Introduction to Conversion Rate Optimization
What Is Conversion Rate Optimization?
Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the process of systematically improving the percentage of website visitors who take a desired action (known as a conversion). The goal is to increase conversions and revenue. For example, an ecommerce store wants more people to complete purchases, while a SaaS company wants more signups for a free trial.
CRO focuses on understanding user behavior and optimizing website elements and experiences to remove friction in the conversion path. This is achieved by testing different variations of design, content, offers, etc. and measuring the impact on conversion rates.
Why Conversion Rate Optimization Is Essential for Growth
Conversion rate optimization is key for sustainable business growth because:
- It directly increases revenue. If an ecommerce store improves conversion rate from 2% to 3%, it means 50% more orders and revenue from the same amount of traffic.
- It provides valuable user insights. By testing and analyzing user behavior, you better understand pain points and preferences to create better experiences.
- It maximizes return on investment. Improving conversion rates allows you to get more value from your existing website traffic and marketing spend.
- It helps you stay competitive. In a crowded market, optimizing conversion funnel to deliver the best user experience is key to staying ahead.
- It reduces risk with data-driven decisions. CRO takes the guesswork out by relying on experimentation and analytics instead of assumptions.
In summary, CRO should be an integral part of any digital marketing strategy focused on accelerating growth in a sustainable way.
How do you optimize conversion rate?
CONVERSION OPTIMIZATION BEST PRACTICES—AND WHY THEY'RE DANGEROUS
Many websites follow generic "best practices" to try and increase conversion rates. However, what works for one site often fails for another. Every audience and business is unique. Let's review a few common tactics and why blindly applying them can actually hurt performance:
1. Use a strong color for all CTA (call-to-action) buttons
While high-contrast buttons stand out, loud colors overwhelm some users, especially those with visual sensitivities. Subtle yet distinguishable CTAs aligned to your brand perform better.
2. Place CTAs above the fold
CTAs above the fold get more visibility. But user testing may reveal placement elsewhere drives more conversions. Every layout should be tested.
3. Use urgency (e.g. time-limited offers) to drive sales
Urgency triggers fear of missing out. But it can also instill anxiety and doubt. Measure how different users respond and adjust pressure tactics accordingly.
4. Always display testimonials
Testimonials build trust. However, overusing them looks promotional. Strategically highlighting authentic customer stories works best.
5. Use fewer form fields on your forms
Shorter forms reduce friction. But essential fields omitted will increase fall-off later. Find the right balance for business needs.
In summary, every "best practice" should be validated with experiments. Assumptions often prove wrong. To optimize conversion rates, you must understand your users through testing.
What is an example of a good conversion rate?
If 6% of your website visitors join your mailing list or make a purchase, your website is 6% effective. But here's the thing: That's actually very good. In fact, a “good” website conversion rate falls between 2% and 5% across all industries.
The average ecommerce conversion rate is around 2-3%
Ecommerce tends to have higher conversion rates since you're further down the sales funnel. But even then, 2-3% is solid. For example, if you have 100,000 visitors per month and convert 2% into customers, that's 2,000 new customers from your website alone. Not bad!
SaaS and lead generation sites often see 5%+ conversion rates
SaaS companies and services focused on lead generation tend to have higher conversion rates. That's because signing up for a free trial or downloading an ebook is easier than making a purchase. 5%+ conversion for these types of sites is strong.
Landing pages can hit 10%+ conversion rates
Dedicated landing pages focused on one specific conversion goal often have the highest conversion rates. For example, a landing page for a free tool could easily see 10%+ of visitors signing up. The key is tailoring the page content and offer directly to your goal.
So in summary, 2-5% overall conversion is solid for most websites. Dedicated landing pages and simpler conversions like trials and lead gen tend to be higher. Use these industry benchmarks to set realistic goals for your CRO efforts.
What is an example of conversion rate calculation?
What is an example of conversion rate calculation?
