Inspiration – Incentive in Form vs. No Incentive (Widget): Test how offering a reward affects sign-up rates

Overview

Goal: Test how adding an incentive (like a discount or reward) in your signup form influences conversion and subscription rates.

Build time: 4 minutes.

Expected impact: Potential uplift of 10–25% in form submissions and lead collection.

Hypothesis

Offering a discount or reward during signup creates immediate value for users, increasing their motivation to share contact information. By testing an incentive-driven form against a standard one, we can determine whether offering a reward significantly improves signup conversions.

Assumptions

• Immediate Value: Incentives (e.g., “Get 10% OFF your first order”) make users feel a tangible benefit from signing up.
• Trust and Motivation: Adding a reward builds trust and justifies the decision to subscribe.
• Conversion Impact: Users may be more likely to complete the form when an incentive is visible near the CTA.
• Long-Term Behavior: While incentives can drive initial signups, those subscribers might have lower long-term retention, which should be monitored separately.

Setting up the experiment in Personizely

Create a Widget Campaign in Personizely to test this variation.

For a detailed walkthrough, see the List Building Widget tutorial →.

Steps to follow:

1. Select the Purpose: Choose List Building to define the widget’s main goal.
2. Goal Definition: Choose to collect Email Addresses (with optional name field).
3. Discount Configuration:

• For the variation, select Reveal Coupon and specify your discount code (e.g., 10% OFF).
• For the control, skip this step to keep the form incentive-free.

4. List Selection: Assign your email list according to your Email Management System (EMS).
5. Trigger Adjustment: Adjust the display triggers to Scroll to 50% and Time = 6 seconds.
6. Widget Type: Select Popup.
7. Template Selection: Choose a design template and apply identical visuals for both variations.
8. Naming Your Widget: Follow a format like List Building – Incentive vs. No Incentive (Popup) for clarity.

Build the experiment:

• Original (Control): Basic signup form with a neutral message like “Subscribe to our newsletter.”
• Variation: Add an incentive message such as “Join now to earn rewards” and highlight “Get 10% OFF your first order.”
• Keep the same layout and CTA placement between both versions to isolate the incentive’s effect.

Once your setup is complete, launch the widget test and monitor conversion data.

You’re all set. This experiment will reveal whether adding a reward-based message inside your popup form leads to higher subscriber growth compared to a straightforward, no-incentive approach.

Updated on: 10/11/2025