While reviewing the tripwire page of one of our clients—a page users land on after opting in—we noticed a video being used as part of the pitch. From experience, when a page is already converting reasonably well and has no obvious flaws, we avoid major changes. Instead, we experiment with small adjustments. This helps us better understand our audience’s preferences without risking significant performance drops.

In this case, we hypothesized that changing the video playback experience might influence user behavior and improve the opt-in rate.

Hypothesis

By removing the video control bar, users would no longer be able to skip or fast-forward. The idea was to create a more controlled viewing experience, ensuring the key messaging would be delivered in full. This is a common marketing tactic meant to increase attention and boost conversions.

Test Design

We created two versions of the tripwire page:

• Control Group: The default version with the video player unchanged (control bar visible).
• Test Group: The same video, but with the control bar removed—users could only watch the video in sequence without skipping ahead.

We recommend testing your experiment before launching it; and here’s how PostHog suggests doing it.

Results

The test ran for three days, with a total of 1,962 participants across both versions.

The outcome was clear: the test group had a lower opt-in rate compared to the control.

What We Learned

At first, the results seemed counterintuitive. The tactic of limiting control is often used to boost conversions—but in this case, it backfired.

The key insight is that not all audiences respond well to aggressive marketing tactics. In fact, removing the control bar may have created frustration or reduced trust, especially if users felt manipulated or forced to consume content on someone else’s terms.

This test reminded us that understanding the audience comes first. Even subtle UX decisions can have a big impact on behavior, and what works for one group may harm performance for another.

Read our step-by-step guides to see exactly how we run experiments on WordPress, Shopify, and ClickFunnels.