How a smaller recurring gift ask impacts overall revenue on article pages
Focus on the Family
Focus on the Family is a global Christian ministry dedicated to helping families thrive. We provide help and resources for couples to build healthy marriages that reflect God's design, and for parents to raise their children according to morals and values grounded in biblical principles.
Experiment Summary
Ended On: 09/29/2020
Focus on the Family gets significant traffic to their article pages on their website. During a special campaign they were running, they wanted to see if they could convert some of this traffic into donors. Instead of just placing a one-time donation ask, we wanted to see if that was the best option for giving on the page and for this campaign. To test into this, we developed a slide up feature that would appear on the page after a few seconds. The control presented the one-time donation ask and the control presented the recurring ask. The gift handle for the one-time ask was $60, and the suggested gift handle for the recurring ask was $5/month ($60 for the year). Would giving a one-time gift of $60 appeal to more people, or would giving that same amount, but through a monthly gift at $5/month appeal to more people and result in more overall revenue for the organization?
Research Question
Would a smaller recurring gift ask convert more donors and result in more overall revenue on articles pages?
Design
Results
| Treatment Name | Revenue per Visitor | Relative Difference | Confidence | Average Gift | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C: | One-time Donation Ask | $0.06 | $82.61 | ||
| T1: | Recurring Donation Ask | $0.10 | 75.1% | 100.0% | $19.97 |
This experiment was validated using 3rd party testing tools. Based upon those calculations, a significant level of confidence was met so these experiment results are valid.
Flux Metrics Affected
The Flux Metrics analyze the three primary metrics that affect revenue (traffic, conversion rate, and average gift). This experiment produced the following results:
0% increase in traffic
× 624.2% increase in conversion rate
× 75.8% decrease in average gift
75.1% increase in revenue
Key Learnings
While we had less initial transactions with the recurring gift ask, the overall revenue impact was significantly more than the one-time gift ask. When annualized, the recurring gift ask increased overall revenue by 75%! What is also interesting is that the average gift for the recurring gift ask was $19 when the suggested gift ask on the article pages was $5. The reason for this is that when people got to the donation page, the gift array for the recurring gift ask started at $15. We were initially concerned that we’d see the majority of the recurring gifts come in at the $5 handle, but to our surprise, only 20% of all recurring gifts were at that $5 amount. Having the donation page gift arrays start at $15 and not $5 was a critical move in ensuring we didn’t get a high volume of low gift recurring donors. The $5 recurring gift was a great initial “hook” for the donor, but we learned that we can actually get donors to commit to a higher gift amount after they’ve made the initial decision to make a gift.
Even though there was a 34% decrease in the number of people making a gift between the one-time feature and the recurring gift feature, the recurring gift ask proves to be the best option for the organization since the annualized revenue is significantly more.