How to A/B Test Your Landing Page

Why Landing Page Testing Matters

You're already paying for traffic — through ads, SEO, social media, or partnerships. A/B testing your landing page is the highest-ROI activity in your marketing stack because it makes every dollar of ad spend more effective. A 20% improvement in landing page conversion rate is equivalent to a 20% increase in your marketing budget — without spending a penny more.

Consider this: if your landing page converts at 3% and you get 10,000 visitors per month, that's 300 conversions. Improving to 3.6% (a 20% lift) gives you 360 conversions — 60 more customers per month from the same traffic. At a $50 customer value, that's an extra $3,000/month, or $36,000/year.

The best part? The improvement is permanent. Once you find a winning variant, that lift compounds with every future visitor.

The 7 Highest-Impact Elements to Test

Not all tests are created equal. Focus on these elements first — they consistently produce the largest conversion lifts:

1. Headlines

Your headline is responsible for 80% of your landing page's effectiveness, according to legendary copywriter David Ogilvy. It's the first thing visitors read, and it determines whether they stay or bounce. Test different angles: benefit-focused (“Save 10 Hours Per Week”), curiosity-driven (“The A/B Testing Mistake Costing You Thousands”), and specific (“Join 2,847 Marketers Who Doubled Their Conversions”).

Pro tip: Use PageDuel's AI variant generator to create 5–10 headline alternatives in seconds, then test the most promising ones.

2. Call-to-Action (CTA)

The CTA is where the conversion actually happens. Test the button text (“Start Free Trial” vs “Get Started Now” vs “See It in Action”), color (high contrast vs brand-consistent), size, and placement. Also test what's around the button — microcopy like “No credit card required” or “Setup in 2 minutes” can significantly reduce friction.

3. Hero Section Layout

The hero section (above the fold) sets the tone. Test: image vs video, left-aligned text vs centered, illustration vs product screenshot, with social proof vs without. Large changes here can produce 30–50% conversion lifts because they completely reshape the visitor's first impression.

4. Social Proof Placement

Testimonials, customer logos, case study snippets, and review counts all build trust. Test where they appear (above vs below the fold), format (quotes vs video testimonials), and specificity (“Great product” vs “Increased our conversions by 34% in 6 weeks”).

5. Form Length

If your landing page has a form, test the number of fields. The conventional wisdom is “fewer fields = more completions,” but this isn't always true. Sometimes adding a qualifying field (like company size) reduces form fills but improves lead quality. Test both total conversions and downstream metrics like sales-qualified lead rate.

6. Page Length

Should your landing page be short and punchy or long and detailed? It depends on your audience, offer complexity, and traffic temperature. Cold traffic (from ads) often needs more persuasion (longer pages), while warm traffic (referrals, returning visitors) may prefer a shorter path to conversion.

7. Pricing Presentation

If your landing page includes pricing, test how you present it. Anchor with the highest plan first, highlight a “most popular” plan, show monthly vs annual pricing, or emphasize your entry plan. See our detailed pricing comparison guide for more on this.

Setting Up Your Landing Page Test

Here's the practical process for running a landing page A/B test with PageDuel:

1. Install PageDuel. Add one line of JavaScript to your landing page. Takes under 2 minutes.
2. Open the visual editor. Navigate to your landing page in the PageDuel dashboard and click “Edit.” You'll see your live page with editing tools overlaid.
3. Make your change. Click the element you want to modify — headline, button, image, etc. Change the text, color, position, or visibility. Or click “AI Suggest” to generate variants automatically.
4. Set your goal. Choose what counts as a conversion: button click, form submission, page visit, or custom event.
5. Set traffic allocation. Start with 50/50 for maximum speed. If you're risk-averse, use 90/10 (90% control, 10% variant) and scale up after initial results look promising.
6. Launch and monitor. PageDuel will automatically calculate statistical significance and notify you when the test reaches a conclusive result.

How Long Should You Run a Landing Page Test?

The answer depends on your traffic volume and the size of the effect you're trying to detect. Here are general guidelines:

• High-traffic pages (10K+ visitors/month): 1–2 weeks for most tests
• Medium-traffic pages (2K–10K visitors/month): 2–4 weeks
• Low-traffic pages (<2K visitors/month): 4–8 weeks, or focus on bigger changes that produce larger effects

Always run for at least one full week to capture day-of-week variations. B2B landing pages, for example, behave very differently on weekdays vs weekends.

Never stop a test just because the results “look good.” Wait for 95% statistical significance. Early results are notoriously unreliable — a variant that's “winning” by 40% after two days often regresses to a 5% improvement (or worse) once you have real sample sizes.

Real-World Landing Page Test Examples

Example 1: Headline Rewrite

A SaaS company tested their headline: “Project Management Made Simple” (control) vs “Ship Projects 2x Faster Without the Chaos” (variant). The variant won with a 31% increase in free trial sign-ups. The specific, outcome-focused copy outperformed the generic claim.

Example 2: CTA Button Text

An e-commerce brand tested “Buy Now” vs “Add to Cart” on product pages. “Add to Cart” won by 18% — the lower-commitment language reduced purchase anxiety.

Example 3: Social Proof Above the Fold

A B2B landing page tested adding customer logos directly below the hero headline. The variant with logos increased demo requests by 22%. Seeing recognizable brands immediately built credibility.

Example 4: Long vs Short Form

A consulting firm tested their contact form: 7 fields (control) vs 3 fields (name, email, message). The short form generated 47% more submissions. However, lead quality dropped. They settled on 5 fields as the optimal balance between volume and qualification.

Building a Testing Roadmap

Don't test randomly. Build a prioritized testing roadmap using the ICE framework:

• Impact — How much will this test affect your key metric if it wins? (1–10)
• Confidence — How confident are you that this variant will beat the control? (1–10)
• Ease — How easy is it to implement this test? (1–10)

Score each test idea on these three dimensions, average the scores, and prioritize from highest to lowest. This ensures you're always working on the most impactful, highest-probability tests first.

A good cadence for most teams: 2–4 tests per month. This gives each test enough time to reach significance while maintaining a steady pace of optimization.