Important Update for New Customers:
Please note that customers who have joined our platform after February, 2024 will not have access to non-responsive Social Proof templates. You can use responsive Social Proof templates instead.
If you're unsure what to recommend or how to approach Social Proof campaigns, consider the best practices listed below and see which ones are relevant to your needs.
On-page vs. Inline Social Proof
On-page Social Proof campaign
You can prefer an on-page Social Proof template because it is obviously visible (since it is a pop-up), and more people are likely to notice it.
To improve it, consider showing it after X seconds and then making it disappear after X+10 seconds. You can add animations such as fade-in and fade-out, making your Social Proof more attractive and less like a regular, boring pop-up.
Note that all pop-ups should always have a close button, according to good UX practice. Also, ensure that your on-page element does not block any essential native elements of your website. For example, you wouldn’t want to block your add-to-cart button on your mobile device. That's why we highly recommend testing your campaign before launching it.
Inline Social Proof campaign
Since it is not a pop-up, an inline Social Proof template would be suitable for most websites and work well on them. The user experience will be smooth since it is embedded on the page.
To improve it, you can remove the close button since having a button on an embedded text would not look nice.
Bought vs. Viewed
To compare bought to viewed for Social Proof templates, take these two images. It is possible to use the “Daily View” people purchased this product today, since you can rewrite the copy. From the user’s point of view, it is "X people bought this product today." The user won’t know that the value represents the daily view.
You might also think that the number shown there isn’t accurate. “I have so much traffic on my product page; why is the number shown on the Social Proof template so low?” The fact is, the number displayed on Social Proof here is quite notable. Because the number shown is specific to the browser and device type. For example, Google Analytics says that X product page has 1,000 sessions. Out of these 1,000 sessions, 400 were on desktop devices, and 600 were on mobile devices. Then, out of these 400 sessions on desktop, maybe 200 were on Chrome. This logic explains why the Social Proof number shown on the campaign is lower than the “traffic on the page”.
Minimum Value for a Social Proof campaign
To better understand the Social Proof template's feature, consider seeing “1 user has bought this product before” on your website. Would it convince users to add the product to their cart?
This is why there is a minimum value to hide the Social Proof if the product page has fewer than X views. For example, if a shirt has only two views on that day, the Social Proof will automatically not appear on that page. For websites with low traffic, this situation occurs relatively often. As a result, your Social Proof may appear to only a small group of people, making it ineffective.
Why do I add a random value, or why do we prefer a random value over “add to the original number”?
We highly recommend adding “random values” rather than “add to the original number” for Social Proof templates. For websites with low traffic, most of their product pages have the same number of daily purchases/views. That number is either 0 or 1. So, if you actually choose “add to original number +5,” → this means that most of your pages will show “5 users have viewed/purchased this in the past day.”
From the user’s perspective, they keep browsing multiple pages and seeing the same number 5; this would not persuade them. That's why we add a random value of “5-10” so that not all pages show the same number and make it more believable.
Rules of a Social Proof campaign
The common rules are “Appear on the product page”, without any segment, and any other rules for Social Proof campaigns. If you want to go even more personalized, you can consider this:
Seeing “27 users have bought this product in the past day!” on a TV
vs.
Seeing “27 users have bought this product in the past day!” on an AA battery.
The message is clear; however, it may not be as compelling in the same way across different product categories. In fact, even for some industries, a higher number might not necessarily mean it would work. Consider job application sites; would seeing more applicants help you apply for the job more, or is it the opposite?
In short, you can personalize Social Proof templates on your website by setting up different Social Proofs for different product categories. If you’re unsure what to recommend, consider these best practices and determine if they're relevant to you.