter entries by removing columns, when we delete an entry the columns reset. Every "delete" the columns reset, why!? Thank you
        • Pi or Pie? A slice of infinity in customer service

          Hey everyone! While Pi Day is on March 14 (3.14), July 22 marks another special occasion: Pi Approximation Day! On this day, we recognize the mathematical constant π (pi ≈ 22/7); a number that's infinite, irrational, and never-ending. Pi is essential
        • Configuración

          Hola acabo de instalar Zoho CRM y quiero configurarlo correctamente. Al respecto me surgen algunas dudas tales como la diferencia entre: Cuentas, posibles Clientes y Contactos. ¿Conceptualmente que son cada uno? ¿Como se se relacionan entre ellos? Si
        • Why Can't I add unicode emoji's to my signature?

          Why would Zoho Mail prevent me from adding unicode emojis to my email signature? Every time I try to save the signature, Zoho Mail erases the emoji and any nearby content. Every time I setup something with Zoho, I know I'm going to run into some incredibly
        • GL account associated to each supplier for new bill

          Hello I'm facing problem for all items of my bills that are not inventoried. The need is each time I enter new bill and after I select supplier the GL account section is autopopulated with default GL account (that I would like to add in supplier settings)
        • LinkedIn verification link and otp not receiving

          For the last 2 to 3 weeks I'm trying to verify my LinkedIn account to access my company's LinkedIn page, Linkedin is sending verification links and codes to this email address but I have not received any codes or links. Please help me here. Looking forward
        • Zoho reply to not working. just reply to my self

          Hello. i using on my wordpress website a contact form from Wsform. i can set the reply to email there. normally it works. but since i am using your wordpress plugin zoho mail it doesn`t work. its not using the reply to (email from customer). I just can
        • Mail Merge Stuck in Queue

          I am trying to send Mail Merge's and it never sends out to the full list. It always hits a portion and the rest remain in the "Queue" - the emails I am sending are time sensitive, so I need this to be resolved or have a way to push the emails through
        • SMTP Email Sending Not Working for My Domains and Apps

          Hello Zoho Support Team, I am experiencing a critical issue with sending emails via Zoho SMTP for my domain humanhup.com. Both of my applications, HumanHup and CheapUI, are unable to send emails using Zoho SMTP, even though the same setup was working
        • Receiving too many Spam Leads. Why?

          I am receiving so many junk leads from web forms created by zoho's platform. The junk queries are increasing day by day and are affecting our business. I am continuously following up with zoho team from the past one year but not getting any satisfactory
        • Why is Zoho supporting the Proud Boys?

          Hello. This is the only way I can find to contact your company. There is someone in Maine posing as a law enforcement officer, attempting to kidnap immigrants. They are also recruiting for a known hate group. They have an email address hosted by Zoho.com.
        • Composite Item - Associated/Component Items

          I am trying to find the Associated Item/Component Item field in the Composite Item Table in Analytics. Has anyone been able to find and utilize this field in Analytics?
        • 🚀 WorkDrive 5.0: Evolving from a file sharing app to an intelligent content management platform: Phase 2

          Hello everyone, WorkDrive's primary focus has always been to provide an intelligent and secure content management platform, simplify collaboration, and be the central repository of files for all Zoho apps. In our previous announcement, we unveiled the
        • Use openUrl() to edit a specific record

          I am working on a queue app for my organization. I have a master queue that is a report of meetings with workflow buttons to manipulate the records. One of these buttons I would like to open the record and edit for the purpose of changing the queue lookup
        • why i cant access my web without the www

          please help me
        • Send Whatsapp with API including custom placeholders

          Is is possible to initiate a session on whatsapp IM channel with a template that includes params (placeholders) that are passed on the API call? This is very usefull to send a Utility message for a transactional notification including an order number
        • Help Centre Articles in Desk, Zia and iframe

          Hi, We embed SOP documents into articles from Scribe into using iframe. We are looking at zia indexing articles to present to agents to aid their work. Please advise if zia can view and learn from the content within the iframe?
        • Rich Text/WYSIWYG Input Area

          I'd like to have an option on ZoHo creator to create an input text area for HTML/rich text formatting. :)
        • How to create a directory report from one-to-many relationship

          Hi all, Newbie here. I'm converting an Access DB to Creator. I've learned Forms are tables and Reports are used to edit table rows, not Forms. I've got the data loaded and can maintain it with the Reports already done. I've done filtering and sorting,
        • Change Default Selection for Lookup field

          I have a Lookup field that I have locked, when I unlock it - the user can select the proper Zone but I need it locked, since this may change based on user selection of another field. Example. There are 3 potential zones. User A selects the Hospital Account
        • Restrict visibility and user permissions Creator 5

          I don't understand how restrict visibility for reports interacts with the already established role permissions. It seems that the default on restrict visibility has everything checked for all users, but I cannot set up different levels of permission for different individuals.  Right now I have three different ways to manage users and their access and it's confusing because everything has not migrated to Creator 5. Don't the role permissions extend to the reports as well? Are the selections under
        • LMS - Why do Trainers have to be Users?

