The donation widget used correctly

With the Primer Donate widget you can start short and easy and then expand and optimize.

We present principles to successfully create added value with the widget and to continuously improve the results in an agile way.

To maximize the conversions on the website, each page should be verified and optimized with regard to the offered conversions. No opportunity should be missed, every interested visitor should be picked up and continued in every situation.

For the most important landing pages of e.g. programs or memberships the widget should of course be the primary conversion element. On other pages alternative conversions should be offered.

Some examples of conversions

  • Donate via the widget
  • Call to Action button in content (also Showcase / Hero)
  • Call to read more using teasers, e.g. list of related content
  • Collect information via  aform e.g. survey
  • Download a file, e.g. factsheet
  • Register for a newsletter
  • Contact e.g. via telephone

We recommend to make an overview of the intended conversions and define clear rules for their use.

To support the conversion, adjacent elements such as a testimonial can be defined and refined. They should build confidence for conversion, but not distract from it (no links, muted visual language).

A tracking with e.g. Google Analytics must be set up in order to correctly measure the efficiency of the defined conversion funnels and to provide the basis for further optimizations in content and design and to determine e.g. the effectiveness of experiments.

It is not mandatory that a single widget on a landing page offers all selectable variants.

The page can instead be divided into several sections with dedicated widgets.
For such long pages, an on-page navigation can be offered for an overview.

For special target groups, a separate subpage can even be offered, thus reducing the landing page to teasers.

By creating a subpage for a specific target group, it can be addressed even better and the conversion can be optimized.

These variations must be tested by examples in order to find the optimal content form with the available resources.

Google will lead specific target groups based on keywords and personalization, then directly to the optimized pages. At the same time, Google Ads with a specific target group are ideally suited to validate the content experiment.

All entry points that direct the user towards the donation process, but do not yet completely define the details (puurpose, amount and recursiveness), are referred to as donation teasers in the following. In any such case, a donation widget must be placed on the corresponding landing page which defines the transaction completely.

Examples for donation teaser elements:

  • Button "Donate now" in the header
  • Button in pop-up
  • CTA in an hero element
  • Card or Fact Teaser
  • Link in the text
  • Menu
  • Incoming direct links (search results, website linking, app)

Additional elements can be added to the design to guide the visitor to the widget, e.g. by scrolling:

  • Contextual sticky header button
    So that the primary conversion of the current page is highlighted instead of the global "Donate immediately".
  • Contextual sticky footer button
    Displayed in the browser footer if the visitor has scrolled down in the content. Fills the same function as sticky headers.
  • Contextual sticky sidebar button
    As formerly on unicef.ch, for browsers with large screen widths.

These optimization measures can be considered in subsequent projects, after the behavior of the visitors has been examined with focus on premature endings. The changes achieved should be measured precisely.