New design boosts aftermarket domain name sales.
Last month I spotted that GoDaddy was testing a new For Sale message when showing domain names listed in Afternic. I posited that this could help domain investors sell a lot more domains, and I was right.
The old messages looked like this:
The new messages provides quite a bit more detail:
You’ll notice supporting information about why the domain name is worth more than a standard domain name. Depending on the name and the price, this can include a comparable sale, the valuation and keyword analysis. It also includes a link to a video about premium domains.
After seeing great results in its split test, GoDaddy has completely dropped the old design in favor of the new design.
GoDaddy GM & VP of Aftermarket Paul Nicks shared data with me showing how much better the new design has worked:
- Sales revenue through this purchase path is up 41%
- Unit sales up 31%
- Average sales price up 7%
In other words, more domain names are selling and at higher prices thanks to the redesigned and more informative sales message.
This is based on the past six weeks compared to the six weeks before (excluding Christmas week). And while aftermarket volume changes with the season, the results during the A/B test were in the same neighborhood.
It’s good news for everyone who sells on Afternic. It reminds me a bit of when McDonald’s started offering apple slices in Happy Meals. Overnight, McDonald’s became one of the world’s largest sellers of sliced apples and had a huge impact on how many apples Americans were eating. Large registrars and aftermarket platforms like GoDaddy can have a similar impact on domain name sales by making small tweaks.
Thanks for sharing!
That’s good to hear.
As far as end-user buyers go, most domains are being sold once. With that in mind, it’s not easy to compare past sales data – every domain has its unique, distinct characteristics and thus value.
Sales revenue looks good for investors, what is interesting to domain sellers is the median price increase, in this case 7%. I don’t believe that a month’s worth of data is enough to deduce the effectiveness of the new system as far as sellers are concerned. Revisit this in a year to see how far the changes take sales.
Sellers need to have the ability to control a lot of parameters of their domains, as they appear “for sale.” Personally, I’m not convinced that the new system provides any substantial improvement to the seller, other than a more clean and “fancy” sales pitch.
At least it’s better and not worse.
This number is for avg price increase. Paul didn’t have the median.
That new, “fancy sales pitch” has led directly to a 31% improvement in units sold via that path. Not sure why you don’t think this is substantial improvement to sellers, I think this is a pretty big deal.
Because the “units” are unique. They are only “units” to GoDaddy, not to the individual domain sellers, that definitely want to maximize their ROI, free of automated pricing “AI” and other such “fancy sales pitch” methods.
So this is an “art” vs “science” discussion? Of course every domain is unique and every seller should look to maximize their ROI. Part of maximizing ROI is maximizing potential buyers and conversion rate. Showing your names to GoDaddy customers via AfternicDLS greatly expands your potential buyers while the recent changes we made have improved conversion rate.
I speak in terms of “units”, “sell-through rate”, “average sale price” etc because this is a business, and one I take very seriously. I look at the business in aggregate and make decisions that make the greatest impact to the majority of our sellers. A 31% increase in domains (units) sold does not mean that every portfolio will all of the sudden sell more, but it does mean that we are working to improve our sales tactics, which our sellers should expect of us.
Love how the disclaimer comes at the bottom.
Of course you can’t promise to deliver the 31% increase, because it’s an artificial number based on a limited test. But it looks good on digital paper and headlines.
Personally, I don’t consider any AI-generated sales pitch to increase ROI. Your test might prove me wrong, when it’s run for a few months across a large number of domain portfolios.
Theo, does my writing need to be clearer? Do I need to explain more about how Afternic works?
We’re talking about the largest domain registrar and millions of domains — GoDaddy’s, HugeDomains, you name it. Does that mean that you’ll see 30% more domain sales in the period? Your sample size is going to be too small, but when you look across millions of domains, it’s not.
If Uniregistry was doing this and not GoDaddy, Theo would probably support it.
ya think?
🙂
@Mark Thorpe – Actually, I wouldn’t. But since you jumped in here to harass the messenger instead of analyzing the message, I don’t regret I’ve blocked you on all social media after a consistent display of mental instability. Paranoia is not curable.
@Andrew – Will you please release the data you were given by Mr. Nicks? Or did you compile it yourself?
I published the data Nick gave me. I don’t have raw data.
