Does form placement above the headline lift landing page orders?
A service landing page led with a headline and copy, with the order form further down. We tested putting the form at the top in place of the headline. Conversion fell 46.8% over 14 days, but results swung too much week to week to call.
Not significant Responsive 14 days Not called
The hypothesis
By moving the focus of the page from the copy to the order form, we will get more visitors to start an order, resulting in more sales.
On this page, visitors had to get past the headline and copy before they reached the form that starts an order. We expected that putting the form first would bring more visitors into the funnel.
Orders for this service often come in about 3 days after the first visit, so we knew the test would need a longer run than usual to settle.
What we changed
The order form moved to the top, where the headline used to be.
In the control, the page led with the headline, then the copy, then the order form. In Var A, we moved the headline down into the content area and put the start of the order form in the headline's place at the top of the page.
- Order form moved into the headline spot
- Headline moved down into the content area
The result
Conversion fell 46.8% in 14 days, too unsteady to call.
Early on, a step by step breakdown showed Var A moving more visitors through the first steps. That did not last. The form at the top did not bring more visitors into the funnel, and results swung widely from week to week. Orders here can take about 3 days to show up, which added to the noise.
After 14 days, Var A was down 46.8%, but the swings kept it from reaching our confidence bar. Visitors leaned toward the original layout, and we paused the test.
What we would do next
Rerun it long enough to cover the 3-day lag before orders land.
Moving the form up did not get more visitors to start an order, so the headline and copy may be doing real work before visitors are ready to begin. With orders arriving days after the visit, 14 days left little settled data. A rerun would keep the headline at the top, bring the form closer to it, and run long enough for late orders to count.