Does plain language instead of industry terms lift lead conversion?
Our tax relief lead form used an industry term for unpaid tax in its headline and button. We swapped in back taxes, the phrase people search for. Conversion rose 23.5% in 9 days.
Won Responsive 9 days Called at 90%
The hypothesis
By using the plain phrase back taxes instead of an industry term, we will build visitor confidence, resulting in more visitors starting and finishing the form.
Back taxes is the phrase people use when they search for help with unpaid tax. The page used a more formal industry term that visitors may not recognize as their own problem.
Matching the visitor's own words in the headline and button should make the offer feel relevant at a glance.
What we changed
We changed the headline and button copy to say back taxes.
In the control, the headline and button used an industry term for unpaid tax. In the variation, both used the phrase back taxes. The layout and the form questions did not change.
- Headline uses back taxes
- Button copy uses back taxes
The result
Conversion rose 23.5% when the copy said back taxes.
The variation beat the control by 23.5% over 9 days, and revenue per visitor rose 21.2%. The control received a burst of unusual traffic on 1 day. With that day removed, and with visitors normalized across both versions, the variation still won, so we called it.
What we took from it
Visitors responded to their own words for the problem.
People in tax trouble search for help with back taxes, not the formal term. Using that phrase in the headline and button told visitors right away that the page was about their problem. On this page, that recognition turned into more completed forms.