The document outlines strategies for building effective conversion optimization through methods such as A/B testing, user research techniques, and funnel analysis. It emphasizes the importance of prioritizing hypotheses and utilizing various tools to analyze user behavior and improve conversion rates. The insights are drawn from experiences with over 5,000 experiments and the combined expertise of specialists from VWO and Ladder.io.

1. How To Build A Winning Conversion
Optimization Strategy
Srikant Kotapalli
Head of Product, VWO
Missy McCabe
Growth Marketer, Ladder.io

2. Ask Questions on Twitter
#AskVWO

3. About VWO
powered by SmartStats
2.5bn+
Users served per
month
Goals FunnelsTrack
Heatmaps Recordings Surveys FormsAnalyze
Test
Plan HypothesisObservation
5000+
Customers across
the globe
600k+
Experiments run on
our platform
91Countries
A/B Testing &
Conversion
Optimization
Platform

4. About Ladder.io
$25m+
Performance data
300%+
Market avg. success
rate for
experiments
5000+
Growth tactics
launched
Digital
Marketing
Agency
Ladder is a growth marketing agency that uses
proprietary technology and data-driven strategy to
increase your ROI.
Our team has spent millions of dollars and thousands of
hours working with over 100 companies in New York and
London.

5. Most commonly used methods for
optimizing conversion rates

6. What is A/B testing
In the most simplest form, A/B
Testing is comparing two versions
of a web page to see which
version performs better for a
defined conversion goal

7. A Simplified Conversion
Optimization Process
Multiple frameworks and processes
prescribed by expert practitioners all
follow the same flow for optimization
Research
Hypothesize
Prioritize
Test & Learn

8. Tools & Techniques

9. r
How many tools do you use for conversion optimization?
Conversion optimization requires
considerable expertise
with multiple
tools throughout the process

10. Techniques for
Research
Research
Hypothesize
Prioritize
Test & Learn

11. r
Most commonly used methods to generate User insights
Difficulty in generating insightsDifficult Easy
Valueofinsights
Low
High
*Size of the bubble indicates the popularity or usage of the method

12. Heuristic Analysis
Evaluation of a website by
a usability expert against a
set heuristics to identify
potential conversion
barriers

13. Heatmap
Navigation bar distracting
users from the primary
goal of this page which is
to download the app

14. Scrollmap
A sharp drop-off of 40
%age points happens here
and content below this is
going to be ineffective.
Also acts as a in page
funnel representation
98% (103) views
58% (61) views

15. Session Replays
Session replays playback
your visitors actual page
interactions and how they
navigate through your
website without
distracting the visitor from
their desired goals
98% (103) views
58% (61) views

16. Surveys
Understanding Word of
mouth effect on your
direct traffic
98% (103) views
58% (61) views

17. Surveys
Understanding why
visitors abandon your
site
98% (103) views
58% (61) views

18. Form Analytics
Go beyond tracking form
submission rates. Form
analytics help you
understand how visitors
interact with every form
field. It gives you insights
on where visitors hesitate
and drop off
98% (103) views
58% (61) views
27%
34%
of the visitors
submitted the form
20.5
seconds
Total time spent on
completing this field
10.3
seconds
Time spent by
visitors hesitating to
give this data
20%
of the visitors drop
off on this field
of the visitors refill
this field

19. Usability Testing
Task Analysis or usability
testing helps you evaluate
how visitors would use the
website to achieve a
desired goal.
98% (103) views
58% (61) views

20. Card Sorting
Helps you understand
how your visitors would
logically group
information into
categories.
98% (103) views
58% (61) views
Clear winners
Ambiguous
classification,
might need
follow up
tests
Tests run using Optimal workshop

21. Building
structured
Hypothesis
Research
Hypothesize
Prioritize
Test & Learn

22. Five Second test
Helps you understand
how visitors perceive your
messaging
98% (103) views
58% (61) views
What solution are they selling?
Tests run using Usabilityhub

23. Build a structured Hypothesis
Based on Observations
I believe Solution
will address Problem
for Audience
and impact Goal by uplift %
Evidence or
Research that
identifies a pattern
or a problem that
needs solving
If you are just starting
to test, then Audience
is probably all visitors.
But as you mature in
optimization your
audience is a subset Brings in
accountability on
what your team was
trying to achieve

