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Any landing page strategies to prevent the entry of false details?

Ben_Carew

Hey everyone.
We have what we believe are some pretty good landing pages with great copy and very well set up Adwords campaigns with high quality scores.

Nonetheless we consistently get people entering false details both on purpose and (possibly) by mistake. In some instances obviously the user wants the eBook we are offering without the follow-up call from sales so it’s obvious why this happens here. But on other (multi-step) landing pages with no clear pay-off at the end that we can see, users run through the steps and then leave false details. It’s frustrating and baffling at the same time. We have put it down to simply “online lead gen”, ie. it comes with the territory.

Does anyone also experience this also? We get about 10% of submissions containing false details on average.

Does anyone have any tactics on reducing false details? We have thought of incentivising the entry of correct contact information but beyond that are now starting to wonder whether our landing pages have a problem.

Thanks!
Ben

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Best answer by Corey_Dilley 30 May 2017, 18:30

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16 replies

Hristian
Userlevel 7
Badge +3

Hi @Ben_Carew,

Two quick thoughts:

  1. You might need to be more clear on what your leads can expect in return for their contact information. However, you’ll always get submissions from people that simply don’t want to enter their personal information on a site/landing page they just came across.

  2. The other option you might want to explore is to use a data validation service. Depending on the particular service, you might be able to check: phone number(s), email address, physical address, company name, company address, etc.

Last but not least, you might limit your content/offer only to “verified” accounts - limiting the use of free email addresses, only verified phone numbers, etc.

It really comes down to quantity vs. quality.

Best,
Hristian

Hristian K. → experimentation-as-a-service → https://www.revise.agency/
Ben_Carew

Hi Hristian
Thanks and yes I can see your points.

We charge the client per lead and so it is always a battle between conversion rates (which would likely go down under the scenarios above) vs. Ad cost (which we incur on behalf of the client). It’s a fine line to be sure but obviously the primary motivation should be lead quality for the clients.

re data validation, do these services actually validate mobile numbers “on the fly” on the landing page? Can you suggest any to look at?

Thanks,
Ben

Hristian
Userlevel 7
Badge +3

Hi Ben,

It is indeed a fine line but at the end of the day, the data you provide your clients need to be the most accurate one you can get.

As far as data validation goes… there are 2 types of checks out there:

  1. Basic JS check - pretty much what Unbounce does by default when you enable validation on a phone number field. It just checks if you have enough digits in the field.

  2. Advance check - some services would actually ping the network to make sure the number is registered. Returning a response based on the check. At which time you can either submit the form or display an error message.

2a. SMS verification - There are services that would actually send an SMS code to the mobile number which the user needs to enter into your form in order to validate their number. This would be the best one if not for the fact that it adds an extra layer of complication to the whole sign up flow.

I’ve used a couple of services with clients in the past and adjusting them to work with a native Unbounce form.
However, none of them I would recommend honestly.

Last time I googled for such services a few new ones came up that seem to offer some API access so you might have to shop around and test a few.

Best,
Hristian

Hristian K. → experimentation-as-a-service → https://www.revise.agency/
Ben_Carew

Hey Thanks again @Hristian

The “fear” of course is that using validation for leads coming from search ads who don’t know the brand would see them bounce pretty consistently. It’s a different story for a saas product or similar. The intent has to be there for the person to go through that extra offline step. It’s too easy to click the back button and check out the next ad down.

I must admit I am surprised I haven’t touched a raw nerve in the community with this question. Have you seen anyone else here complaining about false details on the landing pages?

Hristian
Userlevel 7
Badge +3

Hey @Ben_Carew,

No, I haven’t seen anyone else have an issue with lead quality.

At the end of the day, it really comes down to quantity vs. quality. If the 10% false rate is something you/your client can live with than that’s your answer.

However, depending on your particular offer, the lead might be inclined to go through the extra “hassle”. As you know, there is one way to make sure - test it.

Best,
Hristian

Hristian K. → experimentation-as-a-service → https://www.revise.agency/
Ben_Carew

Yes I think you’ve nailed the core question -> quantity vs. quality - and also testing different offers is something we need to look at more closely.

Cheers!

