Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO): The Complete Guide (2023)

What is conversion rate optimization?

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the process of optimizing your website or landing page experience based on the behavior of website visitors in order to improve the likelihood that the visitor will take the desired actions (conversions) on that page.

In today's world, web traffic is extremely inconsistent. If you don't get visitors into the conversion funnel the first time, the chances of them coming back and taking the desired action are slim to none. This is nothing more than a lost opportunity for your business. The best way to improve your returns and get more conversions is to runconversion rate optimizationcampaigns.

A good conversion rate optimization campaign is not only about saving a lot of time, money and efforts, but also about exploring new growth strategies unknown before. In other words, conversion rate optimization helps you better understand the usability of your website while giving you insights into customer behavior and tips on how to improve your UX to achieve your goals.

At a strategic level, conversion rate optimization, or CRO, is a continuous process of learning and optimization. Unfortunately, the "ongoing" aspect is often overlooked when discussing conversion rate optimization and its elements.

What are the 6 key elements of conversion rate optimization?

CRO is a comprehensive process spanning several stages. A successful CRO campaign is one that uses detailed data to analyze results, runs multiple tests, tweaks content to make it more relevant to visitors, and draws the necessary conclusions. During a CRO process, a marketer will encounter six key elements that can be optimized.

landing page design

Landing page design is the first and most important element that determines the usability and success of a website. The more aesthetically designed a website is, the more traction it will have!

Let's understand this using an example that most of us might be familiar with. Assuming that the majority of customers arriving at any of theAmazon product pagesComing in with the pure intention of buying your products, understanding the importance of design in increasing conversions (how it can make or break a deal for the e-commerce giant) is important. The giant has strategically designed each of its product pages to make even the smallest details visible to its customers. For example, when on a product page, customers can instantly add the product to their cart by conveniently clicking the Add to Cart button (highly visible – orange) next to the product information column.

How does it help? Orange is a bright color that complements the white background of the website, making it easier for the visitor to recognize and immediately take the necessary actions.

Additionally, the effective use of white space to highlight product features and the clever use of large images on the left side of the page inspire confidence and quickly grab visitors' attention.

website copy

While a well-designed and aesthetically pleasing website can drive more traffic to your site, words can engage your visitors and convert them into potential leads. Writing relevant and engaging content that emphasizes the persuasiveness of the product can make the difference between visitors staying on your site and taking the necessary action, and visitors leaving your site without taking any action. Website copy can be divided into two subsections:

1. Title

Headlines are the first and foremost thing a visitor sees on your landing page. It usually determines the first impression they have of your business. If they don't like it, they won't scroll down and check out the rest of your page. To make sure you're on the right track, focus on the following things:

1.Formatting:Usually focus on the font type, font size and color to ensure that it catches your visitors' attention and is easy to read.

2.Writing style:Please note the following:

1. Ask a question - for example Did you know that email marketing can add 30% more revenue to your business? How to find the products you like? etc.
2. Split your content into two parts - e.g. Internet Marketing: What's Next?
3. Direct address - e.g. Can You Trust Content Marketing?
4. Focus on the numbers - for example 10 ways to make sure your email marketing increases your conversions!

In either case, keep the headline short and to the point, making sure it speaks to exactly what the product or service is about in a clear and concise manner.

2. Body content

A well-written set of content is essential for a website. It should answer the key question - "what's in store for me?" It should also be clear, concise, to the point and portray your brand personality in the most effective way.

To write good body content, consider the following:

ONE.Formatting:

1. Break the content into relevant paragraphs for easy reading
2. Use necessary subheadings to break the content into distinct chunks
3. Bullets or numbered lists where appropriate
4. Font type, size and color that match general brand design guidelines

SI.Writing style:

1. Correct tone according to target audience (fun, business, casual, etc.)
2. Stylistic elements such as metaphors, adjectives, etc., to highlight certain points
3. Go directly to the end user and explain why they are here by answering their questions
4. Add key phrases to improve overall usability and easy inference

As an example,day off, a modern collaboration hub space that allows teams to stay connected and collaborate, has a strong landing page title followed by follow-up content that focuses on its USPs.

A catchy title accompanied by concise content that answers all the necessary questions makes every page attractive and does the desired job – attracting customers.

call to action

A call to action (CTA) is exactly what it sounds like - a request or appeal to customers to take a desired action. This action can be anything from subscribing to a newsletter, reserving a seat on a webinar, making a purchase, enjoying a service, etc. The stronger and cleaner the CTA, the more leads it can generate.

But, is it that simple? Take a look at some of the best CTA strategies in the industry and you'll see that they all use basic psychology to determine their CTAs.

To give an example here, ADT, a Tyco International company, was able to increase their conversion rate by 60% just by changing the main text of their CTA button - from "Schedule Free Survey" to "Get Free Quote".

Site navigation and structure

Your website structure should focus on creating an easy-to-navigate experience. A site structure, at its core, is usually a diagram of how the different pages on your site interact with each other.

While every site is different and has different navigation, this style of hierarchy is a typical example.

Typically, you start by browsing the home page and then explore its rows of categories and subcategories until you find what you're really looking for. If this whole process is fluid, as explained in the graphic above, your users will have no problem navigating your site. But if it's not structured, they'll get lost in the process. eventually leaving your site.

To achieve this, you need to ensure that users can easily and quickly move between the important sections of the website and find what they need to achieve their goals with as few clicks as possible.

In other words, creating a fluid and easy-to-navigate website is key to increasing your conversions and brand reputation.

