Do timing answers in months or words lift form completions?

An earlier test of a question asking when visitors wanted their debt resolved ended early. We ran it again, with answers in months or in plain wording. Over 16 days, conversion fell 3.3% with month answers, short of our confidence bar.

Not significant Responsive 16 days Not called

SURFACE

Lead form

DEVICE

Responsive

VERTICAL

Lead Gen (CPL)

PRIMARY METRIC

Conversion rate

VARIATIONS

2

The hypothesis

By adding a question about when visitors want their debt resolved, we will create urgency for hesitant visitors, resulting in more form completions.

Urgency can push skeptical or hesitant visitors to act. An earlier run of this question was too short to call.

This time we compared answers in months with answers in plain wording that included an unsure choice.

What we changed

A timing question with answers in months, or in plain wording

Both versions added a step asking when visitors wanted their debt resolved. Var A offered as soon as possible, 1 to 3 months, 3 to 6 months and 6 to 12 months. Var B offered as soon as possible, within 6 months, within the year and unsure.

VAR A: MONTHS

New step on when to resolve the debt
ASAP, 1-3, 3-6 or 6-12 months

VAR B: TIME FRAME

New step on when to resolve the debt
ASAP, within 6 months, within the year, unsure

The result

Conversion fell 3.3% with month answers, short of our bar

CONVERSION RATE

-3.3%

LEAD VALUE PER VISITOR

-18.0%

VAR B CONVERSION

-7.5%

Over 16 days, the month answers (Var A) converted 3.3% worse than the original, and the plain wording (Var B) converted 7.5% worse. Neither gap reached our confidence bar. Lead value per visitor trended down for both, by 18.0% and 13.4%. The urgency came with an extra step, and it did not bring in more leads, so we paused the test.

What we would do next

Keep the form shorter rather than add a timing step

Across 2 rounds, the timing question never lifted leads. Any urgency it created was outweighed by the extra step, so we would leave it out and test other ways to help visitors start.