Conversion Rate Optimization
The purpose of conversion rate optimization work (CRO services) is to improve the efficiency of the sales funnel associated with a business website.
Search engine traffic landing on a website is often visualized as “entering a sales funnel” process, as shown in the diagram. The ultimate job of the campaign and website is to generate a meaningful outcome, in the form of “conversions” – an exit from the bottom of the sales funnel.
PPC campaigns are therefore dependent on the quality and related performance of the web pages that they’re driving traffic to. The efficiency of web pages in producing conversions is a crucial issue for PPC advertisers and campaign managers.
Conversion rate optimization or “CRO” work can frequently deliver meaningful gains in the financial performance of a lead generation website, or e-Commerce online business.
The term “CRO”, which is a web marketing acronym for Conversion Rate Optimization, is an umbrella term for a set of emerging, specialized digital marketing skills sometimes referred to collectively as “conversion rate science”. The use of the term “science” for an emerging online marketing discipline is a bit controversial. But CRO is definitely more than just a bit of spin.
The term “science” was adopted because a sizable body of CRO knowledge and know-how has accumulated by online marketers around the world, and been proven to work. The impact of any change that comes out of CRO work can be quantitatively measured through the use of web analytics, heat maps, and split testing of changes. It difficult to dispute measurable results.
Below we take a look at some CRO processes and methods we utilize to evaluate client websites.
CRO Processes & Methods
Website – Landing Page CRO Feedback
Website traffic flows often need to be re-engineered to improve conversion performance. Advertising campaigns will drive qualified traffic to landing pages on a site, but it is equally crucial that the traffic turns into leads or sales. PPC campaigns can perform no better than the conversion rate optimization (CRO) state of the pages and sites they [...]
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO): What is it, and how does it work? #1 in a Series
Conversion rate optimization work is sometimes viewed skeptically, due to its association with the sometimes misunderstood world of marketing. In this series of articles, we will examine this emerging marketing specialty and hopefully shed some light. In the engineering-driven culture of silicon valley, when engineers move into a marketing role it's often viewed disparagingly as "crossing [...]
Identify Sales Funnel Paths
A CRO baseline is established using web analytics. Sources and classes of traffic (site visitors) are identified. We characterize common navigation paths they take as they move through the site. For this process, we may, with your permission install heat maps that trace the behavior of traffic as it moves onto the site. This, along with web analytics allows us to study aggregate behavior as landing site visitors land on the site, interact with content and navigate to other pages on the site. We place emphasis on studying individual visits that convert, or visit the landing page more than once. The CRO baseline puts into place a foundation for measuring the impact of changes made after identifying “conversion choke points” that indicate issues. When coupled with insights gained from identifying site visitor personas, this also informs development of the PPC campaign keyword base, targeting, audiences, and ad copy.
Identify Website Visitor Personas
Traffic on a business website can be segmented into multiple “website visitor personas”. Identifying the site visitor personas can lead marketers to advertising messaging, and webpage design which perform more efficiently. We use are a number of methods to identify website visitor personas. All of them rely upon a baseline understanding of the product marketing aspects [...]