Printed matter

Forms are vital to most businesses, especially if they are part of your sales funnel. Optimizing these important customer touch points can go a long way in improving your conversion rate. While there are many theories on how to create a good and effective form for your website, they may or may not work equally well for everyone. In some cases, having a full form can work wonders, while in many other cases, summary forms can be enough to send conversions up the charts. The secret ingredient here is to always maintain a balance between lead quality and lead volume to get the best ROI.

However, four key optimization tips to take your forms from okay to great are:

1. The fewer fields, the better.This is true in most cases, but not always, especially when you want your sales team to focus only on the most serious leads, or in cases where additional lead information such as industry or city is critical, if you have lead flows that depend on these additional Fields.
2. Beautiful forms often equate to a good user experience.Good forms have no flashing text, clear and consistent styling, and tooltips and validation built into the right places. Good forms also usually have the most important fields at the top, followed by the least important fields. One can also experiment with incremental ways to improve conversion rates without compromising the depth of user insights.
3. Easy password generation makes the whole process of filling out the form very easy. According to internal VWO data,password is one of the fields that takes longer to fill. Needless to say, guiding users to create strong yet memorable passwords is key to making this process more rewarding for both the user and the business.
4. Submit a form with one click using Facebookor Google SSO can also do wonders for your conversion process.Most of the time, users are already logged into one of these sites and this makes it much easier for them to convert. It also reduces the pain of creating and remembering new passwords. This, however, may not work in all cases, especially in B2B environments where companies work with business email IDs of their potential customers.

page speed

Page speed or page load time has a big impact on the overall performance of your website. In fact, it directly affects the user experience, conversion rate of the website and its search engine ranking. According to a blog posted bySemrush, if a site loads in 1.7 seconds, it is comparatively faster than 75% of the web. On the other hand, if it loads in 0.8 seconds, it's faster than almost 94% of the web.

A load time delay of even one second can reduce your conversions by 7%. For example, if your site generates $100,000 in revenue per day, even a second of loading delay could cost you around $7,000 per day or more.

That same one-second delay also means you're likely to lose around 11% of your potential customers as they simply close your page or leave without a second thought.

Benefits of Conversion Rate Optimization: Why is it Important?

CRO allows you to optimize the functionality of your website while helping you understand why and how visitors behave. The fact is, your website never reaches its full potential until it's rigorously experimented with. Broadly speaking, the benefits of a CRO program can be categorized into two:

Improve marketing ROI

A well structured and well thought out scriptA CRO program based on solid analytics can significantly improve the performance of almost all marketing activities.with:

A. Improving the quality/speed of experiments running on your site:CRO allows you to analyze the performance of your website by testing and looking for the best possible variations that promise conversions. By experimenting with different elements on your landing pages, you can not only check which areas give the best results, but also use the collected data as a baseline for your next round of testing/experimentation.

B. Better revenue with the same incremental business traffic/returns:One of the main benefits of running a CRO campaign is that every change you implement on your website that ultimately increases your conversions is an incremental win for your business.

For example, an online e-commerce company that plans to improve the customer experience in a way that makes purchasing products easy and convenient for its customers can greatly benefit from CRO. As?

When you run an A/B test, if it manages to increase your conversion rate by even 3%, that means you're getting 3% more revenue day after day. Meanwhile, if you have a high volume of sales, a 3% improvement can effectively translate your sales into hundreds and thousands of additional dollars for your business.

Australian e-commerce company ShowPo saw a6.09% increase in its revenuerun a series of A/B tests and introduce new improved variations to your product pages!

Improving user experience

The benefits of a CRO program extend beyond marketing ROI to providing an improved user experience at all stages of a visitor's lifecycle, whether first-time or customer through:

A. Customize the experience for your website visitors:These days, visitors are very impatient. If you don't offer them a site that's easy to navigate with fewer clicks and makes the whole process easier, they won't stick around and eventually look for alternatives. By helping to customize sections of your site based on your visitors' geography, device, local time or browsing history, you can make your site much more relevant to them.

B. Better representation of visitor behavior:The CRO process starts with understanding customer behavior through tools like heat maps and click maps. These tools tell you which parts of the site visitors spend the most time on. ButCRO tools, such as user session logs and session replays, help you understand your overall experience. They shed light on the exact journey visitors took to reach a defined goal on your site and even highlighted friction points that caused them to leave your site. Meanwhile, form analytics and site surveys also help you understand the overall visitor experience on your site. This quality data is enough to create a good UX and pave the way for conversions.

Who is conversion rate optimization useful for?

Conversion rate optimization is beneficial for all types and sizes of businesses, regardless of their industry. Here are some interesting business use cases that define the overall nature of conversion rate optimization.

CRO for B2B/SaaS companies

Lead generation is the start of engaging your customers by engaging them on your website, collecting their information through various means (forms, registrations, surveys, etc.) and contacting them to convert them into repeat and loyal customers. As a B2B/SaaS business, it's your job to help your customers find what they're looking for, capture their interest, and support their purchase decision.

Case Study: Continuous testing helped POSist improve demo requests by 52%!

POSist is a leading SaaS-based restaurant management platform that provides a complete suite of online point-of-sale (POS) solutions for all types of restaurants. The company wanted to increase their demo requests and reduce bounce on their homepage and Contact Us page. Obviously, these were two of the most important pages that helped the company get the most conversions.

POSist decided to run a CRO campaign to achieve their goal, which ended up helping identify the gray areas. The company revamped its home page by adding more relevant and conversion-focused content. This not only improved the user experience, but also led to conversions. POSist generated about 52% more leads in just one month, which boosted your website even higherconversion rate to 3.4%, marking an overall increase of 25%.

