Seven golden rules for conversion optimiZation MaY / 2011
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1. introduction After generating traffic via search engine optimization (SEO), search engine advertising (SEA), affiliate marketing and display advertising, conversion optimization is the next big option for sustainably increasing business success on the World Wide Web. All of these areas are very closely interrelated and mutually affect one another. The cost of attracting high-value visitors to a website is continuously increasing as ever more companies compete for online customers. Therefore, the next logical step towards increasing efficiency is to better exploit existing visitor streams and achieve greater success, such as sales, with the same amount of visitors. This is precisely where conversion optimization comes in. However, conversion optimization must also be applied correctly to achieve lasting success. Jörg Dennis Krüger, Senior Manager Conversion Optimization at QUISMA, has compiled seven simple tips for significantly boosting a website’s success.
2. You’ve got to test to be the best It’s highly ineffective to discuss changes to a website. Many hours are spent chewing over ideas, before a design which may simply reflect a compromise of all opinions is picked. But whose opinions go into this decision-making process? Rarely those of the true target group – the actual visitors. Designs selected in this way rarely end up being very successful. It’s much more effective to find the best layout through testing. This ensures that the most promising version can be used, and also saves a lot of time in advance. However, not all testing is the same. It’s important that existing tools (such as Web analysis applications) aren’t just used to generate random comparisons of the various versions. This can often lead to different versions being tested over different time frames with fluctuations caused by e.g. advertising, the weather, the day of the week or other external factors having a big influence on the outcome. Therefore, we would strongly advise against comparing historical data in before-and-after tests.
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Truly meaningful conclusions can be drawn in this context using split traffic tests. These involve randomly displaying alternative contents to visitors to the website over a particular period and measuring how often visitors reach the desired conversion goal (purchase, registration, etc.) for each version. This approach minimises fluctuations caused by external influences and allows the findings for the various versions to be compared. Tools for these tests are available from e.g. Google (Google website optimization tool, free), Test&Target (www.omniture.com/en/products/conversion/ test-andtarget), Vertster (www.vertster.eu) and Optimizely (www.optimizely. com). However, it’s also important to have sufficient website traffic for this testing. At least ten conversions should be achieved per day per version in order to obtain meaningful results over a manageable period.
In a split traffic test, all test versions are tested at the same time in order to allow for direct comparisons of each.
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3. Only clear changes bring clear results Whether a landing page is light or dark blue is rarely important in terms of the conversion rate. Versions with explicit differences must be tested in order to obtain meaningful findings about visitor behaviour. These differences should easily be creative, particularly in the initial stages of optimization. Instead of simple colour changes, the message, imagery and other elements should be tested. This approach should not be seen as a way to find out whether e.g. apples or oranges are best, but rather apples or fire extinguishers! There are many starting points for this, as all elements of a website are suitable for testing. Of course, completely different designs can be tested rather than simply replacing individual elements. Significant results can only be obtained over a manageable period if the versions to be tested differ significantly. It’s true that some small differences (e.g. caption formulations) on their own may greatly affect visitor behaviour, but these particularly strong elements must first be identified. The imagery, information, lists, captions and buttons are very strong elements. The general design, e.g. whether and where a menu is integrated, can also make a big difference. A marketing meeting often presents an ideal opportunity for testing. Do all participants have completely different ideas again for the new landing page or new advertising medium on the home page? Why not create all versions and test how well the ideas perform? It will be a big ‘Aha!’ moment for everyone!
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Quick test results can only be achieved when versions are actually perceived as being different. Therefore, very different versions should be tested in particular at the start of the optimization. However, ensuring that versions are really noticeably different from each other must be borne in mind at all times, including at later stages.
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4. Optimise where the biggest effect will be felt There are many starting points for an optimization. But optimization may not initially make sense in all areas. It’s worth starting where the absolutely (and not just relatively) highest increase can be achieved! A 100% increase might well be possible on the last page of the ordering process. However, the absolute increase in sales will be minor as only a few visitors ever see this page. It’s much more effective to start with pages with lots of visitors – and a high bounce rate. Landing pages are typical examples of these. If these already have a high bounce rate, then the conversion rate is low – regardless of how well designed further steps in the process might be. Therefore, the first task of an optimization project is to analyse the visitor data looking for well visited pages with unusually high bounce rates. These pages probably have sufficient traffic and real potential for optimization and can quickly produce meaningful results.
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It’s worth using pages with as much traffic as possible as the starting point for the optimization. You can then gradually delve ever deeper into the process after this.
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5. The world is more complex than A and B Simple split testing with a few alternatives is a good starting point. However, you will quickly reach the stage where more complex test scenarios are needed to obtain more meaningful results and steer the optimization in the right direction. Multivariate tests are useful for refining split tests. During split testing, only individual versions are tested against each other, but not the effect of different elements on each other. In multivariate testing, all possible combinations of alternative elements are automatically tested. It isn’t unusual for this to result in over 100 possible versions, which means that quite high visitor numbers are needed for successful testing. However, the results are very worthwhile as they not only indicate which combinations are the most promising but also how important the individual elements are. Methods which allow just a representative selection of elements to be tested but still arrive at comparable results should be used to shorten the test process. The so-called Taguchi method is frequently used for this. The optimal approach is to initially use split tests on particularly different versions to find a basic design that works well. This basic design can then be divided into its constituent parts and further alternatives tested for each element (caption, list, call to action, etc.). A page can be considerably optimised using just these two steps.
