An introduction to conversion rate optimisation, CRO and how you can start working with continuously evolving and improving the conversions on your website.

1. Conversion Rate
Optimization in Practice
Robert Carter
Web Analyst for Nansen
PRESENTED BY

2. Conversion is when the user does what
you want them to do on your site.
Converison rate optimization (CRO)
is a set of practices for continuously
improving the conversion rate of a
website.
Conversion Rate Optimization

3. The Funnel CRO is about getting the user to the end of
the journey that you want them to take.

4. CRO is Powerful

5. Why we are in love with CRO
● Small changes lead to big gains.
● A rising tide lifts all boats – a better conversion
rate means more ROI on SEM, SEO, etc.
● Happier users, happier clients.
● Helps to clarify and achieve business goals.

6. HiPPOs vs. Turtlenecks
Test your
differences of
opinion!

7. Why agencies should be in love with CRO
● Value added after a website design is “done”
● Allows you to be proactive with improving the website
● Makes our design work better and more effective
● Imagine if you spent three years testing and learning
about user behavior before doing the next redesign?

8. Traditional Website Redesigns (RSR)

9. CRO in Practice

11. ● Global pet food retailer.
● No eCommerce, but main
driver of sales through
website is a coupon request.
Case Study: BlueBuffalo.com

14. ● We used Google Analytics to create
a custom dashboard of their funnel.
● We mapped out each step and the
drop-off rate.
● Coupon conversion rate was lagging
from last year.
It starts with data

15. ● Qualaroo is a tool for
creating unintrusive on-
site surveys.
● Helps to put the “why”
behind the numbers.
● Cheaper than interviews
or live usability testing.
Qualaroo to discover the “why”

16. ● 39% of survey respondents said they came to the site for a
coupon.
● Only 18% of THOSE visitors actually requested one.
● That means that:
Putting it together
31% of site visitors were looking for and
couldn’t find BB’s most important conversion.

17. Hypothesis:
If we communicate the savings benefit at the beginnning of
the funnel, more people will go all the way to the end and
request a coupon.

18. We recommended putting a big red
coupon button on homepage.
Solution 1

20. Heuristic analysis
Missed chance
to reinforce
value prop
(complete the
test to save $)

21. Add a savings message on the brand
comparison page.
Solution 2

22. The client said…

23. The variation
Added $7 savings
language to sub-head

24. Testing a new
variation of the page
was easy using the
WYSIWYG editor in
Optimizely.
Optimizely setup

25. Features
● Custom CSS
● Custom JS
● Integrates with GA custom dimensions & Crazy Egg
● Track goals by click, pageview, or custom event
Different ways to test
● A/B/n
● Multivariate (multiple elements at once)
● Multi-page (for an entire funnel or experience)
● Redirect (create new page and redirect a % of visitors)
Optimizely customization

26. Optimizely calculates results and statistical significance.
Results

27. ● We use Excel to aggregate data from multiple conversion types.
● The savings message won!
○ 3.3% lift in test completions
○ 13% lift in conversion rate
○ 10% lift in value per visitor
More results

28. ● Test is paused in Optimizely.
● Winning variations are implemented in the CMS.
● Chain smoking = continuous cycle of improvement
After a test is complete

29. Conversion Principles

30. The LIFT Model

31. Evaluating Your Value Proposition

33. Relevance

37. Clarity
● Design clarity: guides the user down the desired path
with logical content organization and visual cues.
● Copywriting clarity: avoids business jargon, speaks the
user’s language, tells them what they need to know.
● Color clarity: uses color to emphasize the most
important elements & messages.
● Call-to-action (CTA) clarity: the next step is easy to
understand and easy to find.

38. Anxiety
What makes your users anxious?
• Hard to find what they want.
• No privacy policy, no security certificate.
• Shipping cost & time.
• Confusing forms.

39. Anxiety
Want to know what makes your users anxious? Ask them!
Or, talk to your salespeople. Every objection raised by a
prospect in person should be addressed by the website.

40. Urgency
Our mattress will help you with your back pain.
How much longer can you afford to live in pain?
VS

41. Getting Started

42. ● Potential for improvement.
● Importance of page.
● Ease of implementation
(technical & political)
The PIE Framework

43. Find the pages with the highest bounce rates.
Finding opportunities

44. Use HotJar or Google Analytics to
measure funnel drop off.
Funnel drop off

45. Funnel drop off
Use common
sense to find
areas for
improvement.

46. Why do you rob banks?
“Because that’s where the money is.”
-WILLIE SUTTON
Start with:
• Landing pages
• eCommerce checkout
• Sign up pages
• Pricing page for SaaS sites

47. Setting yourself up for success
• Requires buy-in from stakeholders and team collaboration
• Who is responsible for making sure testing happens?
• A willingness to fail is essential. Not every test is a winner!
• Common goal is more important than individual egos.
• Testing requires enough traffic to deliver results (http://www.evanmiller.org/ab-
testing/sample-size.html)

48. Thank you.