Conversion rate optimisation strategy, (CRO) is the process of increasing the number of web visitors to complete a conversion goal on your website, or in short, increasing conversions. This could be transactional, making a purchase, or it could be more lead generational, filling out a form, signing up to a mailing list, making a phone call and so on. Its an part of any digital marketing strategy and getting it nailed can skyrocket your revenue.
We've put together this handy 101 blog post on how to nail conversion rate optimisation. if you would like to know a bit more about what CRO is, then read our beginners guide to conversion rate optimisation
A Conversion is merely completing a site goal, that you have defined. We like to split them into something called micro-conversions and micro-conversions. macro and micro conversions are actions that you can record on your website, that helps you to see what intentions a user has.
A macro conversion is your primary goal. If you are an e-commerce retailer, your primary or macro conversion is a purchase. And for some items, there's a short path to purchase. Smaller, cheaper, everyday objects, for example, take far less decision to purchase than things like holidays or cars, which often take multiple forms of research and thought before making a decision.
Long purchase journeys are where micro-conversions can come in useful to your marketing funnel. You can measure things such as signing up to an email, or even the time spent looking at your content.
Here are some specific examples of conversions you may want to include in your conversion rate optimisation strategy
We measure both micro and macro conversions with analytical software, such as Google Analytics. The conversion rate would be the number of visitors to your site, divided by the number of times a goal completes. So if you have 100 site visitors and two of them buy your product, that would be a 2% conversion rate. CRO is the process of improving that 2%.
SEO primarily focusses on website traffic, getting visitors to your site, where they come from, such as organic search, social media, or email. Technical SEO also looks at web design and ensures a website optimised for speed and user-friendliness. A good conversion rate optimisation Strategy concentrates entirely on what happens now, in real time after that visitor lands and pokes around for a while.
Remember, it is entirely possible for every visitor to convert, though this is highly implausible, the aim with CRO is to make this as appealing and straightforward as we possibly can.
CRO is not SEO, but it can significantly benefit your overall SEO. Optimising a site for convertibility can attract more traffic on a search engine results page (SERP) Here's how that works.
let's cover those in more detail.
Ultimately you want your customers to spend money, and this is unlikely to happen if they don't trust you. Your site needs to be like your sales team. And we don't mean dodgy car sales guy. Providing quality content and sharing expertise shows you as credible & its also useful for SEO, which ranks quality content higher and helps users take a desired action.
Some simple ways you can accomplish this, are to integrate reviews or live chat into your website. Today's web savvy shoppers are looking for social proof, so plenty of genuine reviews can go a long way towards establishing trust.
Making a site easy for your users can make them feel good about themselves. Let that sink in for a minute. If your user feels like they can boss their way through your website, and make an order without any fuss, not only are they likely to use you again, they will recommend you to other people too.
One place this falls short on many websites is the checkout process. A complicated checkout process can be the difference between your user making a purchase, or abandoning your site altogether.
A 2% conversion rate on your site will always yield the same results, regardless of how much you spend. Increasing this will allow your business to scale much faster. If you currently spend £10 to make £15, an improved conversion rate could have you spending £10 to make £50. what impact could this have on your business growth?
A great conversion rate optimisation strategy can not only increase the likelihood of conversion but improve the amount of conversion, by getting the right people to your business to buy your product or service. If your average customer value is £100, getting more of the same won't help your business, if your primary offering is £500.
CRO looks at optimising content for those visitors who are having more of an impact on your overall business.
If your ad budget is £10,000 a month and you make £150K from it, you may think that's reasonably successful. I'm being pretty broad here and not taking into account profit margins, but if that £10000 a month could make you £600,000 a month, then you're doing something wrong
Without the data, you know nothing! You will just be making guesses on your knowledge. But nobody knows your customer better than you, right? Wrong. When it comes to the online world, No one knows your customer better than Analytical data. That said, it needs a human mind to work with to get the best results.
Google Analytics Data will give you hard facts on how people are behaving on your site. Platforms like Google Analytics provide a wealth of insights, that can be properly interpreted by someone who knows their CRO From their Elbow.
Many sites have poorly setup or nonexistent conversion tracking. What's the point in knowing 1000 people a day visit your site if you have no idea which of those visitors converted? And why does it make a difference? What kind of information do you get from analytics data?
With Google Analytics, we can easily see the following information. How did potential customers get to your site: Was it Facebook, or another social network? Was it an ad or did they type something into a search engine? What did they type? - There are some amazing insights here.
What devices and browsers do your users have? Do the majority come from mobile? Even if a conversion happens on a desktop, the data shows that initial mobile visits have fueled much of that conversion.
Which page do users land on first? Knowing where your users land can help you determine which of your site or product pages are attracting people. Pay attention to what they engage with on the landing page. Do they follow the desired call to action?
A person's browsing behaviour indicates demographical information such as age, gender, interests or salary. Specific data such as this is more accurate if the user signs into the browser.
Where did your users exit your site? If you have a conversion funnel in place, at which point did they drop off if they didn't convert?
All of the above methods are concerned with data. There is also a qualitative method which is more about the people but is more subjective — qualitative data is via surveys, focus groups, user testing, and so on.
Asking users questions such as why did they visit your site, how easy was the site to use, did they complete a purchase, what appealed to them, what their pain points were, how would they describe you to a friend and other such open-ended questions can give you some high-quality data that can inform how you structure your site.
You can't get any of this information from analytics, so a mix of the two together is a powerful tool that can help you target the right audience & improve your conversion rates.
Just by improving the structure of a Google Ad Campaign, We improved Our FR Jones & Sons user conversion rates by over 400% bringing in a whopping 170x return on ad spend, bringing down cost per click and increasing ad revenue over 400%.
We are a conversion rate optimisation and PPC agency in Manchester. specialising in PPC, SEO, CRO & Creating websites just for that purpose. We are Google Partners. If you are looking to make a concrete conversion rate optimisation strategy part of your marketing plan, Get in touch today on 0161 826 1222.
