How the placement of a campaign’s thermometer impacts campaign revenue

Canadian Taxpayers Federation

A not-for-profit citizen's advocacy group dedicated to lower taxes, less waste and accountable government.

Experiment Summary

Ended On: 04/01/2021

As a part of their campaign, the Canadian Taxpayer Foundation wanted to experiment with the placement of a thermometer that would fill to the campaign goal and understand what would drive the highest amount of revenue.

Where would placing the thermometer showing the dollars raised to that point in the campaign drive the most responses and revenue?

Research Question

We believe that moving the thermometer closer to the donation form for prospective donors will achieve an increase in revenue.

Results

This experiment was validated using 3rd party testing tools. Based upon those calculations, a significant level of confidence was met so these 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
× 10.6% increase in conversion rate
× 33.5% increase in average gift
47.5% increase in revenue

Key Learnings

With a 99.9% level of confidence, we observed an increase of +40.7% in revenue. We also observed an increase of 10.6% in the donor conversion rate, but only achieved a 75% level of confidence in that regard.

Overall, the donors with the lower thermometer placement seemed to be motivated to give more when they (a) completely read the donation page copy, and (b) saw how much money had already been raised when it was closest to the point that they were making a decision on what they themselves should give.

When possible, place your thermometer closest to the donation form during a campaign.