Corey_Dilley

Hi @Ben_Carew,

I’d love to offer some suggestions, but find it tough to theorize what the problem might be without seeing the page for myself. Any chance you could post it? If it’s not the kind of thing you can post publicly, maybe message me? Looking forward to pondering 🙂

Ben_Carew

Hey Corey
Thanks for the offer. I just messaged you.
Ben

Corey_Dilley

Hi Ben, hope you don’t mind that I’m writing back here, in case anyone else is interested to follow along. My gut feeling was that there might be a bit of a… I don’t know the right word… (holistic? soft? fluffy? not-data-driven?) explanation. I’m going to give some feedback that may come off as negative, so I hope my intent is clear: I want to help.

I opened your first page up and looked at it for a few seconds. My reaction was “this may not be a legitimate business”, only because of the design. I’m awful at design, so I don’t know why it was giving me that reaction. I asked one of our designers and this was their response and advice:

  • The form asking all those questions upfront makes it look like the answer will be calculated
  • Include a favicon
  • Mute the CTA’s colour somehow (I’m not sure I agree with taking away the contrast, but the bright pink on dark green seems unprofessional)
  • Replace the pixelated image on the left

I like what you’ve done at the bottom stating that it’s a manual calculation and requires a real address. By the time someone’s got that far though, they’ve likely entered all their information and have nothing to lose by clicking the button. What if you made the “manual calculation” part of the value and included it in the headline? Something like “have one of our experts tell you how much you can really borrow” (probably want to work on the wording 😉). I suspect that conversion rates would drop, since talking to someone on the phone is more of a commitment than an automatic calculation, but hopefully they’ll be real form fills. Also, having the word “calculate” on the button sort of undermines your message that it’s manual.

If I had to guess why your second page is getting fewer false form fills, I’d guess it’s because it looks more professional and there’s more work needed to get to the form. By the time the person gets there, they’ve already invested quite a bit of thought. A bit off-topic, but I’d recommend making those images look more like buttons. Even though you have that orange text saying “click the images”, I didn’t notice it right away. It took me a little while to figure out what to do next.

Of course, these are all guesses. If you want the truth, consider adding a polling tool like Hotjar (or maybe a Convertable) to the page and asking the reader if they have any unanswered questions about the service.

Ben_Carew

Hey Corey
These are really good points and we are actually incorporating some of the things you mention into a new lead form right now. So far it’s looking great but there are some technical issues we need to overcome before it can go live.

I’ll give you a look when it’s done.

Thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed response.

Ben

Alex_Scovell

definitely goes with the territory but can be influenced.

julien_level
Userlevel 5
Badge +4

Hello Hristian,

I would very be interested to hear more about the SMS verification system you used.
One of my client really want to try to implement a system that would send leads a code by sms and then to enter the code so the lead is sent directly to its CRM.

Is it possible to do it on unbounce ?
When the form is complete, i could, on one hand send the phone number to a 3rd Party tool that would then send the person an sms with a code, and during this i redirect the person to a new page where it has to enter the code received by sms.
But this could be a mess to integrate…
Maybe the toosl you used integrate all that in one page ?

I would be interested to hear your opinion and advice on this, please.

thanks in advance.

Julien
Hristian
Userlevel 7
Badge +3

Hey @julien_level,

One of the most popular options with a fairly well documented API and SDKs is Twilio.

As far as actual setup - when done correctly you should be able to do it all on 1 page.

Basic idea: Fill out the form > Press “Submit” > Form submit event gets paused > You ping Twilio > They send out an SMS > You display a popup/dialogue asking for the code

a) The visitor enters the right code > you un-pause the form and submit it as you would normally do
b) The visitor enters the wrong code or certain amount of time passes > you don’t submit the form

Best,
Hristian

Hristian K. → experimentation-as-a-service → https://www.revise.agency/
julien_level
Userlevel 5
Badge +4

Thanks for your fast reply !

One more question, is it compatible with unbounce ? How do you pause a Form submit ?

thanks again !

Julien
Hristian
Userlevel 7
Badge +3

Hi @julien_level,

You can find more information on pausing the form submit function here. It’s not the ideal way to do it but it’s a good place to start.

As far as compatibility… Twilio provides an API so you can make it work with whatever you are using - in this case Unbounce.

However, you would have to be comfortable with writing your own front-end and backend scripts.

Best,
Hristian

Hristian K. → experimentation-as-a-service → https://www.revise.agency/
julien_level
Userlevel 5
Badge +4

Thanks again @Hristian !

Julien

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