Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) is a crucial aspect of enhancing your online presence and ensuring that your digital efforts yield the best possible results. Whether you’re running an e-commerce store, a blog, or any other online platform, optimising your conversion rates can have a serious impact on your success. In this blog post, we’ll explore the power of Conversion Rate Optimisation, how it’s related to A/B Testing, and how you can use these techniques to drive growth.
Understanding Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO)
What is a “Conversion Rate”?
Before delving into CRO, let’s first clarify what a conversion rate is. A conversion rate is a metric that measures the percentage of website visitors who take a desired action, such as making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or filling out a contact form. The higher the conversion rate, the better your website is at achieving its goals.
The Importance of CRO
Conversion Rate Optimisation is the systematic process of improving your website’s performance to increase the likelihood of visitors taking the desired actions. It’s all about making your website more effective in turning visitors into customers, subscribers, or leads. By optimising your conversion rates, you can maximise the value you get from your existing traffic.
A/B Testing: The CRO Arsenal
Now, how does A/B Testing fit into the picture? A/B Testing is a fundamental technique within the realm of CRO. It involves creating two or more versions of a web page or element, with slight differences between them, and then showing these versions to different segments of your audience. By analysing how these variations perform, you can make data-driven decisions to improve your website’s conversion rates.
The A/B Testing Process
Hypothesis: Start by identifying an element on your website that you believe can be improved. This could be a headline, a call-to-action button, or the layout of a page.
Variations: Create different versions of the chosen element. For example, you could test two different headlines or button colors. Try different positioning or a video demo rather than a picture.
Testing: Split your website traffic, so some users see the original version (A), while others see the variations (B, C, etc.). This segmentation allows you to compare their performance relative to other segments or the control group..
Analysis: Collect data on how each version performs in terms of conversion rates. Tools such as Simple A/B Test can help with this and keep things nice and simple.
Decision-making: Based on the data, decide which version performs better and implement it on your website.
A Practical Conversion Rate Optimisation Example
Let’s consider an example to make this even clearer. Imagine you run an e-commerce website, and you want to increase the number of products added to the cart. You decide to A/B test the “Add to Cart” button position. You have two variations: the original below the product description position and a new above the product description but below the title position. After running the test, you find after a period of testing that the below the title position increases the conversion rate by 20%. Assuming you have statistical significance, you can now be sure that your changes will have a positive impact on your conversion rates.
Simple changes such as button wording or colour choice can often yield huge changes which you may not have expected. That’s why it’s important to hypothesise, test and then implement (or not!) the changes that you’ve tested.
Tips for Effective CRO with A/B Testing
Start with Clear Goals: Before conducting A/B tests, define clear objectives. What specific metrics are you trying to improve? Is it sales, sign-ups, or something else?
Segment Your Audience: Different user segments might respond differently to changes. Consider segmenting your audience and conducting tests on each group for more accurate insights.
Test One Element at a Time: To isolate the impact of a change, focus on testing one element at a time. This makes it easier to identify what caused an improvement (or decline) in the conversion rate.
Be Patient: A/B testing requires time to gather enough data for statistically significant results. Don’t rush to conclusions based on limited data.
Iterate and Repeat: CRO is an ongoing process. Continuously test and optimise your website to ensure it’s always performing at its best.
Leverage Tools: Simple A/B Test offers a “1 line of code” install process which allows CRO managers and PM’s to effortlessly test the website without the need for engineering time.
Further reading
In our How to test landing pages blog post we explain how Inboxes App was able to get a 24% increase in app conversions by changing the home page Call To Action button. These are real world examples that you can implement today using our Simple A/B Testing tool which you can get started with for free with no commitment.