Does a less ad-like related articles section get more clicks?
Our mobile news articles ended with a more to read section that looked a lot like an ad block. We restyled it to blend in with the article and to look less like an ad. Clicks on the section fell 22.3%, and we paused after 7 days.
Lost Mobile 7 days Called at 90%
The hypothesis
By restyling the related articles section at the end of news articles to look less like an ad, we will get more readers to click through, resulting in more pages per visit.
When readers finish an article, they usually look for another article to read. The section that offered more articles was styled like the ad units around it, so readers may have skipped it.
The test was also a first check on whether this spot could send readers on to the review pages.
What we changed
Related articles section restyled to look less like an ad
On the control, the more to read section at the end of each news article used a card style close to the ad units on the page. In the variation, the image was separated from the title and description, so the section read as part of the article. We tracked clicks on the section to see how readers used it at this depth.
- Image separated from the title and description
- Section styled to match the article, not the ads
- Clicks on each item tracked
The result
Visitors preferred the original section, by 22.3% in clicks
Clicks on the restyled section fell 22.3% compared with the original. The primary metric for this test was clicks on the section itself.
The drop reached our confidence bar within 7 days, so we paused the test early. Readers did use this section a lot in both versions, which made it worth testing again.
What we took from it
The original card style drew more clicks at the end of the article
Readers at the end of these articles clicked the original cards more than the restyled ones. Splitting the image from the title likely made each item read less clearly as a link. The section still drew a lot of clicks in both versions, so we kept the original style and planned future tests for this spot.