See Also

You manage the search strategy for a sporting goods retailerGoogle Ads Display Network Certification Questions Answers Part 1 - Translation and Digital Marketing ServiceCustomer.io Documents | Conversion goals and exit criteria#1 Ranked Business Show Presented by Mr. Marketology, Jeff Beale and The RockStar, KC Pride - Winamp Fanzone

CRO for e-commerce companies

Shopping cart abandonment is one of the biggest challenges for e-commerce businesses, costing billions in sales revenue every year. According to an analysis by the Baymard Institute, nearly 69% of all e-commerce visitors abandon their shopping carts for various reasons. So, creating a user-friendly e-commerce website with great design, unique products and nominal shipping cost that not only solves your cart abandonment problem but also addresses other abandonment issues like complicated payment process, lack of basic information etc. . critical.

Common reasons why users leave a website are:

• Distractions:Too many pop-ups or forms to fill out can distract your customers.
• Checkout Difficulty:The Site may not offer a user-friendly checkout option, which may complicate first-time users' purchasing efforts.
• Hidden costs:Most visitors are intimidated by hidden costs such as additional shipping costs, other taxes, and more.

Running a CRO campaign helps identify and resolve these bottlenecks and goes a long way in improving your website's conversion rate.

Case Study: PearlsOnly increased revenue by 12% by making their checkout page more CTA focused!

PearlsOnly is an online jewelry store based in Houston specializing in the sale of pearls. Since its inception, the organization has been constantly testing its website and making necessary changes to keep up with industry trends and offer the best services to its clients. However, he wasn't able to get as many conversions as he wanted. Running a CRO campaign, they found that the checkout page was too confusing and distracting to website visitors, causing them to abandon the page before taking the desired action.

PearlsOnly, with the help of VWO services, optimized the checkout page, ensuring that all its USPs were highlighted correctly. They ran the campaign for about a month and the results were great. The test was helped by PearlsOnlyincrease your income by 10%.

CRO for publishers/media

Forcompanies such as media agencies and publishers, reaching a wider audience base and keeping them engagedon your platform is vital to your growth. Here, the CRO can help them with this as well as test various website elements such as email signups, social sharing icons, featured content and other promotion options to attract more attention.

Case Study: BluTV increased their mobile conversion rate by 42% just by making their homepage more service-friendly!

As a subscription-based over-the-top video-on-demand (OTT) service provider, BluTV's success depends entirely on the number of active subscribers it has. Their main goal was to get as many visitors as possible to sign up for their paid membership trials. To start a trial, the visitor had to share their credit card details and would only be charged after completing the 7-day free trial.

Researching visitor behavior on the BluTV website, Hype, a performance marketing agency with a VWO Certified Partner, found that the conversion rate for mobile visitors was quite low compared to the average for the BluTV website. The service provider's mobile homepage focused on serving active customers rather than new visitors. Based on this, the two companies decided to completely revamp the BluTV mobile home page. They removed all the distractions in the header section, promoted some of their most popular content, and added an FAQ section at the end. Running a URL split test for 19 days, they saw that the alternative variant increased their conversion rate by over 42%

CRO for OTAs or travel agencies

Compared to other industries, travel companies often face greater difficulties in achieving conversions. Category buyers tend to take longer than usual to decide whether to make a purchase or not. They browse multiple websites, compare offers, interact with their peers, and only then do they receive a call. In addition, the complex behavior of reserves also increases the challenge for the industry. Running a CRO campaign can effectively help travel companies analyze their strengths and weaknesses and increase conversions.

Case Study: Bizztravel Wintersport increased their conversions by 21% just by organizing their homepage!

Bizztravel Wintersport is a Dutch travel agency thatimprove your conversions by 21%, simplifying how users search for vacation destinations on their websites. The company has tidied up the front page of its website, keeping only the most relevant information intact.

CRO for agencies

Talking about various industries that have benefited from CRO, organizations like digital marketing, web development anddedicated CRO servicesthey are no exception. Running conversion rate optimization campaigns for your own websites or for your clients can significantly increase your conversions and increase your revenue, which can lead to a better ROI for your work and help to retain customers and provide an overall good experience for your business.

Digital marketing agencies involved in offering various services to their clients such as social media promotion, web content development, branding and so on can offer CRO services to their clients as a way to get more out of their existing traffic . This can not only help them attract more customers by offering an additional service beyond their usual services, but also increase their overall business impact.

Case Study: Traffic4u Helped Client Djoser Increase Travel Bookings by 33.1%!

Traffic4u is an online marketing company that uses VWO to optimize their clients' websites and get more conversions. In one such effort, Traffic4u helped Djoser, one of the leading Dutch travel agencies, optimize their website and increase their online bookings.

By studying in-depth data from the Djoser website, Traffic4u concluded that making an actual booking was an important step for users. Offering them an alternative option with more flexibility for booking confirmation will encourage more users to book. Here, they decided to create a variant with an additional link attached called "Grab an option". By clicking on the link, users were able to book seats and opt out of cancellation with 72 hours. If no action is taken within the specified time period, the position will be considered reserved. Running the test for about 7 weeks, the swing resulted in a 33.1% increase in Djoser's stock.

Conversion Rate Optimization Steps: Understanding the Process

There are several conversion rate optimization frameworks that can effectively help conversion rate optimizers plan and execute optimization campaigns. At its simplest, the CRO process can be broken down into 5 steps.

