How clarity and ordering on a donation form affect donor conversion
CaringBridge
CaringBridge offers free personal, protected websites for people to easily share updates and receive support and encouragement from their community during a health journey. Every 7 minutes, a CaringBridge website is created for someone experiencing a health event.
Experiment Summary
Timeframe: 07/01/2016 - 08/04/2016
CaringBridge had done some user testing in anticipation of launching a new site experience. During that testing, a few users asked questions that suggested that the donation process was unclear and could use clarity and ordering. Based on these responses, they developed a treatment that numbered the header copy in the donation steps, used more personal and descriptive language, and increased perceived security around the donor’s information.
In the first header, they changed “Make your donation” to “1. Choose your donation amount”. Then, they added a number to the next call-to-action, “Write a Message of Support”. Finally, they changed the header “Your Information” to “3. Enter Your Information (It’s secure)”, which was designed to add clarity and reduce anxiety.
They launched an A/B test to quantify the impact.
Research Question
Will ordering the donation steps and clarifying language increase donor conversion?
Design
Results
| Treatment Name | Conv. Rate | Relative Difference | Confidence | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C: | Control | 20.3% | ||
| T1: | Ordered Copy | 22.9% | 12.5% | 95.5% |
This experiment has a required sample size of 2,013 in order to be valid. Since the experiment had a total sample size of 4,246, 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
× 12.5% increase in conversion rate
× 0% increase in average gift
Key Learnings
The treatment with the ordered copy produced a 12.5% lift in donations, which proved that the user testing had unlocked a powerful principle. While CaringBridge saw their donation process as one big step, the donors responded positively when they were told what it took to complete each step with numerical ordering and increased clarity.
This is a powerful reminder that we must learn to see our donation processes through the eyes of the donor to properly assist them and markedly improve conversions.