How cognitive tension and the incentive of “free instant access” affects conversion rate
The Heritage Foundation
Founded in 1973, The Heritage Foundation is a research and educational institution—a think tank—whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense.
Experiment Summary
Timeframe: 11/10/2015 - 11/24/2015
The Heritage Foundation’s team of research scholars assembles an Index of Military Strength each year to assess the readiness of America’s military and the strength of existing global threats. The team at Heritage promoted this on Facebook to acquire new email addresses. Their existing landing page made the offer to “get the facts”, which had previously been a compelling incentive. They developed a treatment that leveraged proven keywords “get instant access”.
This was coupled with a new headline. Instead of aligning the offer to “get the facts”, the treatment headline asked a question: “Is the US Military ready to defend our country?” This was designed to draw the reader into the copy and introduce tension that could be answered by activating the offer.
The only variables tested on this treatment were the headline and call-to-action.
Research Question
Will the promise of “instant access” increase conversion when tested against a call to action of “get the facts”?
Design
Results
| Treatment Name | Conv. Rate | Relative Difference | Confidence | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C: | Get the facts | 17.9% | ||
| T1: | Instant Free Access | 21.6% | 20.3% | 93.9% |
This experiment has a required sample size of 884 in order to be valid. Since the experiment had a total sample size of 2,408, and the level of confidence is not above 95% the experiment results are not valid.
Key Learnings
The treatment increased conversion by more than 20%. This tells us two things:
1. The use of cognitive tension can be a useful element to increase conversion from prospects and visitors.
2. The concept of “instant free access” can increase incentive to convert, if it is combined with an offer that is desirable to our prospects and visitors.