A multivariate test not only compares different versions with one another, but also allows conclusions to be drawn on the dependencies of individual elements. 6
6. Checklists add nothing Your website has a very particular visitor group unique to your website. No-one can tell you what your specific visitors want and don’t want. This applies to all aspects of your website – the design, content, function and more. Therefore, you have to be very careful when applying general recommendations or tips. Comprehensive checklists with all kinds of advice supposed to have a positive effect on the conversion rate are not hard to find. However, such checklists and recommendations could quickly prove negative for your website – or simply not have any effect on visitors in spite of a lot of work being invested in implementing the various points. All changes to a website must be tested. This is the only way to avoid expending unnecessary time and expense – whether on implementing things that are not needed or n damage limitation.
7. Conversion is not the be all and end all Many legends surround the conversion rate (CR). There are online shops that brag about a 10% level and some lead generation campaigns are supposed to obtain addresses from an astonishing 40% of visitors. However, just looking at the number of conversions doesn’t tell us very much. Ultimately there isn’t one fixed definition of what constitutes a ‘conversion’. Is it a successful sale or simply a request for contact? Is it valid data or simply information about how often a form was sent? And how much can the conversion rate really tell us? It’s important to clearly define individual conversion goals (shopping basket, order process, purchase, contacts, downloads, etc.) and to keep in mind which of these defined goals you are hoping to influence with each optimization. It’s best to measure several conversion goals in order to recognise secondary effects as well. However, in addition to pure quantity (i.e. the number of conversions achieved), conversions have another dimension – quality. Each conversion must
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also be qualitatively assessed in order to increase the success of conversion optimization. The shopping basket total, or perhaps even the number of purchased items, is a particularly suitable means in an online shop. Completeness is relevant when looking at registrations or requests for contact. For instance, greater importance may be attached to records with postal addresses than to those without. By taking this approach, you avoid optimization becoming your undoing; after all, what good is it to a shop if there are 1,000 more buyers but with each only spending 15 euros (e.g. because of a special offer being advertised)? Or when leads that only consist of names from ‘freemail’ addresses are generated?
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It shouldn’t be forgotten either that some campaigns are not implemented with conversions in mind, but rather the long-term effect and brand building. Assessing such campaigns on the basis of conversions only may lead to shortterm success but prove a competitive disadvantage in the long term.
Narrowly focusing on conversions is not always the best approach. When considering several KPIs, a version with fewer conversions but more sales, for example, may be the right choice.
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8. Cheat chance The test has hardly begun and the conversion rate has already reached unimaginable heights. So why not quickly turn off the old version and just use the new one right away so that you can make a lot of money with the new version? Don’t do it! Statistics, and they are all that testing can produce, are very prone to errors. But errors in test analysis can be expensive as they negate the entire optimization and ensure that the conversion rate not only fails to rise but may even sink drastically! A too small data pool is the most common error. A test should run for at least an entire week and two weekends. In addition to this, there should be at least 50 conversions per version over this period. This will ensure that (frequent) differences in visitor behaviour at weekends and on weekdays are evened out and do not excessively influence the result. Depending on the target group, the numbers may fluctuate heavily on individual days (e.g. visitor behaviour from Monday to Wednesday may differ greatly from that on Thursday and Friday), making a longer test period necessary. Besides these rules of thumb, most testing tools provide a confidence assessment. This indicates the statistical significance of the result. The result can only be used when a high statistical significance is achieved (>90%), although the rules of thumb regarding the duration should still not be overlooked.
Three completely identical versions are tested against each other in this test. However, the measured data for the individual versions differs completely in the first few days. Over time, the data begins to converge and, as would be expected, ends up being practically the same.
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Bonus tip: Kaizen! Conversion rate optimization is not a self-contained process, but an option for continuous improvement, just as is taught in Japanese Kaizen philosophy. There are many reasons for this. Internet technologies and usage concepts are constantly in flux, as are visitor requirements and the precise target group for your products or services. New functions, payment methods, shipping options, products and the like are introduced in very short cycles, leading to both the potential and need for adjustment and optimization. Continuous consideration of these changes can be achieved through constant optimization and may consolidate or even further increase your conversion rate. Ultimately, conversion optimization contributes to the continuous improvement of your competitive position. Introducing and truly living a ‘test culture’ will help enable you to quickly and effectively test the practical effects of both long-term strategic ideas and spontaneous ones.
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A continuous optimization process is the basis for lasting success. This not only results in the constant improvement of the conversion rate but also, practically automatically, ensures that changing user preferences are responded to.
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