Phase 1: The Research Phase - Identify areas for improvement

Only one out of seven A/B tests gives a winning result. Why; To search!

As a general practice, most marketers tend to copy CRO strategies that have produced results for other companies, believing that the same would work for them. But, they fail because every orange button can't convert and every long form page can't falter.

Understand what users are doing (quantitative data)

The first and most important thing to do is to familiarize yourself with the basics.

1. Analyze what your visitors are doing?

Analytics allows you to make decisions based on facts and numbers rather than pure instinct. In the CRO process, there are several ways to extract data to understand your results. For example, you can get relevant information from your web analytics tools such as real-time data tracking, bounce rate, incoming website traffic sources, audience, demographics, website behavior and more. Google Analytics is one of the best tools for getting detailed quantitative data about what people are doing on your website.

2. How do page features shape user behavior?

Using visitor behavior analysis tools such as heatmaps, session recordings, interview feedback, customer surveys, analytics, net promoter score and so on, see how different features of a page affect user behavior . For example, you may find that the search tool placed on your landing page leads to more conversions than the product categories displayed. Getting this information can go a long way in helping you eliminate unwanted features and focus more on the ones that convert users the best.

(Video) CRO Class: Learn Conversion Rate Optimization

Understanding user behavior (qualitative data)

Customer psychology usually sets the ground rules for CRO elements to follow.

Two key elements that help understand customer psychology are:

1. Principles of persuasion:Humans are highly susceptible to cognitive cues and biases. To give an example here, knowing that an item is popular with the masses makes it even more popular, regardless of its actual value. At the same time, the rarer and more exclusive an item is, the more valuable it becomes. Understanding this human psychology is essential to effectively setting your goals and creating a CRO plan that adds to your company's bottom line.

Additionally, adding social proof in the form of reviews and testimonials to your landing page or where relevant can boost your efforts. As mentioned by most of the case studies published online, social proof helps with more conversions!

2. Customer Behavior:Research carried out byGrupo NNstates that most people who browse the internet do not read. they just browse the posts. Another study reveals that younger people are more interested in browsing flat designs as they are more "trustworthy" than their older counterparts.

Studying your target audience's behavior gives you insight into "why they do what they do" online and how you can use that information to create a better converting website.

There are two main ways to study the behavior of your target audience:

• Conducting tests and personal interviews:Conduct in-person testing and interviews: Close observation of your customers interacting with your website in real-time can provide you with important data and insights on many things. This can include the pages they visit the most, the time they spend on your site, areas where they experience the most problems such as difficulty filling out a form, unable to create passwords, payment interruption and more. more.
• Reading case studies and following user behavior guidelines:Many existing surveys and case studies can go a long way in understanding the collective psyche of your customers, which in turn can serve as a great resource for improving the overall look of your website and increasing conversions.

By combining the two together, they can give you a much better fundamental understanding of how your customers behave on your website.

Understanding the Data Collected

Studying customer data and psychology can help you pinpoint the real reasons why users do what they do on your site.

Use the collected information as a baseline study and decide on improvements that can benefit your business in the long run. It's also important to come up with a quantified expected conversion rate, as this gives direction to your testing efforts. Otherwise, you could end up improving a page's conversion rate by 1% and sitting back without realizing its true potential.

Qualitative x quantitative data

While quantitative data provides a good picture of how your business is performing, it doesn't represent the whole picture. For this reason, the collection of qualitative data is extremely important. Quality answers provide better insight into how your customers perceive your brand, why they buy or don't buy your products and/or services, and other insightful insights.

Data collection methods

Some of the best data collection methods are:

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a built-in tool that provides numerical data on your overall website performance, reports on visitor activity, engagement, traffic flow sources, content performance and e-commerce sales.

customer surveys

Customer surveys reveal insights into the true psychological thinking of customers – what convinced them to buy a product, what drove them away from the site, etc. It is one of the best ways to learn strategies for effective website optimization.

Usability testing

Usability testing is a smart way to measure how easy a website is to use from the customer side, the engagement rate on a particular page, similar stumble and drop. It's a powerful weapon that not only helps create a better user experience, but also increases conversions.

User interviews

Interviews provide deep insights into your website, its pages and target audience. They are more about collecting qualitative data than quantitative data. Interviews can effectively drive the development of campaign change test cases.

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Net Promoter Score (NPS) measures satisfaction in terms of customer loyalty. It classifies customers into three categories known as promoters, passives and detractors. While promoters are more likely to convert into loyal customers, detractors do the opposite. Passives are in the middle – they are still in the evaluation phase (in terms of website friendliness).

heat maps

heat maps, simply put, are graphical representations of data that tell you where visitor values ​​are most contained, in the form of colors, within a table. Areas that attract the most attention are highlighted in red, while others are shaded in green. This is a classic way of understanding what users are doing on a page.

Click on Maps

Similar to heatmaps, clickmaps provide data about how users interact with a page through where they click the most.

scrolling maps

A type of heat map, the scroll map analyzes how a visitor moves through the website. It helps to examine your behavior on different pages of the website and analyze areas of interest.

The next step is to carefully describe your case!

Stage 2: The hypothesis phase - create a reasoned hypothesis

Using the information gathered in the research phase, you can now outline your case. At its core, a hypothesis is a proposed explanation of your research that usually has 3 parts.

• A specific change:based on insights derived from quantitative and qualitative data
• A special effect:goal, conversion metric, or similar element that needs to be improved.
• A special reason:the thinking behind why a particular change might bring about the desired effect.

