How delaying the ask impacted click rates
Alliance Defending Freedom
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building legal organization that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith.
Experiment Summary
Ended On: 03/26/2018
The standard Alliance Defending Freedom fundraising email will generally include a long story that is divided into multiple sections with donation asks made between each section. It was our hypothesis that we could actually drive both a greater volume and a more highly motivated audience if we delayed the hard donation ask until the end of the email. The idea was that if we allow the reader to consumer the full story prior to the ask being made, we could increase the volume and motivation of the traffic.
Research Question
Will delaying the hard donation ask until the end of the email increase the email clicks?
Design
Results
| Treatment Name | Click Rate | Relative Difference | Confidence | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C: | Multiple Ask Email | 1.0% | ||
| T1: | Single Ask Email | 1.8% | 73.6% | 100.0% |
This experiment has a required sample size of 1,919 in order to be valid. Since the experiment had a total sample size of 25,790, 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:
73.6% increase in traffic
× 0% increase in conversion rate
× 0% increase in average gift
Key Learnings
For this treatment, we removed the direct call-to-action that was found in both the pre-header of the email and the middle. We replaced the hard ask in the middle with a soft call to action and additional context for the story being told. These changes resulted in a 74% increase in the number of people going to the website for those that had opened the email.
The result of this test illustrates the need to fully convey the background and case for support prior to making the a fundraising ask. We often worry about the increased friction that comes with longer copy and less calls to action but this experiment is a good example of the impact that comes from communicating the value proposition prior to an ask being made.
* As a note, this is part of a larger experiment where we also changed the sender which is why the two sample sizes are not the same.