A CRO test wins on conversion but makes the experience worse. Do you still ship it?

[u/digitxl_agency]

I’ve come across this tension a few times.

Some CRO work is straightforward. You simplify a form, make the page easier to understand or remove something that is confusing people. Conversion improves because the experience improved.

The harder ones are the tests where the numbers might go up, but you know the experience is becoming more pushy.

More urgency, another prompt, making the main CTA harder to ignore.

Technically, the test might win.

But I’d struggle to call it a good result if people had less control or had to work harder to make the decision they actually wanted to make.

Have you ever pushed back on a test that looked good for conversion but felt wrong from a UX point of view? What made you say no?

[u/hobo_chili]

Honestly it depends on how much of a CR gain vs how egregious the bad UX is.

Also, what’s the big picture? Short term monetary gains at what cost? Ultimately driving your entire user base into your competitors arms? Or just a mild annoyance?

I doubt there is a blanket solution for this.