The best way to proceed is to run a real test!

form a case

Here is an example of a good case.

"I believe adding social proof to product pages will result in 5% more shopping carts because it instills confidence in my purchase decision."

Based on this assumption, you make the necessary changes to your product pages. These new pages are known as variants. The main purpose of the test will be to see if the new variant will have better conversions or not.

A well-constructed hypothesis also paves the way for further optimization efforts. Even if your course fails, you can use the case to understand exactly what went wrong and take corrective action. Without a structured process, optimization efforts can be futile and even miss the point.

Here's what an unstructured case looks like:

"Let's just combine the sort and filter tool because it worked for companies A, B, and C."

This is exactly the kind of assumption you should avoid making.

state your case

As a general rule, always back up your tests with a solid purpose and authentic proof. Make sure you have enough quantitative and qualitative data to support your reasons for testing. Make your case as fully as possible and even write down all the necessary information. CRO is an ongoing process. The more useful data you have,it's easier to formulate a case and run optimization campaignsno future.

Decide how to change your pages

Typically, there are two main ways to run a CRO test – test a completely different page or change one or a few elements on the page. Choose the most suitable one and take a jump.

• Try a completely different page:If you've identified many areas that could be improved, consider starting over. Identify the pages that you think (based on statistical data) would convert better and show positive results. Remember, you may see similar or drastically different results. Use the information as ground rules and start tweaking.
• Change one or more page elements:is hereA/B testand the multivariate split test is useful. Identify one or a few issues on your page that (based on statistical data) could be major problem areas. Find the best possible variations and run a test. Note that a multivariate A/B test involves testing more than one element at the same time. This means it will last longer and take time to show you real results.

Once you understand the optimization opportunities, plan and prioritize the elements you want to test. Simply put, plan your testing strategy!

Stage 3: The prioritization phase - choose an order

Here, various frameworks can help you in the process. Of these, P.I.E. The framework set up by Chris Goward at WiderFunnel is the one we recommend the most:

Each of these has its own importance, which can effectively help you prioritize your test items and steer you in the right direction.

Stage 4: The testing phase — A/B, split or multivariate?

Before you run a test, understand the basics:

• What is statistical significance and why is it important?
• How long do you need to run a test?
• What Should I Use — A/B, Split, or Multivariate Testing?

What is statistical significance and why is it important?

One of the main reasons to test it is to understand if a particular change to our site can help drive better conversions. For example, you decided to run a test on the first 100 visitors to your website. You see that 40 out of 100 visitors converted on the variation you ran versus 20 on the homepage. That's a 20% conversion rate compared to a paltry 10% on the homepage.

But does that mean you'll consistently get a guaranteed 20% conversion rate? Probably not, because those 100 visitors may not be a good representation of the 10,000 visitors that visit your site every day. This is where statistical significance comes into play!

Considering another example, you ran a test whose results show that the variant you implemented outperformed the control (original version) with a statistical significance of 93%. This means that there is a 7% chance that your variant will perform better purely by chance.

To conclude the example, statistical significance of 93% indicates that it is a good time to stop the test, provided you have run the experiment long enough to draw conclusions.

How long do you need to run an A/B test to get reliable results?

Before starting a test, set the runtime!

When you run a test on your website, visitors are constantly being included in the test and the numbers are constantly changing. This further means that your conversion rate would rise, fall and even stagnate at different times during the testing phase. Since statistical significance appears throughout the trial, it may show higher significance even before the trial completes its intended duration. Therefore, depending on when you decide to check your test results, their statistical significance may be high or low. This further paves the way for the "hidden abdomen" problem.

spying mistake

As the name suggests, error peeking means looking at test results before you even complete the test. Chances are you will discover statistical significance greater or less than expected and decide to stop the test depending on how well it performs or not. This can, in turn, result in you deploying a version that negatively impacts your conversions.

Therefore, it is extremely important to set the duration of the test and declare a winner/loser only after the execution time is complete.

Note: The duration of a test mainly depends on the number of visitors visiting your website along with the expected conversion rate you are looking for. You can use VWOsFree trial duration calculatorto find the optimal period for which you should take a test.

Bayesian vs frequent A/B test

Most conventional A/B testing engines use the Frequentist method to make statistical calculations and declare a winner. The method states that it is necessary to define an A/B test duration based onthe sample sizeto draw the correct conclusions from the test.

But the fact is that companies that want to grow quickly don't have the time to go into such minute details. Hence, there has been a need for an A/B testing engine that bypasses the problem of waiting for a test to run its normal course, while still allowing for rational business decisions.

This gave rise to the Bayes method, which is the cornerstone of the VWO A/B testing platform. The Bayesian method not only emphasizes statistical significance, but also provides results that can be applied almost 50% faster compared to the older frequentist method.

The Bayesian method tells you "at any point, given enough data, what is the probability that variant B has a lower conversion rate than variant A or the control". It also has no set time limit nor does it require you to have an in-depth knowledge of statistics.

What should you use — A/B, split or multivariate?

There are three main ways to run a test.

1. A/B test
2. test division
3. multivariate test

Businesses often get confused between the three – which type of testing method will best suit their needs and requirements. To avoid this confusion, here are some points to keep in mind:

1. A/B, split and multivariate are three different testing methods, each with their own advantages and disadvantages.
2. The decision to use one of these three methods should depend entirely on the task at hand.
3. For simplicity, A/B testing seems to be the best fit. It is mainly used in cases where design changes are not complicated.
4. Split testing, also known as URL split testing, is used when:
   • The design requires major modifications from the original version, making it easy to create a separate new page with a completely different URL.
   • Backend changes required, such as testing a pricing page linked to multiple tables in the backend.
   • To test pages that already exist at different URLs.
5. Multivariate testing is used when there are many proposed changes on a page and you want to test each combination individually.

