Do Optional Form Fields Help (or Hurt) Conversion?

Do Optional Form Fields Help (or Hurt) Conversion?
How one required form field was hindering a 275% lift in
conversion

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JOIN THE CONVERSATION ON TWITTER

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TODAY’S TEAM

Austin McCraw Jon Powell
Senior Editorial Analyst Senior Manager
MECLABS Research and Strategy
MECLABS

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REDUCING FORM FIELD LENGTH
Original (20 fields)

Optimized (4 fields)

189%
Increase in Leads

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Original (6 fields)

262%
Increase in Leads

6

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Original (13 fields)


816%
Increase in Leads

7

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TODAY’S QUESTION

How does making a form field
optional/required impact conversion?

8

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EXPERIMENT: BACKGROUND

 Experiment ID: TP1416
Record Location: MECLABS Research Library
Research Partner: [Protected]

Research Notes:
Background: A large luxury-home builder seeking to attract high-end home
buyers.

Goal: To increase the number of leads.

Primary research question: Which from page will generate the most leads?

Approach: A/B single factorial split

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EXPERIMENT: CONTROL

In the control, all of
the form fields were
required in order to
download the PDF.

10

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EXPERIMENT: TREATMENT

In the treatment, we
tested making the
“Phone” field
optional.

11

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EXPERIMENT: RESULTS

275% Increase in lead rate
The new form page increased lead rate by 275%

Design Conversion Rate
Control 1.96%
Treatment 7.35%
Relative Difference 275%

 What youthe treatment was able tosimply making one of by 275%. fields
optional,
need to understand: By
increase conversion
the form

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OPTIMIZING FORM FIELDS

 Key Principles

1. Cost doesn’t just exist where monetary transaction exists. Any
time you ask a prospect to give up something (material or
mental), there will be an implicit/explicit cost.

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Value Cost
Force Force

VfAc - CfAc = Nf

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 Key Principles


2. There are two factors that impact the cost as it relates to
requesting a prospect to give up information.

• The amount of information required
• The nature of the information required

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Nature of Information Cost Scale
Low Cost High Cost

Name

Email

Phone Number

Company

Title

Address

Social Security #

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• For instance, making the Value
“First Name” field optional
would not reduce the cost
Force
Cost
force enough to tip the Force
balance.

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• However, due to its
nature, the “Phone” field Value Cost
Force

reduces cost drastically
when made optional.
Force

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We are not optimizing form fields;
we However,optimizing thought sequences.
•
are due to its
nature, the “Phone” field Value Cost
Force

reduces cost drastically
when made optional.
Force

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Form Field Checklist

Have you eliminated (or made optional) as many unnecessary fields as
possible?

Are the forms organized to reduce friction? Are they sequenced to the
visitor’s thought-sequence.

Is your value proposition being expressed throughout the entire
conversion process?

Have you provided clear justification for all the high-anxiety producing
form fields? Do you have security seals? Privacy policy?

Does your error messaging clearly lead your visitor to completing the
form?

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KEY QUESTION

But what about business objectives?
What about lead quality?

21

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WHAT ABOUT QUALITY?

Didn’t making a form
field optional hurt the
lead quality?

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3.
Key Principles
Marketers can leverage costs (both amount and nature) in order to
determine the optimal number of required form fields.

Quantity Quality
of emails obtained of emails obtained

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TWO-PAGE DIAL METHOD
Form Page 1 Form Page 2

Quantity Quality

Field 1 Field 1

Field 2 Field 2

Field 3 Field 3

Field 4 Field 4

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Increase
Field 1 Field 1
Field 2 Field 2
Field 3
Field 4

Field 3

Field 4

Output: More leads, lower quality

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Decrease

Field 1 Field 1
Field 2 Field 2
Field 3
Field 4
Field 3
Field 4

Output: Less leads, higher quality

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AN EXPERIMENT: BACKGROUND


Experiment ID: (Protected)
Location: MECLABS Research Library
Test Protocol Number: TP1148

Research Notes:
Background: This partner has an email capture process that offers
downloadable reports in exchange for information. They were not only trying to
capture emails, but also qualify them.

Goal: The company sought to increase its number of form submissions.

Primary Research Question: Which process will obtain the most form
submissions?

Approach: A/B multifactorial (variable cluster) split

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AN EXPERIMENT: CONTROL Control – STEP 1
LOGO

• In this test, when a visitor
clicked “Register,” they were
then directed fill out a form.

• The control featured a single
page to collect the registration
information all at once, in a
single step.

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AN EXPERIMENT: TREATMENT
Treatment - STEP 1
LOGO

• A treatment was created that
broke the single step into two Treatment - STEP 2
parts.
• The first page captured name
and email only.
• The second page captured the
rest of the information needed
for the lead.

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AN EXPERIMENT: SIDE-BY-SIDE
Control – 1 step Treatment – 2 steps
LOGO LOGO

LOGO

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AN EXPERIMENT: RESULTS

48% Increase in Total Leads
The new capture process increased lead rate by 47.7%

Capture Stages Relative Difference

Control (Stage 1) 0
(Stage 2) 157
(Total) 157
Treatment (Stage 1) 77
(Stage 2) 155
(Total) 232
Relative Difference 47.7%

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A FINAL EXPERIMENT

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EXPERIMENT: BACKGROUND

Experiment ID: TP1636
Record Location: MECLABS Research Library
Research Partner: Protected

Research Notes:
Background: A large media company seeking to generate high-quality leads
on a form

Goal: To increase the amount and quality of leads

Primary Research Question: Which lead generation page will generate a
higher completion rate?

Approach: A/B multifactorial (variable cluster) split

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EXPERIMENT: CONTROL
Top of Page

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EXPERIMENT: CONTROL
Bottom of Page

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Treatment (Form)
• We increased the total number of
fields increase by four (5 new fields
were made optional)

• We added copy that clearly explains
value for filling out the form

• We added a testimonial and
security image added to reduce
anxiety

• We grouped the form fields visually
and provided explanation text for
each.

• We infused value into the call-to-
action itself.

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Top of Page

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Bottom of Page

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EXPERIMENT: SIDE-BY-SIDE
Control Treatment

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EXPERIMENT: RESULTS

109% Increase in Total Leads
The treatment form generated a 109% increase in lead rate

Clickthrough Relative Statistical Level of
Form Page
Rate (%) Difference Confidence
Control 6.49% -
Treatment 13.54% 109% 93%

 What youand optional fields, theBy identifying the proper balance of
required
need to understand:
treatment was able to not only
increase the total number of leads but the overall quality of the leads.

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SUMMARY

 Key Principles


2. There are two factors that impact the cost as it relates to
requesting a prospect to give up information.

• The amount of information required
• The nature of the information required

41

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SUMMARY

 Key Principles

3. Marketers can leverage costs (both amount and nature) in order to
determine the optimal number of required form fields.

Quantity Quality

42

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LIVE OPTIMIZATION

43

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