The What, How and Why Behind Conversion Rate Optimization

TL;DR:

• Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) uses data and research to drive conversions on your website or app.
• CRO can significantly improve revenue, growth, scalability, and brand equity.
• Testing is a critical component of CRO, allowing you to make data-driven decisions and avoid negative impacts on your business.
• A/B testing is the standard method for conducting CRO tests, and various tools are available.
• Implementing a CRO strategy can significantly increase the number of visitors who become prospects or customers, resulting in valuable revenue for your organization.

As more and more brands evaluate and improve their digital presence, it's not impossible to think you might get lost "keeping up with the market." But what if a ton of improvement, and possibly even the most improvement, to revenue, was sitting right under your nose? Or navbar? In our line of work, it's not uncommon to see significant and lasting improvements to a company's revenue when deploying a conversion rate optimization strategy.

So, It's a bird?

Abbreviated as "CRO," Conversion Rate Optimization is leveraging qualitative and quantitative data, user input, research, and psychology to drive conversions on your website or in your app. Think of it as if you were to collect information on how people want to use your website so that you can bring value quickly, answer questions, and void wasted time. All of this directly leads to revenue and a strong brand position. This is all while being able to scale the practice truly.

If you were to deploy a conversion rate strategy that increased conversion rate by just half of a percent, you could see massive lifts in revenue, growth, scalability, and market share. There is also an enormous benefit to your brand equity and increased net promoter scores (NPS) from users who promptly find the value they need.

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How CRO works

CRO works by evaluating website traffic, heatmap data, user input, surveys, and information architecture to bring the critical and valuable elements your audience is looking for to the top of the screen so you can stay on top of your mind. It makes websites more "sale-y" and better for your user/visitor.

For example, if your business sells light bulbs, and you know an overwhelming majority of your sales are from a specific category of lightbulbs, a key, obvious test is to make that category incredibly easy to find in your navigation. That's the key to a successful CRO strategy. Testing. Regardless of how well we think we know the people who interact with our websites, it is always essential to test a hypothesis. Choosing to make a permanent change to your website because you "think" it's what users want could negatively impact your business.

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How to test

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It's not uncommon, and you might be doing it already, but a substantial a/b test or testing a new version of something against the existing version, often called the control, is the standard way to conduct a CRO test. It allows for mitigated loss if your test fails, as you have the success of your control to keep the model consistent while also allowing you to see what works before fully committing to a strategy within your site.

Some of our favorite tools to test with are Unbounce, Google Optimize (Rest in Peace!), Optimizely and Mutiny, but the reality is that most devices that allow for A/B testing are the same, with a few caveats. A really simple way to manage what tools you are using in your webs trategy is to leverage Google Tag Manager to implement, maintain, and build your digital strategy efforts While only needing one platform to execute all your business needs.

A few key things to consider when vetting an a/b testing tool are:

• Cost - Some A/B tools can be incredibly pricey based on the traffic you bring. We advise avoiding these at any cost unless the platform brings value to your business in other ways.
• Interface and Builds - We refer to testing visual changes as a "build" or "variant." Being an agency that works in UX/UI, it goes without saying that we would care for a good platform experience. In addition to standard UX reasoning, a hard-to-use interface can mean the difference between a successful test and a test set to fail.
• Page Impact - Some tools can drastically change crucial parts of your website's experience. From "page flicker" or FOOC to load speeds and even accessibility changes, make sure when trying a new testing platform that your site's experience is as intended or, at least, very close to it.

Why should you start a CRO strategy?

The primary reason most teams start implementing a CRO strategy is revenue. When we consider the time, effort, and cost of both organic and paid traffic efforts, the ability to capitalize on how many of your visitors turn into prospects or even customers is precious to any organization, regardless of size or budget.

We want you to know that we advocate accompanying your CRO strategy with a repository of test parameters, observations, and new questions. You can think of this as a place to store what you discover for sharing with other departments and build new tests that could move the needle.

Is it worth it?

Short answer? Kind of. Long answer. CRO tends to balance out to an ROI-positive effort. If that is your only goal, then it is entirely worth it. Using CRO as a needle mover can have huge impacts on business and do little for growth, depending on advertising efforts. That said, it would be an honest conversation with your internal team about its attention to web strategy. CRO is not an option, as it's an ongoing effort, but evaluating your brand's holistic approach to web strategy and content could be a much more lucrative business decision.

Or better yet, find an agency that can do it for you.

Agencies like metriq are rooted in leveraging psychology and past testing knowledge to drive revenue for businesses across the globe.