The title of this post was not meant to be one of those headlines to grab you and get you to read. Although it might have done just that. The truth is I really don’t want you to test this.
In the screen shots above, the SAP online store is testing the color of the Add To Cart button, blue vs. green. Here’s what the two buttons that were tested look like next tot each other.
I hate this test.
Blue vs. green or any color button vs. another color is the worst kind of test anyone can do. This is a test that leads to stupid decisions based on data that’s not really thought through. Well get to the stupidity of those decisions in a minute but first lets look deeper into the hypothesis of such a test.
What kind of hypothesis can you have about a button color?
Here is the only meaningful one: The green button will win because it is a contrasting color to the other elements on the page, namely the product image that is mostly blue. Therefore visitors will notice the green button more than the blue variation and it will get more clicks.
In fact that is exactly what happened, or my hypothesis of what happened any way since the green button did indeed win out over the blue version.
So back to the ramifications of the stupidity.
So the green button won. What do you do with this new found data? Do you make all of your buttons green from now on? Where does that get you? If the hypothesis is true and the green button won because of the contrast to the other elements on the page then the green button will now work as well on another page with different color scheme and certainly not on a page where the product images is greenish.
Which brings me to another reason why I hate this test. The learnings are not actionable and they can not be applied to other product pages on your site for continued conversion lift.
My hope is that your tests are more meaningful than simply the color of a button. Which brings me to yet another reason why I hate this test. The variable your testing is very weak. Out of all the thinks that could have been tested on this page, time was weed on a small insignificant change. A bigger, bolder change would have generated higher conversion lift, more gains, and deeper learnings that could have helped guide more meaningful decisions and helped the SAP marketing team learn more about how their customers and prospects think. There are no learnings from a test like this.
When it comes to button color here’s everything you need to know.
- Make buttons a contrasting color to the page. This is easier to do on a landing page than a product detail page where you are forced to follow a template
- Use white space around the buttons wisely. Not enough white space and your buttons will get lost.
- Make your buttons large enough to be easily clicked. The larger the target the easier it is to hit.
Finally, if your going to just test buttons and no other element at the same time, please test more than just the color. There are so many options just within a simple button to test.
Here are just a few besides color
- Shape
- Size
- Text
- Proximity to x (product hero shot, etc)
There is no reason why you can’t combine these changes into different buttons and form a cluster of variables into a single button to test.
Just remember to always follow the golden rule of testing. With every test there should be a learning. Green vs. blue just doesn’t leave much of anything to learn, sorry SAP but I really hate this test.
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