Business Line of Credit Flat Fee Header Testing
American Express
American Express Business Line of Credit shifted from multiple fee structures to a flat monthly percentage, making borrowing costs easier to understand upfront.
As a growth marketer, I led customer research to understand how that change should be communicated on the acquisition experience and whether it could outperform our historically strongest message, “You may be pre-approved.”
Short on time?
We developed four headline variants (V1–V4) to test how customers responded to the new flat-fee pricing model, from emphasizing predictability to removing surprise fees.
Variant 1
Borrow without any surprise fees
Variant 2
Funding made easy with straightforward fees
Variant 3
Predictable, fixed-fee pricing means no surprises
Variant 4
Funding with straightforward pricing
Two-phased study
Study overview
I partnered with UX research on a two-phased mixed-method study with 16 small business owners.
We used unmoderated testing to narrow for flat-fee messages, then moderated interviews to understand why the strongest messages resonated and how they compare it with the existing control messaging:
Control
"You may be pre-approved"
We tested four headline variants with 16 business owners who had prior lending experience. Participants were split into two groups and asked to compare two variants.
Findings between the two groups
Phase 1 takeaway
V1 advanced as the clearest flat-fee message, while V4 moved forward from the second group for deeper moderated testing.
We conducted 30-minute moderated interviews with five small business owners to discuss V1, V4, and the control.
The goal was to understand why participants preferred certain messages, how clearly they understood the flat fee model, and how both compared with our existing pre-approval messaging.
Findings
Phase 2 takeaway
Flat-fee and pre-approval messaging addressed different needs, and preference was mixed because messages offered different kinds of values.
The study clarified where each message was strongest
Our research suggested that flat-fee messaging was most effective when it made the benefit concrete, but it did not clearly outperform pre-approval as an acquisition message.
The research showed that flat-fee messaging and pre-approval language appealed for different reasons. The intended next step was a follow-up A/B test to validate the findings in-market, but priorities later shifted.