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HTTP vs HTTPS ... so does SSL help ot not? (11)

09-06-2018 02:19 PM #1 matuloo (Legendary Moderator)
HTTP vs HTTPS ... so does SSL help ot not?

We've had a few discussions lately about SSL/HTTPS and whether it should be implemented and if it can help the conversions or not.

It all started when the guys from Monetizer reported a much better conversion rate for SSL secured funnels ... check this for more info : https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...ntiom-to-TIP-2!)

We also have several tutorials about how to implement it :

https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...areserverpilot
https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...ns-with-voluum
https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...oudfront-combo
https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...d-and-for-free

But does it really help?

I was just looking at some of the tests I've been doing, running http funnels versus https ones and to my surprise, the standard HTTP worked better for me.

Here are some numbers, first screen shows the regular HTTP, the other one is HTTPS ... The data you are looking for is a LP-breakdown, 5 LPs are the same, and there are 2 more in the HTTP version, I listed them in the same order, so it's easy to compare the performance.

HTTP:



HTTPS:



Please note that the amount of clicks isn't the same in both cases, since I didn't intend to use this data as a case study ... but the CTR, CVR and CR data speaks pretty clearly. The funny thing is, the SSL secured LPs were getting better CTRs, but the final CR/CVR was still worse.

These are all DOI dating conversions, so quite significant sample I would say. Traffic was 100% mobile, all Operation systems and connection types mixed. All traffic were banner clicks. Tier-1 GEO.

Based on this, I would say it doesn't make much sense to use secure funnels for standard email leadgen offers.

Would love to see what kinda experience others had, please share your opinion in case you've run similar tests.

I'm not sure what could cause this ... maybe it was just a coincidence, maybe it's specific to this particular vertical and traffic type ... maybe there was a non-secured domain somewhere in the redirect chain that cause problems due to an alert.

How about you guys, seeing similar results?

Matej.

09-06-2018 05:45 PM #2 zeno (Administrator)

Here are some tech questions from me:
-- The test was only your landers with HTTPS vs HTTP, correct?
-- What were you using to provide SSL? Your own certs on a server? Cloudflare flexible SSL?
-- Where the Voluum clickthrough links using HTTPS in both cases?
-- Where the offer links using HTTPS?
-- Can you load your offer link and confirm if there is any HTTP links in the redirect chain
-- Were these all run in parallel, or did you switch from HTTP landers to HTTPS at some point?

It's interesting to see that the HTTPS landers have a higher CTR but lower CVR on the back-end... odd.

09-06-2018 06:21 PM #3 thecourage (Member)

Strange thing.. I was testing as well HTTP/HTTPS landers and noticed the very same thing.

The CTR was higher while CVR/CR was lower on HTTPS links. At the end I have chosen HTTP version, cause it was bringing me more profits in total and didn't continue testing more.

Tried that with 3 of my POP traffic campaigns. Those were PINS/SOI BTW.

Tracking link and landers were HTTPS, don't remember about the offer link though. SSL was public from AWS.


I think the issue could be the offer link, I've opened few of my offers in tracker and see that there are still some with HTTP certification only. I guess the ones I was testing was HTTP as well.

Waiting for more opinions on this! Might try to run another test later and see if that really differs when the offer link and whole click-though is on the same HTTPS path.

09-06-2018 07:13 PM #4 matuloo (Legendary Moderator)

Quote Originally Posted by zeno View Post
Here are some tech questions from me:
-- The test was only your landers with HTTPS vs HTTP, correct?
-- What were you using to provide SSL? Your own certs on a server? Cloudflare flexible SSL?
-- Where the Voluum clickthrough links using HTTPS in both cases?
-- Where the offer links using HTTPS?
-- Can you load your offer link and confirm if there is any HTTP links in the redirect chain
-- Were these all run in parallel, or did you switch from HTTP landers to HTTPS at some point?

It's interesting to see that the HTTPS landers have a higher CTR but lower CVR on the back-end... odd.
- My landers yes
- I'm using the Voluum setup, they provide the tracking domain and it get's SSL added automatically, they have them prepared for such cases. I also secured my LP domain, using the https://letsencrypt.org/ service, hosting handled that for me.
- I used https for one and http for the other one (using the old custom domain I had in voluum)
- offers were with https yes, and also network tracking links had https
- all links on the offer were https from what I can tell, I only checked "by hand" without using some tool to grab the full redirect chain, so can't really be 100% sure about this.
- I've run it at the same time most of the time

I was surprised by the results for sure ... maybe there was some redirect without https in the chain that I didnt catch.