          I'm not sure why the software is set up where trainers must be users (i.e., employees). This should really be changed, as there are many cases (the majority of cases for some companies) where classroom trainers are external or contractors. If this is
        • ZOho mail not stopped working with my domain.

          i have changed my name server settings in my domain sigmasquaretec.in . After that my emails are not working with ZOHO.
        • Request to Cancel Zoho Mail Subscription

          Hello Zoho Team, I have migrated to Google Workspace and would like to cancel my Zoho Mail subscription for my organization. Organization Name: AR Creators Media Admin Email: roman@arcreatorsmedia.com Subscription ID: RPUS2005901960812 Please cancel the
        • zoho smtp limit for free users

          What is Zoho SMTP limit for free users?
        • Mailboxes and Alias Email Addeases - Best Palestine’s and Advice:

          Mailboxes and Alias Email Addresses - Best Practices and Advice: what is the best practice for the efficient means to manage And sort, alias, email addresses and third-party after or even the Zoho app itself. I am currently using both Thunderbird and
        • Has anyone built a discussion forum with a Creator Portal?

          I have built a Creator app for organisations to apply for refurbished tools that are sent by a charity. The charity now wants recipient organisations to be able to connect with each other within a region or country, to share advice on maintaining the
        • Ability for Super Admin to Set Locale Information for Users in Zoho Recruit

          Dear Zoho Recruit Team, I hope you're doing well. We would like to request the ability for Super Admins to configure Locale Information (Country/Region, Date Format, and Time Format) for users in Zoho Recruit. Currently these settings are only configurable
        • Add a block or widget to Zoho Sites that allows users to create an interactive contact card with contact buttons (email, LinkedIn, website, etc)

          The proposed feature consists of a pre-designed, customizable block that displays a person's contact information (e.g., a speaker, sales representative, or independent professional) and offers quick access to: Email (icon with mailto: link) LinkedIn profile
        • Zoho Recruit > Email Templates

          Dear All Background: We are using Zoho Recruit for the 4 business units under our group of company it our posting our of Job it will be done via our internal recruiter. In the Email templates, i want to be able to insert the individual business unit,
        • Zoho Voice & Zoho Recruit/CRM

          Hello, I'd love to use Zoho Voice with Recruit and CRM but it would need something very important to me, that has been a game changer to my daily routine, like Calendly has been for scheduling interview. It's call transcription with AI. I'm using Noota
        • Change start time after starting the timer

          Hello Projects Community, an amazing feature would be to change the start time of a running timer. I know this from some other time tracking softwares. Any idea about this? Best wishes Niels
        • Sending possible. Receiving not possible.

          We are not receiving mail in our company email. Could you please solve this. It has been recurring and I want it to be resolved once and for all. Please help.
        • Problema para enviar y recibir correos

          Buenos días, mi cuenta de correo secretaria@construccmauro.com presenta problemas y no me permite ni me envía ni recibe correos, me sale este error.No fue posible enviar el mensaje; Motivo: 554 5.1.8 Correo electrónico bloqueado saliente.  Aprende más., Agradezco
        • Data access tasks like 'For each record' aren't supported for 'integration forms'.

          My code is not running because i get the error "Data access tasks like 'For each record' aren't supported for 'integration forms'." I have my integration setup with Zoho CRM + Zoho Creator, the form is visible and working on my zoho creator however in
        • Zoho Reports Not Grouping from Subforms

          I have created reports from a subform. We have a budget from a standard field, and the bills added to a subform. I've summarised the bills in a field. In edit mode, the bills are joined per supplier, which is what we want. But then it converts and separates/duplicates
        • Create Automation for the Field "Mark up by"

          Hello everyone, I'm importing expenses from Zoho Expense to Zoho Books. I want to auto-calculate the "Mark up by" field based on the custom field “Discount” I created before. The trigger of the workflow will be the creation of the expense itself. The
        • Free Webinar Alert! Before vs After: Proven ROI from Zoho CRM + Workplace Integration

          Hello Zoho Workplace Community! Before: Scattered tools, lost leads, fragmented communication. Are you ready to stop the constant back and forth between tools to manage leads, emails, and team communication? After: Connected tools, streamlined processes,
        • Next Page