Does clearer form question wording lift lead form completions?

Our multi-step lead form asked short, plain questions. We tested clearer wording with instructions on each required field. Over 14 days, the reworded form brought in 8.6% fewer leads, while lead value per visitor held flat at +0.3%.

Lost Responsive 14 days Called at 90%

SURFACE

Lead form

DEVICE

Responsive

VERTICAL

Lead Gen (CPL)

PRIMARY METRIC

Conversion rate

VARIATIONS

1

The hypothesis

By rewording the form questions to be clearer and adding instructions to required fields, we will help more visitors finish the form, resulting in more leads.

Some questions could be read more than 1 way, and the required fields gave no instructions. We expected clearer wording to cut hesitation at each step of the form.

What we changed

Every form question reworded, with instructions on required fields

Var A rewrote each question in the funnel. The debt question asked for the total amount the visitor needed help with, the program question asked whether they had already enrolled, and the name field asked for a first and last name. The order of the questions stayed the same.

VAR A: COPY UPDATE

Every question reworded for clarity
Instructions added to required fields
Name field asks for first and last name

The result

Leads fell 8.6% with the reworded form questions

CONVERSION RATE

-8.6%

LEAD VALUE PER VISITOR

+0.3%

$10K+ LEADS

+1.7%

Over 14 days, the reworded form converted 8.6% worse than the original. The whole drop came from leads with under $10K in debt. Leads with $10K or more rose 1.7%, and lead value per visitor was flat at +0.3%. Results did not move week over week, so we paused the test and moved on to the next one.

What we took from it

Users preferred the original, shorter question wording

The longer wording asked visitors to read more at every step, and visitors with smaller debts dropped off. Visitors with larger debts kept going, so lead value held steady. On this form, the plain, short questions did the job.