Overview
For this initiative, I was tasked with creating alternative Download App page designs to test against the current/control Download App page.
This project involved tight coordination between a third party SEO consultant to maximize page rankings, and GasBuddy’s Creative Services (Marketing) team to provide copy and brand voice that aligned, or rather, worked with the SEO recommendations.
The Control*
My initial observation of the current/control design was that it was not mobile-first (actually, no mobile web design could be procured).
The control is a simple page that showing a generalized value prop, with an SMS Download App link and accompanying app marketplace buttons.
*I take no credit for the above designs
Competitive Analysis
Prior to hitting the drawing board, I performed a competitive analysis to see what other companies were doing with their download app pages compared to our own.
Some inspiration drawn from a few of the “competitors”:
- Try to maintain a 1:1 attention ratio for the task at hand (downloading the app)
- Mobile web users were provided with a navigation bar that had no distracting “FIND GAS” CTA in the upper right corner
- Mobile web users were provided with a floating bottom banner directing them to the marketplace suited for their device (iOS = App Store, Android = Play Store)
- As desktop users scrolled on the page past the initial Download App SMS link and marketplace buttons, a bottom floating banner was presented offering the same marketplace and SMS download options
- Large content blocks to encourage scrolling and showcasing various value props were implemented
- A device casing carousel rotating through product screens was included
Variant A – Gradient Banners
GasBuddy had adopted what we referred to as Angled Gradient Banners for page headers. The first variant would use this kind of page header to be more in sync and consistent with the latest direction of the GasBuddy.com home page and other interior pages.
This was a mobile first design that detected which OS the user was browsing from to provide them with only relevant App Store or Google Play buttons.
Click to view full page in browser
Variant B – Lifestyle Image
GasBuddy had recently been experimenting with testing the use of lifestyle images. For this download app page variant we chose a similar design to the latest Pay with GasBuddy landing page, as that test had performed well.
This was also a mobile first design that detected which OS the user was browsing from to provide them with only relevant App Store or Google Play buttons.
Click to view full page in browser
What did we learn?
The goal was to have a strong ranking SEO download app page that showed multiple value prop used to entice prospective users into downloading the app.
Ultimately the test variants did not outperform the control.
The test results were, unfortunately, inconclusive…*womp womp*
BUT THAT IS OKAY!
It is hypothesized that the new design for this page, which featured several promotional content blocks, testimonial quotes, a device casing carousel of product screenshots, and SEO verbiage & tactics (indexing, inner-page navigation of anchored links) overcomplicated and obfuscated the explicit purpose of the page.
We’ll be going back to the drawing board at some point, but as an immense amount of effort was put into this project between so many stakeholders, I couldn’t not share!
Don Hancock 