Does a clickable article title lift offer conversion?
An earlier test changed several things on our offer articles at once, including a clickable article title. We tested the clickable title on its own. Conversion moved -2.9% over 11 days, with clicks flat, short of our confidence bar.
Not significant Responsive 11 days Not called Reviewed
The hypothesis
By making the article title a clickable link, we will give readers a path to the offers from the very top of the page, resulting in more offer clicks and a higher conversion rate.
An earlier test of a more aggressive article layout changed several elements at once, and it lost. A clickable article title was part of that change, and we could not tell how much it helped or hurt on its own.
This test isolated that 1 change on our top article so we could judge it separately.
What we changed
We made the article title a clickable link and changed nothing else.
On the control, the article title was plain text. Var A turned the title into a link, so readers could click it from the top of the page. The article copy, the offers and their order stayed the same.
- Article title turned into a link
- Everything else unchanged
The result
Conversion moved -2.9% over 11 days, short of our confidence bar.
After 11 days, offer clicks were flat and conversion was 2.9% below the control. Revenue per thousand views was also down. The gap was too small to call, and the trend gave no reason to keep going, so we paused the test and moved the traffic to other tests in the queue.
What we would do next
The clickable title alone did not change what readers did.
Readers did not use the title as a way to the offers, so clicks stayed level. On its own, the clickable title made little difference either way. We would spend this traffic on changes inside the offer list, where readers make their choice.