Conversion Optimization Is Valuable
The advertising industry is everywhere – it’s on your television, it’s on the internet, it’s in the mailbox, and it’s on your phone. Each message must compete for consumer attention. It must do so in an environment where many consumers have learned to block messages out. Supply and choice is bountiful, but demand remains limited by the size of the population, and by the average pay packet.
The consumer has a lot of choice.
In such an environment, we must make every visitor count. If we convert more visitors to paying customers, or encourage more to engage with us, we stand to be more successful than our competitors.
What Conversion Optimization Is Not
Conversion optimization is not just about e-commerce sites. It’s about all sites. When someone does something you want them to do, that’s a conversion.
Conversion optimization isn’t just about changing a landing page. It’s about looking at your entire approach, every step of the way. It’s about refining your offer to ensure it matches what people want.
Offer & Acceptance
We can make as many offers as we like, but we succeed when someone accepts our offer. Search engine optimization is mostly about the pre-offer and offer stages. We try and position a site against keyword search terms and achieve a high rank.
If we do our job well, visitors will click on our link and arrive on our page. For many search engine optimizers, this is where their job ends.
Unfortunately, if that is all we do, we are unlikely to create as much value as is possible. A significant part of the value chain depends on what the visitor does next. The visitor could click-back within a few seconds. They may not feel the page is relevant to them. They simply might not like the look of it. They may have been distracted or got confused.
Conversion optimization is a process that aims to prevent these events from occurring quite so often.
On Average, 97% Of People Will Leave Your Site Without Converting
Search engine optimization brings in many potential buyers, but few actual buyers. Your mileage may vary, but a rule of thumb is that conversion rates across the internet are around 2-3%, meaning only two or three visitors per hundred will take our desired action.
Where do we lose the 97%?
Think of the web sales process as a funnel, with the widest end being the search engine results pages, and the narrow end being your shopping cart sales success page.
As the visitors move down through the funnel, they are getting closer to taking a desired action, but they are dwindling in number. They dwindle to the point where we’ve lost 97-98%, on average, by the time the 3% reach the narrow end – the checkout, or the desired action.
Why do we lose so many?
We lose people because we’re not meeting the customers needs. Conversion rate optimization helps determine what those needs are so that we can shape our offers and content to our potential customers.
In so doing, we increase the percentage of visitors who convert to customers, and thus make more money with the same amount of traffic.
Desired Action
Desired action is an activity we want the visitor to take.
For example, if we run an ecommerce site, we want the visitor to buy a product. If we run a news site, we might want the visitor to click on an advertisement. If we run a non-profit site, we might want someone to sign up for a newsletter. Most sites have multiple desired actions. When we undertake conversion rate optimization, we try to figure out exactly what the visitor wants, and ensure they get it.
We want to ensure their desired action aligns with ours.
The Increasing Cost Of Traffic
Optimizing our conversion rates can take the pressure off traffic acquisition spends.
Search traffic is becoming harder to get, due to more competition and less predictable search algorithms. It’s becoming more expensive to get people to the start of the funnel, so it makes sense to try and widen the funnel so we convert more people once they arrive.
Conversion Optimization is not as easy as simply tweaking a landing page. Like SEO, conversion optimization is an ongoing, iterative process that involves trying things out, measuring, and adjusting in order to produce a desired result.
The difficulty comes in knowing what the customer really wants. An offline salesperson can tell a lot about a person just by looking at them. They can refine and reshape the offer constantly by asking questions and countering objections.
This is harder to do online, but using conversion optimization, we can emulate this process.
Measure, Analyze, Change
Consider your existing conversion rate. Figure out what you want visitors to do, and examine how many visitors are currently doing it. This is called the baseline.
Once you establish a baseline, conduct an analysis. Look at your stats as visitors move through your site to see where you are losing them. Look at areas they are most interested in, and least interested in. Aim to get a snapshot of the current activity on a site.
Armed with this data, we move to the optimization phase. We change a little at a time. We might change the offer, the copy, the graphics, and the site structure. In practice, we’ll likely change all four aspects. We experiment.
Some changes will work. Some won’t. Some will be negative and send us backwards! The important thing to understand is that it is a process, and that process is iterative. Always be testing, as even subtle changes can produce significant results.
Google experimented with 41 shades of blue before they found the color that users responded to best.
Conversion Is A Process
One myth concerning conversion optimization is that all you have to do is test one page against another and repeat until you find the winning page design. Perfect! Now, watch the money roll in!
In reality, this seldom works. It doesn’t work because there are many factors that go into a conversion.
The conversion process is a series of steps. If any one of those steps falters, then we can lose customers, regardless of how well the design of a given page has been tested. In order to find out the problems and opportunities inherent in each step, we must use a systematic, repeatable process.
Conversion doesn’t just happen at the end. People don’t just click “buy now” and hand over their credit card details. As we’re seen, only 3% of our visitors, on average, will get that far. What about the other 97%? We’re losing the other 97% at various steps in the process. Each step is an opportunity to optimize conversion.
Goals & Steps
It’s useful to map out every possible goal and step if only to test whether you should eliminate some!
