B2B Marketing Online Testing: Eye-tracking Research and CTAs

The Research: Eye-tracking studies have found that when most people view websites, they start at the upper left corner and then rush over the prominent images. So if your ad is to the right of an image, you may have a better chance of being noticed than if you are to the left of it. There was a great case study about this on WhichTestWon.com as well as the constant need to test rather than always just relying on research.

The B2B Test: The experiment used two versions of landing pages that had the same copy and were roughly similar in design. However, Version A had the call-to-action on the top right of the page, surrounded by a box, with an arrow pointing to it; Version B had the call-to-action on the top left of the page, with a picture of a man above it, surrounded by a box.

The Results: Version A got 23.77% more phone calls than Version B, but Version B had 5.25% more online form completions so, in a way, both won. But, according to the research, Version B should have won completely, since it was to the right of the image. I argue it was just a design preference among the target audience.

Test Multiple Variables: So, when doing your own B2B marketing online testing, start with research but also do your own design preferences to see what works. Perhaps including CTAs on both sides? Adding or removing pictures? Either way, with the Internet changing so rapidly, it’s hard for research to keep up with it! So do your own research to supplement it, and see what works best for your B2B target audience.