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Welcome to Part Two of our 60 Tests in 60 Minutes series! For the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing some of our favorite tests—things that worked, things that didn’t, and some things we’re still curious about. If you missed Part One, it’s here! And of course you can learn about ALLLLL the tests during our 60 Tests in 60 Minutes webinar later today to give you some food for thought as you put together those year end campaign strategies.


SMS! SMS! Today we’re sharing two tests from Planned Parenthood on increasing engagement in their SMS program. We know SMS can be a great way to increase a giving program, but what is working?

Test 1: PPFA and the SMS Quiz
Quizzes can be an amazing engagement tactic for an SMS program, but Planned Parenthood wanted to make sure they were making the most of this tactic. So they put it to the test asking: does including the first question of a quiz engagement increase engagement in recipients?

“Take the Quiz” ask (Control) 


Recipient answers first question,
then receives “Take the Quiz” ask (Test)


There was a clear winner with this test—the control, where people clicked into the quiz and did not see the first question. The control was statistically significant +78% click rate and quiz form submission rate, and also had a statistically significant number of new contacts over the test. 

Test 2: PPFA and the Multipart Donation Asks

Planned Parenthood also tested donation asks in SMS, MMS, and multipart SMS, asking: do SMS appeals that are longer and/or include an image yield a higher donation response rate?

SMS (Control)MMS (Variant 1)Multipart SMS (Variant 2)


The multipart SMS was the winner with a +50% increase in revenue per recipient! When considering donations from all channels, they found that both the MMS and Multipart SMS messages outperformed the control SMS, with Multipart SMS performing best and increasing revenue per recipient by 50%. (However, this was a test run over end of year, and, on the final deadline message on 12/31—the control SMS had equal performance!)

Are you trying anything cool in SMS? We want to know!

Did this whet your appetite for tests, tests, and more tests? Don’t worry — we’ve got you covered! 60 of them, during today’s webinar.

Note: Special thanks to our client PPFA for allowing us to share these test results with you!

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Johanna Levy is a Senior Account Executive at M+R based in New York City. When she’s not planning fundraising campaigns, you can find her drinking iced coffee at the beach.