A conversion occurs when a lead transitions from being a visitor to becoming a subscriber or user, or when a free user becomes a paid user, or when a paying customer upgrades their status, and so on. Thus, every time a lead’s status increases, it results in a conversion for you.
To calculate the conversion rate, you need to know the specific number of visitors to a website and the number of those visitors who have converted, such as by subscribing or making a purchase. This statistic is often automatically calculated using an analytics tool.
For a business, there is no perfect conversion rate. Aim for the highest as the sky is the limit. Ultimately, the conversion rate depends on factors such as the type of business, industry, and the specific conversion being tracked (such as signup, purchase, upgrade, etc.).
Given the aforementioned, we can establish specific criteria based on existing research.
Based on IMR research, a conversion rate of 3% is considered favorable for a new B2B website. In the case of software and SaaS, the average conversion rate is approximately 7% (it should be noted that this research was conducted in 2012).
The average conversion rate for landing pages in all industries is 2.35%. However, there is a group of 10% of companies that achieve a conversion rate of 11.45% and above throughout their entire account, not limited to just landing pages.
However, a more recent study conducted by Unbounce, which involved 74,551,421 visitors across 10 industries, revealed that the median landing page conversion rate is 4.02%. It is important to note that the conversion rate varies not only between businesses and niches, but also at different stages of the sales funnel.
An Introduction to A/B Testing
A/B testing, which is also known as split testing, is considered to be one of the fundamental components of CRO.
A/B testing compares two versions of the same webpage to determine the one that yields better results. It involves displaying two different versions of a page to two similar groups of visitors simultaneously. Ultimately, the version that performs better and generates a higher number of conversions is deemed the winner.
In order to conduct an A/B test, it is important to determine if your website receives sufficient traffic to yield statistically meaningful outcomes. If the sample size is inadequate, the results obtained will not provide an accurate representation of how a larger population uses your site, rendering them inconclusive.
To calculate the required sample size for an A/B test, input the current conversion rate of the web page you wish to test into this calculator. If the web page receives less traffic than the necessary sample size for the test, prioritize increasing website traffic before optimizing for conversions.
Finding the present conversion rate for a solitary page by considering each step in a sequential manner.
In order to determine your present conversion rate, it is necessary to ensure that you have properly installed Google Analytics for your online store. Google Analytics enables you to calculate the conversion rate of particular sections of your website, including the web pages that you intend to evaluate.
To find the current conversion rate for specific pages of your website, the fastest method is to utilize the Landing Pages report in Google Analytics.
To access Landing Pages, start by navigating to the ‘Behavior’ section and selecting ‘Site Content’. From the dropdown menu, choose Landing Pages. Ensure that the timeframe you are examining aligns with the duration of your test. For this particular step, simply analyze data from the past 30 days.
From the list of landing pages, choose the web page you wish to test. For example, if you want to test your home page, click on www.youronlinestorename.com.
To determine the conversion rate for a particular goal on this page, follow these steps: 1. Go to your report and click on ‘Add Secondary Dimension’. 2. Type ‘Second Page’ in the search bar. 3. The ‘Second Page’ dimension will provide information on the subsequent pages visitors navigated to, as well as the percentage of visitors from the first page who visited those pages.
To determine your current conversion rate for this action, select your homepage as the initial page and locate your products page under the ‘Second Page’ category in the report. The conversion rate for the action can be identified by the small grey percentage listed in the ‘Sessions’ section.
How to create Conversion Rate Optimization experiments
If you have sufficient website traffic to conduct an effective A/B test, you can commence experimenting on your online store.
In order to conduct an A/B test, you will require the use of a tool such as Optimizely, Convert, Adobe Target, or Google Content Experiments. Additionally, you will need to establish goals for your online store utilizing Google Analytics. It is important to create distinct goals for each action you intend to test on your website.
Goals in Google Analytics allow you to measure how effectively your website leads visitors to accomplish a particular task or objective. Goals can encompass various actions, such as purchasing a product, subscribing to a newsletter, or simply navigating through the site. By configuring goals for your testing, you can monitor and analyze the data pertaining to the choices customers make as they progress through your website.
In Google Analytics, there are five types of goals: destination, duration, pages per session, event, and smart goals. When it comes to CRO, the focus should be on destination goals and event goals.
Destination Goals
Destination goals are used to track the specific loading of a web page and count pageviews as conversions. For tracking purposes such as purchases or navigation, destination goals can be utilized.
To track a purchase, just designate the ‘Thank You’ or order confirmation page as the destination. This will enable tracking of a conversion each time a customer finishes an order and gets redirected to the ‘Thank You’ page.
In order to keep track of navigation goals, such as someone going from your homepage to a collection, designate your collection page as the destination.
Event Goals
You can use event goals to monitor actions on your website that don’t necessarily result in a landing page. For example, if you wish to monitor newsletter subscriptions or items being added to a cart, you can designate the action of a customer clicking a specific button on your website as an event.