A Simple Conversion Rate Calculation
Conversion rates are calculated by taking the number of conversions and dividing that by the number of total ad interactions that can be tracked to a conversion during the same time period.
For example, if you had 50 conversions from 1,000 interactions, your conversion rate would be 5%, since 50 ÷ 1,000 = 5%.
What is conversion rate optimization terms?
Conversion rate optimization (CRO) refers to the systematic process of optimizing your website and online marketing efforts to increase conversions. This conversion rate optimization definition touches on a few key concepts:
Conversion
A conversion is a specific desired action visitors take on your website. Common website conversion goals include:
- Signing up for an email list
- Downloading content like whitepapers or ebooks
- Making a purchase
- Completing a lead form
Conversion Rate
Your website's conversion rate is the percentage of visitors that complete your conversion goal. For example, if you get 100 visitors and 10 sign up for your newsletter, you have a 10% conversion rate.
Optimization
Optimization refers to the continuous process of testing and refining elements of your website to remove friction in the conversion process. This includes testing changes to your:
- Page design and layout
- Content marketing
- Calls-to-action
- Lead gen forms
Through ongoing optimization, you can incrementally improve conversion rates over time.
In summary, conversion rate optimization leverages research, testing, and analysis to maximize the percentage of visitors becoming customers or leads. It is an essential discipline for growing revenue and ROI from digital marketing activities.
Real-World Conversion Rate Optimization Examples
Streamlining the Conversion Funnel to Increase Conversions
Simplifying the user journey is one of the most effective ways to boost conversion rates. Let's look at some real-world examples of companies that improved conversions by reducing friction in their funnel:
The home services company HomeAdvisor revamped their lead gen flow by cutting the number of steps from 5 to 3. By removing unnecessary fields and pages, they increased lead volume by 20%.
The retailer Wayfair focused their efforts specifically on the mobile checkout flow. By decreasing the number of checkout fields from 9 to 6, they lifted mobile conversion rates by 21%.
The food delivery service Seamless removed 4 pages from their desktop ordering flow including menu filtering, entree details, special instructions, and order verification. The shortened process led conversion rates to jump 19% higher.
The key takeaway is that excessive steps in your funnel directly cause customers to lose interest and abandon their purchases. Audit your process to identify and eliminate anything redundant or unnecessary. Every field you remove has the potential to substantially lift conversions.
E-commerce Conversion Rate Optimization: Product Page Tweaks That Convert
Small tweaks to product pages can produce big conversion rate gains. Here are some real examples:
The electronics retailer Newegg experimented with putting their product videos higher up on page instead of further down below the fold. This higher prominence led to a 2.8% increase in revenue per visit.
The cosmetics shop Sephora added photos of real people wearing makeup products next to the usual product images. Exposure to how the products look on actual faces increased conversion rates by 11%.
The apparel brand BucketFeet boosted product page conversions by 35.5% by letting people design custom shoes first before they add to cart. This feature catered perfectly to their creative target demographic.
Key lessons here are to clearly showcase your product benefits through visuals, spot test layout changes especially for mobile, and offer differentiated customization if relevant to your niche.
A/B Testing Calls-to-Action: Best Practices and Examples
Your calls-to-action (CTAs) directly motivate visitors to convert. Improving CTAs through testing can produce remarkable results.
The airline Virgin America experimented with changing their booking button text from 'Book Now' to 'Select Flight'. This small label swap saw conversions increase by 15%.
The electronics retailer Newegg tested removing superficial low-stock countdown timers across their site which were actually annoying customers. Ditching these urgency cues helped push revenue per session 4.5% higher.
The travel deals site TourRadar iterated their on-site popups. Version A offered a discount incentive while Version B appealed to FOMO instincts. In the end, the FOMO popup converted 25% better.
Some key pointers here are to carefully evaluate if your CTAs match user intent, test alternate emotive triggers like exclusivity and urgency, and remove anything on your site perceived as superficial or pushy. Iteratively fine-tuning calls-to-action through A/B testing can substantially impact conversions.