Stage 5: The learning phase – how to analyze the results of A/B tests

While this is the phase where you draw the final conclusions about your testing, close the loop on conversion rate optimization and note any new information gathered for future testing. Unfortunately, most optimizers just look at test results to see if a variant was a winner or if it failed, they would go back to making more assumptions. However, as an optimizer, it is important to dig deeper.

Examining a test script. There are two possible outcomes of a test you recently took.

When your variant won the test

Your efforts paid off. But what comes next? It's time to look for answers to the following questions.

• What is the cost of implementing the change(s) in terms of engineering hours, design hours and so on.
• Does the expected increase in revenue meet the actual cost?

When your variant failed the test

In this case, make sure that:

• Analyze your research, check your case and look for gaps.
• Study your test data. Break it down even further to consider the ideas.
• Validate your survey data with all data collection tools used.
• Read all relevant case studies. They can help you find new perspectives that you had previously missed.
• Rebuild your case by adopting new ideas that you missed in your original research.
• Come back and try again.

Understand, CRO is not a one-time process. Rather, it is an ongoing process that requires ongoing analysis. There's always room for improvement, no matter how many tests you've done. Having a well-planned and well-designed CRO process helps you effectively identify areas for improvement and implement optimization efforts to achieve better conversions and generate more revenue.

Conversion rate optimization best practices

9 Mistakes to Avoid When Running a CRO Campaign

In fact, CRO is one of the best practices for optimizing your website and increasing conversions. Most people/companies entering the pool do not know the ins and outs of CRO and end up wasting a lot of time, money and effort in the process. Creating a foolproof strategy and implementing it effectively is key to CRO.

Here are the top four mistakes every CRO beginner should avoid:

Mistake #1: Making changes based on the belief that statistical data

Just because your website design looks cleaner, more modern, and has better content than the previous version, doesn't mean it will produce better results. At the same time, being inspired by other companies that ran a similar A/B test to yours on their websites and saw an increase in conversions doesn't really mean you'll see the same results on your website. This is because there is no one-size-fits-all conversion optimization strategy. What may work for one business will not necessarily work for another.

Resist the urge. Be patient. If you're going to make changes or take inspiration from A/B testing done at other companies, make sure it's backed by a logical hypothesis that guarantees your experiment will perform better.

A successful marketer is not one who predicts which test will win the opinion or inspiration of the base, but one who does not allow bias to win the statistical data.

Mistake #2: Write copy that doesn't match your business goals

Carefully crafted SEO-optimized content can do wonders. But if it's distorted and doesn't match your business goals, it becomes useless. Create unique content that adds value to your website.

1. Focus on your brand's USP.
2. Use simple language. Make it clear, precise and straight to the point.
3. Write for scanners, not readers.
4. Bullets and ordered lists work best.
5. Write catchy headlines.
6. Add top ranking keywords.

Mistake #3: Taking small tests before big ones

When it comes to CRO, most people believe that running small tests is better than large ones. The fact is that small tests will only have a small impact on conversion rate. Larger trials with significant returns, where more than two components are optimized, will leave a noticeable and lasting impact off the table. These changes may include:

1. Redraw the page above the fold
2. Redesign the entire home page
3. Redesign the navigation menu
4. Move important elements to improve visibility
5. Changing titles, which is more attractive and impressive than before.

Psychographic segmentation is a critical element here. This can greatly help you understand the needs and requirements of your potential customers and make the necessary changes to attract them into the conversion funnel.

Mistake #4: Running too many tests and popups at the same time on the same page

Running multiple tests at the same time can significantly affect the analysis accuracy of each test. Each new item tested can affect the test results of others. Also, running multiple popups and sitemaps in the same user session detracts from your overall experience. In fact, it is very likely that these pop-ups annoy and confuse users, causing them to leave the site and never return.

Running multiple tests with changed variables, known as multivariate testing, often works for high-traffic websites. However, it does not necessarily promise great results. Go step by step. Analyze your results. make the necessary changes; notice? then run another test.

Mistake #5: Not paying enough attention to basic design elements

A. Giving more importance to automatic image sliders

For most marketers, adding automatic slider images to your home page can be one of the best ways to showcase what's new and/or upcoming on your site, but almost all conversion experts suggest that these Control sliders can significantly reduce your conversion rate.

Image carousels do not allow users to explore the site at their own pace. Instead, they disrupt the visitor experience and create banner blindness. Popular conversion experts like Peep Laja strongly recommend that companies think deepadding automatic image sliders. Here are some reasons that support this theory:

1. The human eye reacts strongly to movements. If the images are moving faster than the human eye can see or read, they will surely miss the important things.
2. Too many messages means no messages. Instead, focusing on adding the main message to your banner images and the required action is always more effective.

Therefore, it is always recommended to replace auto sliders with touch or static carousels for higher engagement and conversions. However, it is always recommended to do an A/B test here to see what works best for your business. For one reason what didn't work for one company can do wonders for your business.

B. Using cheesy photos

Practically, there is nothing wrong with using them on your site except their quality. They can give your website a nice, heavy look, but they significantly reduce your brand credibility. Remember that the purpose of a website is not to be beautiful, but to achieve specific goals. And, of course, people like to deal with people, not websites. A Market Experiments case study also shows the same. A financial investment advisory service that providesImproved registrations by 35%simply replacing a cheesy photo on its home page with a photo of its founder.

