Test of the Month: Some Of The Best Growth Tactics We Launched In July
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Test of the Month: Some Of The Best Growth Tactics We Launched In July

Jon CohnJon Cohn

July 15, 2021

After two straight months of incredible feedback from you all (thanks!), we’re excited to continue our Test of the Month competition and announce July’s winners.

June’s top tests included marketing tactics covering crypto, keywords, and conversion.
July’s winning tests are yet another varied set of problems we solved.

*Quick note – If you’re new to the blog, or just need a reminder, here’s a rundown of what we look for in a Test of the Month winner:

  • Innovation – Has this type of test ever been done before? Did it require creative thinking to implement? Is it in an area we don’t cover often enough?
  • Impact – Is this test likely to make a large impact? Did it perform better than expected? Does this test set the client up for a big strategic win?
  • Use of data – Did you have a strong hypothesis for this test based on sound data? Did you do any interesting analysis in order to dnd the inspiration or justification for this test?

Now, onto the part you’ve all been waiting for…

BRONZE:
Reposition & Repackage Key Message Into Exit-Intent Popup

ladder test of the month Reposition and Repackage Key Message Into Exit-Intent Popup Samy Ouedraogo

Growth Analyst Samy Quedraogo’s smart new approach to exit-intent popups for a vitamin and supplement dispenser earned him third place.

Samy observed that email sign-ups for his client were lower than expected, and after investigating further he noticed the welcome popup was appearing discreetly in the corner of the page.  

He hypothesised that a more prominent message location with a unique product shot would be more likely to catch the eye, and offer readers the opportunity to engage more fully with the clients content before they left the page – to increase the volume of emails captured.

In fact, a Wordstream case study showed that using an exit popup increased time on page by over 50%.

Samy’s results proved his hypothesis correct, and the conversion rate for email signups moved from 4.74% with the welcome popup to 10.56% conversion rate – that’s a 122.78% increase!

Find This Growth Tactic In The Ladder Playbook:

Exit-Intent Popup

Try showing an exit-intent popup. If your site is getting a lot of readers, but not generating a lot of emails, you should offer visitors the opportunity to engage more fully with your content before they leave the page. Sumo, Justuno, and Unbounce all have great tools for building your exit popup.

ladder growth tactic exit popup

SILVER:

Lead Form Ad vs Landing Page

ladder growth test of the month lead form vs landing page mike rozelle

This ingenious test for a US real estate startup set out with a simple idea – fewer friction points should lead to greater conversions, at a lower cost.

Having already developed landing pages to match specific value propositions, and directed specific audiences to those landing pages, Mike had an idea to further enhance the test.

“Why not target that same audience with a LinkedIn lead form ad, to see how much information was necessary for prospects to convert,” said Mike. The results speak for themselves…

  • Landing Page Results – 14 leads at $42.90/lead
  • Lead Form Results – 47 leads at $13.62/lead

The reduced friction points led to 33 more leads delivered via Linkedin Lead Form ads, at an overall savings of $29.28 per lead.

It’s a great lesson in the importance of understanding how much information is needed to convert, and how removing friction can improve results.

Find This Growth Tactic In The Ladder Playbook:

LinkedIn Lead Form Ads

linkedin lead gen forms

LinkedIn recently introduced a new Lead Gen Forms system where you can run lead ads similar to Facebook.

“Lead Gen Forms make it easy to collect leads from the nearly 500 million professionals, influencers, and business decision-makers who use LinkedIn. When members click on one of your ads, their LinkedIn profile information automatically populates an in-app form that they can submit instantly — without having to type in their info by hand.” – LinkedIn

*RESOURCE: How to Create a LinkedIn Business Page for Your Company

GOLD:

Facebook Lead Ads With New Gated Content

ladder growth test of the month facebook lead ads andrew robertson

Andrew’s strategy for a cloud based computing company based in the US have earned him the top spot for July’s Test of the Month.

After running Facebook lead gen ads for 6 months, and continuously seeing improvements – scaling successfully, and consistently driving leads month over month – June saw a stagnation, and slight rise in the Cost Per Lead (CPL).

Andrew realised he had to take action to put a stop to that rise in CPL. In his investigation he saw that the same piece of gated content had been used throughout the period, he immediately had an idea – a refresh was needed to beat the plateau.

After getting 2 new pieces of gated content from the client, he split the budget and set about his test – comparing the performance of old and new gated content, and this is what he found…

  • The old gated content:167 leads, 22.9% CVR, $46.52 CPL
  • The new gated content: 54 leads, 41.22% CVR, $17.36 CPL

It worked even better than expected, and more than halved the CPL of the gated content campaign from $46.52 to $17.36, a 62.68% decrease! We also almost doubled the CVR!

As this graph shows you – we scaled up the spend, without hurting the Facebook CPL:

spend vs CPA scatter plot

An important takeaway here, in addition to the fantastic results, we learned the continued importance of content refresh, and not to underestimate Facebook in a B2B strategy. This simple tactic proves it doesn’t have to be out of this world innovation to be effective, and it really underlines Facebook’s importance in lead generation.

Offering a piece of content for an email address can improve activation rates. Create a PDF or eBook out of some longform piece of content you have on your blog, or write a whitepaper or special piece of content specifically for the offer. Then, gate it behind an email capture form to get visitors interested enough to want to give you their emails or register for an account to get it.

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