All you know about optimizing the CRO conversion rate is wrong

This article will help you see Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is completely different from everything you already know, according to Larry Kim - founder of WordStream posted on page Medium.

Conversion (Conversion Rate, CR - conversion rate) is a very important factor in paid strategy ( paid search strategy - type of SEO based on clicks to charge). After all, if you don't make a high conversion rate (the number of visitors who become a subscriber, register a course .), what exactly are you advertising?

Conversion rate optimization - Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) simply means turning website visitors into potential customers for the company, or more precisely, optimizing every dollar on a click ( PPC ) by looking for "sweet" points that can convince a large number of ( prospective ) potential customers ( prospect ) to act.

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However, what is a good conversion rate? If you have achieved 3%, 5% or even 10% , is it as big as the number you are aiming for?

Recently, we have analyzed thousands of AdWords accounts with a total annual investment of US $ 3 billion and realized that some advertisers have 2 or 3 times higher conversion rates than normal. Do you want to be an "average person" or want your account to operate much more efficiently than other accounts in the same field?

By analyzing a large amount of data on the landing page and conversion rate, we have come to realize a few common points of the target pages that have the top conversion rate. What do they have that you don't have? Believe it or not, there is not much difference between you and them - those who know how to "spell" to create a CR that is 2, 3 times higher - what you are seeing. However, the way you are doing it is exactly the opposite of the typical general understanding of conversion rate optimization.

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In this article, you will be familiar with the process to increase conversion rates, all developed based on Data Insights (implicit implications, data facts) coming from active advertisers. The most effective action on the market, including:

1. Why are traditional insights on conversion rate optimization wrong?
2. What is a good conversion rate?
3. How can you "copy" the success of today's top landing pages?

Are you ready? Ok, let's start to find out why everything you know about the CRO is completely worth throwing away!

Why are traditional insights on conversion rate optimization wrong?

Understand that the professionals you have focused on listening to as if they are swallowing each of their words like a child eager to learn something for the first time will later realize that "the one who blesses good "for them not teachers. Below that luxurious, sleek suit is a fool, who is drenched in sweat and never shaves.The things you have learned about the CRO are not very different: very interesting, useful and brilliant on the surface but not "quality" - lack of basic and value.

Basically, if you sing a song that everyone knows how to sing, you really never create anything more outstanding than the average. When all gurus are lecturing on the same knowledge of optimization, and all your competitors listen to them, how will you stand out from them?

Let's explore the following "amazing" conversion optimization fairy tale.

Once upon a time, a self-taught marketing teacher told you that optimizing your website is important. They tell you an example of a person who has changed the colors of buttons on the page, the distance between characters or images. Unexpectedly, his conversion rate jumped from 2% to 7%.

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Great, isn't it? No, not really. These are just practices A / B Testing (the process of having two versions A and B are compared in a defined environment / situation and thereby evaluating which version is more effective). basic and nothing special. Of course, this optimization can help you get small conversion rate increases, in one number, but it can't help you reach 10% or higher.

I will show you what happens to the results generated by some of these little tricks on your site. This is the A / B Testing process on a landing page - the gray line below is the version of the first page we're running, the blue line is the second version we ran to compare to. it. First, line 1 produces results that are far superior to line 2.

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However, this result does not last long. In fact, the better page (line 1), in the end, maintains stability. Continuing, we performed 20 to 30 tests at the same time and correctly obtained this model. You can see at first, the results were impressive but only in a short time went down and eventually lost position.

Surely this is not always true. However, we realized that in most cases, small changes such as line spacing or font color . only help to produce small results. If you want to achieve a large and sustainable conversion rate, you need to move slowly over the peaks that last only a few days or a few weeks.

Why does this happen? It is usually because the total number of conversions you are comparing is often low at an early stage. If you're looking for 50, 100 or 200 conversions over the entire test, small changes seem to have a stronger impact. Some conversions are equivalent to an increase of about 4% even if only a total of 50 conversions, because the original sample size is not large enough.

It's time you need to change your way.

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When it comes to optimizing your landing page, you're really working on doing odd things that create insignificant impact. This action is like the rearrangement of the chairs on the Titanic. We need to gradually shift this psychological state to greater optimization and tactics that can create drastic changes in both efficiency and results.

What is a good conversion rate?

The secret here is that this number is much higher than you think.

The general view is that good conversion rates are between 2 and 5%. If standing at 2%, an improvement of about 4% seems to be a "giant" jump. You can double Conversion Rate! Congratulations, however, you're still hanging around on the average SEO list.

In this analysis, start with all the accounts above and return to the 3-month period. We eliminate months without setting proper conversion tracking, months with low conversion volume (less than 10 conversions / month) and inefficient account numbers (under 100 clicks) click / month) and keep only a few hundred accounts. Then, we draw a graph that shows the position where the accounts are matched in terms of conversion rates.

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So what is a good conversion rate? About ¼ of accounts have conversion rates lower than 1%. The middle area has CR 2.3% but the top group of accounts is twice as much as the CR of 5.31% - or higher. Take a closer look at the red column on the right - advertisers in the top 10% have a 11.45% CR - an amazing number.

Keep in mind that this is not a single landing page - these advertisers get 11.45% conversions and higher on their entire account.

Obviously this is not something out of the ordinary, this is entirely achievable. If your CR rate is currently 5%, then you're doing 75% better than advertisers . however, you can still get better.

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You can achieve 10%, 20% or higher, reach a CR of 3 or 5 times higher than the average. Desire to have the "unicorns" conversion rates on these landing page pages with your account.

