Cracku & Claspo: 3x higher CTR with countdown popup

About the сompany

Cracku is an EdTech platform founded by IIT-IIM alumni that helps students prepare for India’s most competitive exams, including CAT, XAT, NMAT. Most of its learners are in their twenties and prefer to study online, directly through Cracku’s website, which sees about two million visits every month. In 2024, over 500 students trained with Cracku scored above the 99th percentile in the CAT exam — tangible proof of how well the platform works.

The challenge

Cracku wanted to increase sales of its CAT 2025 courses ahead of the busy season. Regular campaigns were delivering modest results — around 1.8% CTR — and the marketing team was looking for a way to ignite engagement without relying on developers or long production cycles.

The solution

With two major Indian holidays approaching, Cracku decided to experiment with festive-themed campaigns that would tap into seasonal excitement and limited-time urgency. 

Widget setup and display rules

To make the most of the upcoming holidays, the team has prepared two seasonal widgets: one for Independence Day (August 14-18, 2025) and another for Ganesh Chaturthi (August 26-28, 2025). Both were adapted from Claspo templates and adjusted to Cracku’s branding. The setup was quick, and the marketing team handled everything themselves without involving developers.

Ganesh Chaturthi sale widget

The Ganesh Chaturthi campaign blended festive visuals and behavioral targeting to spark instant attention and action. 

Key elements:

• Dynamic slider banner promoting up to 80 % off CAT 2025 courses. According to Claspo’s benchmark data, widgets with sliders average is 9.53% CTR — movement and curiosity capture the eye faster than static banners. For short seasonal offers, that subtle motion creates a natural ‘scroll-stopping’ effect without interrupting the browsing flow.
• Countdown timer emphasising the limited-time nature of the sale. Countdown widgets remain one of the most reliable conversion triggers on Claspo’s platform, with an average CTR of 5.72%. They visualise scarcity and create a sense of momentum — every second ticking down subtly nudges users toward completing the action before the offer disappears.
• Festive visual design. The bright colour palette, celebratory background pattern, and iconic Ganesha illustration instantly set the mood of the festival. This emotional connection gave the campaign extra relevance — it felt contextual and joyful rather than promotional.

Rule-based display settings

The marketing team configured precise behavioral and contextual rules to ensure the widget appeared at the right time and on the right pages:

• Frequency: once per session, to avoid banner fatigue.
• Timing: shown after 15 seconds, 30% of a page read, 3 pages visited, 1 minute of inactivity or exit intent — capturing peak interest moments and rescuing sessions about to drop off.
• Audience: visible to all visitors on all devices.
• Page targeting: focused on sections of the website most relevant to exam preparation and course discovery, ensuring the widget appeared exactly where high-intent visitors were browsing.
• Exclusions: pages related to checkout or payment were intentionally filtered out to avoid distraction during transaction flow.
• Silent Interval sequencing: ensured smooth rotation between multiple widgets without overlapping, preserving user experience.

This combination of time-on-page, scroll depth, and URL-based targeting maximized exposure among genuinely interested visitors while keeping the interaction subtle and well-timed. It struck the balance between visibility and respect for user focus.

Independence Day sale widget

The Independence Day campaign carried a strong emotional and motivational appeal, connecting the national celebration of freedom with the idea of academic empowerment — ‘Freedom to achieve your goals’ became the underlying message.

Key elements:

• Countdown timer to emphasize urgency and drive immediate action.
• Authentic human imagery. According to Claspo’s research, photos of people appear in 33% of top-performing widgets in the EdTech industry — but Cracku’s team took it a step further. Instead of using generic stock visuals, they featured their own course instructors — respected educators and multi-time CAT top-scorers. This choice turned the design into a trust signal: visitors instantly recognized real experts behind the offer, not just faces selling a discount. That authenticity built credibility and reinforced Cracku’s core brand value — learning from the best.
• Persuasive copy. The copy combined celebration with commitment: bold phrases like ‘Great Freedom Sale’ and ‘Up to 80 % Off’ positioned the discount as both a reward and a chance to take control of one’s academic future. The CTA — ‘Yes, I want to Crack CAT’ — personalized the message, shifting tone from transactional to empowering.

Rule-based display settings

The widget was configured with adaptive, user-friendly targeting rules designed for high visibility during short campaigns:

• Frequency: displayed once per session to maintain freshness.
• Timing: Triggered after 10 seconds on the website or after three page visits — ideal for catching attention early without interrupting first impressions.
• Audience: shown to all visitors across devices, ensuring maximum exposure during the national holiday period.
• Page targeting: strategically placed on sections focused on exam content and course discovery, reaching users with the strongest purchase intent.
• Exclusions: pages tied to checkout, scholarships, or specific course details were excluded to keep the message focused on promotion rather than transaction.
• Sequential logic: the ‘Silent Interval’ safeguard ensured the widget appeared only after other pop-ups had completed their sequence, keeping the on-site experience smooth.

By setting the display to engage users just as they began exploring — not too soon, not too late — the Cracku team kept interaction rates high and visitor fatigue low. Combined with credible visuals and emotionally charged timing, the Independence Day widget achieved both strong engagement and trust, paving the way for higher conversions across the entire festive campaign.

Results: Two short campaigns, big wins

Even with limited campaign duration — just a few days each — Cracku’s seasonal widgets converted way above the platform’s average rates. Both Independence Day and Ganesh Chaturthi sales proved that short, well-timed bursts of urgency can outperform month-long campaigns when design, timing and targeting is perfect.

Both campaigns worked because of emotional relevance and frictionless experience. By tying promotions to national and cultural holidays, Cracku created an instant emotional connection — a sense of shared celebration that felt authentic even in an educational context. 

Cracku’s two short festive campaigns show that seasonal relevance + time pressure + clean, trust-led visuals can outperform regular promos even with minimal setup. The Independence Day widget won on overall conversion thanks to an instantly-readable, universal message and longer run. Ganesh Chaturthi excelled on mobile where motion and stacked layout compress the offer and CTA into a single, high-impact view. 

Device behavior: Actionable takeaway

The device split here isn’t trivia — it’s a rule you can reuse. On mobile, use motion (like sliders) where vertical layout and full-viewport animation capture attention fast. On desktop, keep creatives simpler with a dominant headline and a clear CTA. If you introduce motion on desktop and overall CR dips, A/B a static variant to restore focus.

Speed, time-to-value, and cost of delay

A major win was operational, not just creative: the team went from idea to live in under three hours, thanks to ready-made templates and no-code customization. That speed effectively saved a full sprint and let the brand capitalize on short seasonal windows without pulling in developers — a concrete reduction in cost of delay.

What’s next: Tests to run

With seasonal countdown widgets proving their impact, the Cracku team is now preparing to level up their on-site experiences by experimenting with gamified widgets. These formats are known for driving high engagement and opt-in intent, and will allow Cracku to test whether the same emotional urgency that worked for festive sales can be paired with interactive rewards to lift conversions even further.

If the results mirror gamified performance seen in e-commerce, this could mark a new conversion playbook for the online education space — and we’ll be sharing those findings soon.