CRO stands for Conversion Rate Optimization and consists of conducting experiments to increase the proportion of people who turn into customers when entering digital marketing campaigns.
Conversion, in this case, means converting a person into a customer, and the higher the conversion rate, the greater the number of people who access the site and effectively acquire something (paying or providing their data, when the product itself is free). The CRO basically consists of increasing this rate as much as possible to make e-commerce more efficient and profitable, mainly through a better shopping experience offered to consumers.
In a digital environment, which is usually marked by various distractions, such as ads, links to other pages, etc., the CRO analyzes and points out what needs to be done to attract the attention of visitors and lead them to the desired objective: conversion in a sale, subscription to a newsletter, among others.
With the help of Math Mkt, a company that connects the marketing and sales cycle and improves the relationship between brands and their audience with the intelligent use of data, we created a list with 7 main tips for a good CRO strategy, using two cases to demonstrate the first two topics.
Pay
attention to page load time
One of the main causes of bounce rate on a website or app, according to Math Mkt, is page load time. If a customer accesses a website and it takes a long time to load or does so partially, this can lead him to give up on the purchase, that is, it generates a loss of conversion.
As part of the analysis we do in every project, we detected a specific JavaScript that created a typing effect (visual effects), which aesthetically made the page more beautiful, but increased loading time, especially for 3G mobile users”, says Carlos. Cardoso, Delivery Executive Director of Math Mkt.
This study revealed that, with the typing effect, the page load could reach 30 seconds, when it is recommended to be less than 2 seconds. “This led our CRO team to raise the following hypothesis: could removing the effect improve load times and conversion?”, says Cardoso.
To determine whether this hypothesis would have a positive effect, an A/B test was created in which the result was a 1.53% increase in conversion rate and a 5% reduction in loading time.
Minimize
cart abandonment
For 93% of consumers, experience is a very important factor in the purchase decision, according to the Survey of Consumer Experience 2021, carried out by Opinion Box.
And it is through consumer behavioral analysis, and especially the stages of the conversion funnel in which they leave their purchase journey, that it is possible to determine some hypotheses that will result in a better experience.
A Math Mkt client who had a financial product focused on individuals reached a volume of 2 thousand conversions in a single day. However, it was necessary to find out why a relevant part of consumers abandoned their carts and did not complete the purchase.
After all, how much money is lost with each cart abandonment? The CRO team, in this case, needs to detect improvements that could boost conversions and, therefore, changes were made to the purchase application.
“We had a 260% growth in the volume of conversions in a single day, setting a record for the product. In absolute numbers, we went from 500 conversions to 1800”, says Cardoso.
Define
your business goals
Before dedicating efforts to CRO, you need to define the business objectives that your experiments need to respond to.
Where will our eyes be turned? Having this answer is part of the initial planning and guides the next steps in the process.
Starting by looking inside the house, examining the data, debating ideas and setting goals is a good initial path, from where the first hypotheses to be tested will emerge.
Adopt
a customer-centric strategy
Optimizing the conversion rate is directly related to convincing more people.
How to convince more people to click that button or fill this field in the form?
Getting to know these people better is crucial to having quality responses. A good way to achieve this is to talk to your audience to hear from them what their preferences are, instead of trying to imagine what they would like. For this, use a lot of surveys and 1-to-1 conversations with your customers.
Ensure
data accuracy
Have you ever thought about diagnosing a data collection problem when your experiment was already completed, and you notice that you set a goal that was wrongly configured?
Having a well-done analytics tool setup is a prerequisite in CRO projects to ensure that button clicks, form submissions, page visits and any other user behavior are being tracked correctly.
Document
the learnings
In addition to allowing other people on the team to have access to the history of tests already performed, using insights from past experiments to develop new, increasingly intelligent hypotheses is the path to success.
Create a simple spreadsheet, with the description of the experiment, the results obtained and your lessons learned during the period. You can also replicate these learnings across other business channels and strategies.
CRO
is an ongoing process
CRO is a process and it must be continuous, always focusing on observation, analysis, and improvement, after all, there is nothing so good that it cannot be improved.
It is common for the initial CRO gains to be exponential, but over time it becomes increasingly difficult to find good opportunities or even validate new hypotheses, after all the major bottlenecks must have already been resolved in the first validations.