1. Conversion Rate Optimization
Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love A/B Testing
Andrei Marinescu

2. Agenda
● What’s Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)?
● Landing Pages: Examples & Best Practices
● The Rest of the Funnel: Best Practices
● Case Study: Hulu
● A/B Testing
● Walk-through: Ring
● AMA

3. Version A

4. Version B

5. Which version won out?
● Version B!
○ Increased completed trial submissions by 38%
● Why?
○ One-line headline
○ Sub-headline
○ Tweaked copy

6. Conversion Rate Optimization
“Get as many leads as
possible to take your
intended action.”

7. Why is CRO important?
● This is your funnel:
● > 90% of your traffic abandons
● Change = impact
○ Not just traffic; acquisition cost!

8. Landing page best practices
● Short, succinct value proposition(s)
● Clear, compelling hero image
● Prominent, single CTA
● No exit paths out of funnel
● Sufficient information to drive conversion

9. Sample Landing Pages

14. Broader funnel best practices
● Capture email up-front
● No/limited exit paths
● Price presentation: simple, clear, and comparable
● Anticipate & address customer objections
● Use breadcrumb trail to set expectations
● Forms
○ Only ask for minimum necessary info
○ Place labels above fields
○ Align fields, labels along a straight line (left-justified)
○ Define field criteria and syntax requirements
● Use free trial/sample to reduce perceived commitment

15. Sample Funnel Elements

19. Case Study: Hulu

20. Home Page Evolution

25. Landing Page Evolution

33. Funnel Evolution

44. A/B Testing
● Process is KEY
● Create a pipeline of testing hypotheses (force-rank)
● ID & remove operational bottlenecks
○ Design, front-end development, data analytics
● Have solid analytics in place
● Optimize your cadence
○ Build
○ Test
○ Analyze
○ Repeat

45. Walk-through: Ring

53. AMA

54. THANK YOU
Andrei Marinescu
andrei@500startups.com
@malaparte

55. Appendix