Does an in-content offer widget lift article page conversion?
Readers on our offer articles had to scroll to reach the first offer button. We added an offer widget inside the article content to bring a button up the page. Conversion fell 59.8% over 14 days, so we paused it.
Lost Responsive 14 days Called at 90% Reviewed
The hypothesis
By adding an offer widget inside the article content, we will bring an offer button higher on the page, resulting in more offer clicks and a higher conversion rate.
Some of the offer sites we reviewed place a compact offer widget inside the article copy, so a reader can act without scrolling to the offer list. Our articles kept every offer in the list further down.
We tested a widget inside the content to see whether an earlier button would lift clicks and conversions.
What we changed
We added an offer widget with a button inside the article content.
Var A placed an offer widget inside the article copy, above the offer list. The widget carried offer details and a button. The offer list and the article copy stayed the same.
- Offer widget added inside the article copy
- Widget placed above the offer list
- Offer details plus a button
The result
Conversion fell 59.8% over 14 days, so we paused the test.
The widget lifted clicks on the offer button, but full funnel conversion fell 59.8% against the control. After the 1st week we gave it another week to rule out random noise, then paused it at 14 days. The extra clicks went almost all to the first offer, while readers on the control spread their clicks across the top 3 offers.
What we took from it
An earlier button helped 1 offer, not the whole funnel.
The widget packed a lot of detail on top of the article, which may have overloaded readers. It pulled clicks toward the first offer instead of letting readers compare the top 3, where most of them chose. A follow-up would cut the widget to 1 or 2 lines of copy and a button.