# Do Companies Keep Hero Image and Video Swaps After Testing Them?

Source: Lazyweb Research
Published: 2026-07-07
Sample size: n=307
Tags: landing-page, design, experiments, ux-patterns, web
HTML: https://www.lazyweb.com/research/do-companies-keep-hero-media-swaps-after-testing
Markdown: https://www.lazyweb.com/research/do-companies-keep-hero-media-swaps-after-testing.md

**Answer.** Across Lazyweb's 4,814-experiment corpus, 307 detected experiments (6%) swapped hero media — an image, video, illustration, or animation — spanning 122 companies.[1][2] Among classifiable changes, additions of hero media outnumber removals about 3.7-to-1 (52 added vs 14 removed).[3] Hero is also the single most-annotated change area in the corpus, at 405 experiments.[4]

> 307 detected experiments swapped hero media across 122 companies, and hero is the most-annotated change area at 405 experiments — Lazyweb Research, July 2026.

## The finding: the hero is the most-worked area

The hero draws more experimentation than any other page area: 405 experiments are annotated as touching the hero, ahead of offer (281), pricing (229), and CTA (225).[4] Narrowing to media swaps specifically — hero co-occurring with image/video/illustration/media/visual/animation — there are 307 such experiments across 122 companies.[1] So a hero media swap is a mainstream tactic, not an edge case.

## Direction of change

Among hero-media experiments Lazyweb could classify by direction:

| Direction | Experiments |
|---|---|
| Added | 52 |
| Removed | 14 |
| Mixed | 14 |
| Changed / unclassified | 227 |

Source: direction heuristic.[3] Additions lead removals ~3.7:1 among classifiable rows, but 227 of 307 are swaps that replaced one media asset with another rather than adding or removing — which is what 'media swap' usually means in practice.

## A named example

Epidemic Sound reworked its hero from 'You bring the idea. We bring the sound.' to 'Bring your stories to life. Just add sound.' with a '2.5 billion times per day' scale claim, and changed the above-fold brand case-study image grid.[5] Inferred rationale: front-loading the licensing category's two core objections — legitimacy and legal safety — before the CTA. The media change carried a positioning change with it.

## Caveats

These are detected UI diffs with inferred rationale, not measured results.[6] Unlike discounts or social proof, the stat pack has no persistence/retention proxy for hero media, so this page reports prevalence and direction only — do not infer 'swaps get kept' from these numbers. The 307 count is keyword-matched ('hero' + a media word).

## The numbers

| Stat | Computed from |
| --- | --- |
| 307 hero-media experiments across 122 companies | tactic_mentions__hero_media_swaps |
| 4,814 total detected experiments (hero media = 6%) | total_detected_experiments; 307/4814 |
| 52 added / 14 removed / 14 mixed / 227 unclassified | direction_split__hero_media |
| Hero 405 / offer 281 / pricing 229 / cta 225 annotated experiments | annotation_area_breakdown |
| Epidemic Sound reworked hero copy + case-study image grid with a '2.5 billion/day' claim | qualitative: hero media swaps, epidemic-sound, 2026-07-04 |
| 0 measured outcomes (learnings are LLM-inferred) | family universe note |

## Methodology

Universe: 4,814 detected experiments (362 companies) in Lazyweb's ~800-app mobile corpus. Hero-media tagged by keyword co-occurrence; direction by add/remove heuristic (227 of 307 unclassified). No retention proxy exists for this tactic. Detected diffs with inferred rationale, not measured results. July 2026 pull.

## Sources & citations

- [1] Lazyweb Research analysis of 4,814 detected experiments (362 companies, mobile-app corpus), July 2026. 307 experiments mention hero + (image/video/illustration/media/visual/animation) across 122 companies.
- [2] Lazyweb Research analysis of 4,814 detected experiments (362 companies, mobile-app corpus), July 2026. 307 of 4,814 total detected experiments (6%).
- [3] Lazyweb Research analysis of 4,814 detected experiments (362 companies, mobile-app corpus), July 2026. Direction heuristic: 52 added / 14 removed / 14 mixed / 227 unclassified.
- [4] Lazyweb Research analysis of 4,814 detected experiments (362 companies, mobile-app corpus), July 2026. Annotated change-area breakdown: hero 405, offer 281, pricing 229, cta 225.
- [5] Lazyweb Research analysis of 4,814 detected experiments (362 companies, mobile-app corpus), July 2026. Epidemic Sound (2026-07-04): hero copy and case-study image grid changed.
- [6] Lazyweb Research analysis of 4,814 detected experiments (362 companies, mobile-app corpus), July 2026. Learnings are LLM-inferred hypotheses, never measured A/B outcomes.

## Related questions

- [Which Page Areas Get Tested Most — And Where Does the Hero Rank?](https://www.lazyweb.com/research/how-many-experiments-touch-hero-media-swaps)
- [How Many Detected Experiments Change CTA Copy, and What Do Companies Rewrite?](https://www.lazyweb.com/research/how-many-experiments-touch-cta-copy-and-what-changes)
- [Do Companies That Add Discount Badges to Their Paywall Keep Them?](https://www.lazyweb.com/research/do-companies-keep-discount-badges-after-testing-them)