The contents of the first question in your quiz is deceptively important. Getting the contents of your 1st question down can make the difference between people trying your quiz out, or leaving before they even pick a single answer.
Luckily, the rules for an ideal 1st question are fairly simple and not difficult to apply at all.
Best practices for the 1st question
In ecommerce quizzes, the pages with the highest drop off rates will usually be:
The 1st page
The opt-in page
Once someone gets passed the 1st question, they're quite likely to stay until the end of your quiz. This means optimizing the click-through rate of the 1st page in your quiz can make a significant impact on your quiz's overall completion rate.
Here are some best practices to follow when considering which page to start your quiz with.
💡 Communicate clearly that the quiz is related to the store's products
Customers that are looking for help with a purchase will often leave a quiz if the 1st question makes it seem like a personality, or content-based quiz.
A simple way to prevent this is to make the 1st page clear that it's related to the products you sell on your store.
If you do start your quiz with a question that might seem less product-focused, adding text to the page to let the customer know that the quiz is going to lead them to product recommendations can also be effective in increasing click-through rate.
💡 The first question shouldn't be too difficult
Starting your quiz with easier questions and placing your more difficult questions towards the end of your quiz is an effective way to optimize the drop off rate of your quiz.
Towards the end of a quiz, customers will be more invested in seeing their results and will be more willing to think about their answers.
💡 What is an example of a difficult question?
An example of a difficult question is a question about someone's habits or routines that may require them to think and recall the answer before replying.
Beginning a quiz with simpler, easy-to-answer questions like:
What is your skin type?
Which gender do you identify with?
will have a higher click-through rate than quizzes that begin with more difficult questions like:
Which of these do you use in your skincare routine?
Which of these health concerns do you have?
💡 Quizzes don't always need a "start quiz" button
Starting a quiz with an explainer screen that has a start or continue button can be a great way to inform your customers about what the quiz is for.
However, sometimes the 1st page of a quiz will have a higher click-through rate if you jump straight into the first question, rather than starting with an explainer screen.
If your quiz has an explainer screen with a high drop off rate, removing the explainer screen can improve your quiz's completion rate.