Conversion rate optimization steps
The process of conversion rate optimization is time-consuming and will involve all departments, just like the saying “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
Step 1. Research and analyze
Place yourself in the customer’s perspective and reword the following text without altering the meaning, omitting or adding any information, while thinking logically step by step.
To ensure that you don’t overlook the fact, it’s important to remember that you may not have more knowledge about your website and product than the customer. Thus, it becomes crucial to adopt the customer’s perspective by attempting to purchase the product or service, capturing screenshots or recording the entire process, and utilizing it as a genuine customer would.
Create objectives and set up conversion paths within Google Analytics.
By setting these up correctly, you will be able to identify areas where you are losing traffic and discover your most significant opportunities. This article can be useful in achieving that.
Utilize additional tools for a comprehensive analysis of your website.
You can utilize tools like Crazy Egg to analyze the heatmap of your website and identify the areas that receive the most clicks. Another option is ClickTale, which offers multiple tools in one platform to observe the scrolling behavior of your visitors, review recorded user sessions, and identify the factors that lead to visitor abandonment of the page.
Perform usability tests
UserTesting.com provides affordable and quick usability testing, yielding comprehensive insights into the usability of your website.
Conduct a survey with customers, systematically considering each step.
Customers can be surveyed using various methods, such as email, phone calls, or directly on the website. It should be noted that the survey should not provide predetermined answer choices; instead, customers must be allowed to express their opinions in their own words.
At the end, the survey results should either confirm the usability issues or objections (such as being unable to purchase or refusing to purchase) that you have already gathered in the earlier stages of this step, or they may reveal new issues that you may have overlooked.
Engage in conversation with your salesperson.
In order to identify the concerns and inquiries expressed by visitors, make sure to inquire your salesperson and obtain responses to these queries. It is important to document each step for analysis purposes. The more comprehensive the data collection is during this phase, the smoother the subsequent CRO steps will be to tackle.
Step 2. Find solutions
The task at hand is to create a spreadsheet that includes all the issues and objections that have been collected.
In a step-by-step thought process, rephrase the given text without altering the meaning, removing information, or adding new information: Gather all the objections and usability issues from stage 1 and place them into separate tabs within a single spreadsheet. Emphasize the ones that you consider to have the most impact on your conversion rate.
Engage in a thorough thought process, rephrase the following passage while preserving the original meaning. Avoid introducing additional details or eliminating any information: Collaborate with all the divisions within your organization to generate ideas for solving the problem at hand.
Identify methods for addressing usability problems and objections that are negatively impacting your conversion rate. Record these solutions in the adjacent column.
In terms of finding solutions, consider thinking creatively and considering unconventional approaches.
If visitors are abandoning trial sign-ups when they reach the “add a credit card” step, consider removing this step completely for free trials in order to enhance conversions.
To enhance conversions for returning visitors, a possible approach is to prompt them with a sign-up form containing the information they previously filled out but did not submit. The mentioned examples are merely a few possibilities, and alternative strategies can be explored.
The solutions should be prioritized by thinking step by step.
When considering solutions, evaluate which ones will yield the most significant outcomes. Seek input from the developers regarding the ease and speed of implementing your proposed solutions. Place priority on solutions that are at the top of both your and the developers’ lists.
Step 3. Develop and test variations
Devise different versions for testing purposes, while maintaining the same meaning, without adding or removing any information.
When conducting tests, it is important not to try out multiple things simultaneously. This is essential in order to accurately monitor and identify the factors that impact the increase or decrease in conversions. It should also be noted that all elements tested and their respective outcomes must be recorded in a spreadsheet.
Examine the different types
Utilize the analytics tools from the first step in order to perform A/B testing on your variations.
Step 4. Review the results
Please document the results by capturing screenshots and recording each step in a sequential manner without omitting or adding any information.
This is the primary step that, as you continue to repeat this process, will assist you in building a collection of things that are effective and ineffective for you.
Examine the outcomes systematically, without introducing any new information or discarding existing information.
Make sure to observe and record all significant victories and defeats. If you are uncertain about the factors contributing to a rise in conversions on a specific webpage, refer to the heatmaps and other data. It would also be wise to consult the lists of objections and issues during this process.
Optimize winning strategies by maximizing their potential.
If adding an element to a page increases conversions, experiment by adding 5 more elements. Push each successful strategy to its limit to maximize improvements.
When considering how to optimize other parts of the funnel, it is important to think step by step and rephrase the text below without adding or removing any information.
To maintain the same meaning, rephrase the text below while thinking step by step: Apply the strategy that improved conversions in other parts of the funnel by incorporating a trust element, emphasizing a benefit, and introducing a guarantee.
Step 5: Carry out the process again in order to complete a repetition.
Yes, CRO is a continuous process, as initial testing will provide insights that generate additional ideas for conversion rate optimization.
