How an additional, clarifying form field affects webinar registrations
NextAfter
Experiment Summary
Timeframe: 01/16/2019 - 01/25/2019
In this experiment, we wanted to see if adding an additional field to understand whether or not someone worked for a nonprofit would make a significant impact on conversion. If we could add this field without hurting registrations, we’d be able to have cleaner data and do additional segmentation in our marketing to try to engage “for-profit” people on our email file differently.
So we set up a 3 variant experiment – the control had our normal form fields, variant 1 had an additional required field asking if someone worked for a nonprofit, and variant 2 had an un-required field asking the same question.
Research Question
Will asking registrants if they work for a nonprofit decrease webinar registrations?
Design
Results
| Treatment Name | Conv. Rate | Relative Difference | Confidence | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C: | No Additional Fields | 45.7% | ||
| T1: | Do you work for a nonprofit organization? (Required) | 57.0% | 24.8% | 99.1% |
| T2: | Do you work for a nonprofit organization? (Not Required) | 60.4% | 32.1% | 100.0% |
This experiment has a required sample size of 133 in order to be valid. Since the experiment had a total sample size of 841, 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
× 32.1% increase in conversion rate
× 0% increase in average gift
Key Learnings
The result of this experiment was actually shocking. The best case scenario we hoped for was seeing no difference in conversion rate. Instead, we saw a 24% increase with the required field, and a 32% increase with the un-required field. Both increases reached 95% or higher statistical confidence. Variant 2 reached 99.9% confidence.
While I can’t say I’m 100% confident as to why this increase occurred, my hypothesis is that it is very similar to this experiment with Jews for Jesus. Additional form fields often lead to an increase in friction – which results in lower conversion rates. But in this case, the additional question may have served as a qualifying question that gave registrants more confidence that the webinar is specifically geared for them. By sharing that they work for a nonprofit or for-profit, the implication is that the webinar will be more relevant and valuable.
The increase in perceived value outweighed the additional cost created by the form field, leading to greater conversion.