C. Don't put too much weight on videos

Show your product in action. Make video tutorials if you offer something complex. Believe it or not, adding videos pays off. And there are a plethora of companies that have really benefited greatly from this addition.

Dr.Muscle is one such example to mention here. The site embedded a video on its sales page,which significantly increased the number of visitors clicking on the price/warranty page by 46.15%.

Embedding videos on your website and other related platforms can help you better engage your users and thus increase conversions. In addition, video marketing also helps educate your visitors about your products or services without forcing them to wade through tons of text.

However, as a marketer, you need to ensure that your videos contain a clear call to action (CTA). With no CTA, your visitors won't know what step to take next. In fact, when your visitors are already enjoying your video, they will be happy to follow your CTA and possibly convert to a customer.

Mistake #6: Underestimating the importance of call-to-action buttons

As mentioned above, call-to-action buttons are one of the most important page elements that persuade website visitors to take the desired action and start the conversion process. But too often marketers don't give weight to CTAs and miss out on a lot of potential conversions. Listed below are some mistakes that you as a marketer or website designer should avoid.

A. Using the wrong color combinations

The internet is full of case studies suggesting that a certain color, say red, converts better than another, say green, etc. But this is not true in all cases. Instead, it's about what color looks best in the background of your banner or web page. RIPT Apparel, an online retailer based in Chicago,increased the conversion rate by 6.3% just by changing the CTA color from black to green. In addition, many optimizers also suggest that using a CTA color that has not been used elsewhere on your website can also help you get the attention you need.

B. Not using power words in testing call-to-action buttons

Instead of saying something like "Submit" or "Subscribe," use power words to grab your users' attention. Some popular CTA copy texts are:

1. Save your position. Plan now!
2. You're in? Let's start!
3. Yes! Let's start my free trial.
4. Get your free copy!
5. Information delivered to your inbox daily!
6. Where should we send your free copy?
7. Add this summer dress to your wardrobe!

ADT, a Tyco International company that provides business and real estate security solutionstweaked their CTA copy – from “Schedule Free Survey” to “Get Free Quote” – and saw a 60% increase in their conversion rate.

C. Placement of CTA buttons

Apart from color and text, CTA button placement also plays an important role in getting more conversions. While some marketers emphasize placing CTA buttons in the first fold of their website to be visible, many others argue that placing them below the fold can yield just as good results. The reason is that it all depends on how motivated your prospect is to click the CTA button. So desirable do they find your offer that they are compelled to click on your CTA wherever it is placed. The more unique your offers are, the more likely your prospect is to click your CTA button, regardless of their placement on the webpage.

D. A CTA text link or a CTA button? Which one is the best??

Text links are often lost in the middle of the rest of the text, making them difficult to find on the web page. Meanwhile, button CTAs are more visible to the eye and increase the chances of more clicks. Here is an example to show the difference.

Mistake #7: Not Creating a Sense of Urgency

Few marketers realize that creating a sense of urgency can actually increase conversions. When you offer your visitors a limited-time incentive and give them a good reason to believe they should worry about taking the desired action now rather than later, they will convert. And indeed, many companies have benefited from this - adopting their own 'Principles of Persuasion'.

Here are some examples that support our claim:

Zapposcreates a sense of urgency on your product pages by showing how many items are left in a certain size and color combination for visitors to purchase before they run out.

Amazonalso uses the phenomenon. It shows the exact number of hours/minutes a visitor needs to complete their shopping process to have their order delivered to their doorstep the next day.

The e-commerce giant also makes dramatic use of a countdown timer on its homepage to show how long a particular sale will last.

Mistake #8: Not establishing business trust early

It doesn't matter how convincing your call to action is or how simple your website is, if you don't give your visitors the impression of credibility or instill trust in your website, you're unlikely to improve your website's conversion rate. Your visitors need to know that you are not an overnight operation and that you are here to stay. There are many ways to increase visitor trust in your website and products. These are the following:

• Reassure your visitors that you value their privacy and that you have a secure website. Add HackerSafe badges (or similar) that show your company is serious about website security.
• Add customer testimonials. Because these aren't just content that compliments your business' offerings, they're actually an ideal means of establishing your brand's credibility among website visitors. They can also upsell you.
• Display your privacy policy whenever you request personal information from the visitor.

Mistake #9: Complicating conversion funnels

A conversion funnel is a set of pages (such as the checkout process or registration form) that lead to your conversion goal (such as purchasing or signing up for a product). Most web analytics tools (including some free ones) can be set up to let you see where your visitors are falling down the conversion funnel. You might be surprised to learn that most visitors abandon their participation in Step 2 of the conversion funnel because the whole process is too complicated for them to complete. A complex conversion funnel needs to be simplified to drive traffic to the final conversion page. Here are some tips and tricks to optimize your funnel and increase conversions:

• Remove all external links from pages within the conversion funnel
• Remove all unnecessary steps from your conversion funnel
• Don't focus too much on selling other offers
• Only request information that is absolutely necessary to complete the conversion process. Visitors are reluctant to reveal their information if it is unwarranted
• In the case of shopping carts, clearly inform the visitor about shipping and packaging costs, taxes and your return policy as early in the process as possible.
• And make sure you remind your visitors what they added to their shopping cart by linking back to the product/service.