For example, a sales cart process could look like this:
Visitor clicks on order button
Visitor is asked to create an account
Visitor is asked for name
Visitor is asked for email address
Visitor is asked for physical address
Visitor is asked for phone number
Visitor is asked for mobile number
Visitor is asked if they want to go on mailing list
I’m sure you’ve spotted one problem straight away. Why does the buyer have to create an account before they can make an order? Our hunch might be that buyers don’t like creating an account at this point.
In order to prove our hunch, we should watch abandonment rates at this point in the process. If we see high abandonment rates, we might create an option that allows the user to place an order without setting up an account. We then see if this change results in higher conversions.
The buyer might like a painless ordering system that lets them buy, then asks them where they want the item delivered. It’s a subtle distinction. We glean the same information, and can use this information to set-up an account, but we haven’t inhibited the purchase.
We should then think about what fields are really necessary. We may require all those fields, but we should also ask ourselves if they are strictly necessary. If so, are they strictly necessary at this exact point, or can they be derived later?
The Value Of Different Options
Each option a user takes will have a different business value.
If our aim is to collect email addresses in order to build a mailing list, then we might give the email field a high value relative to other options, such as a search field. We might repeat the request for the email address on various pages, or feature the form prominently, whilst making other options less frequent or prominent.
Some optimizers feel that we should only give the visitor one goal. For example, the goal of landing page X is to result in a sale. Whilst this makes it clear for the business, it may not work well for the visitor. If the visitor wants to research information before making a decision, we lose them if we don’t provide the visitor a path to find this information.
It’s similar to the way businesses use KPIs to help track their performance. KPI stands for Key Performance Indicator. KPIs help you define and measure your progress towards your goals.
You may have a goal to “make more money”. Let’s refine that a little and make it more explicit. “The goal is to boost revenue by $500K this year”. We then work backwards from this goal and work out the steps needed to achieve it. Each step must be measurable and quantifiable.
Each option leading to a goal can be stated in micro terms i.e. “we want 10% of people to click on the shopping cart button”, as we’ve determined that the more people who click on the shopping cart, the more likely they are to progress to the next step, which is to fill out their credit card details.
Goals will, naturally, differ depending on the type of site. In e-commerce,indicators of success or failure may include the number of conversions, order values, and checkout process abandonment rate. They could also include the number of purchases people complete off-line i.e come into your store as a result of researching on your website.
Subscriptions and advertising-driven sites will have different types of goals and values. They will likely measure the number of visitors, the number of page views, the number of subscribers, the number of subscribers who cancel and the average length of subscription. These values could lead to the same overall goal “to boost revenue by $500K this year”
Once defined, we know what we have to change to achieve our goals. We also have a means to measure the effect of the changes.
The consumer has a lot of choice.
In such an environment, we must make every visitor count. If we convert more visitors to paying customers, or encourage more to engage with us, we stand to be more successful than our competitors.
What Conversion Optimization Is Not
Conversion optimization is not just about e-commerce sites. It’s about all sites. When someone does something you want them to do, that’s a conversion.
Conversion optimization isn’t just about changing a landing page. It’s about looking at your entire approach, every step of the way. It’s about refining your offer to ensure it matches what people want.
Offer & Acceptance
We can make as many offers as we like, but we succeed when someone accepts our offer. Search engine optimization is mostly about the pre-offer and offer stages. We try and position a site against keyword search terms and achieve a high rank.
If we do our job well, visitors will click on our link and arrive on our page. For many search engine optimizers, this is where their job ends.
Unfortunately, if that is all we do, we are unlikely to create as much value as is possible. A significant part of the value chain depends on what the visitor does next. The visitor could click-back within a few seconds. They may not feel the page is relevant to them. They simply might not like the look of it. They may have been distracted or got confused.
Conversion optimization is a process that aims to prevent these events from occurring quite so often.
On Average, 97% Of People Will Leave Your Site Without Converting
Search engine optimization brings in many potential buyers, but few actual buyers. Your mileage may vary, but a rule of thumb is that conversion rates across the internet are around 2-3%, meaning only two or three visitors per hundred will take our desired action.
Where do we lose the 97%?
Think of the web sales process as a funnel, with the widest end being the search engine results pages, and the narrow end being your shopping cart sales success page.
As the visitors move down through the funnel, they are getting closer to taking a desired action, but they are dwindling in number. They dwindle to the point where we’ve lost 97-98%, on average, by the time the 3% reach the narrow end – the checkout, or the desired action.
Why do we lose so many?
We lose people because we’re not meeting the customers needs. Conversion rate optimization helps determine what those needs are so that we can shape our offers and content to our potential customers.
In so doing, we increase the percentage of visitors who convert to customers, and thus make more money with the same amount of traffic.
Desired Action
Desired action is an activity we want the visitor to take.
For example, if we run an ecommerce site, we want the visitor to buy a product. If we run a news site, we might want the visitor to click on an advertisement. If we run a non-profit site, we might want someone to sign up for a newsletter. Most sites have multiple desired actions. When we undertake conversion rate optimization, we try to figure out exactly what the visitor wants, and ensure they get it.
