Adding Helpful Friction to Increase Conversions

Most optimization tests focus on removing friction. This one did the opposite.

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What We Tested

We replaced the standard “X” close icon on our donation pop-up with a softer, more intentional button at the bottom that read “Maybe Later.”

The idea was simple: caring people don’t explicitly like rejecting someone in need. Asking them to click a button to acknowledge their choice, rather than silently exiting, may encourage more of them to continue toward a gift.

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Our Hypothesis

If we introduce a small, value-aligned moment of friction at the right time, more visitors will move forward to the donation page and ultimately complete a gift.  

It's important to note that to evaluate the effectiveness of this test, we need to look not only at how many more people end up on the donation page, but also whether it increased the number of people who completed the gift overall.

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The Results

Across nearly 3,700 impressions, here’s what happened:

• Click-Through to Donation Page
  
  • Lift: +28.24% for the Variant “Maybe Later”.  This is statistically significant at the 95% confidence level.
    
    • Control: 6.02%
    • Variant: 7.73%
      
• Donation Completion Rate
  
  • The Variant group gave at a rate 21.92% higher than the Control.
    
    • This secondary KPI was not statistically significant due to volume, but the directional signal strongly supports the primary result.
      
      

What It Means

This is one of those rare cases where thoughtfully adding friction can improve results. The “Maybe Later” button didn’t annoy people. It clarified the moment, made the choice more human, and nudged more visitors toward generosity.

Because the Variant showed both a statistically significant improvement in click-through rate and a promising lift in giving behavior, it was rolled out for the remainder of the campaign.