3 ms·

Rewards and Monetization

12 points by aditya 17y ago

patio11 17y ago
I have one data point for you: for the last two weeks I've been collecting user surveys. I want people to participate, but was unsure whether altruism or incentivization would work better. Enter the A/B test: group A got told "Do this and I'll give you an increase in your print quota", group B got told "This will help us improve the product for our users." (Everyone who took the survey got the goodie.) This has been the most decisive A/B test I've ever run. 2.62% of incentivized users in A convert, versus a mere .73% of non-incentivized users. That's waaaaaay pay 99% confidence that incentivization works. It is pretty trivial incentivization, too: I'm giving them more of something which is too cheap for me to even describe a way to measure how much it costs and, even more weirdly, essentially nobody is helped by the freebie. (Normal print quota is 15, incentive is +5, number of users printing between 15 and 20 is below miniscule.
- toddh 17y ago
  You have to incent repetitive, boring, skillless tasks. Altruism might work if there was some higher purpose involved, but that's hard to imaging for a survey. So you are left for paying for results.
- ryanelkins 17y ago
  I'm interested in finding out more about what kind of incentives drive people and what kinds of returns businesses can get from them. Does anyone else have any good examples of this kind of behavior in action?
ryanelkins 17y ago
What about rewards for other types of applications? Do people see an advantage to FourSquare and StackOverflow's badge system even if there is no "real world" reward? It seems like there is a good confluence here of "behavior generated content" and micro rewards systems - one that can have real impacts on a business' bottom line.
logicalmind 17y ago
From the article: "you've checked in for the tenth time and earned a free espresso drink." Foursquare, and the users of foursquare, would love to see this but the businesses themselves would not. I worked for a targeted coupon agency and the kind of people who routinely visit and buy your product are exactly the kind of people you DO NOT want to give coupons to. These people are already loyal customers. Coupons are more effective if they target either new users (target starbucks customers to get a free coffee to visit our cafe instead) or increased consumption (if you buy a large coffee get a discount on buying our ice cream).
- ryanelkins 17y ago
  Sure, it makes sense that you don't want to incentivize those who need no incentive, particularly when the incentive is a discount on something they would have done anyways. It might be more attractive to businesses if they could increase business beyond what would naturally happen but I think the rewards could definitely be tailored to that. Having said that, many businesses have punch card or points type systems that this could replace or augment. Subway is a good example. These are tied to actual purchases rather than just check-ins and the possibility of abuse is very real in that case, so another point to consider. I think having visible goals and rewards that people can work towards over the lifetime of their relationship with a business, rather than simply on a transactional basis (spend $50 get free shipping vs get free shipping for life when you spend a total of $1000 over any number of transactions with us) can work towards increasing consumer loyalty which could be very valuable.
- Psyonic 17y ago
  What about frequent diner cards? Every 10th meal gets one free? I've seen this at quite a few places, and it seems to be exactly the opposite of what you're saying.

12 points by aditya 17y ago

I have one data point for you: for the last two weeks I've been collecting user surveys. I want people to participate, but was unsure whether altruism or incentivization would work better. Enter the A/B test: group A got told "Do this and I'll give you an increase in your print quota", group B got told "This will help us improve the product for our users." (Everyone who took the survey got the goodie.) This has been the most decisive A/B test I've ever run. 2.62% of incentivized users in A convert, versus a mere .73% of non-incentivized users. That's waaaaaay pay 99% confidence that incentivization works. It is pretty trivial incentivization, too: I'm giving them more of something which is too cheap for me to even describe a way to measure how much it costs and, even more weirdly, essentially nobody is helped by the freebie. (Normal print quota is 15, incentive is +5, number of users printing between 15 and 20 is below miniscule.

toddh 17y ago
You have to incent repetitive, boring, skillless tasks. Altruism might work if there was some higher purpose involved, but that's hard to imaging for a survey. So you are left for paying for results.
ryanelkins 17y ago
I'm interested in finding out more about what kind of incentives drive people and what kinds of returns businesses can get from them. Does anyone else have any good examples of this kind of behavior in action?

ryanelkins 17y ago

What about rewards for other types of applications? Do people see an advantage to FourSquare and StackOverflow's badge system even if there is no "real world" reward? It seems like there is a good confluence here of "behavior generated content" and micro rewards systems - one that can have real impacts on a business' bottom line.

logicalmind 17y ago

From the article: "you've checked in for the tenth time and earned a free espresso drink." Foursquare, and the users of foursquare, would love to see this but the businesses themselves would not. I worked for a targeted coupon agency and the kind of people who routinely visit and buy your product are exactly the kind of people you DO NOT want to give coupons to. These people are already loyal customers. Coupons are more effective if they target either new users (target starbucks customers to get a free coffee to visit our cafe instead) or increased consumption (if you buy a large coffee get a discount on buying our ice cream).

ryanelkins 17y ago
Sure, it makes sense that you don't want to incentivize those who need no incentive, particularly when the incentive is a discount on something they would have done anyways. It might be more attractive to businesses if they could increase business beyond what would naturally happen but I think the rewards could definitely be tailored to that. Having said that, many businesses have punch card or points type systems that this could replace or augment. Subway is a good example. These are tied to actual purchases rather than just check-ins and the possibility of abuse is very real in that case, so another point to consider. I think having visible goals and rewards that people can work towards over the lifetime of their relationship with a business, rather than simply on a transactional basis (spend $50 get free shipping vs get free shipping for life when you spend a total of $1000 over any number of transactions with us) can work towards increasing consumer loyalty which could be very valuable.
Psyonic 17y ago
What about frequent diner cards? Every 10th meal gets one free? I've seen this at quite a few places, and it seems to be exactly the opposite of what you're saying.