Form Analytics
Form Analytics gives you an in-depth view of your visitors’ interactions with your forms. Unlike other analytics packages, ClickTale’s Form Analytics tool takes away the guesswork and shows you which fields the form being dropped at, which fields take the most time to complete, etc.
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Generating the Form Analytics Report
To access your Form Analytics, click on the “Form Analytics” link on the left menu or the module from the dashboard.
When you land on the Form Analytics Report page, you need to define the form for which you want to run the report. First choose the URL of the page on which the form appears on your site. Click on Change URL to view a full list of pages on your site.
If you want to define a page that includes a few versions use the URL starting with.... If you define a URL starting with..., the system will combine the data of the users of all these pages. Be sure that all these pages include the same form. If not, the report may not make sense.
Note that some subscription plans limit the Form Analytics feature, so that you can only view the Form Analytics report of one form (the one of the most viewed page). Version Once a URL is selected, you need to define a specific version of the URL to be used, or a date range. The default is a combination of all the versions of the URL in the last 30 days. You can choose a different date range, or a specific version - Most viewed, Latest version, or a specific version from a list.
Segmentation
Segmentation is a feature allowing to select only specific users data to be included in the Form Analytics Report. The segmentation is done based on filters which are pre-defined in the system. The filters are ClickTale Events, that should be set up in the site code. You can choose to filter the report by Page Events - events that happen on the page itself (such as clicks on specific buttons on the page), and by Visitor Events - events that happened to the visitor during their visit on the site (such as referrer, page count, etc.).
Note that some subscription plans do not include the Segmentation feature.
The Form Analytics Suite
The Form Analytics suite consists of 5 reports: Conversion report, Drop report, Time report, Blank field report, and Refill report. Once you generate a report, all 5 types are available for that form.
Conversion Report
The Conversion Report is an overview of the way your visitors interacted with the form.
This report helps you understand to what degree your conversion problems stem from your page design or your form design.
The form splits the visitors into 4 groups:
- Visitors who landed on the page - this is the total number of visitors who landed on the page (based on the recording parameters of your ClickTale account and on the date/version defined for this report).
Next to the visitors who landed on the page, you see the percent and number of visitors who left without interacting with the form at all. These are visitors who left the page before completing any of the form fields.
A very large number of visitors who left the form without interacting may indicate one of the following:
- That the visitors did not expect to see the form on that page
- That the form looked intimidating and visitors preferred not to even start completing it
- That there is a problem with the form/page - it does not display correctly, so users could not interact with it even if they wanted to.
- Visitors interacted - this is the number of visitors who interacted with the form, which means they completed at least some of the form fields.
Next to the visitors who interacted with the form, you see the percent and number of visitors who interacted but did not submit the form. These are visitors who completed some (or all) of the form fields, but never clicked on the 'submit' button.
To find out in detail where visitors left the form, use the Drop report which provides metrics for each of the form fields.
- Visitors tried to submit – this is the number of visitors who clicked on the final button of the form (usually named Submit). Not all the visitors who clicked on the ‘submit’ button have necessarily succeeded in submitting the form. Very often the form was not actually submitted, because of a check of specific fields performed by the form itself. Such verification checks may lead to an error message displayed to the user, and the form not being submitted. For example – sometimes a form includes two password fields, where the second fields is aimed to verify the password entered in the first field. If the user did not enter the exact same password in both fields, when clicking submit the submit action will not be completed, instead the user will receive an error message.
Next to the visitors who tried to submit the form, you see the percent and number of visitors who tried, but failed to submit. These are usually visitors who either left fields that were defined as mandatory blank, or who did not pass one of the checks as described above.
A very large number of visitors who tried but failed to submit may indicate one of the following:
- That there is a problem with the submit button
- That there is a technical problem with the form set up – fields that are defined as mandatory can not be filled
- That there is an issue with the wording of the form – visitors do not understand specific fields, enter the wrong information, and therefore their verification fails
- Visitors successfully submitted – this is the number of converted visitors. Those who submitted the form successfully.
Drop Report
The Drop report details how many of the users dropped at each field in the form. The report lists all the form fields and details for each field how many visitors dropped at that field, which means that was the first field they did not complete.
