Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

It feels like most of my career was optimizing for web traffic, trying to gain as many visitors as possible through ads and search. The goal was to grow sales, and getting more traffic was the way I knew how to do it.

What opened my eyes to conversion rate optimization was doing some simple math. If I wanted to hit a revenue target, I either had to drive a lot more traffic, which was getting expensive, or convert a higher portion of the traffic I already had.

We started tinkering with site experiences, landing pages, cart/checkout design and we were seeing major lifts in revenue. Many years later and I’ve committed the majority of my time to improving conversion rates on websites as it drives the most profitability for the effort.

Why invest in conversion rate optimization?

CRO is profit focused.

Revenue is equal to multiplying visitors, conversion rate and average order value.

Traffic X Conversion Rate X AOV = Revenue

Traffic is becoming more and more expensive. Social and search ad prices are increasing every year. The way to create profitable traffic is through optimized conversion.

Conversion rate is your ultimate multiplier. Double that number and investing in more traffic becomes far more reasonable.

The Power of CRO

What is CRO specifically?

Conversion rate optimization is reducing friction and increasing the likelihood someone is going to convert from your website.

Visitor -> Your Content -> Goal

There’s a lot happening between a visitor coming and them converting to your goal, which could be a sale, signup, subscription, etc.

• What page did they enter? Is it meeting their expectations?

• Is the promotion connecting to the consumer?

• Are there questions and objections being addressed?

• Are customers hitting friction points and abandoning?

The content between an entry and a conversion is where I apply CRO. Optimizing for friction is largely a result of applying LIFT principles.

How I help with CRO

Having spent over a decade heavily invested in website analytics, I can review and make recommendations on the best opportunities to improve your website experience.

What is the CRO Process?

The point of CRO is to be data driven. There is often low hanging fruit that informs best practices, but not every learning applies to every site. I’ve had the opportunity to learn and apply some incredible optimization process based on a basic flow:

• Audit and investigate the existing site and analytics data

• Prioritize opportunities based on areas of highest leverage

• Develop a hypothesis and testing methodology

• Implement an A/B test (simplest testing mechanism)

• Evaluate and implement as demonstrated.

Expert Advice: Design 101: Applying Lift Principles

How to use fundamentals of conversion rate optimization to maximize the effectiveness of your marketing. This works incredibly well for websites, ads, content, videos and more.

Freelance CRO Contracting

My process starts with a conversation and a quick evaluation of your website. Based on your conversion goals, existing technology and available technical resources, a custom plan is created for your business.

• Review of web analytics or implementation if not in place

• User experience (UX) research

• Creation of prioritized work packages for best practice improvements

• A/B testing recommendations for unproven recommendations

• Code/design implementation oversight

• Evaluation of improvements

Conversion rate optimization is an ongoing discipline, but there are often clear improvements that can be made to drive greater success. I can support as an ongoing service or as one of consultation and auditing.

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