How using a timer to reduce anxiety affects conversion rate
Experiment ID: #904
Hillsdale College
Experiment Summary
Timeframe: 04/23/2015 - 04/28/2015
As part of the ongoing efforts to optimize the contextualized donation page for their most popular online course, Constitution 101, Hillsdale College created a new treatment to two goals in mind. The idea was to create a reason for visitors to stay on the donation page for a longer time period and to help mitigate complaints that arose when people felt the courses were not actually free.
To accomplish these two goals, we created a new treatment of the donation page that contained a countdown timer letting the visitor know that their course was being prepared and would be ready in a minute and a half. At the end of the countdown, the timer would display a link to allow people to start their course immediately.
Research Question
Does the addition of a countdown timer give visitors more reasons to stay on the donation page which will then lead to a higher conversion rate after they consume the content?
Design
C: No Countdown Clock
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) ) )
Results
| Treatment Name | Conv. Rate | Relative Difference | Confidence | Average Gift | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C: | No Countdown Clock | 9.9% | $0.00 | ||
| T1: | Countdown Timer | 7.3% | -26.9% | 100.0% | $0.00 |
This experiment has a required sample size of 845 in order to be valid. Since the experiment had a total sample size of 8,221, 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
× 26.9% decrease in conversion rate
× 0% increase in average gift
Key Learnings
The countdown timer decreased conversion rate by 26.9% for visitors on the page. Deeper analysis found that peopler were staying on the page for a longer period of time but this did not lead to increased conversions. Our hypothesis is that by giving them the exact time until the course started, they could open a new tab in their browser, effectively ignoring the donation page, and come back to the page after a minute and a half to begin the process.