Two incentives (kit on page, book at checkout): -37% conversion
Test run byMarketingExperimentsResearch publisher
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsAdding a second incentive did not help: the investment research kit on the offer page plus a best-selling book shown at checkout converted at 0.81%, against 1.28% for the book alone.
MarketingExperiments (MECLABS) ran this 37-day A/B/C test for a financial research company. The single-book control did 58% better.
- Conversion to sale: 1.28% (control) vs 0.81% (two incentives), so the control did 58% better. A loss for the variant.
- Sample: 12,424 vs 22,202 unique visitors, with 159 vs 180 sales. The variant had more sales only because it got far more traffic.
- The kit alone on the offer page did worse still, at 0.71%.
The change
The variant led with the research kit and only showed the book later, at checkout.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
The offer page promised a free New York Times best-selling book as the sign-up incentive.
Variant
The offer page promised a free investment research kit, and the best-selling book appeared as a second free gift only on the checkout page.
Why it likely lost
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- The stronger gift, the book, was hidden until checkout. Visitors deciding on the offer page saw only the weaker kit.
- MarketingExperiments suggests the combo might have done better with both gifts on the offer page, or with the order reversed.
- Two gifts do not add up if the one shown first is harder to value.
Caveats: Traffic was split unevenly across the three arms and no confidence level was shared. The test dates from 2008.
Who ran it
MarketingExperiments ran this test for a financial research company and published the results (MarketingExperiments). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on MarketingExperiments →
How to run this test on your site
- Hypothesis
- If we add a second incentive to our main one, then more visitors will convert because the offer feels richer, provided the stronger gift is shown where the decision is made.
- Primary metric
- Paid sign-up conversion rate from offer page visit
- Guardrails
- Incentive cost per new customer
- Checkout abandonment rate
- Revenue per visitor
- Who should test it
- SaaS and subscription businesses stacking bonuses on a sign-up offer. Test where each bonus appears, not just whether you offer it; skip stacking if one strong gift already works.
Questions
Are two incentives better than one?
Not automatically. Here two gifts lost to one, because the stronger gift was only shown at checkout.
Should I reveal a bonus at checkout as a surprise?
A surprise bonus can't help someone decide to start.
If a gift is your strongest reason to buy, show it on the page where visitors make that choice.
Why did the variant get more sales but still lose?
It received about 22,000 visitors against about 12,000 for the control.
The conversion rate, which accounts for traffic, was lower.