How direct language affects donor conversion
Harvest Ministries
Harvest Christian Fellowship exists to bring Christians closer to God and to bring nonbelievers to a saving relationship with Him by showing how God's Word and faith in Him are applicable and relevant to everyday life.
Experiment Summary
Timeframe: 03/08/2016 - 03/21/2016
Harvest Ministries was testing the button text on the premium block on their homepage. This block was used to ask for a donation in exchange for a premium offer, in this case, a DVD.
Since the offer was centered around a premium, the button text had previously been “get your copy”. However, the copy was clear that the DVD was given in exchange for financial support, so the Harvest team decided to test “donate” on the button text. If the motivation of their site visitors was aligned with charitable giving, they hypothesized that more people would donate, as opposed to the more eCommerce-focused call-to-action of “get your copy”.
Research Question
Will a more direct call-to-action increase conversion rate?
Design
Results
| Treatment Name | Conv. Rate | Relative Difference | Confidence | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C: | Control | 0.25% | ||
| T1: | Treatment 1 | 0.51% | 104.6% | 100.0% |
This experiment has a required sample size of 4,838 in order to be valid. Since the experiment had a total sample size of 117,649, 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
× 104.6% increase in conversion rate
× 0% increase in average gift
Key Learnings
This experiment shows that clarity is king when it comes to conversion. The button text with “get your copy” might seem like a bait-and-switch on the second page, when the visitor finds out that a donation is necessary to get the DVD. “Donate” gives the visitor a much clearer understanding of what is expected, which results in more conversions on the following page.