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

    • 60 Days Into Zoho - Tiktok Branding Startup -7 Questions?!

      Wsp Everybody I co-own a TikTok Branding / Consulting Startup & have been using Zoho for the past 60 days - Am now looking to make our overall operations & processes more Efficient & Effective! Curious to know how others are using the platform & what's

    • Text Message

      When trying to sent a text message, it says its an error i should contact a zoho agent

    • Zoho POS is now available for Canadian retailers

      Hey everyone, We're excited to introduce the all-new Canadian edition of Zoho POS, which helps retail businesses simplify and manage their end-to-end business operations. Start by signing up and exploring the 15-day free trial. Sign up now How does Zoho

    • Payroll In Canada

      Hi, When can we expect to have payroll in Canada with books 

    • Mass update to change or shift all project dates and keep project structure + shift all sub-tasks dates with main tasks

      Most users would expect that if they change the start date of their project then that will be reflected inside the actual project and any project structure would be retained.  Additionally if a task list with associated sub-tasks is moved, most users would expect that those sub-tasks would also be moved along with their parent task.  This is not the case. For a total Project shift of dates: * the start and end date from > "Edit Project" page can have a radio button added to "shift all project tasks

    • Closing Accounting Periods - Invoice/Posting dates

      Hi, I have seen in another thread but I'm unsure on how the 'transaction locking' works with regards to new and old transactions. When producing monthly accounts if I close December 24 accounts on 8th Jan 25 will transaction locking prevent me from posting

    • In-person ZUG Meetups for Real Estate Professionals - US Q1 2026

      The Real Estate Zoho User Group is going on a multi-city, in-person meetup tour across the US, and we’d love to see you there! These meetups are a great opportunity to: Connect with fellow real estate professionals using Zoho Share challenges and discover

    • Zoho CRM custom fields not showing in zoho creator

      Hi Team, I have created a Products form with Zoho CRM integration and connected it to Products module of CRM. But when I see the reports of Products in Zoho creator then I am not able to see custom fields of Products module. Only standard fields of Products

    • Sending email notifications based on language

      Hello. I would like to know how we can bypass the default notifications (which are just in English) for when a ticket is created/replied to/closed, to be in other languages, based on the language field in the ticket? I can create other email templates,

    • Zoho Error: This Operation has been restricted. Please contact support-as@zohocorp.com for further details

      Hello There, l tried to verify my domain (florindagoreti.com.br) and its shows this error: This Operation has been restricted. Please contact support-as@zohocorp.com for further details. Screenshot Given Below -  please check what went wrong. Thanks

    • Download a file from within a zoho creator widget

      I have a widget running in Zoho Creator , it displays uploaded documents in a table file, and I have added a download link in the view. ( The widget is created with html, css and javascript). I do not succeed in getting the download working. Do I have

    • Correlated subqueries not supported in Zoho Analytics. This creates huge limitations

      Running into a major limitation in Zoho Analytics: correlated subqueries simply don’t work, even in completely standard SQL patterns inside a JOIN. Example: LEFT JOIN "Bills" b ON d."Id" = b."Deal ID" AND EXISTS ( SELECT 1 FROM "Bill

    • Zoho / Outlook Calendar sync

      The current Marketplace -> Microsoft -> Meetings integration needs 2 changes. 1. The current language for the Two-Way sync option should be changed. It currently states, "Sync both your Zoho CRM Calendar and Office 365 Calendar meetings with each other."

    • Email content just contain 'OK' ,not what we expect

      create campaign API URL: https://campaigns.zoho.com/api/v1.1/createCampaign req params: {'campaignname': 'General_Outreach_d0cfc415-43aa-4b96-bb09-558e76a3dda3_50_20251117_214806_660', 'from_email': 'admin@allinmedia.ai', 'subject': 'ALL IN MEDIA', 'list_details':

    • Introducing the all-new email parser!

      Greetings, We are pleased to introduce to you, a brand-new, upgraded version of the Zoho CRM Email Parser, which is packed with fresh features and has been completely redesigned to meet latest customers needs and their business requirements. On that note,

    • Possible to connect Zoho CRM's Sandbox with Zoho Creator's Sandbox?

      We are making some big changes on our CRM so we are testing it out in CRM's Sandbox. We also have a Zoho Creator app that we need to test. Is it possible to connect Zoho CRM's Sandbox to Zoho Creator's Sandbox so that I can perform those tests?

    • Reopen ticket

      Hello! Can I reopen a ticket just using the API ticket/sendReply ? What's the rules to do it? I'm trying but it doesn't reopen the ticket, it just send the reply

    • Allow Admins to Transfer Ownership of Their Own Files & Folders

      Hi Zoho WorkDrive Team, Hope you are doing well. We would like to request an important enhancement to the ownership-transfer functionality in Zoho WorkDrive, specifically regarding administrator capabilities. As administrators, we have the ability to

    • Tip#46: Capture accurate log hours

      Hello everyone, Use the newly introduced timer settings that will streamline the usage of timers and help admins or workspace owners to manage the time entries of the workspace users better. Check out the below mentioned timer settings added to the Timesheet

    • Moving to app-specific authentication for Google integrations

      Hello everyone, We’re making an important change to how Google integrations work in our platform. Until now, we used a common Google project across Zoho to enable integrations like Google Drive, Calendar, and more. Going forward, we’ll be moving to an

    • Lost the ability to sort by ticket owner

      Hi all, in the last week or so, we have lost the ability to sort tickets by Ticket Owner. Unlike the other columns which we can hover over and click on to sort, Ticket Owner is no longer clickable. Is it just us, or are other customers seeing this too?

