How framing the call to action as a recurring donation impacts overall conversion
American Cornerstone Institute
Experiment Summary
Timeframe: 11/17/2021 - 11/24/2021
With the ACI education survey, the initial send to the house file found that the donation page had a ~20% instant donor conversion rate. This indicated that this was a highly motivated audience. Since one of the priorities in the coming months is to grow a sustainable recurring donor program for the organization, we decided to test out recurring language for subsequent email sends.
We had previously tested similar language in a texting campaign and found that it was able to increase recurring donor conversion rate but at the sake of slightly less one-time donors. Since that campaign was a direct solicitation, we wanted to test the same concept on a content offer like this survey.
Research Question
We believe that emphasizing the need for ongoing monthly support for survey takers will achieve an increase in long term revenue.
Design
Results
| Treatment Name | Conv. Rate | Relative Difference | Confidence | Average Gift | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C: | Control | 15.6% | $0.00 | ||
| T1: | Recurring Emphasis | 10.4% | -33.6% | 100.0% | $0.00 |
This experiment has a required sample size of 317 in order to be valid. Since the experiment had a total sample size of 2,152, 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
× 33.6% decrease in conversion rate
× 0% increase in average gift
Key Learnings
The emphasis on recurring giving reduced overall conversion rate by 33.6%. It did result in one additional recurring gift but that is certainly not worth the significant reduction in overall revenue and donations.
The goal of acquiring recurring donors should still be a focus but the language used in this experiment was not compelling enough to drive the desired increase on ongoing monthly support. We’ll need to find new reasons for giving a monthly gift or increase the emphasis on recurring in future experiments.