While most marketers believe that using conventional conversion rate optimization strategies still works wonders for their business, adopting new and improved techniques like website optimization is the need of the hour. AND,according to statistics published by Zoominfo, 98% of marketers agree that personalization has the potential to create improved customer relationships.

Whether you have an e-commerce store, a SaaS website or just a blog, offering personalized content to your visitors will improve user experience and, consequently, conversions. Companies that offer website customization report a 14% increase in sales.

To deliver effective website personalization, you need to know all the types of users who visit your website. For example, theBlog Hubspotoffers content specifically aimed at three key segments of your visitors: marketers, sales professionals and agencies.

THESales Report Blogtakes website customization one step further. It asks its visitors to choose a persona that best suits them and then displays relevant content for them.

Similarly, you can offer personalized content to your visitors based on the industries they belong to or where they are in the conversion funnel.

Website personalization is especially effective for e-commerce websites and Amazon is one of the best examples we can mention here. The company has instilled the very essence of personalization in such a way that your visitors are enticed by your offer every time they visit your website.

7 conversion rate optimization challenges to tackle

CRO is one of the best ways to optimize your website and increase conversions. But it comes with its own challenges and misconceptions, which must be addressed to ensure smooth adoption and implementation.

Challenge 1: Politics and people

People and politics are two key elements that define an organization's culture. While the former highlights skills and mindset, the latter speaks of power of influence. The real challenge comes when there is no democracy among people. Also, when influential people in the organization try to impose their thoughts on real data.

Solution:

1. Educate people about the real benefits of CRO.
2. Presentation of competitive analysis
3. Point out the gaps in your current approach
4. Display the data.

Challenge 2: Structure to support the CRO

Creating a structure to support CRO is a big challenge for most companies. A number of questions arise here. You need to hire a dedicated conversion optimization team. This will increase overall organizational costs. who will take responsibility in case of failure. and so on!

Solution:

Before we delve into CRO, it is important to design a proper CRO process. Create a dashboard or platform to plan, update and record all your conversion activities. Share statistics with your employees. Empower them to help optimize conversions and make smart decisions based on real data.

Challenge 3: Inadequate budget allocation

Budget plays an important role when it comes to planning and executing a CRO campaign. While companies in 2013 spent just 5% on CRO activities, the trend has improved as organizations increase spending on optimization. However, the problem lies in the proper allocation of the budget.

Solution:

Before resetting a price, organizations should analyze their CRO ROI. They should invest in conversion optimization tools after thoroughly considering their goals and actual earnings.

Challenge 4: Lack of right tools to achieve business goals

Marketers have a variety of tools to choose from to achieve their business goals. For example, when deciding on an A/B testing tool, they have to choose between:

• Frequency-based statistical mechanism
• Bayesian Statistical Engine

In addition, there are several tools that help marketers achieve specific goals. But using a combination of tools can make reporting a headache. So how should marketers proceed? How to choose the right chat rate optimization tools?

Solution

To choose the right tool, traders must weigh the pros and cons of their actions. They should evaluate the tool based on how effectively and efficiently it will solve their specific business problems and achieve their goals. For companies looking to invest in a business development tool, here's a post about itwhat decision makers need to know before investing in CRO or A/B testing software.

Challenge 5: Ending an A/B test too early

Ending an experiment halfway through just because your variant isn't producing the expected results doesn't mean you won't have a chance to win in the end. There are plenty of tests that take time to show the required results due to various factors.

Solution: The first rule of thumb for running an A/B test is to let the experiment run until it reaches statistical significance. Give your test some time to breathe. If you still feel that your experiment is going to fail, do a deep experiment analysis. Look for errors or mistakes in the process and double check your case. Correct these problems, if any, and rerun the test for a significant period of time to reach a definite conclusion.

Challenge 6. Giving up on optimization after unsuccessful tests

By optimizing a critical page of your conversion funnel, you can develop a case to improve your conversion rate and run an A/B test. What do you do if the test fails? It will be unreasonable to leave the page in its original state, because the page is vital and requires optimization.

Solution

The alternative is to find out what was missing from the variant that was being lost and why users didn't find it more attractive. Use tools like heatmaps and clickmaps to observe user behavior. Use this information to create a new, better hypothesis and run more A/B tests, gradually improving the chances of a high-performing test.

The key here is to always expect unexpected results. Often even the most logical assumptions fail. Keep testing!

Challenge 7. Not tracking macro conversions

Well, the result of the A/B test has arrived. Your variant is out of control. The result is statistically significant and positively improved your conversion rate. Now, while you're happy, did your variation just increase your micro conversions (eg form submissions, blog registrations, next page visits, etc.) or did it also improve your macro conversions (eg revenue)?

If the answer is yes! Only increased microconversions,” it’s time to rethink your testing strategy. While these small wins will certainly add to your conversion goals, they won't mean anything in total.

Solution

The trick here is to carefully decide your A/B testing goals and link your macro conversion goals to your micro conversions. If you don't do this, it will be a case of not seeing the forest for the trees.

Note that any optimization is better than no optimization. Recognize all the website optimization gains you can make, no matter how small. Learn from its pitfalls and restart better, more data-driven testing.

conclusion

From mapping out the importance of website optimization to strategizing the means and ways to improve website performance, running A/B tests and using the results to drive your marketing efforts, conversion rate optimization has become a shared endeavor. Not only does it enable companies to understand how customers think about, use and perceive their brand and offerings, it also exposes them to an incredible range of data to shape their future business strategies. CRO isn't just another tool to improve your brand's online performance, it's "the" tool that makes you stand out!