3 Authentication Factors That Make or Break Your Conversion Rate

Sign-up forms are an integral part of any website. They can be used for a variety of purposes depending on the nature of your business, including lead generation and customer acquisition. However, many companies fail to optimize their sign-up forms for conversion.

The sign-up conversion rate determines the percentage of website or platform users who successfully register. Websites typically have sign up rates between 2% and 5%, with top-performing sites converting at rates of over 11%.

However, what is the reason that customers do not sign-up? 83% of users report being frustrated to fill out complex sign up forms and have completely abandoned their sign-up attempt.

Lets examine what makes a great authentication that improves your conversion rate:

User experience

When creating sign-up forms, a main goal should be to improve the user experience as much as possible. Conversion rates can be significantly increased with a smooth authentication process.

5 factors to optimize the sign-up experience for your users

1. Optimize your forms to have a clear call to action (CTA)

It is all about being clear and concise with your call to action. Let your audience know exactly what you want them to do and start the CTA button with the desired action. Instead of lengthy explanations, a simple "Enter your email" will get the job done. A small, yet effective element here is adding an exclamation point to the end of your CTA to evoke that enthusiasm.

2. Ask for minimal information in the first step of the form

On sign-up, ask for as little as possible. Collect additional user data only when you need to, and when the user sees a clear benefit from providing that data. Let the users get to using the website as fast as possible, using progressive profiling to get information later if they want to disclose it.

3. Take advantage of FOMO

Feature a clear and precise copy on your landing page that makes the customer feel fear of missing out on your product. Similar to provoking enthusiasm, provoking fear of missing out in your call to action is sure to get you some additional sign-ups.

4. Design for focus

The login action should take up all of the users attention. Its best to keep the login form in the center of the page. If you plan to place in on one side, its best to give it primary visual treatment.

5. Clear feedback

Give clear feedback and provide a helping hand in case users fail. At each stage in the login process, users might fail. For this reason, it is very important for the login UI to respond to the user in the most appropriate way. Clear, timely, well-crafted error messages help here.

Effort

Another important element is the user's effort required for the authentication process. Users are more likely to quit the website if the login process requires too much work. Long forms might be tedious for the user to fill out.

5 factors to reduce the effort for your users to sign up

1. Speed up registration process

Most online registration forms take up to three minutes to complete. You can drastically reduce the time it takes to convert your customers to just seconds by authenticating users with one click.

2. Minimize the number of fields

The presence of many text areas or dropdowns tends to lower the conversion rate. Studies show that firms with less than five fields have 20 percent more conversions than the ones with a higher number of fields. To increase the engagement, limit your form to four fields or less.

Hubspot

3. Create a well-organized multi-step form

If you really need to include many fields in the form, distribute them in different steps to make every step as light as possible. Organize the fields of your form in a sequence that is natural and logical, so that it resembles as much of a conversation as possible.

4. Include a conditional logic

Another way to greatly improve the sign-up form is to include conditional logic in it. Conditional logic allows you to display different steps of the form depending on the user's responses or the data that you already have saved in your databases to avoid displaying unnecessary steps.

5. Retain context whenever possible

Is important to let the user know that the platform recognizes them and provide a welcoming return-user experience. Reducing the number of manual entries by pre-filling or autosuggesting some of the fields, helps increase login intent of the users.

Security

Providing the user secure authentication is the top priority of a sign-up process. Websites are vulnerable to cyber-attacks that could disclose sensitive data. According to a poll conducted in several international markets, more than 46% of consumers avoided signing up for websites because they felt unsafe providing personal information. Moreover, 79% of users do not trust a website anymore once a data breach is made public. Thus, a user is far more likely to create an account if the authentication process gives them a sense of security.

3 ways to make your authentication secure while boosting conversion rates

1. Use social logins

Social logins enable the users register via a third-party, omitting the need of storing a password in your system. Many social networks provide integrations for social logins, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Google or LinkedIn. This way, users can access the system without creating another password, increasing security while improving the user experience, and reducing login effort.

2. Use email magic links or one time passcodes

Email magic links allow the user to click on a single-use link containing a verification token to access a website. Similarly, one-time passcodes (OTP) are a numeric code generated by a website that allow to a passwordless login. By using email magic links or OTPs, you will reduce the risks of account takeovers and data breaches via compromised credentials.

3. Use biometric data

Instead of having to remember an account username and password every time users open your website, they can just use their biometric credentials, e.g. fingerprint, retina, face recognition, voice, to confirm their presence and authorize access to a website. Biometrics are a strong authentication and identity solution enabled by most modern devices. Specifically, passkeys make us of biometric data for authentication. They are the most user friendly and most secure passwordless authentication solution today.

To sum it up

User experience, effort and security are crucial aspects in authentication that have a major impact on sign-up and conversion rates. Taking care of all simultaneously is an important task for every digital- and privacy-first company.

Corbado helps you by providing authentication solutions that are optimized to offer a great user experience, lower efforts to the bare minimum and are secured with the highest standards. Integrate Corbado for free into your website and app now!