Getting ‘mobile-ready’ part 3: Experimenting with landing page design

Recently we looked at how to test content on mobile to maximize user engagement. Today we want to take this one step further and share how variations in design can influence click-through behavior.

That creating a mobile-specific site would result in a better customer experience seems intuitive, but that’s only half the battle. How do you decide what your site should look like? Which calls-to-action are most compelling to mobile customers? How do layout and language affect engagement? To find out, we worked closely with Amit Shah who leads the mobile and social media efforts at 1-800-Flowers to test a series of landing pages with different layouts and call-to-action elements.

First 1-800-FLOWERS created pages to compare performance of click-to-call and click-to-store buttons. They also tested how the position of call-to-action buttons and their text (“Shop now” versus “Mobile deals”) can affect engagement. Pages with a product image and a single call-to-action were tested to understand how imagery and simplicity perform against multiple call-to-action options.

Adjusting the length of descriptive text allowed a comparison between calls-to-action above and below the “fold” to discover the impact of scrolling. Finally they contrasted offer types to find how percentage discounts perform against dollar discounts.

This experiment unearthed a number of key findings about landing page features and how they influence click-through behavior to help with your own design decisions:

1. Keep calls-to-action above the fold. Offer language should be brief to maximize screen real estate. The landing page with long descriptive text requiring scrolling received a 57% lower click-through rate than all other test pages.
2. All landing page elements should be clickable to make it easy for smartphone users to engage through touch. In the test, 45% of clicks came from the flower image or 1-800-FLOWERS logo.
3. Include a product image to grab user attention and make it clickable to your mobile store. Pages with a product image received 26% higher click-throughs.
4. Offer language can have an impact on performance. The “10% off“ click-through rate was 19% higher than the “$5 off” alternative. Testing different offer language will help you identify what appeals most to your mobile customers.

Have you improved user engagement on mobile by optimizing your website? We want to hear from you! Email [email protected] to share your story.

Posted by Vicky Homan, Google Mobile Ads Marketing Team