However, what about low conversion rates in the industry?

We have conducted data classification on industry conversion rates to see if these insights are right for all marketers. This is what we discovered after analyzing the four main industries.

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There is a constant change here: e-commerce (e-commerce) has a relatively low conversion rate, especially in comparison to finance. However, check out the top 10 CVR, which is 3 to 5 times higher than the industry average.

On the other hand, if you belong to a highly effective field like finance, 5% is really nothing outstanding. If you compare with the average of all industries, you are actually deceiving yourself thinking that you have done well. In fact, companies in the top 10% are about 5 times higher.

Even if the conversion rate is lower than in your industry, the top advertisers are still three to five times more effective than you or higher.

What helps you get into the top 10% of those top landing pages?

We conducted a survey of 1,000 landing pages and obtained a quality analysis to be able to find common ground among the best advertisers in the market.

Here are 5 tips to help you achieve your "unicorn" status when you optimize conversion rates on your landing page.

1. Proposed changes (Offer)

Of all the high-performing landing pages, we have seen very different and innovative proposals. These companies often have a default proposal - seen as their "agent" - that may or may be similar to what all their competitors are doing. For example, lawyers often offer free advice, software companies invite users to download the trial . They are nothing special and not really creative.

How to be more creative when making these proposals? We realized that proposing prospect customers to try out free WordStream software (software developed by us) is not really attractive. At this time, the marketing team was forced to "think out of the box" to look for something different and unique; Something more tangible and attractive is just sending customers a trial software to find a way to reach them.

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We came up with AdWords Grader - a free and fast account performance report provided to users, along with recommendations to help them improve their AdWords strategy. This is a huge turning point for us. Potential customers love it and the conversion rate rises dramatically.

So how do you know if your proposal is interesting? If the conversion rate is only 2% or lower, it is not enough. The real way here is to ask customers. We have added a form on the landing page to ask customers what they want help with - and that is not a trial period.

Get "brainstorm", ask customers and test some unique suggestions. You will never know which proposals are successful until you try new ones.

2. Change process

Occasionally, you have created obstacles for the transition without even realizing it.

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In the above example, you can see the first landing pgae and how much information the user has to provide before they can download the trial version of the software. Obviously, that's too much for many potential users. They will be frustrated and this is not the user experience you want to create right on the landing page.

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Here, you can see a new, more effective landing page. The process has changed so anyone can download and install the file. In the final step, users are required to register the software. Since they have spent 10 or 15 minutes learning about the product, they are more likely to be willing to take some time to complete the information form to download the trial experience software.

This way is really effective and can generate positive changes in conversion rates. They have started using the registration form to search for Lead (s) by asking for information one week after downloading - once potential customers have time to sit back and learn about the software. . Changing processes helps them increase conversions but also helps manage lead in a much more efficient way.

Another great example is when advertisers realize that the proposal on the landing page is not necessary for the person searching. In this case, they offer another offer that is "your loved one is in need of help?"

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At this time, people who visit the site are choosing their own processes. This is not only effective for improving conversion rates, but also for remarketing segments (how ads are only displayed to people who have visited your site but do not purchase) and support the Lead process. Nurturing (nurturing potential customers).

Look for the process that best suits your potential audience and use it to increase conversion rates and evaluate Lead's quality.

3. Use Remarketing as a CRO tool

On average, 96% of visitors to a website will not become Lead or purchase goods, meaning they will exit your site without taking any action. Remarketing will help you "get ahead" of them with relevant and intentional messages when they participate in other web activities like email, watch Youtube videos, access social networks or find information.

4. Try 10 landing pages to find an excellent conversion rate

Sometimes you are lucky, but if you want to get landing pages in the top 10% with only your current account, you need to repeat the steps above and perform basic tests.

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On average, you should test 4 different landing pages with a change in proposals, processes and messages to find the best landing page. If you want to get a real "unicorn" - that landing page is in the top 10% with a conversion rate 3 to 5 times higher than average - you need to test at least 10 landing pages.

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You don't need to create thousands of landing pages. You need to find the best landing pages you have and focus on them. Don't waste time on low-performing sites, but be ready to get rid of them. If you've had a good landing page, then the smart choice here is to put strength into it.

5. Don't just focus on conversion rates

The higher the conversion rate, the better it is. However, if you are converting poor quality leads, you are actually "throwing money through the window". Because these Lead are not able to become real customers and make you more expensive.

I want you to focus on optimizing your landing page like the one above - which you can take in the direction of getting high-quality leads rather than multiple conversions.

Remember that quality is not quantity.

Summary :

What you need to remember here is:

1. Small changes correspond to small results.
2. Optimizing landing pages in a highly strategic and focused way will increase conversion rates by 3 to 5 times and improve the quality of Lead.
3. In some industries, even CR 5% is not impressive.If you are holding 2 - 5%, you still have a lot of opportunities to grow.
4. Create creative proposals and test different proposals to find out what's best for the customer you're aiming for.
5. Identify obstacles that make potential customers unattractive to your site and change the process.
6. Use remarketing to "win back" customers - visitors to the site but not acting.
7. Test smart, not continuous testing.You need to test 10 different landing pages to find the best one.
8. Focus on the most effective landing pages (belonging to the top 10%) to get 80% of traffic (traffic).
9. Always remember the goal and what you want to achieve - this will create many potential customers who can convert into buyers, subscribers . Don't put a high CR rate on Lead quality Or invest too much money to find quality Lead.