The document outlines best practices and tools for conversion rate optimization, emphasizing the importance of understanding customer motivations and addressing inhibitors to the buying process. It details methods for gathering insights through user testing and analytics, presents case studies with demonstrable results, and advocates for continuous testing to improve sales performance. Key factors include clarity in value propositions, alleviating customer anxiety, and testing various aspects of the shopping cart experience.

1. Conversion Rate Optimization
Tools and Best Practices to do it yourself
Adriana Iordan
VP of Web Marketing
@Avangate

2. 1. Conversion Optimization Factors
2. Research & Analysis
3. Examples on how to gather insights
4. Where to start?
5. Experiments we’ve done on shopping carts
6. Conclusions
Agenda

3. Drivers / Persuasion
1. Motivation - the reason a customer comes to your page.
2. Value Proposition - the one reason customers should buy
from you over competitors
3. Incentive / Urgency – why act now
Inhibitors / Usability
1. Anxiety- customer’s reasons that are preventing them from
continuing in the sales funnel.
2. Frictions / Distractions - things that get in the way of
your offer
Conversion Optimization Factors*
* Based on the MarketingExperiments formula

4. How to find out about your prospects?
• Web Analytics Data Segmentation
• Surveys – current customers, trial
users, users who uninstalled your
software, visitors
• Face to face selling / Become your own
customer
• User Testing / First impressions
• Click Mapping Tools
• Competitive analysis
Research and Analysis

5. UsabillaTest - example
Imagine you want to buy one piece of video conversion software to
convert your holiday videos into an iPhone format and then send it
to your friends.
Used a sample of 50 participants engaged on Twitter / other social networks

6. Usabilla Test example
3 questions for 5 video conversion
software product pages:
1. Click on the information that
indicates that this software is what
you are looking for.
2. Click on the elements you like on this
page.
3. Please add a note saying what you
think is missing from this page.

7. UserTesting.com example
Task Description
1. Asses if the software presented on this page fits your
needs. Tell us what convinced you or not.
2. Now that you have set up your mind for it, go through the
process of buying it. How easy or difficult was it?
3. If this weren’t a test, would you have made a purchase?
Why or why not?
Scenario
You want to buy a software product for
converting your holiday video to an iPhone
format so you can then show it to your friends.

8.  Lack of understanding what Free Download means – confusion: “Download
is Free but a 70% discount is offered for purchase.”
 Difficulty in understanding the licensing model: “are there renewal annual
costs? What about upgrading?” One user understood that the Personal
license was for non-profit organizations because of the text: „for non-profit
purposes only”.
 Difficulty in finding the “How to convert a video to iPhone” section (it was
listed under the left menu)
What we’ve learned?
• 70 minutes of raw video from UserTesting (6 users)
• Heatmaps + notes from testers for the client website + competitors - different
reactions for the same motivation (samples of 30 users per each variation)

9. Where to start?
1. Create a list of objections + issues
2. Find ways to overcome them / Prioritize
3. Start testing / Review
4. Retest
Start where your money is:
1. End of the conversion funnel: Cart &
Checkout pages; Product pages
2. Pricing pages
3. Tests on pages that affiliates use
4. Navigation pages
5. Entry pages for expensive traffic
Test first on your good performing pages

10. Store test
Concurrent call to actions, old design not outlining the trust elements
Source: http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/split-testing-blog/

11. Winner
After a series of A/B
testing they increased
their sales by 20%
They focused on:
• Frictions / Distractions:
clear call to action
buttons, fresh design
• Anxiety reduction
elements: reassurances
(explicit guarantee that
people can download the
software lifelong).
Better communication of their value proposition

12. Experiments we’ve done - Notes
1. Used our incorporated A/B testing platform
2. Omniture SiteCatalyst / eCommerce tracking & GA
3. Segmentations: language, countries, sources traffic:
direct/affiliates, flows
4. Conclusions based only on statistical relevant data:
• http://exp-platform.com/Documents/PowerCalc2.xlsx
(we use this calculator shared by Microsoft)
Shopping Carts

13. Facts about the shopping cart
Important factors we work - Inhibitors: (anxiety and distractions)
• Consistency, clarity
• Look and feel
• Security information
Shopping carts are part of your
website, not an external apendix
(even though technically they work
like this)

14. • Purchase flows (checkout
split testing)
• Look & feel (removing
distractions: navigation,
clutter)
• Trust, security, confidence
elements
• Localization
• Extra revenue factors (cross
sells, backup cd, DIS, upsells,
etc)
What to test?

15. Experiments we’ve done
40.4% to 47.7%, which translated into an 18% increase in
sales in one month only.

16. Shopping cart example
15% increase in conversion rate, 10% revenue increase in 1 month.

17. Localization
• Kept only the
elements that are
related to French
language
• Local payment
methods, phone
numbers outlined
• Localize your
templates for at least
top 3 countries
• Increase in sales by
15% in 1 month

18. Shopping cart example
Main focus on
making the
buying
experience easy
while also taking
advantage of
methods for
increasing the
average order
value.

19. Results
Decrease in conversion rate, increase in revenue and profit

20. More testing
• 2 columns template:
one page checkout
• Horizontal cross selling
• Look & feel consistent
to their design
• Security info next to the
Payment area
Increased sales by 15% in
one month.

21. Upselling variations
Checkout template for an affiliate who wanted to test if they can increase the
AOV by displaying as an overlay the upselling options. Revenue per click
increased by 12%

22. Best TIP ever
No matter what, NEVER STOP TESTING
Think of it like this:
Every Test You Don’t Start Might Cost You Money

23. 1. Find the desires / objections your visitors have and
the ways to overcome them
2. Keep in mind the 5 factors when prioritizing the
optimization projects
3. Use tools to see the WHY not only the WHAT
4. Take a look at your best performing pages in your
sales funnel
5. Develop a habit in testing everything, assume
nothing
Conclusions

24. Resources:
1. http://www.avangate.com/clients
2. http://whichtestwon.com
3. http://www.grokdotcom.com/
4. http://www.widerfunnel.com/blog
5. http://www.getelastic.com