5 Top Reasons For Form Abandonment

Form abandonment is something most marketers come across when analyzing site analytics. Previously, it was difficult to measure form completion rates but with newer versions of  Google analytics (GA4) and the rise of online marketing ROI tools, it has become a crucial factor to regain your marketing budget. To know why forms are being abandoned and how to fix them, we need to understand the reasons for form abandonment in more detail.

Your business success depends on web form abandonment to be as low as possible. It’s never a good sign when potential customers leave your website without engaging. Whether engagement metrics such as bounce rates, time spent on page or number of fields filled in a form is tracked, it’s important to track over time and follow the trend. 

Most people assume that web form abandonment means the visitor has given up on their page, but research reveals several key points that lead to this behavior.

5 top reasons for form abandonment and how you can fix them.

1. The form is either too difficult to complete fill out or the next step is unclear
2. Too many steps with no information why the form fields are needed.
3. The form is too long and it's unclear which fields are mandatory
4. There is no contact information provided for inquiries or feedback
5. The form has no spam protection or built-in pre qualification methods

The form is either too difficult to complete fill out or the next step is unclear‍

People won't finish the form if it's too long, that's just a fact. You can run all the A/B tests you want, but it doesn't change the underlying problem. 

If you have a lot of optional fields in your forms, consider removing them altogether. Ask yourself the reason why you have these fields in the first place. Are you collecting for market research, marketing campaigns or simply because you’d like to know more about your prospect? 

Remember that your prospect is most likely at the top of the marketing funnel. Asking too much information too early is a costly mistake. Let your email nurturing campaigns take care of educating the prospect along its user journey if you feel more pre-qualification is needed. But make sure to at least get the email and name first. 

Friction is not only created by bad form design. It can be psychological, motivational or fuelled by lack of trust as well.

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Too many steps with no information why the form fields are needed.

It's a pain, isn’t it? You enter details into a form and then hit the enter button, only to be met with a mind-boggling page of steps detailing what you need to do next. Some businesses fail to implement the simplest of lead generation forms because they don’t know exactly what to include or where to direct the user once they submit the form.

We’ve all experienced it. You click through to a dedicated landing page, fill out the form and submit it only to be taken somewhere other than where you were expecting to go next. Maybe it was an error. If it wasn’t, there doesn’t seem to be much of an explanation of what the next steps are, leaving you confused and wondering if you should start again. 

Will you be called back? At what time? Do they have your time zone and complete information? A pile of internal questions arise in the prospects mind and cause friction once again. 

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The form is too long and it's unclear which fields are mandatory

Did you know that 67 percent of all form abandonment is because forms have too many fields? That means that for every hundred visitors to your website, sixty-seven will abandon and never return to contact you. That's a huge number, which highlights the importance of keeping your forms short and simple. 

One way to accomplish this is to present only the most critical information upfront and place secondary form fields below - but if you do this, make sure it's clear what is required and what is optional. 

As a general rule optional fields should be avoided. But if you choose to use optional fields, at least make it clear which ones are not required. The convention is an asterisk (*) for mandatory values or clearly use the word "optional" when there's no need for a particular input field. 

Also check if your form provider can measure form completion rates on mandatory vs optional fields. Something which Responser can do. 

This is especially true for long forms with multiple required items that may cause confusion as people try filling them all out anyway because they think maybe one was left blank even though some were checked off already. If your design includes hints below each individual line on what these symbols mean then everyone will understand better.

Just be mindful of users' cognitive load. Every time you add more information around a field, you are increasing the total mental brain processing power needed to fill out the form.

Single vs Multi-columns

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2017/06/designing-efficient-web-forms/

Even how you arrange form fields matters to form completion rates. One of the problems with arranging form fields into multiple columns is that users will likely interpret them inconsistently. 

If a field has horizontally adjacent ones, then you have to scan down in a zigzag pattern slowing down comprehension, increasing the mental processing power which also leads to a higher  interaction cost .

But if there's just one column, it makes things much easier because all your fields line up nicely from left-to right without having any confusion about where users should go next.

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There is no contact information provided for inquiries or feedback‍

Does your website show potential customers your phone number, your email address, skype or chat options in close proximity to the call to action? It not only asserts visitors that you are available, it instills trust. 

After all, they went through your marketing funnel, your lead generation landing page. Adding more contact options increases your chances of conversion. Just make sure you can track the attribution to your marketing expenses. 

Online marketing is about engaging with your audience. Whether you are letting visitors book hotels, find restaurants, or search for answers to their questions. Effective communication is what will keep you ahead of your competition. After all, who wants to feel like they are talking to a brick wall?

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The form has no spam protection or built-in pre qualification methods

It’s almost impossible to give your online forms 100% protection against spambots, but there are several easy ways to mitigate the risks greatly.

For example, A CAPTCHA code like Google V3 form verification can be used to verify that the submission is being done by a human being. As a result, it ensures that the form submission is not made by an automated program. 

It not only skews conversion rates and makes calculating your marketing ROI harder, but also slows down your sales team if the information in your CRM is false. 

We wrote an article about CAPTCHA and how they can lower your conversion rates.

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