We want to ensure their desired action aligns with ours.
The Increasing Cost Of Traffic
Optimizing our conversion rates can take the pressure off traffic acquisition spends.
Search traffic is becoming harder to get, due to more competition and less predictable search algorithms. It’s becoming more expensive to get people to the start of the funnel, so it makes sense to try and widen the funnel so we convert more people once they arrive.
Conversion Optimization is not as easy as simply tweaking a landing page. Like SEO, conversion optimization is an ongoing, iterative process that involves trying things out, measuring, and adjusting in order to produce a desired result.
The difficulty comes in knowing what the customer really wants. An offline salesperson can tell a lot about a person just by looking at them. They can refine and reshape the offer constantly by asking questions and countering objections.
This is harder to do online, but using conversion optimization, we can emulate this process.
Measure, Analyze, Change
Consider your existing conversion rate. Figure out what you want visitors to do, and examine how many visitors are currently doing it. This is called the baseline.
Once you establish a baseline, conduct an analysis. Look at your stats as visitors move through your site to see where you are losing them. Look at areas they are most interested in, and least interested in. Aim to get a snapshot of the current activity on a site.
Armed with this data, we move to the optimization phase. We change a little at a time. We might change the offer, the copy, the graphics, and the site structure. In practice, we’ll likely change all four aspects. We experiment.
Some changes will work. Some won’t. Some will be negative and send us backwards! The important thing to understand is that it is a process, and that process is iterative. Always be testing, as even subtle changes can produce significant results.
Google experimented with 41 shades of blue before they found the color that users responded to best.
Conversion Is A Process
One myth concerning conversion optimization is that all you have to do is test one page against another and repeat until you find the winning page design. Perfect! Now, watch the money roll in!
In reality, this seldom works. It doesn’t work because there are many factors that go into a conversion.
The conversion process is a series of steps. If any one of those steps falters, then we can lose customers, regardless of how well the design of a given page has been tested. In order to find out the problems and opportunities inherent in each step, we must use a systematic, repeatable process.
Conversion doesn’t just happen at the end. People don’t just click “buy now” and hand over their credit card details. As we’re seen, only 3% of our visitors, on average, will get that far. What about the other 97%? We’re losing the other 97% at various steps in the process. Each step is an opportunity to optimize conversion.
Goals & Steps
It’s useful to map out every possible goal and step if only to test whether you should eliminate some!
For example, a sales cart process could look like this:
Visitor clicks on order button
Visitor is asked to create an account
Visitor is asked for name
Visitor is asked for email address
Visitor is asked for physical address
Visitor is asked for phone number
Visitor is asked for mobile number
Visitor is asked if they want to go on mailing list
I’m sure you’ve spotted one problem straight away. Why does the buyer have to create an account before they can make an order? Our hunch might be that buyers don’t like creating an account at this point.
In order to prove our hunch, we should watch abandonment rates at this point in the process. If we see high abandonment rates, we might create an option that allows the user to place an order without setting up an account. We then see if this change results in higher conversions.
The buyer might like a painless ordering system that lets them buy, then asks them where they want the item delivered. It’s a subtle distinction. We glean the same information, and can use this information to set-up an account, but we haven’t inhibited the purchase.
We should then think about what fields are really necessary. We may require all those fields, but we should also ask ourselves if they are strictly necessary. If so, are they strictly necessary at this exact point, or can they be derived later?
The Value Of Different Options
Each option a user takes will have a different business value.
If our aim is to collect email addresses in order to build a mailing list, then we might give the email field a high value relative to other options, such as a search field. We might repeat the request for the email address on various pages, or feature the form prominently, whilst making other options less frequent or prominent.
Some optimizers feel that we should only give the visitor one goal. For example, the goal of landing page X is to result in a sale. Whilst this makes it clear for the business, it may not work well for the visitor. If the visitor wants to research information before making a decision, we lose them if we don’t provide the visitor a path to find this information.
It’s similar to the way businesses use KPIs to help track their performance. KPI stands for Key Performance Indicator. KPIs help you define and measure your progress towards your goals.
You may have a goal to “make more money”. Let’s refine that a little and make it more explicit. “The goal is to boost revenue by $500K this year”. We then work backwards from this goal and work out the steps needed to achieve it. Each step must be measurable and quantifiable.
Each option leading to a goal can be stated in micro terms i.e. “we want 10% of people to click on the shopping cart button”, as we’ve determined that the more people who click on the shopping cart, the more likely they are to progress to the next step, which is to fill out their credit card details.
Goals will, naturally, differ depending on the type of site. In e-commerce,indicators of success or failure may include the number of conversions, order values, and checkout process abandonment rate. They could also include the number of purchases people complete off-line i.e come into your store as a result of researching on your website.
Subscriptions and advertising-driven sites will have different types of goals and values. They will likely measure the number of visitors, the number of page views, the number of subscribers, the number of subscribers who cancel and the average length of subscription. These values could lead to the same overall goal “to boost revenue by $500K this year”
Once defined, we know what we have to change to achieve our goals. We also have a means to measure the effect of the changes.
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