The Conversion Optimization Process Unveiled
Analyzing Existing Data for CRO Opportunities
To kickstart a successful conversion optimization strategy, you first need to dig into your analytics and identify areas for improvement. Start with understanding your overall website goals - are you trying to get more leads, increase revenue per visit, boost subscriptions, or something else?
Once you establish your goals, dive into performance metrics like your:
- Current conversion rates
- Top landing and exit pages
- Traffic sources and campaign performance
- Funnel fallout rates
- Form completion rates
Look for pages underperforming in conversion rate compared to the site average. Pay attention to exit and fallout rates rising at certain points in the funnel. Note lower conversion rates from a specific campaign or source. These sticking points likely present optimization opportunities!
For example, an online course site noticed their blog conversion rate lagged behind their product sales pages. By honing in on their blog funnel, they uncovered design issues causing high exit rates from their gated content. A simple A/B test later doubled their blog conversion rate!
Setting Measurable Goals for Conversion Optimization
With your high-level goals defined from analytics, now outline quantifiable targets for optimization experiments. Setting concrete benchmarks allows you to accurately measure the impact of changes.
Determine which key page conversion rates you want to lift, or where you expect drop-off rates to decrease. If boosting revenue is the ultimate objective, set incremental or percentage gains.
For example, an ecommerce site might set goals to:
- Increase product page conversion rate from 2.5% to 3%
- Reduce cart abandonment rate from 75% to 60%
- Lift revenue per visitor from $15 to $18
Whatever your targets, they must tie directly to key business and growth metrics. This connects UX changes to real commercial outcomes, helping demonstrate optimization ROI.
Generating Ideas for Conversion-Boosting Tests
Next, ideate hypotheses for tests aimed to achieve your goals. Analyze site analytics further and use tools like heatmaps to reveal friction points. Talk to customers and team members to uncover pain points.
Compile conversion rate hypothesis ideas centered on:
Value Proposition - Test messaging effectiveness and showcase benefits better.
Lead Magnets - Try different giveaways to incentivize conversions.
Page Design - Improve layouts, content structure, CTAs.
Page Copy - Refine headlines, body text, testimonials, etc.
Offers - Experiment with pricing, bundling, free trials or demos.
For example, an app startup noticed surprisingly low conversion on their features page. Visitor recordings revealed confusion around the product’s benefits. They hypothesized a new headline, icons, and benefit-focused descriptions could increase conversion.
Designing and Executing A/B Tests
Now build your experiment! Construct an A/B testing plan mapping original and variation pages. Detail what you will change on the variant to lift conversions.
Using heatmap data, the app startup relocated their features’ icons closer to the headline and added descriptive captions. They also tested a new headline focused on customer value rather than mere product specs.
After outlining expected results, launch your A/B test across a percentage of traffic. Analyze initial data regularly, letting the experiment run until it achieves statistical significance revealed by your testing tool.
Analyzing Results and Iterating the CRO Marketing Strategy
With your test complete, dive into the results and determine if your variation achieved the desired outcome. Calculate lift generated in conversion rate, revenue per visitor, or other target metrics. Figure out what worked and what didn’t to inform future efforts.
Our app startup saw their version B beat the original, increasing conversion 18%. The data showed their new icons helped visitors better understand and engage with key benefits. They rolled out the tested changes and expanded icons/copy refinements to more product pages.
They added new tests to their roadmaps targeting cart fallout and subscription rates. Iteration blended with continuous testing cycles enables ongoing optimization!
Tools and Resources for Conversion Optimization Success
A/B Testing Tools for Conversion Experiments
A/B testing tools are essential for running effective conversion optimization experiments. They make it easy to set up different versions of web pages, allocate traffic, collect data, and identify winning variations. Some popular A/B testing tools include:
- Google Optimize: A free A/B testing tool that easily integrates with Google Analytics. It provides an intuitive visual editor for building tests and offers advanced features like multivariate and redirect tests.