    • Using a CRM Client Script Button to create a Books Invoice

      Hello, I need help handling error messages returned to my client script from a function. The scenario I have setup a client script button which is available from each Deal. This CS executes a crm function, which in turn creates an invoice based on the

    • How Can i put a form in Zobot

      Hi,how can i integrate a form which has a multiple options to choose from.the form should be opened or displayed by zobot after it meets a requirement in the conversation. Thanks in advance !

    • Has Anyone successfully integrated Zoho and Sage Intact?

      Hey all, We’re evaluating Zoho One + Sage Intacct and I’m trying to connect with anyone who has actually implemented the two together.Specifically, I’d love to know: -- Which functions you kept in Zoho vs. Intacct (e.g., Product Catalog, AR/AP, invoicing,

    • Playback and Management Enhancements for Zoho Quartz Recordings

      Hello Zoho Team, We hope you're all doing well. We would like to submit a feature request related to Zoho Quartz, the tool used to record and share browser sessions with Zoho Support. 🎯 Current Functionality As of now, Zoho Quartz allows users to record

    • Zoho Analytics - Feature Request For Time Based Data Source Fetch

      Hi Analytics Team, I have a client using Zoho CRM and they want a weekly report at 4:30pm every Friday, emailed to the sales team showing a pie chart of Closed Won Deals for that week. This is easy to achieve in Analytics but not so easy to ensure the

    • Which user's capacity is used for Shared Mailbox storage?

      We use shared mailboxes at our company, and their size is increasing daily. Which user(s)'s total mailbox limit is being used up by this space?

    • Inserting the current date / time

      I'd like to use Zoho Notebook as a log - so it would be great to be able to insert the current date and time at the beginning (or end) of each my log/journal entries - or wherever I want. Something simple, like pressing a button/icon to insert it wherever my text cursor is. It could be formatted like "Mon Dec 11, 2017 - 11:43p". 

    • Migrate data from old to new account

      Hy, Have one Old Zoho Notebook Account with Data , want to migrate that whole Data to New Zoho Notebook Account which is in Zoho One . Is that possible ? If Yes then how?

    • Campaign editor overrides href value

      I've been trying to insert a deep link in an email campaign so recipients can directly open a native app on their device. My deep link looks something like "myapp://". The options to insert links in the campaign editor are limited to strict urls, emails,

    • how to add subform over sigma in the CRM

      my new module don't have any subform available any way to add this from sigma or from the crm

    • Bug Report and Suggestions for Improvement in Zoho Applications

      Hi Zoho Team, I’d like to report a few bugs and improvement suggestions I’ve noticed while using Zoho products: Zoho Cliq Video Call: The camera sometimes turns off automatically during video calls. This seems to be a bug — please check and fix it. Zoho

    • Canvas Flex Box containers should not require a width/height.

      Flexbox containers are often used as organizational concepts, to ease re-flow on mobile etc. - I cannot use % for flexbox W or H - I cannot omit W or H This means that the content cannot dictate, and a Flexbox container cannot be used merely as an organizational

    • Zoho Desk Android app update: Filter enhancement, Save Filters

      Hello everyone! We have now enhanced the filter section on the ticket listing screen of Zoho Desk Android app as it is on the web(desk.zoho.com). Also, we have introduced an option to save filters for tickets on the mobile app. You can easily apply, rename,

    • Very long loading times | bad performance [ZOHO DC: EU]

      Hello there, we have recently noticed that the loading times have become extremely long when retrieving tickets and ticket details. For example, I open any ticket and get the following view. The subject and standard information (ticket owner, status etc.)

    • Zia Profile Summary now supports six languages and responds faster

      After numerous customer requests, we’ve expanded Zia Profile Summary to do more than just summarize resumes quickly. It can now summarize them in six different languages and deliver results even faster. What’s New 1. Extended language support Zia can

    • Introducing Zoho Show Android 3.0

      Good ideas need the right space to grow. They deserve tools that move as fast as your thoughts and make creating feel effortless. And that is why we are bringing you Zoho Show Android 3.0! From a brand-new look and smoother navigation to improved collaboration

    • Properly Capture Dropdowns & Hover Elements When Recording a Window/Tab

      Hi Zoho WorkDrive Team, Hope you are doing great. We encountered a limitation when recording a selected window or browser tab: Certain UI elements, such as dropdown lists, hover menus, and overlays, are not captured unless we record the entire screen.

    • Peppol integration zoho invoicefu

      Hi, Belgium will require Peppol invoicing as of 2026. I found that this is being prepared for Zoho books, to be released in Sep 2025. Will Zoho Invoice get this functionality too? I like the Invoice app for my part-time side business as bike mechanic

    • Allow Recording Only a Selected Portion of the Screen

      Hi Zoho WorkDrive Team, Hope you are doing well. We would like to request a more flexible recording option in Zoho WorkDrive. At the moment, we can record either the entire screen or a specific window/tab — but not a custom selected portion of the screen

    • Next Page