24. Prioritizing
Hypothesis
Research
Hypothesize
Prioritize
Test & Learn

25. r
What %age of ideas do you test from your backlog?
There are always more
ideas than you can actually
test. Prioritizationof
which ideas to test is essential

26. Frameworks to prioritize Hypothesis
Potential
Importance
Ease
Time
Impact
Resources
Bryan
Eisenberg
Impact
Confidence
Ease
Sean Ellis
PXL model
by by by by

27. What we use
Confidence Importance Ease
How confident are you of
achieving the uplift in
conversion rates from this
test?
How valuable are the
audience you are testing
for?
How Easy is it implement
this test?
Generally higher confidence
can be achieved with high
level of research
Not just effort for design
and dev, but also take into
account how easy is it to get
all stakeholders to agree to
doing this
For example a test
conducted on bottom of
the funnel could be more
important than a test on
top of the funnel

28. ANALYZE YOUR FUNNEL
What to look for without getting “analysis paralysis”

29. ● Lead gen?
● Revenue for e-commerce?
● A tight tracking set-up and knowledge of your
funnel is key to any CRO strategy
What metrics matter to you?

30. Finding the largest area of opportunity
YOUR CRO ANALYSIS CHECKLIST:
1. Analyze your full funnel for
key areas of drop off
2. Where does most of your
traffic come from and where
do most people land?
3. Split traffic by device - what
is your conversion rate on
mobile vs. desktop?

31. Full funnel analysis

32. Identify key pages

33. Desktop vs. mobile behavior

34. A/B testing best practices
Testing for B2B lead generation

35. A/B testing above the fold - social proof

36. A/B testing above the fold

37. A/B testing form fields

38. A/B testing form fields
Metric for success: Leads
generated
Hypothesis:
Including fewer form fields
will boost our conversion
rate, as it reduces friction.
Result:
10% lift in CVR on this variant

39. Social proof
Metric for success: Leads
generated
Hypothesis:
Moving client logos from the very
bottom of our site to a prominent
spot above the fold will increase
conversions on our contact form,
as strong social proof legitimizes
us.
Result:
65% lift in CVR

40. Positive reviews
Metric for success: Leads
generated
Hypothesis:
Moving positive reviews from
Shopper Approved above the
fold would increase conversion
rate, as it adds a sense that we
are trusted by customers.
Result:
17% lift in CVR

41. A/B testing for e-commerce

42. GA Shopping Behavior Analysis

43. Dynamic free shipping bar
Implementation tools: Free Shipping Bar
by Hextom for Shopify, or other plugin
VWO installation: Install the plugin within
your site. In order to run the A/B test,
your developer can write a line of code to
show or hide the shipping bar to measure
conversion rate with and without it
displaying.
Metric for success: average order value
Hypothesis: Adding a free shipping bar
that updates as a user puts items in their
basket will increase average order value,
as it incentivizes spending to the limit
needed to achieve free shipping.

44. Urgency language

45. Urgency language
Metric for success: adds to cart
Hypothesis: Removing language
around items being low in stock
will boost conversion rate, as the
current display of that language
makes it appear as though
products are unavailable.
Result: decrease in CVR -- and the
learning that urgency language is
actually a positive for client

46. Social proof
Implementation tools: fomo or
proof
VWO installation: Install the
plugin within your site. In
order to run the A/B test, your
developer can write a line of
code to show or hide Fomo on
either variant.
Metric for success: Checkouts
completed (can also be used
for B2B lead gen businesses)

47. SEGMENTATION BY DEVICE:
Desktop vs. Mobile traffic

48. Optimize for mobile

49. Optimize for mobile

50. TESTING ON LOW TRAFFIC SITES

51. Set realistic metrics for success
Set mid-funnel goals
● Traffic: 3,000 monthly site
sessions
● Conversion rate: 1% conversion
rate.
● Adds to cart: 4%
● Views to collections page: 50%

52. Statistical significance
1% to 1.7% CVR
to purchase
50% to 53% to
collections
page
Goal: Purchases
Goal: collections page view

53. Page overhaul

54. Page overhaul

55. Thank You!
Q&A