- Optimizely: A robust paid tool with capabilities for A/B, multivariate, and server-side testing. Optimizely offers advanced segmentation options and integrates with platforms like Salesforce and Adobe Analytics.
- VWO: A flexible tool supporting A/B, multivariate, and split URL testing. VWO provides in-depth analytics on customer journeys and has features like AI-powered personalization.
- AB Tasty: A user-friendly paid tool tailored for non-technical users. It offers visual editing, quality assurance checks on tests, and easy integration with popular CMS platforms.
The right A/B testing tool can simplify running experiments and discovering optimization opportunities. When selecting one, consider capabilities, analytics, ease of use, customer support, and integration with existing platforms.
Analytical Tools to Understand Conversion Data
Understanding user behavior and identifying optimization opportunities require collecting and dissecting conversion data. Helpful analytical tools include:
- Google Analytics: The most widely-used free web analytics platform. It offers insights on traffic sources, visitor segments, attribution models, funnels, and conversions.
- Adobe Analytics: A robust enterprise analytics solution providing an expansive view of customer interactions across channels. It leverages machine learning for deeper analysis.
- Hotjar: A usability and conversion tool that reveals how users navigate and interact with your site. It provides heatmaps, recordings, funnel analysis, form analytics, feedback polls, and more.
- Mixpanel: Specialized product analytics software ideal for analyzing on-site user actions. It excels at funnel analysis, retention reporting, and conversion cohort tracking.
The best results come from marrying analytics from marketing platforms like Google Analytics with specialized conversion tools like Hotjar. Together they provide a complete view of the customer journey.
Educational Resources to Master Conversion Rate Optimization
With a dynamic field like CRO, lifelong learning is critical for staying current and improving your skills. Some valuable educational resources include:
- Books: Classics like "How to Increase Conversion Rates" explore foundational strategies, while newer releases like "The Conversion Code" detail modern techniques leveraging AI and machine learning.
- Podcasts: From ConversionCast to CXL's The Pe:p Talk, podcasts make learning on-the-go easy via interviews with experts on optimization tactics.
- Online Courses: In-depth training programs like the ones offered by CXL Institute and Conversion.com help cement theoretical and practical understanding of conversion rate optimization.
- Case Studies: Real-world examples published by agencies provide an inside look at experiment methodology and results for various industries.
- Blog Content: Following influential sites like Unbounce, VWO Blog, Marketing Experiments keeps you updated on emerging trends and proven tactics.
With the right educational content fueling your learning, soon you'll be the conversion optimization expert others turn to for advice!
Final Thoughts and Recommendations for Effective Conversion Rate Optimization
Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is a critical yet often overlooked aspect of digital marketing success. The examples and strategies covered in this article demonstrate tangible ways companies have increased conversions through website optimization.
As you consider implementing CRO for your own website, keep the following recommendations in mind:
Embracing Conversion Optimization as a Continuous Process
Conversion optimization should become an integral, ongoing part of your digital marketing strategy. Treat optimization as a continuous process rather than a one-time initiative. Monitor performance regularly and run new experiments to uncover more opportunities to boost conversions. The examples cited have shown significant gains over time by persistently testing and optimizing based on data.
Focusing on the Customer Journey for Improved Conversions
Keep the customer experience at the heart of your CRO efforts. Examine your website analytics and user research to identify pain points in the customer journey. Then develop hypothesis-driven tests focused on easing friction at each stage. From clear calls-to-action to simplified checkout flows, the case studies emphasize how CRO is about understanding and serving user needs.
Starting Small with Conversion Optimization Experiments
You don't have to overhaul your entire website to get started with CRO. Begin with simple, low-effort tests like changing button colors, testing different headlines, or adjusting form field labels. Use what you learn to build momentum for more advanced efforts. Small, incremental gains demonstrate value and help drive buy-in for further optimization.
Conversion rate optimization does require an investment in tools, resources and testing time. But as the examples show, the long-term payoff for persistent experimentation can be well worth the effort. Use these recommendations as a starting point to unlock the conversion potential of your own website.