

How to increase signups by 50% using “popup forms” - sparshgupta
http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/split-testing-blog/how-to-increase-signups-popup-forms/

======
patio11
As always, test test test. I tried this for BCC, repeatedly, and never got it
to work.

Also as always: do not assume that you're seeing the result of any one element
unless you are testing that element in isolation. You might think the lightbox
element is the most prominent aspect, but the call to action also changed from
"Start Optimizing Your Website" to "Create A/B Test ->"

You see that arrow there? That arrow, tested in isolation, has been worth 10%
to me before in some circumstances. Yeah, it blows my mind, too. And there
were _many_ other things that changed.

~~~
ihumanable
I can't agree more with this. We've run A/B Testing on this kind of modal
dialog and we did not see an increase in conversion. In the article too many
variables changed at once.

Changing the "Watch the Video" button to a "Start Optimizing" button is a huge
change in and of itself.

~~~
paraschopra
>Changing the "Watch the Video" button to a "Start Optimizing" button is a
huge change in and of itself.

As I wrote in case study, this change did not lead to a significant increase
in signups. After we introduced popup signup box, signups increased by 50%.

------
petenixey
This reminds me of the draw of the "next article" dialogue that slides in on
the bottom right of NYTimes articles - it makes for a very compelling click.

The (not so simple) key to these UX tricks is to do them in a way that they
are a service to the user which also happens to be one of the points of Jakob
Nielson's latest alertbox: <http://www.useit.com/alertbox/hated-design.html>.

It would be interesting to see how much of the value of this you could get
without an overlay and by adding eye-catching dynamism to the signup dialogue
- sliding the middle of the page away to reveal it for instance.

EDIT It would actually be interesting to see how much of this benefit would
come from simply having the signup form itself on the frontpage - all previous
designs required a click to reach it

------
petercooper
Why not go a step further and have the signup right there on the homepage? :-)
Tumblr does it and I've been getting killer conversion rates on Ruby Weekly
and JavaScript Weekly doing it too.

If your form is too big, I like Focus.com's approach of having the simplest
part of the form on the homepage which then leads you into the full deal. I'd
love to know how that's performing for them.

~~~
paraschopra
Yep, that's exactly what we are planning to test next. There are SO many
things to test. Exciting times..

------
BenSS
Everyone thinks these things are hot stuff lately. I hate them because I'm
there to read the content I was linked to. I won't have an opinion of if I'm
even interested in subscribing/donating/etc until AFTER I've finished reading
it so I don't even read them. I just hit close.

Essentially, they piss off first-time visitors to increase repeat visitor
signups.

~~~
paraschopra
I think you didn't read the case study. We don't popup the signup form as soon
as homepage loads, rather we popup when people click on Start Optimizing
button on the homepage.

~~~
BenSS
It was more a general complaint about these kinds of popups. However, even in
the click-action case it's still annoying to require signup to move on.

~~~
paraschopra
Well, visitor clicked on 'Get started now', if not starting up, what else do
you expect to be there?

~~~
BenSS
From my standpoint, it's like trying to browse a store that first requires you
to create an account before you can see what the true cost of the item is. I
still have no idea what specific information is required to use (my
information 'cost').

However, many people don't mind throwing an email/pass at anything that comes
up so I can see why it works. I'd be interested to see if your signup
conversion rates stay consistent though.

------
jneal
I've used similar functionality on a real estate website, allowing people to
see that the information they want is behind the registration form.
Previously, the client averaged 1-2 signups a day. After the change, they
started seeing 6-7 per day. So this definitely can work - but as with every
other user interface component you should use A/B testing and see if it works
for you before committing to it 100%.

------
Tichy
Nice and all, but I have started to wonder if the A/B-Testing mania is just
the new SEO mania, resulting in just as much snake oil in the end.

~~~
paraschopra
Can you please elaborate how is it snake oil? I am genuinely curious since I
run an A/B testing company.

~~~
Tichy
There are probably some things that work (naturally, most products can be
improved upon), but I doubt that it is a solution for everything. Already
there was a comment in this thread from someone who claimed the popup forms
did not work in his case.

Everybody is using the "you should follow me on Twitter" line on their blog,
just because one guy made a successful A/B Test with that line.

It just seems that the A/B-Testing companies seem to promise a lot. Will
everybody who uses visualwebsiteoptimizer see a 50% increase in signups (when
they test the popup forms)? Apparently not... So it is a false promise of
sorts.

~~~
patio11
I'm a bit troubled with my results being used to support that conclusion, in
the matter of a pharmaceutical researcher who published "Penicillin is not an
effective treatment for brain cancer" would be troubled to be cited in support
of "Well, that tears it, medical research is a sham."

It seems to me that the issue isn't A/B testing, it is blind adoption of other
people's recommendations. You certainly don't need A/B testing to give people
suboptimal advice -- designers, developers, and marketers do it every day
without any evidence whatsoever! ("Eat more bananas, they're good for brain
cancer!" <\-- the state of web design best practices and, ahem, not far off
from the state of nutrition research)

~~~
aristus
The same thing happens with optimizing code for speed/efficiency/etc. People
want rules of thumb and they don't want to hear the truth, which is "Rules of
thumb are usually bullshit. You need to measure, change something, then
measure again. Your system may or may not be the same as mine."

------
lothar
I think popup forms are annoying and spammy. I'll never use them on a website
of mine.

Using them might result in more email signups, but I think the response to
your email blasts will be worse off and result in a lot of immediate
"unsubscribes".

Popups are a trend I hope goes the way of blinking text.

------
chaz
> We used our new revenue tracking feature to see impact of “popup forms” on
> actual $$ made, however it is still to early to say anything.

I think this last sentence is key. Raise a barrier and of course the number
will go up, but average value per signup will go down. This might be fine for
freemium or very good email marketing, but it may also have a negative effect.
Only further testing will reveal the complete funnel around total visitor
value.

------
rexf
Is it considered acceptable practice to not include a 2nd password
verification text field?

I can see that there's less friction in the process (1 less field to fill
out). Perhaps since this is a specific lightbox call to action instance and
not the traditional register page, there is no password confirmation text
field (meaning the full fledged register page would have a pw confirm field).

~~~
ernestipark
I have not used a second password verification text field in some of my sites.
While I have not tested it, I prefer it. Instead, if someone thinks they have
mistyped their password, they might just retype the whole thing. Or, I give
them an option to "show" or "hide" the password which toggles between password
dots and normal characters.

------
spontaneus
Having your call to action button below the fold is really bad practice. It's
no surprise that your conversions increased when you moved the button up.
Also, I would suggest putting your registration form directly on the homepage
instead of requiring a person to click a button to see it.

------
richcollins
I'd wager that a landing page that just had the contents of the pop up would
do even better.

~~~
paraschopra
Yep, that's what we are going to test next.

------
jimlast
We converted ShrinkingApp.com to modal signup forms 6 months ago or so and saw
a slight increase in conversions, nothing too dramatic. I can see how it would
work from a simplicity standpoint (less page loads, quicker, etc.).

------
rheide
This is ridiculous! Of course more people will sign up if you make them only
fill out two things and force the popup on them, but it completely devoids the
concept of 'signup' of its meaning. What you should care about is how many
people sign up and use your service. If I was presented with a signup popup
like that I would just input a fake e-mail address, try it out once and never
come back. That's not what a signup is supposed to be.

