Do Full Background Image Landing Pages Convert Better?

Now we know you have seen them, the simple landing pages with the full background images.

You know the ones that have just a simple headline, maybe an email only form, or a button that opens up the form in a lightbox?

The background images vary of course… Almost anywhere we turn we see them.

But since they first were popularized we have posed the question of if they actually convert better than other more traditional styles of landing pages, so we did what we do best and that is TEST to find out.

Most people that use them just throw it up with the thoughts of “So and so uses it so it must work” mindset without actually testing it.

We have said this before and we will say it again. Just because it works for one person or offer doesn’t mean it is going to work for you and yours. If you aren’t testing and optimizing you are on a slippery slope to disaster.

A common practice is to strive for perfection. Chances are you are never going to get 100% conversion rate, but you still have to try. Even the slightest improvement compounded means huge dividends. For example. Say you have a landing page converting at 18%. Which means 18 out of every 100 people that visits that page takes your desired action. Now say you make some tweaks to that page and it increases your conversion rate to just 20%.

Meaning just 2 more people per every 100 takes the desired action.

Now since you are a good marketer and know your numbers you know that every lead you generate on that page, for sake of example and easy math, is worth $10 to your business.

Based on the first page converting at 18%. That would mean roughly $180 in revenue for your business. The second page at 20% means roughly $200 in revenue based on 100 visitors.

Now let’s compound that out.

Say we get 10,000 visitors to each page. One page at 18% which means 1800 leads and roughly $18,000 in revenue.

Now the page converting at 20% which means 2000 leads and $20,000 in revenue.
$2000 more in revenue from ONE simple tweak.

Now imagine if you made slight tweaks to the rest of your funnel to see just a slight increase. You raise that per lead value from $10 to $12, now we are talking $2400 more revenue.

We call this concept “compounding conversions”. Slight increases to all areas of the funnel compound to dramatic increases in your bottom line.

So what were the results of this full background test?

One of our clients was running a standard video landing page on a new offer they had just created. So we decided to test via simple A/B testing to see if the full background image page using a similar headline and call to action would increase the conversion rate like so many people have been raving about.

fullbackgroundfail
The result was the full background page actually decreased the conversion rate on the offer by more than 7%, 7.12% to be exact.

Now 7% might not seem like much (a decrease is a decrease), but remember, we just talked about compounding conversions.

If we plug the 6.31% conversion rate and the 5.86% into our 10,000 visitors and $10 lead value from above here is what it looks like.

Control (6.31%):631 leads @ $10 per lead = $6310
Full Backgroun (5.86%):
586 leads @ $10 per lead = $5860

If we would have just assumed the full background page would convert better, in this example, we would have lost $450 in revenue for every 10,000 visitors we sent to the site.

Of course, this is just an example coupled with some real-world test results.  Are you testing and making slight improvements in all areas of your funnel?  If not you should.

If you want to discuss how we may be able to work together to improve your results, schedule your no-obligation strategy session by sending us an email at inquiry@conversionfanatics.com