09-06-2018 07:49 PM #5 johner911 (Member)

Https if improperly configured or distance between user and server is big, impacts web speed a lot.
Particulary when using a lot of resources on site. Each needs to do a handshake that takes time..
Http/2 resolves this. .since ti forces better parralelization.

Example:
If you have server in EU and have AU users.. http load time would be 1s
That same config via https .. woudl take 3s.. Simply because each resource needs to be handshaked..
so it adds +300ms on each resource.

I converted all to https .. 2 years ago.. didnt notify significant impact, but I serve content from servers close to users.
SSL is letsencrypt, conversion rates did not seem to be affected even on pops.

09-06-2018 08:18 PM #6 matuloo (Legendary Moderator)

Quote Originally Posted by johner911 View Post
Example:
If you have server in EU and have AU users.. http load time would be 1s
That same config via https .. woudl take 3s.. Simply because each resource needs to be handshaked..
so it adds +300ms on each resource.
This sounds like a logical reason, but when I think about it more ... the LP ctr is actually higher, so the part of the funnel where I get visitors from network to my LPs shouldn't be the problem ... maybe if there are to many redirect between the affiliate network and the actual offer, then it could be the reason.

09-07-2018 04:47 AM #7 grofit (AMC Alumnus)

I got some interesting results running MOBILE POP Traffic on mostly Carrier Traffic

Have you tried testing a
HTTPs Tracking Link --> HTTP Lander

I tested it out and got a 15.3% ROI improvement with 95% statistical significance (450 conversions to each test)

So it was 15.3% better than: HTTP Tracking Link --> HTTP Lander

NB: I was using the HTTPs tracking link that Voluum just started providing.

The test was messy though (I ran for a week and some offers got cancelled in the middle of it so not sure if traffic was divided evenly and properly among the tests)
So would be really interested to hear if anyone else can repeat this result.

I also tried HTTPs Landers .... and they were not statistically better than my HTTP landers, so have just stayed with HTTP Landers.
The HTTPs Landers were on Amazon and using their SSL Certs

09-07-2018 06:23 AM #8 symba3 (AMC Alumnus)

LP CTR might be higher because users will see a "Secure" message on the browser ... so you have more trust.

09-07-2018 12:26 PM #9 matuloo (Legendary Moderator)

Quote Originally Posted by symba3 View Post
LP CTR might be higher because users will see a "Secure" message on the browser ... so you have more trust.
Yup, I was thinking about this too, but not sure how many users actually pay attention to this. Could have a small effect for sure though.

09-07-2018 12:26 PM #10 matuloo (Legendary Moderator)

Quote Originally Posted by grofit View Post
I got some interesting results running MOBILE POP Traffic on mostly Carrier Traffic

Have you tried testing a
HTTPs Tracking Link --> HTTP Lander

I tested it out and got a 15.3% ROI improvement with 95% statistical significance (450 conversions to each test)

So it was 15.3% better than: HTTP Tracking Link --> HTTP Lander

NB: I was using the HTTPs tracking link that Voluum just started providing.

The test was messy though (I ran for a week and some offers got cancelled in the middle of it so not sure if traffic was divided evenly and properly among the tests)
So would be really interested to hear if anyone else can repeat this result.

I also tried HTTPs Landers .... and they were not statistically better than my HTTP landers, so have just stayed with HTTP Landers.
The HTTPs Landers were on Amazon and using their SSL Certs
Interesting, especially since I believe there is a warning shown to users who go from a secured connection to regular http, or am I wrong?

09-07-2018 01:46 PM #11 Mr Payne (Member)

I have still been using HTTP for the majority of my traffic because from my tests concerning the debate of HTTPS and HTTP does not have a positive impact in all cases.

And I have not seen any warnings messages on mobile (just the icon with a message when you click it) when going from https > http but I will double check on this. On desktop you just see the "Not Secure" message in the URL box.

Very interesting to see the different results everyone is experiencing.



Andrew

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