How a free trial offer affected clickthrough conversion rate
Focus on the Family
Focus on the Family is a global Christian ministry dedicated to helping families thrive. We provide help and resources for couples to build healthy marriages that reflect God's design, and for parents to raise their children according to morals and values grounded in biblical principles.
Experiment Summary
Timeframe: 10/25/2019 - 01/03/2020
Focus on the Family had a page on their site to encourage online visitors to learn more about their Adventures in Odyssey Club audio stories for kids and families. While there was some copy included on the page to introduce the program and build interest/awareness, they were seeing low click-through rates from viewers and wondered if page visitors were 1) entirely missing the CTA, 2) uncertain about going to a website called “WhitsEnd” since this is a reference to a place/character on the program, which would not be familiar or clear to new visitors, or 3) unclear about what action to take next once they visited the “WhitsEnd” website. They wondered if offering a free trial with a bold call-to-action would provide more straightforward value and eliminate any confusion about what site visitors were clicking on.
They created a treatment of the page that presented the 14-day free trial offer in a clear way with a big CTA button. They added bullet points to the copy with additional value prop—outlining the benefits of the free trial so that site visitors would know exactly what to expect—and tracked click-through rates.
Research Question
How will a free trial offer perform when compared to a CTA to “find out more”?
Design
Results
| Treatment Name | Conv. Rate | Relative Difference | Confidence | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C: | Control | 8.6% | ||
| T1: | Adventures in Odyssey Free Trial Treatment | 10.3% | 20.7% | 100.0% |
This experiment has a required sample size of 2,086 in order to be valid. Since the experiment had a total sample size of 167,016, 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
× 20.7% increase in conversion rate
× 0% increase in average gift
Key Learnings
The enhanced copy and CTA button produced a 20% lift in conversion rate. Interestingly, the free trial was being offered on the subsequent website as well, but by eliminating the extra step to get there, they were able to reduce friction and capture more interest in sign-ups from site visitors. The increase in conversion rate can also be attributed to the increased clarity of the offer. By providing a better understanding to the visitor of what specific action would follow if they clicked through, they were able to reduce hesitancy.