Hello my nerdy friends,
This one is a quick fix that could get you more leads on your website and landing pages, while simplifying your funnel.
The study:
Researchers at Umea University tested four versions of a newsletter signup CTA on 32 participants.
They tested a combo of two things:
1. An informative headline ("Sign up to our newsletter") vs a benefit-led headline ("With our tips you will become a better manager")
2. Making the email input field visible upfront vs. behind a button click that leads to the next page
Participants saw all four designs in the same order, picked their favourite, and explained why (Mejtoft et al., 2021).
🧪What they found:
The participants preferred the designs with a visible input field.
The header wording made no difference. People responded the same to benefit-led and informative headers.
Why?
Participants said things like: "I don't know what will happen after I click" and "unclear whether a box will appear or I'll be taken to a new page."
This is called ambiguity aversion.
Our brains hate not knowing what comes next, so not knowing what happens after a button click makes us less likely to click it.
Participants also said that seeing the sign-up field upfront made it seem easier to sign up because they wouldn’t have to go to a second page and they could see that it only required one field.
That is called reducing friction. Typically, the less elements that cause friction, the more conversions.
Caveat
This study only tested a single email field for a newsletter signup, so the results most likely apply to simple lead gen. It also only measured preference, not actual clicks. And all participants saw the designs in the same fixed order, which could have influenced results.
Also, I’m curious whether this effect goes away with longer forms, because when you see that you need to fill in 6 fields, laziness might turn us away more than ambiguity aversion from the vague button(because in this case, I suspect, clicking on the button creates a commitment, that makes you more likely to fill in the form on the next page). I’m doing an A/B test of a client’s landing page this week to see if laziness or ambiguity aversion is stronger. Maybe I’ll do an update sometime on the results of longs form upfront vs. button!
💡Takeaway
If you have a single input field, test showing it upfront rather than behind a button click.
See you next week,
Ksenia (the biggest nerd)
P.S. Let me know if there are certain topics you want to see more of - just reply to this email with your questions.
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