
Do bigger images mean improved conversion rates? Three case studies - scholia
http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/62391-do-bigger-images-mean-improved-conversion-rates-three-case-studies
======
orangethirty
1\. Bigger images _usually_ improve click-through rates. Why? There are a
number of reasons. An image is used to to tell part of the sales message.
People relate ideas to images and understand the message you are trying to
send better. Also, a lot of people love reading what is _under_ images. As a
result, your copy gets read more often. A bigger image amplifies this by
turning the landing page into a sort of short story.

2\. Big buttons work. They are the call to action, and big call to actions get
a big amount of attention.

3\. When picking images, be mindful of the market you are selling to. The race
of the people in the images are very important. Not because of racism, but due
to how people relate to those who _look_ like themselves. A self-taken
photograph usually nets better results than stock photos. Even one from a
mobile phone.

4\. If you are selling a service, then include a photo of the dashboard/main
area in the main page. People want to see how it looks like without signing
up.

~~~
crimsonzagar
There is an old adage _A picture is worth a thousand words_ for exactly that
reason. It helps people scroll less and get the message without having to read
too much text.

All one needs to do is consult the _artist_ within and choose the right image
for better conversion. That's exactly the point no. 3, like you said, kudos.
IMHO, images and their messaging are probably one of the spots where art and
math can converge.

~~~
aptwebapps
"There is an old adage A picture is worth a thousand words for exactly that
reason. It helps people scroll less and get the message without having to read
too much text."

I may be combining your first and second sentences together in a way that you
did not intend, but I think the adage is older than scrolling ...

~~~
crimsonzagar
Yes, unintentional it was. My apologies, English is not my mother tongue.

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villek
The cases presented don't give much evidence for the impact of bigger images
on conversion rates. Only the first case seems to be a direct comparison of
images of different sizes. In the two others, the copy and design in general
have changed significantly as well. In the second case, the image on the page
is actually the same size, the button has been resized.

In general, though, I do completely agree with the article that the only way
to find out what works is to test, test, test.

~~~
notahacker
Examples 2 and 3 as presented in the article couldn't be more horrendous
examples of invalid inferences from test results if the author had tried.

It's the cargo cult approach to testing: "let's change _everything_ and if the
revamp increases conversions we'll _guess_ what factor had the most effect".

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dclowd9901
> Responsive web designers know that on many sites, as few as 20% of visitors
> will bother to scroll down.

Is this really an "understood" truth? In our own study for our own site, we
found nearly everyone scrolled the page all the time, and that seems the be
the case with every colleague I've ever talked to as well. Who goes to a page
and says, "fuck it, that scroll wheel is just way too damned difficult"?

~~~
ricardobeat
No idea where they got that number, or what a "responsive designer" is
(answers phone calls quickly?). This myth has been debunked long ago.

~~~
villek
Link to the source (<http://www.nngroup.com/articles/scrolling-and-
attention/>) is in the comments.

However, as the author admits in the comments (after being corrected by a
reader), he has interpreted the results of the source incorrectly. The cited
report actually only says that "Web users spend 80% of their time looking at
information above the page fold. Although users do scroll, they allocate only
20% of their attention below the fold."

~~~
dhimes
That could be because we tend to put the most important stuff above the fold.
They analyzed real websites that (we would think) would tend to do that.

My guess is: if you capture their curiosity, they will scroll. Otherwise, they
probably won't. Simple, I know, but I'm going with it.

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Shish2k
In the case of an online auction, it seems pretty obvious to me that more
detailed images of the item being sold will increase interest (I've been
scrolling past lots of potentially good deals on graphics cards on ebay
recently, because there wasn't a detailed photo of their output sockets...)

In the other cases, it seems more like "a change happened" and "conversion
rates went up" - far too many changes at once to imply one specific change
caused it :-/

~~~
gav
The better product content you present the customer: bigger pictures,
different product shots, video, reviews, comparisons, product alternatives,
better copy, detailed descriptions, line-art with dimensions, etc., the better
the conversion rate.

It's a big differentiator when the same (or equivalent) product is sold by
multiple merchants. Customers in my experience are even willing to pay a
premium to the merchant with the better content, presumably because they seem
more legitimate and less-risky.

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jordanmessina
How can you call something a baseline control with completely different
messaging and layout than the variation? The last two examples can't even come
close to attributing the increase in conversion to larger images. This is just
an advertisement for WhichTestWon. Coincidentally, WhichTestWon is the
author's employer...

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paskster
I would love to see more Case Studies on Mobile App Design. For example how
big should images within a mobile app be, to increase user engagement.
Especially inside a listview bigger images can mean fewer items, but might
still increase conversion because it looks more appealing.

~~~
bennyg
I think it looking more appealing is the key. Sure you can fit less, but if
people don't want to use it, it doesn't really matter does it? People are
usually more willing to make subconscious tradeoffs when it looks, feels, and
works awesomely.

~~~
paskster
I understand all your points. But that is why I like to see some mobile
specific Case Studies, just to help and give some basic rules of thumbs.
Otherwise all you have is opinions. At the end you obviously have to test your
different designs / approaches. But some basic and well tested rules would
help to start up the design a lot.

~~~
bksenior
If you find this mythical mobile case study please post it here.

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btilly
Massively improved conversion rates..on what sample size? Can we trust these
results?

So try it for yourself. Track results. And make sure you do the statistics
right to know if you're looking at signal or noise. (Early noise can be very,
very impressive.)

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nicpottier
Would be nice to see actual the numbers to judge whether the results are
statistically significant.

At first blush all but the last Dell treatment are absolutely horrendous to my
eye, so I just don't know how to even judge these.

~~~
robomartin
How would you calculate what would constitute statistically significant
results for each of these sites? How about any other site?

~~~
saurik
It doesn't really have anything to do with the site... it has to do with what
the difference is vs. the total size of the sample. If you see a 50% increase
but only had 3 people in your sample, that is not statistically significant
because the probability of that happening by chance is so high. To make this
concrete, if the actual proportion was 4:1 against that figure (as in, you
"should" have measured a whopping decrease to 25% the original conversion),
you'd still measure the totally incorrect 50% increase in one out of every ten
attempts at that measurement.

~~~
robomartin
I failed to make the point of my question clear enough. Nickpotier critiqued
the results without offering up any numbers. I wanted to see what he thought
the numbers should have been for each example given.

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msrpotus
At a certain point, bigger won't be better, right? What's the maximum
effective size? When an image is so big it just takes over your screen?

~~~
D-Train
At some point, it's less, also, about the size as much as it is the quality of
the picture. This reminds me of OkCupid (the dating site). They did an
analysis of the quality of picture (and camera used) to measure their effects
on click rates and messages. See <http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/dont-be-
ugly-by-accident/>

Looking at how some really great sites are doing, too, there are sites with
massive pictures, but if they're not high quality, turns out to look like a
cheap site.

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bicknergseng
I'd point out that the call to action is also much larger and visible in that
Dell case study. The control for that one is pretty poor.

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jmount
Has anyone found a source for any publicly released raw data on this sort of
thing? Something one could re-sift and discuss?

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tylerdodge
When I saw this I thought for sure it was an april fools joke, but then I saw
that it was posted on March 21st.

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webbruce
Does anyone know if there's a daily/weekly newsletter email with conversion
tips?

~~~
aresant
<http://www.OutConvert.com>

~~~
linker3000
Is that site for real?

There's only one sentence on that page and, unless there's a new term with
which I'm not familiar, it has one heck of a credibility-destroying typo:

"Get our converison [sic] tips newsletter starting now:"

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polskibus
Does HN filter out April Fools' pranks?

