(Conducted in partnership with One Minus Beta.)

Summary

The “leaky funnel” of online voter registration is a consistent problem where potential new voters drop off during the process. This study found that social pressure messages such as “90% of eligible voters in your state are registered to vote” increased form completion by 40% over a baseline form. 

Study Design

ACE served ads to 18-44 year-olds on Meta, asking them to sign a petition such as “Ban Plastic Bags at Walmart”. Signers were then randomly redirected to one of three voter registration pages. They were also randomized to receive one of two chase (follow-up) tactics, encouraging them to complete their voter registration. 

The three voter registration pages were a baseline page, a social proofing page (“Susy Smith from Your Town registered to vote”, and a social pressure / positive descriptive norms page (“90% of eligible voters in your state are registered to vote”). 

The chase (follow-up) tactics were either email and SMS or digital ads.

Key Findings

• The social pressure / positive descriptive norms page increased voter registration conversion rates by 40% over the baseline landing page.
  • The baseline landing page yielded a cost of $11.31 per conversion, whereas the social pressure page yielded a cost of $7.90 per conversion. The social proof page came in at $10.93 per conversion.

• The digital ads chase tactic significantly increased completion of the voter registration form – 0.4% page completions compared to 0.2% for the email and SMS chase. However, it was 600 times more expensive than the email / SMS tactic ($311.71 per conversion for digital ads vs $1.09 for email / SMS).
• These results suggest that additional social pressure messages on online voter registration landing pages would also be effective. Successful social pressure language from previous studies includes: 
  • Who you vote for is private, but whether or not you vote is a matter of public record.
  • After this election, your voter record will be updated, and your friends and family will be able to see if you voted.

See slide deck (ACE Plugging the Leaky Funnel for OVR Conversion) for more details.