Slide 1: The Great Social Signal Experiment
We ran an experiment for 60 days testing 5 different variations across 2500 unique visitors on a very simple opt-in page with no graphics. Graphics were removed because we didn’t want them to influence the results of the study. The purpose of this experiment is to determine if Social Signals increase opt-in form conversion rates.
PHASE 1
In Phase 1 we ran a test where we asked individuals to opt-in to receive special deals. Here is the exact form we used for the test:
We purposely removed all color or any other variable that we felt may influence an opt-in decision other than the very non-specific, vague text. We ran the test devoid of any graphics, we didn’t want eye candy to be an opt-in influencer. We ran PPC ads to send broad, general traffic to this form from a variety of non-general consumer based keywords. We purposely created a very vague, non specific opt-in text because we didn’t want this to be much of an influence.
We sent 500 visitors to this form. Out of 500 visitors we managed to get 6 subscribers (1.2% conversion rate). The opt-in rate was terrible but this is exactly what we were going after. We wanted a horrible conversion so we could clearly see the influence of Social Signals later in the test.
Slide 2: PHASE 2
In Phase 2 all we did was add a widget to display Google +1’s and Facebook Likes. We did not increase the counts and showed them only as zero.
We sent 500 visitors to this page and received 4 opt-ins, the opt-in rate actually dropped from the phase 1 test to a .008% conversion rate.
We can only imagine that the reason behind phase 2 performing worse was because the social signal counts were at zero and negatively influenced the visitors’ decision to opt-in.
Slide 3: PHASE 3
In phase 3 we added a few Facebook Likes to see how this would influence the opt-in rate:
After running 500 visitors to this phase we received 17 subscribers which is a 3.4% conversion rate. Based on this we can clearly see that the Social Signals had an influence on the opt-in conversion rate.
Slide 4: PHASE 4
The only purpose of Phase 4 is to increase the Social Signals a bit further to see how they influence the opt-in rate:
We sent another 500 visitors to this version of the opt-in and received 24 opt-ins. Increasing Social Signals clearly increased the conversion rate to 4.8%
Slide 5: PHASE 5: FINAL PHASE
In this final phase we increased the Social Signals even further to determine their influence on the opt-in rate:
We sent another 500 visitors to this version of the opt-in and received 36 opt-ins The opt-in rate increased to 7.2%
It is clear that increasing numbers of Social Signals do positively influence opt-in rates.
CONCLUSION
Over the course of 60 days we sent 2500 visitors to 5 different variations of the same opt-in form. We sent 500 visitors to each of the 5 phases to give us a good enough sampling to provide statistics that could be relied upon as more than mere chance. Based on the results of the study it is conclusive that, devoid of any other influence, Social Signals do increase conversion rates. Beginning at Phase 1 with no social signals the conversion rate started at 1.2%, by the end of Phase 5 with 400+ social signals the conversion rate settled at 7.2%. We can reasonably conclude that, in this study, Social Signals increased the opt-in conversion rate by 6% Add Social Signals to your next campaign >>>
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