A field that has a high drop rate may indicate:
That the fields are not clear – users do not understand what information they are supposed to enter/choose
That visitors are not happy to share the information requested in this particular field
That there are too many fields in the form, and the visitors got discouraged at this stage
A technical issue with the field itself - users may be trying to enter information but cannot, and then drop the form.
Time Report
The Time Report shows the average time visitors interacted with each field inside your form. This refers to the time that is required between the landing on the field and the landing on the next field. The report lists all the form fields and details for each field how long visitors spent on it.
A field that required a very long time to complete may indicate:
That visitors are not quite clear what the field means
That visitors are not happy about providing the information the field requires (and are contemplating if to provide it or not)
That the field requires information that users do not have at the top of their mind – they need to go check
Blank Field Report
The Blank Field Report shows how frequently your visitors leave each of the fields in the form blank when submitting this form.
A field that was left blank may indicate:
That the users did not understand what information they were required to provide.
That the users did not think the information requested in the fields was important.
That the users did not wish to reveal the information requested in the field.
Fields that are left blank are often considered by visitors to be unimportant or confusing. Removing unimportant fields or clarifying confusing questions can shorten your form and increase its conversion rates.
Refill Report
The Refill Report shows you which fields visitors had to go back and refill before successfully submitting.
A field that is often refilled may indicate:
There is an error in the field
The explanation what type of information the user has to enter is not clear enough
The explanation of the format of the information the user has to enter is not clear enough.
At the top of the Form Analytics report page you will find a quick summary of all the different report types.
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Conversion Report |
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Drop Report |
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Time Report |
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Blank Report |
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Refill Report |
Best Practices for Form Analytics
The aims of a form on a web page may be diverse - you may wish to collect information from your users, the form may be necessary for registration or identification when logging in, but in every case when using a form on a web page you want the highest number possible to complete the form fully. Conversion as defined when using a form is successfully submitting the form. In order to maximize the conversion of your form, you should build it based on the established best practice principles (on which there are many articles and even books available). The Form Analytics report helps you verify that the form indeed works, and recognize the areas where it can be improved.
Best practices for form design - and how to use Form Analytics to verify your form is optimized
- Keep the form as short as possible - it is a well documented fact that users dislike long forms, and are not always happy to provide information.
To help you find fields you may want to consider dropping from your form use the 'Blank Report' - fields that users left blank are fields they may be uncomfortable answering. - Keep the form simple - explain next to each field exactly what information you wish the user to enter. If the fields in the form are not clear, users may be confused as to what information they are supposed to provide. This may cause them to leave the form in the middle, or provide you with information that is not what you were looking for.
To help you find fields that are not clear to the user, use the 'Time Report' - if there are fields that take the user much more time to complete, that may indicate the field is not clear, and the user is not quite sure what information to enter. - Clearly indicate if a field is mandatory, or has specific completion requirements - if users do not understand that a certain field is mandatory, and find out only when trying to submit the form, that may create frustration. The same applies to fields with specific requirements, such as a password that can only include specific characters, or a phone number that can only include digits.
To help you find fields that require a specific input but may not be clear enough, use the 'Refill Report' which indicates which fields users had to go back and refill after trying to submit. - Ask only for information you really need - some of the questions you are asking may scare away users who do not wish to provide that information.
To help you find fields that users are not comfortable with, use the 'Dropped Report'. If many users drop the form at a specific point, you may want to consider those fields. Could they be scaring away your users? Could you remove them from the form? - Design - the design of the form is very important to help users complete it successfully. There are many guidelines for designing online forms, for example you have to make sure the instructions are clearly visually linked to the relevant field, that all the fields are aligned, that the submit button is also aligned and clear to see, and many more. To make sure your form is well designed you may want to look at the different Heatmaps provided by ClickTale.
- Finally - test, change and optimize!
If you are not sure your form works, try different wordings, design, and set ups. Check the conversion of each of the versions using the 'Conversion Report', drill down to find exactly what works or doesn't work in each version by using all the other reports, and keep changing and improving, until you find the exact set up that really works.
