Indiegogo’s new Add-On Perks feature lets you seamlessly offer your backers secondary perks along with your standard perks.

Successful crowdfunding campaigns come in many forms, but they all have one common feature: well thought-out perks. Our Perk Strategy Guide notes that campaigns offering perks raise an average of 143% more than campaigns without perks. But this isn’t the full story. It’s important to offer your backers the right types of perks and offer them the right way.

Chances are you already have a list of perks in mind but aren’t sure how to keep them organized. You want backers to be able to select multiple perks, but you don’t want to confuse them about which perks can be selected together.

There are a number of tools you can use to keep your perks organized. For example, you may find it useful to offer secret perks, to have a featured perk, or to run a flash sale. But to build out a sophisticated perk strategy with distinct tiers of primary and upsell perks, the best tool to use is the add-on perks feature.

What Are Add-On Perks?

The add-on perks feature allows you to seamlessly upsell to your backers by offering a secondary perk to be selected with the standard perk. For example, if you have an eBike as a standard perk, you could offer an extra battery as an add-on perk.

Add-ons have the same basic purpose as other perks: to help drive contributions to your campaign. However, the add-on feature has a few specific benefits, including:

1. Less Clutter. Add-on perks allow you to have less accessory and upgrade perks on you campaign page and avoid clutter on the backer’s end.
2. Organized Shipments. You will have an easier time organizing shipments for delivery because all the perks go under one contribution on you perks claimed and donations csv. If you didn’t have the add-on perks feature, you would need to match backer email addresses to get separate contributions to go out in one delivery.
3. Backer Convenience. Backers can check out multiple perks in one contribution instead of going through checkout one perk at a time.

Are Add-On Perks Right for Your Campaign?

If potential backers come to your campaign page and see a long list of perks, they may become overwhelmed. Not knowing which perk to select, they may find it easier to select nothing and click away. This is a common experience for shoppers known as choice overload or choice paralysis.

Take a look at your perk offerings. If you think backers may experience choice overload when trying to select from your list of perks, then add-on perks could be a good fit for your campaign.

What if you’ve already launched your campaign and you want to reconfigure your offerings to include upsell perks through the add-on feature? No problem! You can always add, edit, or remove perks during your campaign.

What Types of Perks Are Best as Add-Ons?

Only certain types of perks work as add-ons. Specifically, an add-on needs to be a perk that is logically associated with another perk that a backer selects first. So, think of an add-on as an upsell or cross-sell item.

Add-On Perks That Work

There are two basic types of add-ons that work best:

1. Upgrades: a functional improvement to a product such as lighter wheels on a bike.
2. Accessories: a supplemental item associated with a product such as a case for a phone.

Add-On Perks That DON’T Work

Add-ons shouldn’t be used to bundle random or unrelated items. Doing so could confuse or distract backers and wouldn’t benefit your ultimate goal of driving campaign contributions.

Here are two examples that don’t work:

1. If you’re crowdfunding a new water filter and offering that as a perk, you don’t want to offer an add-on t-shirt. You may consider offering a t-shirt as a stand-alone perk, but it wouldn’t make sense as an add-on because it doesn’t upgrade or accessorize the main perk.
2. If you’re crowdfunding a scooter, you don’t want to offer an add-on poster for the same reason.

As a guiding principle for your perks: backers get most excited about your actual product rather than branded merchandise. The Indiegogo Perk Strategy Guide explains: “You don’t want your contributors lured away from your super-cool charger or scooter by a $25 t-shirt or coffee mug.”

Add-On Perks Success Story: Maxfoot

Maxfoot is a foldable eBike designed for both daily commutes and weekend adventures. The campaign was an immediate success, quickly shattering its funding goal. This success was in part due to the fantastic perk strategy the Maxfoot team put together.

Primary perks offered by Maxfoot included a super early bird special of two discounted eBikes and a number of early bird specials for various models of the eBike. Each of these perks came in several color options.

Here’s how Maxfoot supplemented their primary perk offerings with add-on perks:

After selecting a perk and clicking “BACK IT,” supporters are taken to the pre-checkout page, which features a list of “Perks you may also like.” These are the add-on perks that can be quickly selected by clicking “ADD PERK.” Here’s how it looks for backers:

“The add-on feature makes it easy for backers,” the Maxfoot team told Indiegogo. “Backers love the ability to add everything together in one order.”

Maxfoot also explained how the add-on feature increased campaign contributions. “It’s so tempting when they see, ‘Oh, I can add this on and add that on and it’s not that much money.’ So they add more perks than they would without this program.”

According to Maxfoot, the add-on feature made them “much more confident” about being able to upsell upgrades and accessories to their backers.

Ready to get started with add-on perks for your campaign? Read our Help Center article!