How defaulting the monthly giving donation tab for a recurring giving ask impacted recurring giving
Texas Public Policy Foundation
Experiment Summary
Timeframe: 01/30/2023 - 02/18/2023
A public policy client asks users to make a monthly donation and join their monthly donor program after signing a petition. The ask details the monthly donor program, highlighting its purpose and the benefits of joining. But when the petition signers reach the donation form, the form defaults to a one-time gift ask. The form consists of two tabs, one for making a one-time gift and one for making a monthly gift to “Join the Come and Take It Society” – as the tab is labeled.
We wondered if the misalignment of making a recurring giving ask but defaulting the tabbed form to a one-time ask was causing friction, disrupting the user momentum, and possibly even causing confusion among potential donors. To test this line of thinking, we simply built a treatment that set the “Join the Come and Take It Society” tab as the default. Would this tweak result in an increase in monthly donors?
It’s also important to note that the monthly giving tab is supported by a monthly giving callout which reiterates some of the value proposition from the page copy and isolates several benefits of joining the Come and Take It Society.
Research Question
We believe that setting the monthly giving donation form tab as the default tab for potential donors will achieve an increase in recurring giving because the monthly giving tab will align with donation ask in the page copy, maintaining the monthly giving momentum and thought process, and reducing donor friction. because the monthly giving tab will align with donation ask in the page copy, maintaining the monthly giving momentum and thought process, and reducing donor friction.
Design
Results
| Treatment Name | Conv. Rate | Relative Difference | Confidence | Average Gift | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C: | Control - Tabbed Form | 0.00% | |||
| T1: | Treatment - Tabbed Form - Monthly default | 1.8% | 100.0% | 95.6% |
This experiment has a required sample size of 227 in order to be valid. Since the experiment had a total sample size of 406, 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
× 100.0% increase in conversion rate
× 0% increase in average gift
Key Learnings
The treatment resulted in a valid increase in recurring giving, producing four recurring gifts to the treatment and none to the control. This validates our hypothesis that potential donors benefit from congruency between the recurring donation ask and the recurring giving donation form tab. It makes sense for the recurring ask to be backed by a recurring giving opportunity through the donation form. It is also important for potential donors to see and read the recurring giving callout as it could very well add motivation for them to convert as a recurring donor. If the donation form defaults to one-time giving then there is a strong chance the user will not click to the recurring tab and they would therefore never have the chance to read the callout.
This test is worth testing on additional offers that include a recurring giving ask at the end of the funnel.