By making one form field (phone number) optional, a company saw a 275% increase in conversions. While optional fields can increase quantity, they may lower quality. Marketers can use a two-page form to balance quantity and quality, collecting basic info on page one and more detailed info on qualified leads on page two. This allows optimizing costs to determine the optimal number of required fields.

1. Do Optional Form Fields Help (or Hurt) Conversion?
How one required form field was hindering a 275% lift in
conversion
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3. JOIN THE CONVERSATION ON TWITTER
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4. TODAY’S TEAM
Austin McCraw Jon Powell
Senior Editorial Analyst Senior Manager
MECLABS Research and Strategy
MECLABS
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5. REDUCING FORM FIELD LENGTH
Original (20 fields)
Optimized (4 fields)
189%
Increase in Leads
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6. REDUCING FORM FIELD LENGTH
Original (6 fields)
Optimized (3 fields)
262%
Increase in Leads
6
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7. REDUCING FORM FIELD LENGTH
Original (13 fields)
Optimized (2 fields)
816%
Increase in Leads
7
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8. TODAY’S QUESTION
How does making a form field
optional/required impact conversion?
8
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9. 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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10. EXPERIMENT: CONTROL
In the control, all of
the form fields were
required in order to
download the PDF.
10
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11. EXPERIMENT: TREATMENT
In the treatment, we
tested making the
“Phone” field
optional.
11
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12. 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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13. 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.
#webclinic

14. OPTIMIZING FORM FIELDS
Value Cost
Force Force
VfAc - CfAc = Nf
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15. 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.
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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16. OPTIMIZING FORM FIELDS
Nature of Information Cost Scale
Low Cost High Cost
Name
Email
Phone Number
Company
Title
Address
Social Security #
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17. OPTIMIZING FORM FIELDS
• 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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18. OPTIMIZING FORM FIELDS
• However, due to its
nature, the “Phone” field Value Cost
Force
reduces cost drastically
when made optional.
Force
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19. OPTIMIZING FORM FIELDS
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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20. OPTIMIZING FORM FIELDS
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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21. KEY QUESTION
But what about business objectives?
What about lead quality?
21
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22. WHAT ABOUT QUALITY?
Didn’t making a form
field optional hurt the
lead quality?
22
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23. OPTIMIZING FORM FIELDS
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
#webclinic

24. TWO-PAGE DIAL METHOD
Form Page 1 Form Page 2
Quantity Quality
of emails obtained of emails obtained
Field 1 Field 1
Field 2 Field 2
Field 3 Field 3
Field 4 Field 4
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25. TWO-PAGE DIAL METHOD
Form Page 1 Form Page 2
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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26. TWO-PAGE DIAL METHOD
Form Page 1 Form Page 2
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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27. 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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28. 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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29. 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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30. AN EXPERIMENT: SIDE-BY-SIDE
Control – 1 step Treatment – 2 steps
LOGO LOGO
LOGO
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31. 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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32. A FINAL EXPERIMENT
32
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33. 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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34. EXPERIMENT: CONTROL
Top of Page
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35. EXPERIMENT: CONTROL
Bottom of Page
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36. EXPERIMENT: TREATMENT
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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37. EXPERIMENT: TREATMENT
Top of Page
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38. EXPERIMENT: TREATMENT
Bottom of Page
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39. EXPERIMENT: SIDE-BY-SIDE
Control Treatment
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40. 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.
#webclinic

41. SUMMARY
 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.
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
#webclinic

42. 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
of emails obtained of emails obtained
42
#webclinic

43. LIVE OPTIMIZATION
43
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45. LIVE OPTIMIZATION
Cox Media Group
Target audience:
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Atlanta
Primary traffic sources:
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Page URL:
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46. LIVE OPTIMIZATION
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Target audience:
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Primary traffic sources:
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ads
Page URL:
http://bit.ly/Y2SRNR
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