What ShillGang doesn’t like something GoDaddy did? Nooo Waaay. I don’t believe it.
Still shows the “old” for sale message on some of my devices, like my laptop, which is on wifi.
But my cell phone shows the “new” message, which is on data.
And the thing is, the new sales message still isn’t that great and could probably be made to look and perform a lot better.
Timing of data is key, if he had taken data in summer months, it would not be the same, those factors are very skewed.
I took last 6 weeks vs prior 6 weeks. I could compare the past 6 weeks with any other 6 week period in our past and the results would still be significantly better.
Hi Paul.
I have had my best numbers ever with GD Premium in the past couple of months, so kudos, and I think you may be on to something.
That said, domain sales are fairly seasonal, so comparing year-over-year sales results could be more meaningful. I would be very interested in seeing something like the .com sell-through-rate or revenue-per-.com of February 2018 vs. February of 2017.
I think those comparisons would give much more meaningful stats than something like February 2018 vs November 2018.
Im sure that if Godaddy adopted many of the features and looks from HugeDomains, they would also greatly increase results. They really have it down.
I’m surprised they are not doing far more testing. A company of that size only running 1 a/b test? Crazy.
Theo it matters because the sample size is large enough so what it’s made up of matter less. As an aggregate the numbers are positive as long as they don’t have any outlier clusters of negative results. This is good news for everyone.
We do many A/B tests, but this one is more than a visual refresh (fonts/placements etc). We added content that is dynamic which we’ve only recently had available to display.
Im surprised it worked so well. I didn’t think buyers would be susceptible to these short impulse messages at these price ranges.
Its a really good sign, I bet you guys will have fun exploring more now that you see this moved the needle.
Oh absolutely, we found that further emphasis on why an aftermarket domain is valuable works. Now we get to play around with what we have and see what increases conversion the most. Will be fun for sure.
Godaddy Tweaks Acro 41% More In Comment Threads
@Andrew – I was responding to Paul Nicks, so your reply is a bit surprising, and rather patronizing, to be honest. Waiting for Mr. Nicks to respond as the discussion is heating up.
The sample is small, and the time span of 1 month is far to short to come to solid conclusions about the usefulness of these tools, as it applies to DOMAIN SELLERS.
For GoDaddy, I’m sure it’s a solid success.
But that’s where I’m confused Theo. GoDaddy is the sales venue in this instance, which means that any improvement in conversion is an improvement for our sellers.
We saw a significant shift in conversion rate during an A/B test that then held true after switching to 100%. We have enough data to call the shift statistically significant.
You don’t have the data to say whether the sample is too small or not so I’m thoroughly confused as to why you’re fighting this.
Paul – For starters, A/B testing is dead (Google it for pointers.)
The time frame of a month (or six weeks per your statement) is barely a timeframe that determines the success of your new system.
As I don’t have the sample metrics you have, do you mind sharing it with the rest of us? Or do we only get the percentages that don’t mean much as far as I’m concerned?
Here’s the thing, Theo. By saying that “Of course you can’t promise to deliver the 31% increase, because it’s an artificial number based on a limited test. But it looks good on digital paper and headlines.”, that comes across as an attack on DNW’s credibility or my decision to report this. I wouldn’t report on this if it was an artificial number based on a limited test. I wouldn’t report on it if it was a small sample size.
Andrew, other than the cumulative data, were you given actual metrics? Can you share this data, or are we left with percentage numbers that you can’t/won’t disclose?
I think you’re overthinking my motives here, I just want real numbers, and so would any domain investor that wants to list their domains on the GoDaddy marketplace, following their announcement. Thanks.
The only thing that led to more sales is the video link.
It would be interesting to do multi-variant testing on this. What happens if you remove the video link but include the explanation. What happens when you include the valuation vs. don’t include it.
I suspect the video had something to do with it, but I bet a bigger part was the larger real estate devoted to explaining why it’s a good domain. Certainly catches your eye more than the previous message.
I’m curious about your expertise Theo. What is the sample size of total domains sold in your lifetime that gives you your knowledge ?
Theo your understanding of stats… is honestly lacking a bit. For you to be right it would mean that there are no comparable sales metrics in domains and that every and each one is so unique that it could not be compared to anything else.
