Publication: May 12, 2023

Unethical: fake product reviews A/B test

There was a time that there were no rules. You could say your product was almost sold out when it wasn't. You could write fake reviews. Not anymore. Not in Europe.

Even though those tests were ‘unethical’, there is a lot to learn. For example, how to show product reviews:

1. Third-party reviews

Reviews look more trustworthy if they are collected by an external platform like Trustpilot. If they are just written content on your page, the visitors understands any copywriter could have written them.

2. Typos and negative feedback for the win

Five stars and overly positive reviews — I thought they would work, the team and stakeholders thought so too. Loads of A/B tests with positive reviews (fake) later, we decided to go into the other direction: write reviews that also have a negative aspect. Add a typo. Those were the ones that won. Those were the reviews that really helped visitors convert.

3. No pictures

Everyone is busy. No one has time to write a review after buying a product ánd uploading a picture. Adding pictures of reviewers seemed to work as a red flag for thrustworthiness too.

4. Placement on page

Experiment with the placement of reviews. Putting product reviews closer to the main call-to-action (add to cart) might increase conversion rate because it helps convince your visitors.