Pattern #77: Filled Or Ghost Buttons

Pattern #77  Tested 4 timesFirst tested by Luke Hay Recently tested by Stanley Zuo on Jul 25, 2020

Based on 4 Tests, Members See How Likely Version B Wins Or Loses And By How Much

LOSSES
-5
-4
-3
-2
-1
FLAT
+1
+2
+3
+4
+5
WINS

Measured by the sum of negative and positive tests.

A B
Filled Or Ghost Buttons (Variant A) Filled Or Ghost Buttons (Variant B)

Expected Median Effects Of B

?

Progression

(4 tests)

-

Leads

-

Signups

-

Engagement

?

Sales

(1 tests)

-

Revenue

-

Retention

-

Referrals

?

ANY PRIMARY

(4 tests)

Tests

Pattern #77: Filled Or Ghost Buttons
Was Tested On Freshegg.co.uk by Luke Hay

Replaced

Isolated

Test # 199 on Freshegg.co.uk by $conducted_test->test->user_->first_name . ' ' . $conducted_test->test->user_->last_name Luke Hay    Sep 13, 2018 Test link

Find Out How It Did

  • Measured by clicks on any of the primary buttons

In this experiment, standard (filled) buttons were tested against ghost buttons.

Get Access To See The Test Results

The Same Pattern Was Also Tested Here

Replaced

Isolated

Test # 310 on Backstage.com by $conducted_test->test->user_->first_name . ' ' . $conducted_test->test->user_->last_name Stanley Zuo    Jul 25, 2020 Test link

Find Out How It Did With 594,997 Visitors

  • Measured by visits to a detail page

  • Measured by membership sales

In this experiment, the style of a button leading to view detailed casting calls on a listing page was changed. In version the style was a filled high contrast blue background, and the the B variation there was a feint "ghost button" style. 

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Replaced

Isolated

Test # 307 on Volders.de by $conducted_test->test->user_->first_name . ' ' . $conducted_test->test->user_->last_name Michal Fiech    Jul 17, 2020 Test link

Find Out How It Did With 53,618 Visitors

  • Measured by clicks on the secondary button

This experiment measured a shallow click goal on a button that would encourage to repeated the action that was just completed (in this case a contract cancellation). In the control version (A) a thank-you screen shows a filled button style, and the variant (B) there was a ghost button. As a note, I also flipped the A-B in this experiment for the purpose of matching it to our ghost button pattern, which means that Volders in fact was starting  out with a ghost button to begin with. 

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Replaced

Isolated

Test # 243 on Goodui.org by $conducted_test->test->user_->first_name . ' ' . $conducted_test->test->user_->last_name Jakub Linowski    Jun 05, 2019 Test link

Find Out How It Did With 25,046 Visitors

  • Measured by visits to pricing page

In this experiment, full red background buttons were changed to ghost buttons (red outline and transparent fill)

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Leaks

Leak #39 from Booking.com   |   Jan 3, 2020 Listing

Booking A/B Tests Ghost Buttons, But Their Hopes Fade Away As Predicted

Ghosts buttons. We know that this style of buttons is net negative based on this evidence-based pattern. So when Booking ran this experiment, it's no surpirse that it was eventually rejected - a predictable replication. View Leak

-0.5 Evidence

For each pattern, we measure three key data points derived from related tests:

REPEATABILITY - this is a measure of how often a given pattern has generated a positive or negative effect. The higher this number, the more likely the pattern will continue to repeat.

SHALLOW MEDIAN - this is a median effect measured with low intent actions such as initiating the first step of a lengthier process

DEEP MEDIAN - this is derived from the highest intent metrics that we have for a given test such as fully completed signups or sales.