This of course is not true and with enough domains the date range can be smaller and smaller. There is some random date range that is optimal but how to get that is beyond me. But regardless this is not a gain of +\- 5% this is a really BIG change. Not sure how anyone could not think this is a big deal and great news.
It might be a/b testing or promo text or this that but under it all what it means is that the sales process can be improved and translated into real sales gains. This step will no doubt open doors to further testing and further gains. This is not the end point or the pinicacle of the sales landing page. It’s the start of a process that you’ll benefit from without having to lift a finger.
So high five Godaddy and be happy, it’s good work they are going.
The only number that one could argue about being included was the avg sales price as that is not really being affected by the test. That has fixed pricing as the only apparent option.
Ideally the closer to 0% in avg sales price the better as it would mean domains of similar value were sold. But at 7% one could conclude the domain vales of the 2 tests were comparable for sure.
Real numbers means:
> We sold 123 more domains in the $1,000 – $2,500 range following the changes
> We sold 30 more domains in the $2,501 – $10,000 price range.
Etc.
Saying that the changes resulted in a sales increase of 31% more “units” isn’t telling me anything about the effectiveness of the changes. Hence my reference to the uniqueness of every domain listed: they belong in a valuation range.
Maybe 90% of the 31% is for domains priced $500 and under. Maybe not.
I am left guessing, as there is no breakdown that can be perused in a useful manner. Asking such questions is good for the industry. Raw data please!
The second comment about price, avg sales price of each test was only 7% apart so the values are very close, the sample types seems to be similar enough. So your concern about dollar value won’t change anything. The result result is a 30%~ lift of domains within a 7% avg sales price range.
Paul, congrats. This is great news.
This is great news.
Dont worry about stupid trolls like Theo. His only purpose is to instigate others.
Unlike “stupid trolls” I actually articulate my opinions and sign them with my name and an established link.
Must be a sad life to comment with a different alias every time to suit your pitiful agenda, Chris/Adam/Whatever. 😀
Hahhaa…Keep on barking stupid troll Theo. You’re a disgrace!
If it was not, the test should have been done ‘Pre Post Net of Control’ (PPNOC).
Without PPNOC, the % changes reported here of “past six weeks compared to the six weeks before (excluding Christmas week)” are not helpful. The test should have been the ‘lift’ of B (the challenger) over A (the champion) after each visitor to a results page had been RANDOMLY delivered format A or format B (using Optimizely or Adobe Target). A decision-maker would want to know incremental lift in the SAME period between A and B not a direct increase between A and B over two different periods, which would obviously be confounded by seasonality and other inter-period factors. Through random assignment of A and B, a PPNOC test would have mitigated the confounding for those factors and provided a more statistically valid test of the two alternatives, A and B, in a direct competition.
A multi-factorial design that tested the video button, a larger phone number, and/or other elements like the (seemingly superfluous) “when you renew” line and the (distracting to the singular goal of selling the premium name) “add this” line all in the same test would be a more efficient — yet more complex — testing method. It would show the incremental lift available from each element, holding all the other elements and factors constant.
They did exactly what you said — A/B testing. The result was 30% lift with B, so they switched wholesale. I agree that the a/b results are more relevant than the time period, but they are very close and show a big lift.
And yes, it would be great to do multivariant testing on this. There were a lot of changes between A & B.
That said, it shouldn’t matter much to individual domainers which variables increased the conversion. It should matter to GoDaddy because they can further refine it, but I’ll take 30% plus any day.
Logan… look up analysis paralysis 🙂
I’ll take that any day over numbers tossed around via a corporate PR.
PS Adding “Ray” on the troll-list.
Unless it’s from someone you adore
Exactly, Frank.
Shillgang calling other people trolls, ohhhh the hypocrisy.
Good one, Bill.
Remember Theo Develegas @acro @domaingang, I blocked you first.
I didn’t appreciate being ganged up on, on Facebook.
Related topic domains:
DomainGanged.com
LastGangster.com
Thugged.com
Seek professional mental help. Healthcare is free in Canada. As I said, paranoia isn’t curable but you may feel better by talking to a real person for a change. Good luck.
I’m not the one that needs mental help, Theo.
My afternic says have been goin up, but then again, it’s that time of year.
Please add a COUNTER. I am very very tired of seeing “LLLL.com has 15 or fewer letters” when it has FOUR.