How adding clarity of a gift’s impact on a donation page affects donor conversion rate
International Mission Board
Experiment Summary
Timeframe: 12/12/2022 - 03/15/2023
IMB launched an advent ebook offer at the end of the calendar year. Given that this resource would have a short lifespan we wanted to maximize donor conversion rate in the funnel. We noticed that the existing donation page might read as vague or intangible to the reader. We hypothesized that by not simply talking about what IMB does, but how (and more importantly why a gift makes this possible) it would bring clarity to the IMB’s ask as well as what the donor’s gift will be used for—we believe these two changes together will lift donor conversion rate.
Research Question
We believe that providing greater clarity to how a donor’s gift is used for IMB’s audience will achieve an increase in conversion rate because donors can better imagine the tangible impact of their gift. .
Design
Results
| Treatment Name | Conv. Rate | Relative Difference | Confidence | Average Gift | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C: | Control | 4.1% | $0.00 | ||
| T1: | Treatment - Results Copy | 14.9% | 262.0% | 99.9% | $0.00 |
This experiment has a required sample size of 56 in order to be valid. Since the experiment had a total sample size of 331, and the level of confidence is above 95% the 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
× 262.0% increase in conversion rate
× 0% increase in average gift
Key Learnings
The A/B experiment conducted by IMB showed that providing greater clarity to how a donor’s gift is used can significantly increase conversion rates. The treatment group saw a 262% increase in donations for all traffic with a 99.9% level of confidence.
What’s interesting is that both control and treatment say where the donors gift will go. But where the control seems to focus on this more as a way of reassuring the donor about allocation (and only gets as specific as physical and spiritual needs) the treatment go into detailed bullet points. Cross-cultural training, medical supplies, clean water—these are tangible benefits that we can imagine versus trying to define what a “physical” and “spiritual” need is.
It’s likely that the addition of these bullet points decreases any type of anxiety that the prospective donor may have about how their donation will be used.