+16.59% More Applications Thanks to an Apply Button That Shows Up Sooner
Table of contents
About Ratbacher GmbH
Since 2006, Ratbacher GmbH has been one of the leading IT recruitment consultancies in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It brings qualified IT experts and top companies together: precisely matched, fast and efficient. Its focus is on placing specialists and executives from software development, IT infrastructure and SAP, in both permanent positions and on a project basis.
Initial Situation
The experiment focused on the job detail pages. They are the last step before the application form and are therefore decisive for the conversion rate. Here in particular, at the bottom of the funnel, clear user guidance is what counts.
Scroll heatmaps showed a clear pattern: many users stopped scrolling after the job details (qualifications) and never reached the module with the Apply button. Especially on mobile, this meant that the button did not become visible in time for many users.
Goal: The goal of the A/B test was therefore to get more visitors of the job detail page to click the Apply button.
Variations
Hypothesis
If the company profile takes up less space,
then we will get more clicks on the Apply button,
because the CTA is more visible.
Original: The company profile is fully expanded.
Variation: The company profile is collapsed.
Changes: In the variation, the company profile was collapsed. As a result, it takes up less space, and the Apply button becomes visible sooner. One click expands the profile again, so all information remains available.
Test Results
Test Setup: A/B test
Duration: 27 days
Segmentation: None, page targeting on all job detail pages
Measured Conversions:
+16.59% applications
+17.45% clicks on the Apply button
By Device:
Mobile: +55.6% clicks on the Apply button, +10% applications
Desktop: +6.6% clicks on the Apply button, +14.69% applications
Insights: The results support the hypothesis at a significance level of 91%. With the company profile collapsed, clicks on the Apply button rose by 17.45%. The effect carried through to the end of the funnel: submitted applications also increased by 16.59%. The data from the scroll heatmap is consistent with these results.
The change had the strongest effect on mobile, where the button had previously gone unseen particularly often: here, clicks rose by 55.6%. Mobile applications, by contrast, increased by only 10%. This means many mobile users click “Apply” but do not submit the form. It suggests that there is still potential in the mobile application form, which makes it an obvious next lever. On desktop, it was the other way around: clicks rose by only 6.6%, but applications rose by 14.69%.
Conclusion
Ratbacher will implement the variation with the collapsed company profile going forward. As a next step, further A/B tests are planned on the job detail pages to continue optimizing the final stage of the customer journey.
With Varify, tests can be set up efficiently, and the platform is continuously being extended with new features. That makes Varify the ideal partner for our current and future tests.